The Lonely Planet entry for getting tickets for the Petronas Tower reads as follows:

"tickets are issues from 8.30 am... Arrive around 8 am to start queuing if you are particular about what time you want to go up, but tickets are often available until 11am"

Literally every fact in the above stanza is wrong. Happily, I'd had a chat with my cab driver on the way to my hotel. I told him what I had read and he laughed like a drain.

"How long are you staying for?"
"Just one day"
"Then be there for 6.30 am"
And then he laughed again.

In the face of the reputation of cab drivers the world over, this one was spot on.

Sleepiness meant I only got to the Towers at 7am, but so was everyone else. It was like arriving at Wembley to see Live Aid. I quickened my stride in true London-commuter-style to accelerate past shorter legged types.

Had I arrived at 8, I would have been part of the melee who weren't even allowed to join the queue. Until 8 you are allowed to sit on the floor, but after that you have to stand. Why? No idea. People in uniforms said so.

So. A wait. We Brits are Olympians at this. I have a worthy book to read, so I ignore it and play Angry Birds on the iPhone. (why did Apple ruin the Angry Birds game console with all the phone and email rubbish I don't know).

I am 55th in the queue, according to my chit. Behind me are 45 other chit holders. Then there are those queuing to queue, in case a queuer drops out. Then come the ambitious, lets-ee-if-we-can-jump the-queue queuers? And finally, after about 8.15, are those who had come to queue, but who are so impressed by the queue, that they stay to take photos of it.

All this queuing to pay to look out at the central business district of a city from an office block. This is made all the more fascinating once you know a bit about the towers.

I have always loved a particular interview of John Lennon in the late sixties, just as the Beatles began to implode:

Q: John, what would you say tithe accusation that Ringo isn't exactly the best drummer in the world?

A: Ringo's not even the best drummer in the Beatles.

It was a cute but cutting line. In the same way you can ask

Q: How do you respond to critics who say the Petronas Towers aren't exactly the tallest in the world?
A: They're not even the tallest in KL

It's true, they aren't. The KL tower is; it's Malaysia's equivalent to the BT tower, but a bit less ugly.

This doesn't mar the impact of the Petronas Towers one bit. They are the pinnacle of modern Islamic architecture (every floor plate shares a particular geometric configuration inspired by an Islamic icon). Which makes for an enigmatic blend of sensations when you realise the Towers are usually referred to as the Twin Towers, just like the WTC in New York, so featured by those claiming to be motivated by Islam.

I winced the first time I heard Twin Towers here. Now I grin. Why should such an innocuous phrase be stolen from the English language? Plainly it shouldn't; the towers started being built in 1991, not 2001, so the name stands.

And just because they are not the biggest, doesn't make them dinky. They are 88 storeys high. That is half a dozen more floors than total number of floors in the original Canary Wharf building, One Canada Square, and the beautiful 103 New Oxford Street, better known as Centrepoint.

And there are two of them. Each tower comprises 213,000 square metres of space. If that means nothing to you, trust me, that is Large.

They're joined at the 41st floor with a nice bridge, with a nice view. Which is nice, but something of an hors d'ouvres Then there's the observation platform on the 86th floor, which is a knock out.

Three things you might like:

1. What is on the 87th and 88th floor?
The estate management offices. So the most valuable real estate in SE Asia is occupied by the man who procures the bog roll.

2. Where did all this prime land come from?
It's part of Malaysia's astonishing aspirational mindset: they are targeted on being marked as a first world country by 2020 (!), so in 1991 they decided to dig up the 100 acres occupied by the Kuala Lumpur racecourse. The Towers are only one corner of that site; the whole site is like the Barbican on steroids. The Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra is based here. There's a huge park, multiplex, mosque, shopping centre, art gallery, and so on. Whilst I love the Barbican, I appreciate I am in a minority. This place is chic.

3. What is the impact of going onto the observation deck on the visitors?
Nil. Zip. Nowt. Children kick each other, or sit on the exhibits, or run and scream, or play with their computer games, while their parents fail to notice.

It makes you wonder why they went through all that queuing.