September 8, 2009

Alain Robert The Spiderman Climbs The Petronas Towers

Malaysians especially those in Kuala Lumpur would have been shocked by the news about Alain Robert ‘The Spiderman’. Why? Because he climbed the Petronas Towers or the KLCC building on last Tuesday September 1st 2009.

Many people argue why did we detain him as he gave the free publicity to Malaysia without asking even for 1 cent from Malaysian government.

Robert or his full name, Alain Robert Phillipe, 47 is a French and even the French government regards him as disabled etc. He started to climb at the of 12 and since then he has climbed 85 buildings around the world including the skyscrapers like Empire State Building in New York (1,250 feet), Sears Tower in Chicago (1,453 feet), Taipei 101, Taiwan (1,667 feet) and Jin Mao in Shanghai, China (1,378 feet).

Most of the climbing he did were done without consent and these made him to be detained for intrusion charges.

When the Petronas Towers in construction was fully completed in the late 90, Robert and this building got the world’s attention as the Petronas Twin Tower in Kuala Lumpur was the world’s highest building then.

in 1997, a year before that towers were officially open, he climbed to the level 60 of that building without being noticed.

Recently on last Tuesday, September 1st 2009, just a day after Malaysians celebrated their nation’s 52th birthday, Robert was claimed to start climbing Petronas Towers at 6 am and he managed to reach the highest point of that building. The next day he was charged in the Magistrate Court that can put him into the jail for 6 months (maximum) or need to pay Rm3,000 (maximum) or both of them.

Watch This Alain Robert The Spiderman at Petronas Towers

To me, I’m pretty sure that Robert’s motive was just to climb and reach the peak up there. What is your opinion? What if somebody hired him to carry the bombs there (this is scary question)? Would he refuse?

We were so lucky that he is not a terrorist but the incident caused the safety of KLCC being among the hot discussion topic now.

The area around KLCC is also the ‘no-fly zone’ like any other cities worldwide but what about the usage of a helicopter that flew low to record Robert’s action.

Some people perceive this as the ‘present’ for Malaysia’s Independence Day but at the same time revealed how easy it was for any person to do just like what Robert did if he has enough tools and skills. Remember that Robert used bare hands and feet to climb KLCC building on September 1st 2009.

If you are interested, here is a post where you can see the Alain Robert’s pictures climbing the Petronas Towers by Ahboon.