Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 3 of 5

Our coach dropped us near a huge shopping mall and it was at this point we had our first glimpse of the famous Petronas Twin towers standing majestically behind tall hotel and office buildings. The Petronas Twin towers complex was built on a former horseracing track. The towers have 88 floors and it took 6 years of 24-hour construction days to complete the buildings at a cost of $1.8 billion US dollars!

These towers were once the world's tallest buildings at a height of 452 metres but the tower in Dubai is much higher today- and they are constructing an even higher one in Dubai even as we write. For what purpose I wonder? 'The Tower of Babel' competition? Umph! However Petronas Twin towers can claim to be the world's tallest twin towers as both towers in Dubai though higher, are only single tower constructions.

Unfortunately the only day of the week that the towers are not open is on a Monday so all we could do was crane our necks and look in awe up at the sky and marvel at the twin towers which have been constructed in concrete and then covered in a steel and glass facade designed to resemble motifs found in Islamic architecture. There are 32,000 windows with UV and solar radiation steel in both Towers and it takes two months to clean them all. The towers are joined by a Skybridge at the 41^st and 42^nd floors and this bridge is the highest 2 storey bridge in the world. We had hoped to have crossed over it today and look down over KL city. We'd have been able to look down upon a 100 acres of parkland which surrounds the Twin tower area with its' Symphony Lake Garden and a massive tropical garden with over 1900 trees and palms. This will have to wait 'til our next visit on any day but a Monday.

The first thing we had to do before our walking tour was to visit the Shopping Mall to change some money into Malaysian Ringgit so that we could ride the underground train system when exploring KL and also purchase some spicy Malaysian food for lunch.

The multi-storey mall was a little overwhelming when compared with Figtree Grove or even Wollongong City Mall but it was cool inside and provided us with free bathroom facilities after our long trip.

We headed out into the humid heat of the day and took a leisurely stroll through the streets. All around us were big city buildings and lots of traffic like in any big city.