Up Close to the KL Tower

Well, it has been a little while since I last managed to post anything. Do not fear, there is no major reason for this - we have not been struck down by some awful event or illness, we have just been busy, knackered, relaxing, and I’ve been preoccupied with other things (hence I am doing other research stuff), and I let the blogs go. I was doing so well in trying to keep them going, too! So, I shall continue where I left off and see if I can get back on track with these….famous last words I know!

Our Airbnb apartment has an amazing view of both the KL Tower and the Petronas Towers from the balcony, living room, and bedroom. The view was one of the main reasons that we chose to stay in this apartment and the area. In the evening, both towers light up the sky with their lights. The Petronas Towers are brilliant white, but the KL Tower seems to alternate – sometimes it's green, sometimes it’s white, sometimes it's blue, and sometimes it's a multicoloured spectacle. Not only that, but the colours on the KL Tower also seems to pulsate and dance at times – it really is quite a spectacle!

Initially, we were overwhelmed with the fantastic view, but like most things, you soon begin to get used to it and take it for granted. It’s been on our agenda to have a walk around the area beside it and to walk up to it (as it appears to be on a bit of a hill).

The Kuala Lumpur Tower, also known as the KL Tower, is a 6-storey, 421-meter-tall telecommunication tower in Kuala Lumpur. It is the world's seventh-tallest tower. It features an antenna which increases its height to 421 metres. The roof of the pod is at 335 metres. The rest of the tower below has a stairwell and an elevator to reach the upper area, which also contains a revolving restaurant, providing diners with a panoramic view of the city. The tower is the highest viewpoint in Kuala Lumpur that is open to the public. Weird to believe, but there are races held annually here, where participants race up the stairs to the top (the mind boggles at the thought!).

Anyway, after breakfast, off we trotted to have a look for ourselves. I read up about a forest park area near the KL Tower, where you can visit, which has various trails and walkways. Some of the routes are high up above the tree canopies and involve walking across suspended bridges. The entry cost into the park area is about 40 MYR (£7.50), but as his nibs can’t do heights, there was no way we would be doing this (though it could have made for an interesting blog post!). Similarly, we didn’t plan on going up the KL Tower, which incidentally looks very much like the Toronto Tower, again because his nibs would not be able to do it, but we also didn’t really think it was worth the money. Incidentally, there are also things like a perimeter walk and a skybox experience that you can do at the KL Tower, but again, these are not for us.

No, instead we made our way up through the streets and then to the base area of the tower, where we took some photos of the surrounding area. You do get quite a good view even from the base area of the Tower, and we enjoyed looking at various landmarks from this angle. The walk incline is fairly gentle, although there is a free shuttle bus that operates from the main entrance to the KL Tower itself. We walked up but took the shuttle back down as it was available at the time when we were leaving, otherwise we would have just walked again.

As it was still part of the public holiday, it did seem quite a bit quieter – both on the roads and with a lot of the shops being closed.  Coming back to the apartment, we took a different route than we did going up to the Tower. We were also starting to get a bit hungry by this stage, but we couldn't find anything that we fancied - most of the places we came across were open-air restaurants and the weather, as usual, was very hot and humid.

Having discovered our fab little cafe at the GMBB centre, we always know that we have a back-up place, and so we ended up in there for an early dinner – a savoury chicken noodle dish for me and a spicy mince and rice dish for R.

Today's route:

Day 70: 2 February 2026

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia