My Favourite Modern Building

The Petronas Twin Towers is my favourite modern building in this whole wide world. I use the phrase 'modern building' because the Petronas Twin Towers cannot be compared to buildings like St Peter's Basilica in Vatican City or the Louvre in Paris, since they were all built in different eras.

The Petronas Twin Towers looks magnificent especially at night when the entire structure is illuminated. If you look hard enough, sometimes there're white birds circling the lower part of the towers at night. I wonder where these birds come from.

Although I can see the Petronas Twin Towers from my apartment and from my office, I never get bored of looking at this 88-storey building. On the bus home from work everyday I will try to sit on the side of the bus that faces the Twin Towers so that I can marvel at it as the bus passes by.

The highest floor I've been to in the Twin Towers is on the 66th Floor when I was at the Bloomberg office for a training session recently. And the view from that floor was breathtaking ...

There was once I was on the Monorail late in the evening. A group of Chinese or Taiwanese tourists (never could tell the difference since they all spoke Mandarin with that China-mari accent) were looking enthusiastically out the window, moving their heads about as if looking for something, and chattering away in Mandarin. Since I can't speak the language, I was wondering what were they looking for.

As the Monorail pulled into the Bukit Nanas station, all of them exclaimed loudly, "WAH ... !!!!!" and pointed at the Petronas Twin Towers. I could only smile at these tourist who must have been astounded at the beauty of the towers.

Being the tallest twin towers in the world, many tourist attempt to snap photos of their friends with the towers in the background. I always chuckle when I see them snapping away in front of Menara Public Bank on Jalan Ampang. Some even resort to lying down on the ground to get the entire building into the viewfinder!

Let me share the best spots I know (unlimited) to snap these massive towers:

• In front of Menara Public Bank on Jalan Ampang.
• In front of Dang Wangi LRT station.
• In front of Menara ING on Jalan Raja Chulan.

My lecturer once told his students that approximately 2,000 miniature Twin Towers is sold per day. This is some serious $ we're talking here. I also learned at an insurance presentation that the entire building in insured for RM8 billion!

Although the Petronas Twin Towers once reigned as the tallest building in the world, only losing to Burj Dubai, it still reigns as the tallest twin towers in the world. But whatever it is, the Petronas Twin Towers is my favourite modern building in this whole wide world!