The Petronas Towers is certainly a beautiful city sight to behold both from the ground and way up there on the skybridge - our destination. Random FYI - Malaysia loves world records, so much so that they even produce their own "Malaysian Book of Records,"a publication styled after the Guinness Book of World Records. So... to follow in Malaysian suit, let me give you few facts about the Petronas Towers and it's skybridge.
With 88 floors, the Petronas Towers are the second tallest in the world, with 101 Tapei Towers taking first place. However, they did hold 1st place from 1998-2004; and remain the world's tallest twin towers to this day. The Petronas Towers took about 2.5 years to build in the mid-90s. The Petronas Towers skybridge is the highest and longest double sky bridge in the world. It is 170m up from the ground, and stretches acoss the 41st floor of the twin towers.
And, you get to see the view from the skybridge for free!! One catch. It is a first come, first serve basis. So, while tickets aren't even sold until 8:00am, and the first time slot to go up isn't even until 9:00am, we were told to get there by 7:30am to get in line. Liars!! Ummm, try at least 7:00am. We were up and out of our hostel by 7:00am, and arrived to a crowded room full of tourists lined up back and forth... so many so that we had to grab a spot in the back of the line, which snaked around into the hallway. B got us coffee and a newspaper, and we slowly moved along once the tickets started going at 8:00am.
Half way through, we noticed a compuer monitor hanging in the corner of the room. It had mysterious numbers listed, and it took us a bit to understand what they meant. To be fair to us, there were no titles or labels on the chart. But after we understood, we got nervous. You see, the chart had the time slots listed in boxes in a calendar format. Under each 15 minute time slot, there was another number. That was the number of tickets left for that time slot. They gave away 45 tickets per time slot, and even within each 15 minute time slot, they only allow about 15 people on the skybridge at one time for a 10 minute interval (which, is actually really nice for a non-annoying viewing experience).
The issue: Our flight to Kuching, Sarawak leaves at 1:55pm. We still have to go back to the hostel to get our rucksacks, and get to the bus station for the hour long ride to the aiport. So, we had until 10:00am to get in. All the morning time slots had "0" in the box, except for 9:45am, which had 40. By the time we turned around the corner in line, that 40 changed to '1'. Our only other option: there was one spot availabe for 9:45, and one for 10:00am. Ok, so we'll go up separately. We checked the line for single tourists - none. We had about 20 or so people in front of us... looking good. Shot down. While we contemplated "tearing the bandaid off fast" (Bridget) by just going before being turned down, with only a couple people left in line, we thought what the hell; maybe they'll take pity on us. Awww man, but they had computerized ticket machines.
We share our dilemma with the ticket lady, and handing us two tickets, she says, "There might be a cancellation. Just wait over there by the entrance." Sweeet! We waited by the entrance where the 9:30s were lining up, spoke with the line guard about cancellation hopes. Nope! All 9:30s showed up. I mean, who would stand in line all morning, get a morning ticket, and then be a no-show? That doesn't make sense.
10:00am... the people start lining up. This is our last time slot chance. We creepily stand next to them (awkward in Malaysia once again), count the line, and hopelessly, anxiously wait as they are handed proper badges to enter. Oh my god, and then the line guard turns to us and says, "There's been cancellation." He hands us our badges, and we get to enter!!!! Unbelievable, Bridget and I get a break; we get lucky.
After a short video on how great Petronas is and all the wonderful things that Petronas does for Malaysia and what it means to Malaysia, we get to go up forty-one floors to the skybridge. Definitely worth it, even though the morning was a bit clouded over.
Out by 10:30, hauled ass back to the hostel, grabbed our rucksacks, booked it to the bus station in a taxi, found the bus to the airport leaving in ten minutes, hour journey, arrived safely. No airport running necessary!
Off to Kuching, Sarawak - BORNEO!
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