Putra Mosque, Putrajaya
4th - 7th February 2006
After a six-hour bus journey from Singapore, my mum and I arrived at Kuala Lumpur's Puduraya Bus Station. From there we took a cab to our hotel, Bintang Warisan. I had made an online reservation for a room there. Bintang Warisan is situated along Jalan Bukit Bintang, KL's premier shopping district. Anyway, KL's not an unfamiliar place for us. It's my mum's hometown and I've been there countless times. Having said that however, it's been a long time since either of us set foot in the city. Therefore, the aim this time round is to rediscover the city.
After putting down our bags at the hotel, we decided to head for lunch. The first stop after lunch was to KLCC, which houses the Petronas Twin Towers. The KLCC is an upscale shopping centre and after walking around for a while, we decided to head to Chinatown. Petaling Street in Chinatown has been spruced up quite a bit, and there's now a fancy green cover overhead. But the bootleg DVDs and CDs, and fake goods are still on sale there.
The next morning, we got up early to go to the KLCC. That's because we wanted to go up the skybridge linking the two Petronas Towers and you have to queue up for tickets to get up there. Well, there was already a long queue when we got there, and we got tickets for entry a few hours later. So what do we do now that we have a few hours to spare?
Well, we decided to head to Merdeka Square which is of historical significance. The square was once the site of British social and sporting events, and it's surrounded by colonial architecture. Of particular significance is the Moorish-style Sultan Abdul Samad Building, which was the largest building of its day. Not surprisingly, there were lots of tour groups taking pictures in front of the building, which is one of KL's major landmarks.
If you don't know it by now, KL is one of those cities that are a little short on 'sights'. Other than the Petronas Towers, and the Sultan Abdul Samad Building, there really isn't much else to see. But on the plus side, there's lots of great food, but more on food later. After taking a few obligatory tourist snapshots around Merdeka Square, we headed back to KLCC.
The view from the skybridge, which is halfway up the towers, is underwhelming. I imagine the view at the top would have been much greater. I've been to the KL Tower a short drive away, and the view from there is much better. You'll get a 360 degree panorama from there, but of course, good things come with a price. The visit to the skybridge's free, entry to the KL Tower is not, so you decide.
Soon it was time to meet my mum's sister and her family for lunch. After lunch, they drove us to Putrajaya, which is the lavish new administrative capital of Malaysia. Some critics argue that the money used for the ostentatious display of grandeur would have been better used in other areas, such as in education and healthcare. Well, regardless of what you think, the buildings are indeed impressive. But it's interesting to note that there are more than a couple of once cleared and dug-up but now abandoned fields. Apparently it's a casualty of the 1997 Asian economic crisis. Money that would have been spent on erecting new buildings have now been put to other uses.
Nonetheless, there are more than enough sights to capture your attention. For instance, there's the pretty Putra Mosque, which is said to have the tallest minaret in Southeast Asia. But nice as the sights are, Putrajaya's a pretty weird place to be in. It feels like a ghost town. The extremely wide boulevards were almost devoid of cars, and there are hardly any humans around.
Putrajaya
Soon, it was time to leave Putrajaya and its colossal buildings behind. En route back to KL, we passed by the unique five-star hotel, Palace of the Golden Horse. Back in KL, we headed to the Berjaya Times Square which has a huge indoor theme park. But other than the theme park, the mall had nothing much else going for it. Many of the shops were vacant, and there weren't much customers, so we didn't linger long.
We had wanted to have supper along Jalan Alor, which has numerous food stalls, but it started to rain, so we bought takeaways from a stall selling Hokkien mee. Now, interestingly, I've patronised this same stall since I was young and although the lady boss has passed over the reins to her assistant, the food's still great. Imagine thick yellow noodles braised in thick, dark soy sauce with pork, squid, fish cake and cabbages, and a sprinkling of crispy deep fried pork lard, and you have the KL version of Hokkien mee. Sinful but delicious.
The next morning, we got up early to go to Genting Highlands. It's a mountain resort with Malaysia's only legal land-based casino, so not surprisingly it attracts many gamblers, social or otherwise. I decided to try my luck at the jackpot machines, but after a while, when I realised I wasn't going to get lucky, I decided to up and go.
In the few years that I haven't been here, Genting has changed quite a bit. For instance, there's now a huge indoor theme park, and there's even a shopping mall. But I think it's such a shame that there isn't much stuff you could do outdoors. It's such a pity when you have that cool mountain air, and you can't even go for a simple hike because there is nowhere to walk. But anyway, I think the air isn't so cool these days. It's probably due to global warming but that's another story.
After lunch, we headed back to KL to look for my mum's brother, and the rest of the day was spent with them. The next morning, we got up early to board a flight to Siem Reap, and the story continues...
