We started the morning as usual: exploring whatever town we are in by foot. Today we strolled through the narrow winding streets of old Penang, Malaysia. We visited Fort Cornwallis and tried to go to the Penang Museum, but it is closed on Fridays (?!).
We also stopped by a few Chinese clan houses. The clan houses are part temple, part community center for an extended Chinese family. The bigger and richer the family, the bigger and more extravagant the clan house. One in particular, from the Koo clan, was expecially impressive.
Eventually we hit the road and headed south to Malaysia's capital of Kuala Lumpur. The highway into the city was very good, albeit hilly. Finally, we drove over one hill and the two towers of the Petronas Center suddenly appeared. It was a breathtaking view.
We were armed with a few different maps of the city, but we got lost almost immediately. We pulled into the nearest light-rail station and figured out where we were and where we were going at the information counter there. We also called Rastam, a friend of mine from my NC days who is from and now lives in KL.
We eventually made it to our hotel and met up with Rastam. The rest of the evening was spent with him, as he drove us around to see some of the KL sites at night. We visted the Petronas towers, where we had dinner, and then drove out to the administrative capital of Putrajaya.
Putrajaya is located about 30 KM outside of KL. It is a planned city that was just started a few years ago. It now houses many government offices, such as the Prime Ministers offices and the Ministry of Finance, with more buildings on the way. There is also a Shangrila Hotel and a huge mosque.
That, at least, is the boring description of what is there. Once we actually saw the new city, we were amazed. The buildings are absolutely huge and are built with a very interesting traditional yet modern architecture. We drove around for quite a while, marvelling at the new capital with our only regret being that we hadn't brought our cameras.