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The Petronas Towers and the Suria Mall

No trip would be complete to KL without checking out the Petronas Towers.
But before I could get up there: I had to stand in line and I got programmed for next morning. Getting a ticket is that hard, indeed!

The top Kuala Lumpur attraction that comes to my mind are the Petronas Towers.

Located in the KLCC area, the two have become Malaysia's icons.

About the Petronas Towers

They rise to a height of 451.9 m (1,483 ft), but if we strip the building of its spires and top cone section, then the top floor is the highest point where one can reach - 375 m (1,230 ft).

Each building is roughly as high as the Empire State Building in New York. Slightly taller...

There are 88 floors + 5 basement floors and... 78 elevators! (Why do they need so many? ... don't ask me!).

By the way: the observatory for tourists is on the 86th floor. At that time, this topped my record, having been earlier (in September, 1999) on the 69th floor of the Yokohama Landmark Tower in Japan.

The Petronas Towers were the tallest buildings between 1998 and 2004, but they got surpassed by the Taipei 101 in Taipei.

Anyway, back to our towers...

César Pelli is the argentine architect who is responsible for designing the Petronas Towers.

The planning of the towers started in 1992 already and, there's a small museum-like section after the entrance, where you can learn about its construction. Interestingly, they used shapes, forms borrowed from Islamic architecture.

By the way, in case you don't know - Petronas is a Malaysian petrol company. (In 2012, Fortune Global 500 has ranked Petronas as the 12th most profitable company in the World and the 1st most profitable in the entire Asia!).

The firm mustn't be confused with Petrobras, which is a major Brazilian petrol company. If they'll also build towers open to tourists, I'll be among the first to visit it!

A separate page contains my photos of the skyline taken from "up there".

The Skybridge

The Skybridge connects the two Petronas Towers on two floors: the 41st and the 42nd. It's the highest-situated two-story bridge in the World.

The bridge is 170 m (558 ft) above ground, it's 58 m (190 ft) long, weighs 750 tonnes.

Interestingly, the bridge is not directly attached to the main structure, but it's instead designed to slide in and out, so that it doesn't break. It's mobile...

They took us to the 42nd floor (the upper level of the bridge). The views were great, but we had to rush, so I didn't have enough time to look around... too bad! But the towers are such a magnet for tourists that visitors rush in crowds... there isn't enough time to just stop and stare for minutes. We had to rush it...

The Skybridge is limited to 1,000 visitors per day, even though you can buy ticket to it, at some point of the day, they will close it down and you will only be able to visit the 86th floor of the Petronas Towers.

I'm giving you all these facts, because it's essential to know. Many naive travelers arrive thinking they'll just buy a ticket and visit it. No. You have to buy in advance and even the time of the day is important - so that you can also visit the Skybridge!
Read further below on this page to understand how you can buy tickets for the Petronas Tower...

The Skybridge is a great viewing spot (although it's the lowest one). It is also the first one where they'll take you.

When we got up there, I took a shot of the small park-like area, which is in front of the Petronas Towers. This is how tiny it looked like from the bridge...

Everything looked so small. I was wondering how it will be from the highest-situated observatory floor.

By the way, this is how the park looked like "down there" - just before I went up...

Getting a Ticket to the Petronas Towers

In the beginning, I thought, "I'll just buy a ticket and go up". Nope, it's not that easy... Crowds of tourists roam like flocks of sardines, salivating for their own Petronas Towers entry ticket!

Ha ha!

I actually had to stand in line early in the morning the day before in order to get a ticket for the next day. It was a very long line. I waited 2.5 hours only to be able to get myself the entry ticket!

And: many were there at 5 o'clock early in the morning already. I got there at about 6:30 and that was almost too late! I still got to buy myself the tickets, but I was among the last one or two dozen people who still got to buy one! They "cut the line" and closed the ticket office fast and the others left dissappointed. This meant they had to come back the next very early morning to buy their tickets for 2 days later!

This was normal procedure back then...

You want your ticket, get there at least at 6 o'clock in the morning, but 5 o'clock would be better!

Weekdays are better for visiting, but expect crowds of foreign tourists.

The Suria Mall

It's an immense shopping mall at the base and inside the Petronas Towers.

Although, it's treated as a separate entity, it's physically part of the Petronas Towers. The mall is at the feet of the twin towers.
(Here's the Suria Mall website, if you're curious).

It occupies 6 floors and boasts will all kinds of shops, some of them are in the "elite" category... it's one of the best places to get your best quality souvenirs from KL.

Many shops allow bargaining!

But there's a vast amount of souvenirs that you will find at lower prices in the Jalan Petaling area. And quite often, it's the exact same items that are sold here at the Suria Mall for a lot more ringgits.

Apart from the souvenirs, there are good places to eat. I checked out the local KFC and the Pizza Hut as well. And of course, I had two brunches there...

It's strikingly cheap to eat at fast foods in Malaysia! Compare that to EU countries or the USA and you'll drool after a bite!

Burger King, KFC menus cost 7-12 MYR. As an example: a 7 ringgit meal equals a mere 1.76 EUR or 2.43 USD!

A large 30 cm (12") pizza will take more than 30 ringgits out of your wallet. That's 7 EUR or about 9.65 USD.

In Venice, Barcelona, Valencia and Rome, I could only find menus close to 7 EUR, but frequently above 8 EUR!

You can eat a lot better and a lot more in Malaysia than in Europe!

There are many Subway restaurants elsewhere in KL, including some stations where I frequently passed through (including a Subway at KL Sentral, one at KLCC).

Famous brand-selling shops in the Suria Mall include: Calvin Klein, Chanel, Versace, Rolex, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Gucci and others...

And this time it's really Prada and Gucci and Rolex, not "Prada", "Prado", "Gicci", "Rolex" fakes that you can buy on the streets.

There's also a 12 screen cinema, a concert hall and the Petronas Art Gallery and the Petrosains Science Discovery Centre. Personally, I'd recommend the art gallery... If you have the time!

One of the things I love doing whenever I travel is to explore the shopping malls... kind of wicked - others ask me why, "they all look the same". Nope, they're not the same!

They're some of the best and cheapest places to eat (for budget travelers, recommended!), they're great for at least checking out what souvenirs you could get (and then you can hunt for them in cheaper areas of the city) and, these malls often have unique artistic attractions - like art galleries and temporary or permanent art exhibitions along their corridors or halls...

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