Petrosains

Petrosains is a Science Discovery Centre that uses a fun and interactive approach to tell the story of science and technology of the petroleum industry.
Its concept and contents revolve around the science of petroleum, yet embrace all the general sciences.
The hands-on approach adopted by Petrosains put emphasis on the fun and excitement of learning rather than on the rigorous memorization of scientific facts. Yeah fun when I was 13! Today I can't wait to get out of there after 2 hours of walking while dealing with Mia's tantrums and making sure Adam is not lost, again.

I brought my family to Petrosains at level 4 KLCC last weekend. Actually we considered going to Sunway Lagoon or Desa Waterpark but since the ticket price for both of them are really expensive, we've decided to go to Petrosains instead.
The entrance fee for Petrosains starts from RM4 for children to RM12 for adults. You can save by getting the RM24 Family Package which includes 2 adults + 2 children (like ours). Flash your Kad Mesra or JCard and get another 15% discount.
FYI, I've never been inside Petrosains before (so does my wife) so basically this is our first visit there. This place is usually alive with people especially children, more so on weekends and school holidays.
The journey began at The Lobby where you have to wait in line for like 20 minutes for The Dark Ride which will transport you to the Death Star where you will fight Darth Vader. Okay just kidding. The Lobby is where you'll find a Water Sculpture which permeates a soothing water effect while you wait for The Dark Ride.
The Dark Ride is the real beginning of your journey where you will take this helmet oil-drop shaped gondola into Petrosains. In the dark tunnel you'll be fed with some Petronas propaganda on a number of video displays.
The place is divided into several sections such as Petrojaya, Exploration, Sparkz, Geotime Diorama, Speed and many more. A visit to all of these sections will take no less than 2 hours and you can simply spend the entire day here if you looked and try everything.

If you forgot to bring a stroller, one will be provided free of charge at the entrance.
Check out this hologram effect. The toy car is not real actually. It's made of light.
At the Geotime Diorama you'll be greeted by this singing T-Rex. Creepy, I know. Apparently having spent a few billion years there, the dinosaur have learned to sing a song in both Malay and English. Impressive!.

At least Petrosains got taste for using several dozen iMacs at their exhibits. A Windows PC would have crashed after a few weeks of heavy use anyway.
Although Mia doesn't understand a thing about Petrosains, she did have her fun playing with some of the stuff there.
Halfway through the centre, you choose to board a helicopter simulator. It's free of charge too.
I pity this staff here who has to do that once every 10 minutes, every day of the week. Must be pretty exciting working here.
The heli simulator takes you for a ride to an oil rig through a storm. It would have felt more real had it last longer or takes you to many different places.
This is a typical crew quarters on the oil rig. As you can see it's pretty cramped and tight in there. I can't imagine myself living there for months on end regardless of how much they pay me.
But the food is quite good they say, provided by the best cook in town with meals every 4 hours or so.
This is Petrosains Speed exhibit where you can see a real F1 car and play some F1 video games. Video game always occupied with some old folk who never played video games before.
If you got some change to spare, you can shop at the Xplorasi gift shop near the entrance. I gave them a miss because their prices are KLCC standard (very expensive).
Petrosains should be a really fun and interesting place to visit for your young children. For the 30 year old me who has already learned all these stuff at school, Wikipedia or Discovery Channel, Petrosains is not that fun anymore. The charm and excitement had faded over the years. Yeah I'm old, I know.