Putrajaya

Putrajaya, the new administration center for Malaysian government that was built about 20 years ago. It is a totally redesigned city that meant to operate as the capital of the country. From KL to Putrajaya, it is approx. 25km away. The infrastructure upgrade has been going on from time to time since 1990s. Quite a number of highways, railways, facilities projects, etc have been completed and there are more new one on the way. Even though today the capital city of Malaysia remains Kuala Lumpur City, but the development is slowly expanding to the southern part of KL and connecting to Putrajaya. Since the infrastructure is more advance here, cause head office of government ministries mostly built into a single place, that is within the small little island at the middle of Putrajaya, and the Prime Minister's Office is located at the Northern part.

There are a few bridges connecting to the small little island, this is the bridge at the southern part of the island. The design is unique. Most of the materials are sourced locally, very little construction materials were imported. The idea is to make the new city a real locally made. 

Convention centers seems to be a must have ppoint-of-interest for a world class city. This is the grand Putrajaya Convention Center, which is located at the southern part of Putrajaya, it is located after the bridge if you come from the island. On the left, there is a rest and relax area. In the evening, you can leave your car by the road side, and a jog in the park. There is a small hawker center in the park in which you may also then enjoy your dinner.  

This is the view of the city from the park, during the raining season, it is cold and windy in the evening. even though this looked like a lake that is surrround the island, but it is actually part of a river (if not wrong, it is part of Langat river) and the water is flowing from the left to the right side.

There are many high rise bulidings built into the small little island and most of them are government departments. 

The water in the lake will flow into a few large holes under the bridge. The design is quite unique, and I guess it will finally flows into Langat river.

Raining Morning

Raining morning. Cold and chill. It is an off day, not going to work. 

Christmas

Celebrating Christmas, not in the typical way, but with a cup of Chinese tea. 

Avani Resort (Palm Tree), Sepang

Avani Resort, a.k.a. the Palm Tree Hotel in Sepang. From Kuala Lumpur, it is about 1 hour and 15 min drive. It is one of the nice hotels in Sepang, I was told this is a five stars hotel, with beach and swimming pool. The environment is very good, but the location is a bit far from other tourist spots. But it is quite near KLIA (KL International Airport), which only about 20 min drive to the airport. This is the check-in lobby of the resort. But the strange thing is the hotel car park is about 1km away from the lobby, if you wish to park at the areas near the lobby, you will have to pay RM20 per day (hand over the key to vallet). But it will be alright to park in the car park, because the hotel will arrange shuttle to pick you up from the car park (upon request) at no additional charge. 

The hotel rooms are all built on top of the sea. Most of the rooms are about 1km away from the beach, except those on the main trunk. Including the main trunk, there are nine rows of rooms. The round circle at the middle is the club house. But the mobile phone signal is very weak, so the Internet access connection is very limited. Even though the resort provides free wifi access, but due to too many users, the speed is crawling as well. 

This is the studio type resort, it has three rooms, that is the living room, primary bedroom and secondary bedroom. Each room has a small balcony in which you can enjoy the sea view. These rooms are about half a kilometre away from the beach (where resort lobby located), but you don't need to worry about access to these rooms as the resort provides buggy service between the hotel lobby and the club house. In the event of check-in and check-out, where you may have large piece of luggage, you can request the buggy service to pick up the luggage at your room. 

It is quite relax to rest at the balcony area and enjoy the strong wind blow from the sea. This photo was taken from the first unit of the trunk, where you can view almost every unit of the trunk (one trunk is one row of units). 

This is the primary room and living room, with one king size twin-bed. The table is actually placed at the balcony, but because short of one dining table in the living room, I decided to move it together with the four chairs into the living room. The design is nice but not sound proof. As such, if someone watching TV in the living room, it may disturb the person who is sleeping in the room. 

This is the second room, also attached to the living room, comes with two single-bed. This room is smaller, the bath-room also smaller which does not have a bath tub, but it has a more spacious balcony.  

From the balcony, you can enjoy the nice sunset view. To have a cup of coffee and some biscuits/cakes at this time will be indulging. 

The roof top of the unit is made of "atap", make this look and feel more like a "kampong" house. There is a float in the balcony of the primary room, it can be used to save life in the event of emergency. 

This is taken at the main lobby of the resort, Those case parked along this road will have to pay RM20 per day. If you don't want to pay this "vallet parking fee", then you will have to park your car at the open air car park which is about 1 km away from the main lobby. 

At the right hand side of the lobby, there are two  restaurants, one selling Chinese food and the other selling Malay food. One of the hotel guess told me that the food here are quite OK, and the price also alright. I dropped by to have a glance at the menu, average is about RM20 per plate. 

This is the free buggy that is providing FOC ride to shuttle hotel guess between the check-in lobby and the club-house. But as usual, many locals don't like to jump queue, so while waiting for the buggy, you will have to be very alert. Or sometime, you may have to "remind" those waiting, but not in the queue to follow and respect those in the queue.

The is the swiming pool at the club-house. Other than this pool, there is a gym attached to the club-house, and two restaurants inside the club-house. One providing Chinese cousine and the other one provide Western food with buffet option. 

There are free riding bicycles provided by the resort which you can use to tour around the resort, but simply because it is free, the condition is not that good. But you can spend RM10 per day to book a "good condition" one, and a lock will be provided for you to lock it as-and-when needed to ensure it is exclusively for your own use only. 

Seriusly, if you plan to stay here for more than 3 days, you could get bore from 3rd days onwards. There is a beach here but it is not that a great one as compared to most of the beautiful beach in the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia. Not too far from this place (about 25 min drive) is a small new village, called Tanjung Sepat. The seafood here is good and the price is reasonable. The famous one is the "Pau" (bun), fishball and local made coffee. There are more than 10 temples in this place, and if you have time, maybe can spend a day in Tajung Sepat. 

Tzu Chi, Kepong

This place is grand, one of the famous global charity organization, Tzu Chi. This is the main center in KL, located in Kepong. Not too far from AEON-Jusco in Kepong. The design of the building is special and does not look like a typical temple even though this is a Buddhist Charitable organisation. 

This is the main entrance, photo was taken from the main hall. The doors are huge and heavy, made of wood and with craft, make it looks grand. Arrive at the entrance, you should take off your show, and a show bag is provided for you to keep your shoe with you. That's why even with many hundreds of people inside the building, you can't see shoes at the front door. Because those shoes were carried by the owners with the shoe-bag provided. But before you leave the building, please return the shoe-bag. 

There is a book cafe in the bulding, and you can buy book from here. You can also consume tea or coffee, but no beverages. It may be a good place for your past time, and to have different feel of cafe other than Starbucks, Cofee Bean ect.