My Escapes Malaysia My First Malaysian Escape Putrajaya Short Visit to Putrajaya, the Planned Capital

Short Visit to Putrajaya, the Planned Capital

Putrajaya is Malaysia's new planned capital. A new city built "from zero", planned according to strict requirements.
It is supposed to replace Kuala Lumpur as a capital...
Located in the proximity of the latter, it wasn't a tremendous effort for me to go out and visit it on a day trip.
So, here's my trip to Putrajaya...

This city is being built from scratch, according to plans - pretty much similarly to the way Canberra was built in Australia and Brasília in Brazil - both being planned capitals of the respective countries.

With almost 69,000 inhabitants in 2010, Putrajaya is a tiny city. Still, they want it to overtake KL's functions as a capital, totally...

Obviously, this won't happen overnight... As of early 2014, government is already functioning in Putrajaya.

I have some thoughts about these planned cities - that aren't developing organically...Not for, or against, just some observations.

Another planned city called Cyberjaya was visible in the distance, but I didn't have the time and energy to check it out (next time!).

Getting Around in Putrajaya Was a Headache

Getting around in the almost empty city with poor transportation was quite hard, tiring.
It took about an hour to find and wait for the bus that took me from the Putrajaya train station to the city center. From the bus I was able to see - there were lots of living quarters at several kilometers away from each other.

Transportation in Putrajaya is poor, of course – the population is still very small.

The infrastracture is more than just developed. Just that due to the small population, buses circulate rarely and there are very few people waiting at the stations.

I loved the fact that there are vast green areas in Putrajaya. It would be the least to say they're "parks".

I had to walk about 45 minutes to get to the Putra Mosque. Which, at first seemed quite close...

Getting directions was hard, as almost no-one knew what was where and how to get there. There were very few bus stations and almost no buses!

I passed through beautiful green areas like the one above - as I was making my way to the Putra Mosque.

The variety of plants is so vast that this might as well be an extended botanical garden!

Towards the end of my journey, I did find a taxi station, so I was able to get back to the train station. The heat and strong sunlight was unbearable, it felt like my brains were boiling...

But let's not rush to the end now and let's take a look at Putrajaya's attractions!

The Attractions of Putrajaya...

Basically there were 3 main attractions at that time, which I all visited: the Perdana Putra (which is the Prime Minister's Palace), the Masjid Putra (Putra Mosque), the massive Putra Bridge and the beautiful Seri Wawasan Bridge.

I checked them out one-by-one...

First came the Prime Minister's Palace or Perdana Putra, as they call it in Malaysia. See the photo below...

Inaugurated in 1999, the 5-floor palace bears strong marks of Islamic, Malay and European architecture.

The Prime Minister Department had already moved into the building in 1999.

I examined it for several minutes, then I moved on to check the Putra Mosque, which was probably at about 5 minutes walking distance only!

The Putra Mosque is a massive building with a capacity of 15,000 and with a 50 m high cupola. The minaret near it reaches 116 m. This building too, stands finished since 1999.

I loved the colour of the cupola, but unfortunately taking photos of it was dreadfully hard, as the sunlight was very strong...

The mosque stands near a large lake. But I couldn't feel the effect of the water body. The Sun had prevailed.

Another attraction - as said was the lake. It's the Putrajaya Lake. Artificial, but beautiful. It was created according to a preconceived idea and they've done a wonderful job.

There was an "eating complex" near it, where I sat down to cool down in the shade.
Disappointment: it was just as warm in the shade as it was outside! But at least the Sun wasn't boiling my brain anymore.

The dreadful heat consumed much of my energy and almost 3 weeks had passed since I was away on this Asian trip, so I simply could barely stand on my feet...

I walked and walked every day and to be honest, I did neglect resting and eating properly. One mistake I promised myself I will never commit again!
From the shade I could admire the lake and the Seri Wawasan Bridge...

The Seri Wawasan Bridge is one of the main bridges of the city, but it's the most prominent one.
I got the chance to ride across it in the taxi...

Although it's a hypermodern cable-stayed bridge, it has that beautiful Asian shape...

The Seri Wawasan Bridge runs across the Putrajaya Lake and was strategically placed there to offer beautiful views of nearby living quarters. They say that towards the end of the day, the sunset is especially beautiful in this area.

Monorails can also pass across the bridge... Haven't seen any at the time of my visit. But I'm sure Putrajaya will look great with them.

The bridge has a special walking area for pedestrians, where it's possible to jog or take walks. But at the time of my visit there were barely a handful of people walking in the entire neighbourhood...

Another bridge was the more massive Putra Bridge...

The Putra Bridge is more massive, but feels like a road when you're on it.

It has 435 m (that's long!) and from the sides it looks more like a dam than a bridge...

And this is where my story slowly ends...

I grabbed a taxi from the Putra Bridge and rode across it. Had a nice chit-chat with the cabber (funny guy) and didn't take me on a taxi coaster, but thankfully drove me across the most beautiful (unseen) parts of the city.

That's was when I grabbed a weird house block with my compact camera - while in the car (sorry for the poor photo quality: shot on the move through the taxi's windshield)...

My escape to Putrajaya was just one of three localities that I visited within Malaysia.
See the main section of my first Malaysian escape to access the other pages, discover more destinations, more attractions and dig deep with me!

Who knows... your next trip might actually take you exactly where I've been!

And here are 4 more remaining photos below.

And feel free to comment down below on this page!

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