Taming Sari Tower (Menara Taming Sari)

I am scared of heights. I rarely volunteer for any activity, be it fun or not, that requires me to be elevated or scale to great height for any amount of time. My sister share this same fear with me. We share the greatest dislike of looking down from a third storey balcony.

However, my nieces do not share our fears nor do they care for them. When they made a recent rare trip down to Melaka for a visit, they specifically requested for a ride on the Eye on Malaysia. So at around eight thirty in the evening of a weekday, I drove them by the Eye on Malaysia, pointed it out to them and explained, with great relief, that the wheel was not turning and thus there would not be any crowd there and it may not be safe for just us ( 2 ladies and kids) to be there. I then made a tactical error by driving them pass the Taming Sari Tower (Menara Taming Sari). There was a crowd there all right, in fact it was so crowded I had difficulty finding a space to park my car.

For the uninitiated, the Taming Sari Tower is the first gyro tower in Malaysia. It was officially opened in April 2008 and is the latest landmark in Bandar Hilir. At 110 meter tall, its motorised section @ observation deck will elevate visitors to a height of 80 meter height whilst revolving 360 degree.

Despite my fears (poor sis dared not move throughout the ride), I was impressed by the panoramic night view. We had an excellent view of the Melaka Swimming Pool which is located adjacent to the tower. The swimmers provided a brief distraction to me : ) I then took time to concentrate on pointing out landmarks to my nieces - Dataran Pahlawan, Holiday Inn, Eye on Malaysia, Kota Laksamana, etc and the general direction of home.

Tickets for Taming Sari Tower are at half price for Malaysians. That is RM10 for adult and RM5 for children. Free for infants. Malaysian adult need to show MyKad to purchase ticket at half price. So if you wish to purchase 3 adult tickets at half price, make sure you have 3 MyKad to show. The observation deck is narrow and visitors are seated and remain seated throughout the experience. Yes, seated for the whole time. It's fully air-conditioned. Strangely, the outlet for the chilled air is located at seat level. My niece declared that her rear end got nicely chilled while on the deck. And visitors got a nice blast of air-freshener while queueing to exit the deck. The deck is clean and well maintained. You could also rent a binocular for RM3.

All in all, it was good but my sister and I decided that would be our first and last trip. Now, my nieces can proudly tell their friends that they had been on the Taming Sari Tower. Hmm...as I looked back, I do believe my nieces were too quiet for the first three minutes on the tower. Maybe they too were scared to be at that height?