Higher And Higher (26-27/1/09)

MONDAY 26TH JANUARY

In the morning we didn't have much planned, as we were waiting for the evening to visit the KL Tower, one of the two major icons of the city along with the Petronas Twin Towers. We did go to the city park that housed amongst other things, the biggest covered aviary in the world, a butterfly park and a deer park. It was supposedly just around the corner from the hostel but as I have come to appreciate, real concepts of time and distance are something to take with a bucket load of salt when being explained by locals.
We live in England, and I'm originally from Lincolnshire, and Louise is from Cheshire, both of which are very rural and have quite a decent population of deer. Louise said, 'But they're not city deer like these in the park.' 'No dear, they're not,' was my subdued response.
It took us about three hours to arrive at the deer park, having passed through or around the other, rather fetching, parks. After spending about half an hour, and going back and forth a couple of times, we eventually got in. On the way in we met a very nice Japanese family and ended up taking their daughter, who was more excited about seeing the deer than Louise, around the park with us. Mind you she was only about six and the only word that she said that I understood was 'Bambi.' She was a bit of a chatterbox, even her mother said so, and was insistent that she stayed the night with all the Bambi's.
Later in the early evening we went up the KL towers at 1 382ft (421 m) it is quite high, although a lot of that is the antenna. Louise's fear of heights came to a head again and it took her almost an hour to get to the edge and look out over the city. The view was pretty good, it was a clear day (except for the smog) and we got a fairly good look at the vastness of the city. There isn't much to see when you look at a metropolis like KL other than a lot of big buildings. There was the park where we were earlier, but it's better close up. KL is just too grey and not green enough.
Although we went around an hour too early and had to spend that time just sitting and waiting; if you went out you had to pay to go in again. We eventually got to see KL in the day time and night time. The night time is quite a sight. Just because of the amount of lights and the size of some of the buildings. It makes it look a bit like Christmas.


TUESDAY 27TH JANUARY

Today we went to the Petronas Twin Towers. It's free to get in (unlike the KL tower), but you have to be there stupidly early as it's on a 'first come, first served basis,' and there are only around 1 400 tickets, and that includes pre-scheduled trips for schools and the like. We arrived at 08:30a.m. We thought was early as they don't start giving out tickets until 09:00a.m. Oh no. When we got there there was around 400-500 people already queued up waiting and most of them were queuing for more than just their own ticket. We did get a ticket, but only just, our visit time was 16:15p.m, seven hours away!
During the ensuing wait Louise went to buy some bus tickets, for our next stop Melacca (Melaka). She said inside was absolutely mental as the holiday was nearing an end and a lot of people were leaving the city.
At 15;45p.m, we went back to the towers for our alloted time at 16:15p.m. There we were met by a ice lady who took our bags and gave us some 3D glasses, the sort you would get free with a 1950's American sci-fi magazine. They were not easy to wear especially when you have corrective lenses on underneath. The glasses were for a 7 min presentation on the building of the twin towers. This wasn't really what it was. It was more of a 7 minute advert for the oil conglomerate who put there name to the tower. After watching the adverts we then went to visit the sky bridge. On the way up to the 41st floor in the lift, Louise was already getting clammy hands and her heart was racing. The bridge itself is a stunning piece of modern architecture, and gives you some spectacular views of the concrete mass below. Although the twin towers are themselves 1 482.6 ft (451.9 m) high, the sky bridge is only 557 ft (170m) above ground. Inside the bridge it feels a bit strange knowing that there is nothing below you until the ground, but it is also quite a cool feeling. You have to be quick if you want to pose and take pictures as you only get 10mins inside. This isn't really long enough if you have to spend seven of those minutes trying to persuade your other half that it'll be OK if she stands by the glass, she won't fall out.