Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - 2 of 3

On today’s tour we visited Petronas Towers, Chinatown, Independence Square, Kuala Lumpur railway station, National Mosque, and the Sultan Abdul Samad Building built in the 19th Century. The last stop on the tour was 2 hours for lunch and shopping at the Petronas center mall with its 6 floor, over 300 high-end stores. As you probably know, Karen and I do not shop, therefore we took the time to run and get tickets to the top of the Petronas Towers and get a tour.

The highlight of the day was the visit to the top of the Petronas Twin Towers. The Towers are 88 stories. The “tube-structure” is made to resemble motifs found in Islamic Art , a reflection of Malaysia’s Muslim religion. It was a 7-year project that started in 1992 and still has the deepest foundation of any building at 400 feet. I was thinking of climbing up the outside but on 9/1/2009 French climber Alain Robert already did it using his bare hands and feet (no safety device) in 2 hours. They may not be the world’s tallest (#21) BUT they are the worlds tallest twin buildings these Art Deco-inspired towers rise 1,483 feet and have a double-decker skybridge between them that connects the buildings (interestingly, there is a small space between skybridge and buildings at each end for movement) at the 41/42nd floors. First, we rode up to the 41st floor of Tower 2 and walked across the skybridge … interesting feeling as you look down and there is nothing under you but held up on either end … but it was “only” 41 stories up. Then you went to the 86th floor at the top and from here there was an entirely different view covering many miles of Singapore. You could see there are large, towering buildings among low original houses.Read more