Visit to the Petronas Twin Towers and KL Tower

We had heard from other travellers that you can gain free access to the twin towers tour if you arrive early in the morning and collect tickets on a first come first served basis. So we planned to get there for 8am but as it happened Mel had forgotton to put her alarm clock forward an hour to account for the time difference. So although I had woken up I couldn't persuade mel that she was an hour late!!

We arrived at the twin towers at 9:30am and luckily there wasnt really much of a queue for tickets. We booked to visit the towers at 11:30am to give us a chance to look round the shopping mall next door to them and get some breakfast. It really isnt a good idea to look in shops when your backpacking!

At 11:30 we were firstly given an ID badge to say we were visitors to the towers and had our bags scanned. We then watched a video about Petronas, really it was more an advertising show for how good the company is and all the things they have achieved!

We were directed to the double-decker lifts and the conductor explained that the lifts are very high-tech and can transport people up several tens of floors in a matter of seconds. As we flew up the flors to reach the 41st, I could feel my ears popping as if i was on a plane. The 41st floor has the skybridge which connects the two twin towers together, as seen in the film 'Entrapment'. We walked across the bridge taking pictures. The view down was a little sickening. The photos we were taking were not really as spectacular as the ones from outside the building looking up.

We returned back down in the double-decker lift and briefly looked round a room giving information on the design and construction of the towers. The 88 floor towers are constructed largely of reinforced concrete with a steel and glass façade designed to resemble Islamic motifs, a reflection of Malaysia's Muslim religion. There was also a glass sealed room where electricity was generated to demonstrate how the towers, being the tallest building in Malaysia, handle the frequent thunder and lightening storms.

Our next visit was to the KL tower. Due to the rain it was really quite misty and we were intially reluctant to go up the telecommunication tower due to poor visibility. However a guy working for the restaurant at the highest accessible point in the tower persuaded us to have afternoon tea (tea and cake!) in the restaurant for RM40. We went up to the top and discovered that it was a revolving floor. We were given binoculars to look out the windows. To begin with all we could se were the storm clouds moving past, indicating just how high up we were. This however did clear and we were able to see some great views from thisa height. We could see the area we were staying in, Bukit Bintang along with the twin towers, the national mosque and stadium. As the table revolved round, I left Mel at the table and joined Caz who was taking pictures. She said that she had been waiting ages in that spot for the twin towers to come round so that she could get a good picture of them. I pointed out that she'd been waiting a long time because she wasn't moving, it was the inner section with the tables on!

We managed to orientate ourselves back to the hostel very easily, realising just how close things are to each other.