Wonderfully Lost : Kuala Lumpur Central and the Aquarium

A trip on the monorail to KLCC where we took in the sights of Central Kuala Lumpur, including the Petronas Towers and the shopping district. In front of the towers is a lake with fountains and gardens. It is also the conference district and strangely houses the aquarium.

KLCC gardens and Lake

The Petronas Towers (left) were opened in 1998 and rise to 451 meters, with 88 storeys. The steel-clad structure is the headquarters of the national oil and gas company Petronas as well as the Asian Broadcasting Centre.
The towers were designed by Cesar Pelli an Argentinian Architect who designed the structure with Islamic influences. The floor is based on an eight-sided star, and each tower has five tiers representing the five pillars of Islam.
The sky-bridge on the 41st floor connects the two towers, 1640 free tickets to the sky-bridge viewing area are issued daily with the towers opening at 8.30 am.
(Information: Lonely Planet Guide to Malaysia and Singapore).

The towers can be seen from all over KL and are lit in the evening.

We visited the towers, but have yet to climb up to the sky-bridge to view the sights of the city.

KLCC Gardens

KLCC Gardens and Architecture

The KLCC Aquaria provides an educational platform for the public regarding the conservation of marine life. Over the past 10 years it has successfully launched campaigns to engage and educate the community about the importance of conserving the environment.

Although we visited this marine world - I am not sure that I was comfortable seeing these creatures in tanks without their freedom to roam where they will.
Education and Conservation is extremely important and the public need to be exposed to these creatures so that they can identify with their plight and engage actively in conservation. For the majority of the public if these places did not exist they would never see marine life up close and would never experience the reality of their plight.

Arapaima

In 2011 a campaign was launched to raise awareness of the survival of sharks - the 'Say No to Shark Fin Soup' campaign raised pledges from over 60,000 members of the public which were handed over to the government Minister of Agriculture and Agro Tourism.
(www.aquariaklcc.com/conservation).
The graphic video of sharks being mutilated and then thrown back into the sea to drown, I found horrifying and really upsetting.

If you are a certified diver, you can take the plunge in the 2.5 million litre oceanarium where you can encounter 5 species of shark amongst other sea creatures. If you don't have a licence you can dive in the custom made underwater cage.