Although I could have easily spent another few days to a week in Bali, I looked forward to returning to KL. It was familiar. We were staying at the same hotel and knew how to get around the city. We were also able to do our own laundry there and believe it or not, that was very exciting!
First on my agenda for KL was to do the skybridge tour at the Petronas Twin Towers. Not only was it free, but it was way high up in the sky with a great view of the city – and I like heights!
You have to go to the towers in the morning as they only offer a limited number of tickets and only for the same day. We got there about 10:00 am and were slated into the 4:15 pm tour.
The twin towers are 88 storeys with the skybridge connecting the towers at the 41st floor. It took 41 seconds (one second per floor) in the elevator to reach it. The ride on the way down is even quicker! The double decker skybridge was put in to act as a connector (and an escape route in case of emergency) between the two towers which house mainly offices. Over 36,910 tons of steel were used and 77,000 sq meters of glass. Let me tell you, it’s impressive.
We also went to the Aquarium one day where we got to pet some little bamboo sharks. Even though they are harmless, it was still scary sticking our hands in to that tank. They felt like slimy silk – it was strange.
They have the largest underwater tunnel in Malaysia. You walk through surrounded by glass on three sides and watch big manta rays, sharks, eels and other fish swim over your head and all around you. I admit that I had a memory of Jaws 3 where the glass breaks on the tunnel…but we were safe in our water shrouded world. It is quite something to see the sharks teeth inches away from your head. We couldn’t resist this picture of two sharks sleeping, one with his fin over the other in a little cuddle.
The rest of our sharks through the glass photos didn’t turn out. When we emerged from the tunnel, they had a little section where you could get a picture of yourself drawn while you wait. A man sat down to get his face drawn while his burqa clad wife sat and waited. We found that a little ironic…and I also saw my chance to ask for her picture. I didn’t know when else I would be able to get my photo taken with someone wearing a burqa so I went over and asked her. She was surprised and started giggling a little – then she asked her husband and he jokingly said that they would charge me for the photo. Even though her face was covered, I could tell she was smiling and she seemed very pleased that I wanted a photo with her.
I figured it was my turn to ask someone for a photo after the dozens of people who had asked for mine. I had so many people (especially Muslim girls) ask for my photo in Thailand and Bali and some Indian men ask for it on the skybridge (they included Curtis in their request). This woman was very sweet – shy and giggly – and I thought she had beautiful eyes.
We used the KL transit system because the trains were a cheap, relatively easy way to get around the city. They’ve got 5 different lines and sometimes you have to transfer between them – but after our first transfer which involved crossing a street and following the crowd through an underground tunnel – we had it figured out. They’ve got station names like Masjid Jamek, Sultan Ismail, Setiawangsa and my personal favorite – Dang Wangi.
Our four days in KL flew by and pretty soon it was time for our flight to Cambodia.