An oil company's science centre, which sounds like a corporate exercise and is in fact very good with children.
Petrosains occupies a large chunk of the fourth floor of Suria KLCC, the mall at the base of the Petronas Twin Towers, and it is funded by Petronas, the national oil company.
That combination invites scepticism, and some of it is warranted — there is a section on the petroleum industry that is not neutral about the petroleum industry. But the majority of the centre is a straightforward, well-made, hands-on science museum, and it is one of the best in Southeast Asia.
What is in it
You enter on a dark ride — a small carriage through a tunnel — which sets the tone and which small children enjoy disproportionately.
Then a long sequence of interactive galleries: mechanics, optics, electricity, sound, digital technology, geology and space, most of it involving pulling, pressing or climbing on something.
The oil section covers the geology of hydrocarbon formation, seismic surveying, drilling, and a helicopter simulator to an offshore platform with a walk-through rig section. As industry PR it is transparent; as an explanation of how any of it actually works, it is clear and detailed.
There is a dinosaur gallery, a Science Show theatre with live demonstrations, and rotating temporary exhibitions.
Who it is for
Children between about five and fourteen will have a very good time and will need three hours.
Adults without children will find it pitched below them, though the geology and the rig section are genuinely informative.
It is one of the few large indoor attractions in Kuala Lumpur that is not a shopping centre, and given the climate — a heavy thunderstorm most afternoons in the wetter months — that is worth something.
Practical
Charged, with separate adult and child rates and a Malaysian resident rate.
Closed Mondays in most schedules.
It is inside the mall, so you reach it without going outdoors from the LRT, which in this city is a genuine advantage.
Buy online to skip the counter queue at weekends and school holidays, when it is very busy.
If Petrosains is closed or too young
KL Bird Park in the Lake Gardens — a very large walk-in aviary, mostly covered.
Aquaria KLCC, under the convention centre, with a walk-through tunnel.
The National Museum has a transport collection outdoors that children like.
And the Islamic Arts Museum’s architecture gallery, full of large detailed models of buildings, works on more children than you would expect.
More Museums
Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia
The best museum in Kuala Lumpur by a distance, and one of the best of its kind anywhere.
National Museum
Muzium Negara — the whole country in four galleries, and the right first stop if you know nothing about Malaysia.
National Textile Museum
Songket, batik and the kain in a striped Moorish-revival building of 1905, and it costs almost nothing.