Ian Rush in Malaysia: Chronicles of MyRAWKites' Trip Up Genting!

Having never been on a European away trip before (living a few thousand miles from Liverpool & Europe has it’s disadvantages), we were determined to make the most of it when we heard about Ian Rush in Genting for a match viewing party and meet the fans session.
After some quick planning, and of course the customary arguments about how to get there, which bus to take, which station to stop at as well as where to stay and how much booze to bring, we were on our way to Genting.

The plan was to meet at Taman Paramount LRT station, then proceed to KL Sentral to take the bus up, but due to the peace march in central KL, the plan was hurriedly changed to Terminal Putra LRT station which was on the other end of the line. The peace march also threw a wrench in our plans.

JonC, our Finnan was a victim of the massive traffic crawl at every toll. The first thing he told me when I called him to check his location was “Damn this is just like Istanbul man!” I wasn’t there - in Istanbul or caught in the jam, but I sort of know what he meant. You’re excited about the trip to meet the legend that is Ian Rush, and this had to happen.

Anyway, when we finally boarded the LRT, it was 1520 hrs. With the planned 1600 hrs departure to Genting looking very tight, the plan was to get to the station and plan again. With the discussion in the LRT ranging from politics to football to plain nonsense, we got some funny looks from the other commuters. A hot chick was complaining to her friends that there was no traffic jam where we were, until she saw the huge march in the city centre, in which we had a bit of a giggle about. In hindsight I think that was the effects of the beer more than anything else.

We arrived at the station at about 1555 hrs. We darted across the station and got Monstar who was waiting for us there to get the tickets while Sunny and I chased after the bus to get them to wait. The bus drove off just as I had my hand on the door. Damn it, missed by THAT much, and a one hour’s wait ensued.

At this moment, we went and bought some paper cups, to “drink” from as we might need it later. Cue - very dodgy mixture of coke and err, “special tea” in a weird looking bottle. After some food and chatter, we boarded the bus to Genting. It was a quick trip, but that didn’t stop us from enjoying our “special tea” & coke. Once up there we boarded the cable car to start the nervy 20- minute ride up to the resort. The cable car ride was ok, the songs never stopped, until one person, let rip of the longest, most revolting “biological weapon of mass destruction” in recent times, leaving the rest of us gasping for air. It didn’t help that it happened when the cable car stopped in the middle of the mountain with a stunning view of the valley beneath us. Whenever the cable car stopped, we were chatting loudly to avoid from looking down, as though it would not be there by chatting loudly.

We then went to check out the venue and tried to negotiate to put our banner up. It was initially not allowed, but after some sweet talking and negotiation, we managed to convince them that it was a good idea to put the banner up. We checked in and drank some more, this time, in an apartment. By now, we were hungry. After a last minute check on the memento to Rushie, we headed back to the venue anticipating Rushie’s arrival.

As we walked in, there are already plenty of other reds there, waiting for him. When we saw the staff of the bar running around, we just knew he was about a minute away. Rushie walked in to a thunderous applause, and as he walked passed us, he acknowledged us and said hi. Cue the Rushie song to come on, presented by MyRAWK, with him having the surprised look while touching his neck, perhaps trying to sooth the hairs standing on the back of his neck as mentioned by him in a recent interview. Rushie sat down to watched the Tynecastle Derby with us.

Not many of us were interested in the match, the focus was more on Rush, so a few of us went and grabbed a quick bite of McDonalds which cost about 50% more than normal. Damn casino pricing! At the end of the match we had a Q & A session, where Rushie shared with us, his favorite strike partner, King Kenny. He also shared funny stories when he was playing, involving none other than the current Steve McMahon, the pundit for ESPN Asia. Apparently Macca went up for a header and got knocked in the head and fell to the ground. At the same time, the referee blew for half time and everyone just walked off the field towards the dressing room, only to realize 5 minutes later that Macca was missing, still lying on the field waiting for the physio to come and treat him. Macca ended up trudging towards the dressing room with a bit of a “tower” on his head. Later, it was autograph & picture time where I had to go up and present him with his memento. We had lots of pictures signed, not to mention a Corinthians’ set where he was looking for the figure of himself to sign on until it was pointed out to him that it was from another season. He wasn’t too happy about signing the Corinthians without him on it.

After the autograph session, he went back to the derby Vs West Ham match while we mingled with fellow reds from Singapore and JB. We quickly struck up a bond that only reds can have and exchanged views and contacts. Rushie left at half time of the match to rush back to KL to prepare for another long day on Sunday, but not before we got him to take a picture in front of our banner and sign it.

It was now time for the match itself. We managed to sit on the VIP seats occupied by Rushie just half an hour before hand, the huge group of red with similar names, MyRAWK and MyREDS sat together for the first time. We in one voice sang and chanted in true MyRAWK fashion. The game ended with a win with goals from El Nino and Gerrard and both groups of supporters went back happy, promising each other to meet up again. As we were taking the banner down, the owner of the pub walked in and thanked us for making the match atmosphere a lively one and invited us to come up as often as we could. We mumbled something to the effect of we’ll try and packed away the banner before making a long walk back to the apartment to finish off some unfinished “business”. A long session of discussion and boozing ensued and before I know it, its 0730 hrs and we went to bed.

The next thing I know was that we had to check out in 20 minutes time, we hurriedly showered (separately) and packed before checking out and making the way down the hill. As with all trips, the trip back seemed to be faster, but when we got to the bus station, again we missed the bus by a whisker. We spent another long hour sitting down and trying to catch a kip or two. When we finally got onto the bus, most of us were ready to hit the sack and the journey back was uneventful bar some small talk about the upcoming trip.

Overall it was a good trip and we genuinely had fun. It was a shame that many others could not join us to make it a truly fun trip, but with many other events coming up and hopefully more legends in town, we hope to organize more of trips like this where we can get to know each other and have some genuine fun. For details of upcoming visits of the legends, bookmark this site and check it so very often as the next legend who visits town is a very exciting one and it is not very far from now.
Trip report by
Jonno