Published: August 8th 2012August 8th 2012
We went back into China Town last night for something to eat and the jet lag and lack of sleep over the last 48 hours finally took its toll. So we came back to the hostel for 6ish, trying to stay awake as long as we could. Neil gave up at about 8pm and I lasted until about 9.30. Had a really good night's sleep, and must have gone out for the count as didn't hear any of our other roommates come back in. (There are 8 beds in the room in total). We had decided to go to see the Petronas towers today and so had to be up by 7am, we were showered and had our breakfast by 8 (I need to be more organised on a night as the room had no windows so its pitch black when you get out of bed and I'm sure that crashing and banging about at 7am really won't be appreciated by our fellow roommates!)
We thought se bad to go back to 'Sentral' Station so we bought our 1MR ticked (about 20p) and off we went, once we got there we found that we could have just gone in the
opposite direction and got there a lot sooner! So another ticket was purchased for 1.60 MR and off we went. The station is really close to the towers and as we emerged from underground they were a very impressive sight. We went into the shopping mall and asked for directions to the notorious queue for tower tickets. By the time we got there the earliest slot available was 11.15 we left us a couple of hours to go outside and get some images of the towers and surrounding area. At one side there was a small waterless water feature were we took some photos before going round the other side where there is a large lake and park area. We wandered round and took lots of photos from many angles. It was scorching hot and by 10.30 we made our way back to the air-conditioned shopping mall to cool off a little and joint the queue for the tour.
At 11.15 we were issued with visitor passes and went up in the lift to the viewing platform which was on the 83rd floor. The views from here were breathtaking and our guide told us that a visit to the
towers was 'priceless' - he wasn't wrong! We looked across to the twin tower which was an amazing experience. It did go through my mind the absolute horror victims of the 9/11 attack must have felt seeing the plane go into the tower opposite them and then eventually into theirs. We took lots of photographs and took time to take in the images as the city was spread out in front of us. After about 20 minutes we were taken back down in the high speed lift to the bridge which connects the two towers. It was explained that this was to make it easy for employees to get from one tower to the other and was an important safety feature if there was an emergency in either tower. He also told us that there was a 10 inch joint on each side of the bridge which allowed the towers to move in wind. Again we took lots of photographs and then noticed that there was a small cradle going down one of the towers with two workmen in. Possibly the highest window cleaning job in the world! All too soon it was time for us to come back down
After our experience we looked round the shopping mall for a while and then eventually had lunch in one of the numerous cafes. After lunch we decided to walk to the KL tower. In the heat of the day it took us a while but eventually we got to it and decided to change our reservation to afternoon tea instead of dinner on our final night. Coach load after coach load of people were arriving and being ushered up to the revolving restaurant. At the base there was a shop with lots of F1 merchandise and a few F1 replica cars which had been shipped over to KL from Hull! We paid 10MR to have our photographs taken in one of them. Once we had paid they were happy to let us pose and take as many photographs as we wanted. We even got to wear a pair of Fernando Alonso's old gloves! I thought about changing my team but decided to stay with Jenson still :o) Once we had finished taking the photos we bought an iced latte from the shop and sat inside to cool off while drinking it. The staff were very attentive and
we had a good chat about F1, the Malaysian GP and the new A380 airbus! Turns out the man in the Team Malaysia Olympic kit that sat beside Neil on our flight out was a very famous reporter for the KL Star. Apparently it was the badminton team that came home on that flight and whilst most of the team was in economy, the athlete who won silver had been upgraded to first class :o)
As we walked down from the KL tower it started to rain and soon came on very heavy and we had to take shelter under the canopy which was over the barrier up to the tower. We must have waited for the best part of an hour before the rain eventually stopped enough for us to start our walk back towards the Petronas towers. It soon got very humid and we felt the need to call for a nice cool refreshing drink at Starbucks enroute!
We caught the train back to China Town and were pleased to get in out of the heat of the day. Tonight, after we have showered we may go back to see the towers in the dark - although it's almost 8pm so maybe not tonight!!!