3 December 2022 (Part 1)
What I expected to be a relaxing and completely stress-free start to my 2-day holiday in Genting ended up testing me in very unexpected ways today. After a relatively chill breakfast at a cafe within Resorts World Awana (where my family stayed), my mother decided to bring the 3 little cousins, their father, and their helper Mary for a cable car round trip. The Awana Skyway gondola lift system was one that I was not familiar with, having only sat in the cable cars for the older, now-backup Genting Skyway route in the past. I was curious, and did not want to waste the extra ride coupon the hotel had given us, so I thought nothing of tagging along when asked to join.
Acrophobia is a very real monster that plagues children and adults alike, dear readers.
Why It Was Unexpected
Before I continue my recount of this incident, please allow me this vain yet very relevant attempt to vindicate myself of being called a chicken (consider yourself warned).
I'd had no major gripes or issues sitting on amusement park rides like roller coasters before. My most notable achievement came from conquering "The Claw" in Dreamworld Gold Coast, back in 2016 on a polytechnic graduation trip to Australia. This pendulum of death was a Gyro Swing that swung you and up to 31 other strangers to a maximum height of 27.15m (or about 8 stories), at speeds of up to 75 km/h. All while spinning you at 360 degrees in the air.
Truly a machine of nightmares that would make you scream, "Why, Jesus, why?" for 1.5 minutes, although given that I had not been saved back then, my train of thought was probably closer to something like "If I die up there, at least it will be a shorter trip to heaven!". For some strange reason, I was more exhilarated than afraid during the whole experience. I definitely became disoriented and came uncomfortably close to losing control of my own bowels a handful of times, but I was a braver and more reckless young man who had nothing to lose. So I coped by screaming with false bravado, then leaning and swaying with the momentum of the swing to counteract the fear threatening to overtake my body and mind completely. I surrendered to the moment and experience completely and in doing so, chose to overcome my fears.
The 8-to-10 year-old Caucasian boy seated next to me was dead silent during the whole ordeal, and I did not have the courage nor mental capacity to turn to look at him. So I figured that he was even more terrified than me, to the point of being shocked into silence or even fainting without others realising. Either that or he was trained by his parents to fight grizzly bears since young and had the fortitude of an iron wall, and this 20-year-old kor kor sitting next to him was just embarrassing himself by freaking out over a ride so "trivial". Nevertheless, I believe it is safe to say I left that theme park with no significant or lasting mental scars, and went on to sit on many more rides in the years to come.
Back To The.. Present
Given my track record with rides at a height, I boarded the glass gondola lift on Awana Skyway with my family expecting a pleasant ride with opportunities abound to take photos of the sights during the trip, including lush forests, cool mountainsides and the ever-impressive Chin Wee Caves Temple. Instead, what I received were snapshots of the terror on my face as the lift accelerated and decelerated at surprising speeds near every station we passed through, constantly having one or both sweaty hands desperately gripping the railings and never daring to lean fully back onto the seats (which had an ever-so-tiny opening below them, just large enough for a phone to fall through). The fear in my heart was expressed very clearly, courtesy of the exceptional camera quality of an elated mother sadistically giggling at her son's first cable car experience in years, which seemed to last for precisely that amount of time.
