Our last couple of days in Malaysia were spent at the Sunway Lagoon, a resort town built a hundred and fifty feet below ground from an old tin mine. From what was once a wasteland, a complete town emerged in 1992, and it has everything—from hotels, villas, and malls, to universities, hospitals, and theme parks. It was actually a good and relaxing way to end our hectic long weekend trip in Malaysia.

PRIVATE VILLAS AT SUNWAY RESORT

A CAVE RESTAURANT!

SHOPPING OR ICE SKATING?

Situated on eighty eight acres of land, half an hour away from the airport, Sunway Lagoon is a multi-awarded resort located at Subang Jaya in the state of Selangor. We arrived at night, after our Ipoh day tour from Kuala Lumpur (and prior to that, a KL day tour), and was set to depart the next evening. I like how we were able to maximize our time in Malaysia with Cebu Pacific’s daily evening flights to and from Manila to Kuala Lumpur.

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SUNWAY PYRAMID HOTEL

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Sunway Lagoon has three massive hotels and we were, of course, lodged on one of these, the Sunway Pyramid Hotel—a sister hotel to the Dorsett Kuala Lumpur where we stayed at the previous nights. The 4.5-Star hotel has more than five hundred rooms and has a good view of the waterpark along the complex.

From the spacious and somewhat Jestson-esque lobby, our expectations went sky high. And indeed, the Deluxe Park View Room where we were billeted did not disappoint. It was spacious, modernly decorated, and very comfortable. It has all the amenities we’d come to expect from a luxury hotel, plus more.

I really like how they provide free mobile phones that guests can use anytime, even outside the hotel, to connect to the Internet and access information on the sights in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur using the pre-installed travel apps. It even has free calls!

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ONE OF THE THREE HOTELS IN SUNWAY RESORT

SUNWAY PYRAMID HOTEL LOBBY

OUR ROOM FOR ONE NIGHT

FOOD TRIP

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You certainly won’t run out of food places to try at the Sunway Lagoon. The resort has everything from high-end restaurants, popular fast food joints, and regional eating places. Besides the massive complimentary breakfast buffet at The Resort Café at the Sunway Resort Hotel & Spa, we got to try a few other restaurants during our stay—from the Thai and Japanese offerings at Sanoook, to the Chinese Sichuan hotpot-style dishes at the Hotpot Kitchen.

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THE RESORT CAFE WHERE THE BUFFET BREAKFAST IS SET

REALLY GOOD SICHUAN HOTPOT AT HOTPOT KITCHEN

SHRIMP BURGER AND FRIES AT SANOOOK

SANOOOK JAPANESE AND THAI RESTAURANT

NIGHTS OF FRIGHT

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We were quite lucky that our visit was timed during the month of October since every year since 2013 they hold the Nights of Frights at the Sunway Lagoon in time for Halloween. Dubbed as the Premier Festival of Fear, this is the biggest and scariest Halloween festival in Malaysia.

I’m not one for horror movies, but I immensely enjoyed every moment we spent at the grounds. The whole place is teeming with zombies (ala World War Z, complete with chattering teeth), Valaks, Ghostfaces, and creatures that go bump in the night.

We came here for their horror houses, six of them to be exact! We screamed and scuttled our way through the extremely gory Slaughterhouse 13, the coulrophobia-inducing house of clowns, the Scream-inspired Ghostface house, and finally, the creepy and eerie land of the wendigo (which reminded me so much of Stephen King’s novel, Pet Sematary).

Everything was very realistic and the actors inside would really make you jump out of your skin! It was extremely enjoyable, although a few of our companions would beg to disagree, they went through all the houses with their eyes closed, lol!

MALAYSIA’S NIGHTS OF FRIGHT 6

REAL SCARY STUFF, NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART

THE WENDIGO’S DEN

THE ULTRA VIOLENT SLAUGHTERHOUSE 13

SUNWAY LAGOON THEME PARK

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Our final day in Malaysia was spent at the Sunway Lagoon Theme Park. This huge park is actually divided into five sections—the Water Park, Amusement Park, Wildlife Park, Extreme Park, and the Nickelodeon Lost Lagoon. Our group split into two, those willing to get wet and those that aren’t. Of course, I’m all for getting wet!

We trooped towards the waterpark, descending through a never ending series of escalators. And like kids, we were all very excited!

The first one we tried was the eleven-storey high Vuvuzela where we rode a raft and was hurled along the massive horn-like opening—we were like clothes inside a washing machine. Then the Congo Challenge where we slid down a long slide, head first. And finally, the African Pythons, a water tube where we were enveloped in complete darkness while sliding! With our bodies full of adrenaline, we continued on to the Flow Rider, the first ever surf simulator in Malaysia.

We relaxed for a bit at the Surf Beach, the world’s largest surf pool, before heading to the Victoria Falls, a colossal man-made waterfalls right along another man-made water feature, the Zambezi River. And as a last hurrah, we rode the Vuvuzela again for another round of human washing-machine action! It was quite a way to end our Malaysian weekend trip!

THE WATER PARK AT SUNWAY RESORT

THE MASSIVE VUVUZELA WATER RIDE

RIDING THE WATER PYTHONS

THIS TRIP IS MADE POSSIBLE BY CEBU PACIFIC AIR IN PARTNERSHIP WITH TOURISM MALAYSIA.
CEBU PACIFIC FLIES DAILY FROM MANILA TO KUALA LUMPUR FOR AS LOW AS P2,088 PER WAY.

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