6 Dec 2011 ~ Kuala Lumpur Part II

Listening to: Good Ole' Mountain Dew, Lester Flatts & Earl Scruggs, The Martha White Show, 9/6/1953

Today was a good day...I found a saucepan/kettle my stove "approves of" so I can now make soup, rice, boil pasta, etc.

After a busy day of work last week in Kuala Lumpur, we went out to dinner in the Petronas Towers, the second tallest buildings in the world. PETRONAS is short for Petroliam Nasional Berhad, the Malaysian oil and gas company wholly owned by the Government of Malaysia.

Here is a view from the inside looking up.

Shopping is big in Asia and even the Christmas spirit is alive and well in this predominately Muslim country. I see Gucci stores everywhere (on the middle level on the right), but can't quite figure out who has the money to actually shop in one...




Here is the famous view of the towers from the "perfect picture taking spot", which is actually a placard in the park. The lighting used is so fabulous it appears as an animation even in real life.

What I found cool was the sky bridge between the two towers on 41st and 42nd floors is not attached to the main structure, but is instead designed to slide in and out of the towers to prevent it from breaking as the towers sway several feet in towards and away from each other during high winds. Visitors are allowed to the 41st floor, so maybe I'll have another opportunity to go up there.

My co-worker did not want to lay down to get the full tower picture in with me, so you'll have to suffice with just the lower half (of the towers that is).

The Kuala Lumpur Tower is used for communication purposes and features an antenna that reaches 421 m (1,381 ft), which currently makes it the second tallest freestanding tower in the world. The rest of the tower below has a stairwell and an elevator to reach the upper area, which also contains a revolving restaurant. Races are organised yearly where participants race up the stairs to the top. The tower also acts as the Islamic falak observatory to observe the crescent moon (which actually you can see equal to the building on the left). 

The next day was again meetings, and I headed to the airport by myself to catch an earlier flight to Singapore. The customer arranged a car for me, but I did not realize it would be direct billed, so when I got to the airport I had no Malaysian Ringit to pay!!! The driver was very nice and trustworthy and waited while I went in to exchange money.