Last weekend I needed to get out of KL so I visited a town called Putrajaya. This is about 20km out of KL, on the main train line to the airport, and is a new town that was built on the grounds of what in 1996 was only forested land and rubber plantations. It's mainly a government & administrative hub and has been designed to showcase the glories of Malaysia. Most Malaysians are less then happy with the amount of money that has been spent down there but it is a pretty impressive place, in a stark and empty kind of way.
I got down there at around 10am and caught a bus from the station to the centre. The whole place was almost deserted and it was good to get away from the hubub of the city
Ah the serenity.
The focus of the whole town is the main square, bordered by a mosque, the Prime Ministers office and a large lake created by damning the river
It's possible to go into the mosque, although of course you need to be dressed appropriately. Ladies must cover their heads and not display the shape of their bodies, and are provided with robes if they do not meet these standards. My shorts were also a little too short and my calves and ankles obviously too shapely so I was asked to where the same, much to the amusement of pretty much everybody else in the place.
It was a hot, humid and windless day and luckily I managed to find a coach tour that would take us round the main sites in air-conditioned comfort for the princely sum of 1 Ringgit. It was a good tour which covered a lot of ground in an hour and a half
The mix of architecture is interesting - it's like every architect has been allowed to design something in his or her favourite style. There are references to Hong Kong skyscrapers, New York brownstones, London banks, Australian bridges, Manchester redbricks, French boulevards and many others besides.
The other reason for visiting Putrajaya was that there is a mountain bike park there with a XC circuit, DH track, pump track, dirt jumps and impressive looking skatepark. The park was situated a little out of town but I thought I'd be able to get there with a combination of bus and walking. This turned out to be a mistake. My 'map' was only a schematic so I spent an hour or so wandering round half-finished housing estates and industrial parks in what must have been 33 degrees +, high humidity and with no shade and no shops to buy water. I eventually found the correct road but when I followed that out I found that I would need to cross a slip road and walk along the hard shoulder of a freeway. So I gave up and after another 30 minutes of wandering found a bus-stop and headed 'home' footsore, sunstruck and dehydrated.
I got down there at around 10am and caught a bus from the station to the centre. The whole place was almost deserted and it was good to get away from the hubub of the city
The focus of the whole town is the main square, bordered by a mosque, the Prime Ministers office and a large lake created by damning the river
It's possible to go into the mosque, although of course you need to be dressed appropriately. Ladies must cover their heads and not display the shape of their bodies, and are provided with robes if they do not meet these standards. My shorts were also a little too short and my calves and ankles obviously too shapely so I was asked to where the same, much to the amusement of pretty much everybody else in the place.
The mix of architecture is interesting - it's like every architect has been allowed to design something in his or her favourite style. There are references to Hong Kong skyscrapers, New York brownstones, London banks, Australian bridges, Manchester redbricks, French boulevards and many others besides.
The other reason for visiting Putrajaya was that there is a mountain bike park there with a XC circuit, DH track, pump track, dirt jumps and impressive looking skatepark. The park was situated a little out of town but I thought I'd be able to get there with a combination of bus and walking. This turned out to be a mistake. My 'map' was only a schematic so I spent an hour or so wandering round half-finished housing estates and industrial parks in what must have been 33 degrees +, high humidity and with no shade and no shops to buy water. I eventually found the correct road but when I followed that out I found that I would need to cross a slip road and walk along the hard shoulder of a freeway. So I gave up and after another 30 minutes of wandering found a bus-stop and headed 'home' footsore, sunstruck and dehydrated.
Pretty in pink.:) Liz
ReplyDeleteSo Molly Ringwald.:)
ReplyDeleteGordy