Windmill Upon Hills - Duplex, 2 Bedroom Apartment with Balcony @ Genting Highlands [Malaysia]

When I visited Genting Highlands last November, we chose to stay at midhill; an area I had never tried staying before although I heard that amenities had improved, with much more options for F&B! 

Choice of Accommodation - Windmill Upon Hills, which seemed more like a mixed residential development that included condominium, hotel and airbnb. 

Our room card - level 29 and it came with a reserved parking lot too! Latter of which didn't benefit us since we GRAB from Kuala Lumpur to Genting Highlands. 

Floor plan for our level. 

Apartment

Introducing to you the living room for our Duplex, 2-Bedroom Apartment with Balcony on the 29th floor of Block WA, Unit Number 2906! You wouldn't believe the pricing we paid for this; for the four of us, total charge was less than S$100 for two nights! 

For a person who would never be able to afford such high ceiling, duplex housing in land-scarce Singapore, staying at this duplex apartment shall at least allow me to experience what it would have felt like.

Kitchen area which also came with a combined dryer / washing machine! As with airbnbs I had encountered, cleaning condition was acceptable, not impeccable, and I have seen worse. 

Couldn't find the table tennis balls! 

Balcony that was nice to have yet the furniture was pretty worn and it didn't help that there were plenty of insects, especially at night! Now, let me show you the view.

Construction in front marred the view but look farther and you would likely catch sight of the beautiful "city" on top of Genting Highlands, that was more than often hidden amidst the clouds. p.s. hope the building under construction wouldn't be too tall. 

Room on the first floor of the apartment; pretty small and had a bed with a pull out bed underneath. Both the Greatest Kon and Sebas took this room and kindly gave us the much, much bigger one on the second floor.

Let's check it out! 

This shall be considered as master bedroom with a long wardrobe that was of no use to us since it's just a two-night stay. Aside from air-conditioner, there's also a wall fan. 

Ironing board, iron and hair dryer. Now that I am older, and see the need to apply hair tonic, the hair dryer was a device I look forward to having nowadays when I travel. However, true happiness takes place only when the drying strength is strong.

Bathroom; while it's not uncommon to see bath curtains, what I took issue was the slight smell on the plastic curtains, and it can be quite cold in the mornings when we took a shower! 

View of first floor from second floor.

After two days of going up and down the staircase, I don't think I would ever get a house with staircase! It's so tiring to climb up and down, and I hate it when I went down, and remember I forgot my belongings in the room! And the strip at the end of each step hurt my feet! I am condemned to be poor.

Come, I want to check out the top floor of the building.

Levels 41 and 42, where the gym and pools are.

Swimming Pools

This was this iconic structure you would see before the pools once you are on level 41. Known as the ceremonial alcove, it's like a function hall, with a raised platform right in the middle. 

Pools on both sides and no, I don't understand why people would want to swim when the temperature hardly ventures into the 30 degrees Celsius region! 

Water feature surrounding the ceremonial alcove.

p.s. no swimming allowed here though.

Rules and regulations for swimming pool usage.

Photos from the edge of level 41. In the three days we were there, even the mid hill was enveloped by clouds, resulting in a mystical atmosphere that could be therapeutic but highly frustrating for photo taking!

That's a glamping site? Although I am curious about glamping, which is short for glamorous camping, my hesitation included the pricing, the lack of amenities and comfort, maybe a lack of ensuite washroom etc. 

Finally, a better photograph of the hilltop! There's another new building under construction. Even though it towers over the rest, I thought it's the eyesore. Hopefully it would complement the "cityscape" upon completion.

Gymnasium

Pretty well equipped gym where I spent a few days exercising to work off the so much food I was having, no thanks to the Greatest Kon! p.s. the equipment wasn't as well maintained as those from hotels. 

Swimming pool from the gym level. I saw there's another function room, I believe, on the same level but doors were locked and it appeared to be empty with no furniture.

Miscellaneous

Convenience stall next to the reception on the ground floor, which opened till 2am daily. This was where we secured our bottled water, snacks and instant noodles! 

Swiss-Garden Hotel was the hotel wing in the same building, using a different check-in lobby, but I did note that their guests would be using the same gym and pool as we did.

Within the hotel was also a massage parlour, Impiana Reflexology, that Alex was very keen to check out but we didn't have time as it's pretty late whenever we returned from the hilltop. 

There were so much more places I missed checking out when I was there. Like the hammock swing, bird cages garden on level 5, the brooks and bridges garden on level 9, the karaoke and games rooms, on lower ground, the sunken deck on level 40! 

Some notices for your information. 

Booking for some facilities was chargeable! 

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Now my review of the Windmill Upon Hills; first and foremost, I have to admit I never quite like airbnb as cleanliness and maintenance are not as tiptop as hotels. I prefer paying more for hotels.

Location wise, staying at the hilltop of Genting Highlands would be more convenient, unless your aim for the stay was purely to relax where you would spend more time in the apartment, which we didn't. Furthermore, it's quite scary to walk back at night, especially when cutting across the carpark! 

Despite the walk, Windmill Upon Hills wasn't far from dining establishments that were frequented by locals. There were a number of eateries that opened till late, like the Avenue19 lok lok, which we had for two nights! 

First night we had the lok lok at the stall but on the second night, it started drizzling and two of our companions walked down to order and tabao back to the apartment where we drank, ate and chatted till the wee hours!   

Address

Windmill Upon Hills, Jalan Permai, 

69000 Genting Highlands, Pahang, Malaysia

Map

As above.