Author’s Note: This post is part of a long trip I took in December, 2012, which involved South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. You can get more aquaitned with the trip by clicking on this link.
On December 23rd, our last day in Kuala Lumpur, we left the Reggae Mansion early to walk back to the Petronas Twin Towers to get our timed tickets. An hour of waiting in line, and we got tickets for that afternoon. With most of the day free before our timed-tickets were scheduled, we tried to head north to a metrostation to see how plausible it would be to see some caves north of the city. We got lost trying to find the station, and then found out that the cave trip would be infeasible. We returned to the mall at the towers to check out the park surrounding it, eat lunch and an attempt to evaluate what to do.
In the large park, we saw a whole lot of people dressed up in very elaborate anime costumes, posing for pictures all around the park. We thought it was strange, until we started to notice more and more streaming between the mall, the park, and a third location. We investigated, and it turned out there was a Comic Convention in a conference hall nearby. Without tickets, we could not get in, but it made for some interesting people watching. We had some lunch, where John “surprised” me with some rainbow cake, and, after even more people watching in the mall, it was finally time to go up the tower.
The tour starts with a fancy presentation projected into a water-vapor wall, then a ride up to the mid-station bridge that joins the two towers. The views were pretty cool from up here, but the real fun started when we got higher.
The views from the 86th floor were fantastic. Massive skyscrapers that towered over us below now seemed small and low. Needless to say, people, houses, and cars truly looked like “ants,” to be cliche…
We spent close to twenty minutes up high, looking at the hills in the distance and the city below. It was a pretty amazing experience, especially considering I had never been so high in a man-made tower, let alone the tallest building in the world from 1998 to 2004.
For better or worse, the viewing area at the top of the tower was an interactive area to see what Petronas, the Malaysian Oil Company, does around the world, and some of the technology they use. We had some fun, but before we knew it, we made our way back down the elevator, through the gift shop, back to the hostel, back to the airport, and flew to Langkawi island. There, we walked from the airport to Telaga Harbor, where we were to take a ferry to Thailand the next morning. It was one of the most interesting night hikes of my life, let alone my birthday. Ask me about it over a beer sometime.
It was my first birthday abroad, and one of the first ones in recent memory I was not skiing. I was super happy for the new skyscraper experience, and glad I got to share it with my good buddy John.
Urban mountaintop…I like it. Anime and skyscrapers, what more could you want on your birthday?? Besides getting hopelessly lost of course:)
Dude I didn’t know you went to Langkawi! I spent a week there 10 years ago. There’s some cool mountains on that island.