Kuala Lumpa (Peninsular Malaysia) 

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Kuala Lumpa is on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia. Kuala Lumpa is trying very hard to modernise, with the Malaysian Grand Prix now part of the F1 tour and the worlds tallest building in the city, along with many new buildings in the financial district it's a good start. Although there is still much decay and poverty to be seen mixed among the grandness of the shiny new structures you certainly don't see this when you first arrive KLIA (KL International Airport), which shows how a modern, well designed airport should be, it puts London's Heathrow to shame quite frankly. As you can see we were there just before the Sydney2000 Olympics and the F1GP race.

Yet another place with colonial British history, many of the main government buildings were built during this period and still stand as a testament to the empires style and power. Here you see Helen in front of some ex-colonial offices, to the left in the picture is a (still well tended) cricket lawn. The tallest building you can see, with the circular in cross section, is the communications tower which we also ascended, and were 'lucky' enough to be up there in a thunderstorm, see the pictures. The old colonial offices from around 150 years ago were very impressive, now being used as local government buildings, it's good to see the legacy the empire left, order, organisation, architecture.

Traffic is a growing problem as more and more people move into the city but unlike here in the west, there seem to be very little in the form of emission control on the vehicles and particularly the older vehicles were visibly pumping out noxious fumes in volumes to fill a blimp, each. However they do seem to be tackling the problem by building a city light railway, here you see a station on this new rail line. Apart from the new buildings in the business and financial quarters, most of KL was run down, but they're obviously trying hard to build the city into a modern metropolis with overhead walkways and railways sprouting everywhere. With modernisation comes the inevitable conflict with the old, here you see a beautiful old colonial building framed by a new raised platform for the new city rail network. And, yes they do drive on the left, as in the UK, and everywhere we visited on this vacation. It turns out that more countries drive on the left than on the right, good old empire !

This picture clearly displays the changing nature of KL present, the impressive KL (Petronas) Twin Towers in the distance and in the foreground, construction and an unfinished pylon for a (aborted/delayed) raised rail project, we saw a lot of these pylons around the city. Due to their extreme height, the Twin Towers were clearly visible from anywhere in the city not surrounded by newer skyscrapers, this is the view from just around the corner from our hotel, a 24 floor affair, the first 6 floors were a car park ! Also you see a view of the towers night taken on the swimming pool level of the hotel, on the 11th floor.

The KL Twin Towers, tallest buildings in the world (present) nearly 500 meters high and with 88 floors. The Empire State has 105 floors but the KLs floors are taller, also taller than Sears, World Trade etc. The Japanese are planning a mega tower 1km high, but don't expect that to soon.

The architecture inside was as impressive as outside, here you see a simple light fitting, the picture to the right is the middle of three such fittings adorning the central entrance hall, between the two twin towers. With all this modern techno-grandure one must not forget this is a Muslim country trying to hold onto its traditional values as well, and this was clear to us when we saw the sign in a shop window which sold women's clothing/accessories, which asked for a cashier (male), obviously a woman in Malaysia cannot be expected to handle mathematics.

The public are allowed to an observation deck (the bridge between the twin towers) in the KL (Petronas) Towers, you can queue (get there early) and if you're in time will be given a ticket for a time to be the lifts, which point you will be whisked up to the 41st floor in an internal elevator, no fantastic view here, but that changes when you walk into the bridge between the twin towers.

View from 41st floor Take the lift up to the view platform, the view is impressive but not as impressive as the building itself, built in just three years ! Below you see the roof of the multi floor shopping and entertainment complex housed the Twin Towers, we went to the cinema in this complex and Burger Kings, yes, fast food again, but all the time in Malaysia we felt very uncomfortable with the local food, certainly not like in China where we with the locals in places where we would spend only 1GBP for a very filling meal. In KL we were careful with what we ate.

Sad, but true I had my EDS id with me which meant I could visit the EDS offices on the 63rd floor of the KL Petronas Twin Towers (South Tower). The view was breath-taking, not in the sense that I had to climb the steps to the 63rd floor, although I did have to change lifts on the 42nd floor. The offices, very comfortable and very familiar, same as any EDS offices anywhere. It's nice to feel home anywhere in the world. Here's a view out of an office window. Even though KL is inland from one window I could actually see the sea.

The beautiful architectural style of the Twin Towers continues right to the summit. KL is a growing city, but civilisation shows its small scale and vulnerability when viewed from such heights, even though we are on a object you cannot fail to notice the surround hills and vast spaces which remain empty and hostile.

The communications tower is about 30 years old and so much older than the Twin Towers, offered another view of KL. The tower itself is an impossibly slender needle piercing the sky, not recommended to those with vertigo. The Malaysian Grand Prix was just a few days away, and there was evidence everywhere that this was a big event, here you can see the actual car Mika Hakinen drove to win his first World Championship title.

The view from the communications tower was as impressive as the Twin Towers. While we were there a thunderstorm started, I consider this real luck, and as the tower was hit you could hear the power energising the earthing cables as the power was drained to the ground a shrieking crashing sound of metal straining could be heard, really quite eerie. As the clouds closed in the Twin Towers vanished into the clouds, I can only imagine what it must have been like up there on the 88th floor - wonderful I guess, heavenly even, but on a day when god was angry.

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