The PETRONAS Towers are found in the city of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and are the centerpiece of the KLCC city center renovation program of the late 1990’s. The towers are located in the middle of the Golden Triangle district, which is an area surrounded by the Kuala Lumpur Inner Ring Road and filled with numerous hi-rise buildings, shopping malls, international businesses and luxury hotels.
The city of Kuala Lumpur is located within the borders of the Malaysian federal state of Selangor, but the city is actually a special federally owned district. Selangor’s main city is Klang, located on the coast about forty kilometers miles west of inland Kuala Lumpur.
The Malaysian peninsula stretches down from Thailand and Birmania, coming very close to the large island of Sumatra to the west. The stretch of water between the peninsula and the island is known as the Malaccan Straits. This area is a frequent passage on the route between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, and the famous Malaccan pirates frequently attached shipping vessels in this area for the many centuries when wind-powered wooden vessels travelled between Europe and the islands on the western edge of the Pacific Ocean. Thankfully, pirate attacks in this area are quite rare these days.
Malaysia itself occupies the lower portion of the peninsula and portions of some neighboring islands to the east. Malaysia is bordered on the north by Vietnam, Thailand, and Birmania, to the south by Indonesia, and the Philippine islands to the northeast. Singapore is located on the very tip of the Malaysian peninsula, but is not a part of the Malaysian Federation.
India and Sri Lanka are 2,500 kilometers to the west, Australia is 2,500 kilometers to the southeast, and Beijing, China is about 2,500 kilometers to the north, northeast, and the Philippine islands are a bit closer, and more southerly. Korea and Japan are about 5,000 kilometers to the north, and Africa is a bit more than 5,000 kilometers directly west.
Getting to Kuala Lumpur is usually a matter of flying into one of the two international airports that serves the city. Once in Kuala Lumpur, a network of modern trains, monorails and metro systems makes moving about easy. Driving a car is possible, but the numerous taxis are easier and fairly inexpensive. An official tourist website asserts that “Semua pemandu teksi tahu ke KLCC” or “all taxi drivers know how to get to the KLCC” which is how the PETRONAS Towers complex is referred to locally. Busses are also common in Kuala Lumpur and serve the large local population that commutes from surrounding suburbs into the city center.