High Above The City – KL Tower

I found myself at the KL Tower for work recently. It’s a sad thing, I know, being a KL-ite, and just visiting the KL Tower at this juncture. Another example of how I take things for granted here. The drive up was nice, set on Bukit Nanas (or Pineapple Hill, see left pic), the short drive up was quiet and green, a welcome respite from the dust and bustle of the city, left at the base of the hill. The view from the base of the tower (the top of the hill) was impressive already (pics below), and I could imagine how much better it would be from above. 

I was at finished with work just after noon, and I was free to mooch around. At the base of the tower were the usual touristy shops and stalls, selling keychains, t-shirts and the like (left pic below). There were busloads of school children visiting, all excited to be out of school on a field trip. There were also the usual number of tourists about, and interestingly enough, I also found a Modesto’s underneath the main fountain platform there (right pic below). At the very base of the car park, where tourist buses park, is the entrance to the Bukit Nanas forest trail (pic further below).

The main fountain platform itself was quite impressive (left pic below), with the jets of water streaming in different directions to create a slightly different pattern, rather than the usual upward jets of water (right pic below). There were also interesting ethnic art pillars inbetween the pools of water.

I took a short break, and had a drink by the cafe. I noticed the monkeys from the Bukit Nanas forest reserve were playing among the motorcyles. They were climbing from trees and on to buildings and motorcycles, eating leaves, and having mock fights. Unfortunately, as soon as anyone approached the motorcycle parking lot, they would scoot up some pipes, and wait on top of the freestanding annex building, peering to see when they would be alone again. It was quite fun to watch them (pics below).

I approached the entrance to ride up the tower (I thought was quite impressive, with its ornate tiled patterns, pic above), and was about to grudgingly fork out the RM15 to get a ride up, when I found that media members from the function earlier were getting free rides to the top. This is definitely one of the perks of being a writer with a magazine. I grabbed a media sticker, and ran after the group, and made the lift just in time.

KLCC (left) and Maybank (right)