Petronas Twin Towers, KLCC Park, Kampung Baru and Bukit Bintang

The modern heart of Kuala Lumpur, known as the Golden Triangle, stretches between the landscaped parkland of KLCC (Kuala Lumpur City Centre) in the north and the neon-lit dining and shopping boulevards of Bukit Bintang in the south, connected in fifteen minutes by an elevated air-conditioned pedestrian skywalk.

The Petronas Twin Towers and KLCC Park

Completed in 1998 and standing 451.9 metres (88 storeys) high, the Petronas Twin Towers remain the tallest twin towers on Earth and the unmistakable emblem of modern Malaysia. Designed by architect César Pelli, the floor plan of each tower is based on an eight-pointed Rub el Hizb Islamic geometric star, clad in extruded stainless steel and laminated glass that catches the equatorial sun like faceted silver. Timed entry tickets (book online ahead; closed Mondays) begin in the lower concourse before whisking you to two levels: first, the double-deck Skybridge on Levels 41 and 42 suspended 170 metres above the street, which hinges gently on giant ball bearings so the two towers can sway independently in high winds; second, the 86th-floor Observation Deck looking straight across to the adjacent Spire and the city's mountains.

At the base of the towers, 50-acre KLCC Park (the final landscape work of Brazilian modernist Roberto Burle Marx) weaves 1,900 indigenous trees, a free children's wading pool and jogging tracks around Lake Symphony, where choreographed musical fountains erupt every evening after dusk. For the classic wide-angle photograph of both towers without craning your neck, stand on the bridge in the centre of KLCC Park or beside the Mandarin Oriental corner.

Saloma Link Bridge to Kampung Baru

From the northern edge of KLCC (five minutes' walk past Kampung Baru LRT station), step onto the Saloma Link Bridge, a 69-metre pedestrian span over the Klang River and six-lane highway whose 4,100 diamond LED panels glow in changing patterns after sunset. The bridge lands directly in Kampung Baru ("New Village"), an extraordinary 1899 Malay agricultural enclave of vernacular wooden stilt houses with carved verandahs, banana trees and open-air Malay satay and nasi lemak stalls standing in the immediate shadow of the Twin Towers.

The KLCC-Bukit Bintang Walkway and Menara KL Tower

From Suria KLCC and Aquaria KLCC, follow the signed elevated air-conditioned pedestrian bridge south into Pavilion Kuala Lumpur at the heart of Bukit Bintang. Just west of the Golden Triangle atop Bukit Nanas hill rises the 421-metre Menara Kuala Lumpur (KL Tower), ringed at its base by the free bamboo-and-timber canopy bridges of the KL Forest Eco Park.