Today we are going to reach KL (Kuala Lumpur) on a wet ride. In fact, the rain started this morning during breakfast with Sabariah and Amir’s family. We waited a bit for the heavy rain and finally got on the road again. Amir offered us to contact him once in KL as he will be at work. Let’s do that :-) He also told us that we could visit Putrajaya on the way. That’s a detour for us but not that bad. Putrajaya is the administrative center, a kind of town designed from scratch. Actually it’s like Canberra in Australia. There is big modern buildings, fancy bridges, clean roads and not much people around. We like it or not, this is Putrajaya.
Map.
As organised, we packed our campsite this morning and came back to Amir and Sabariah’s house to have breakfast with them.
The rain started when we were eating and did not really stop afterwards. Once the heavy shower moved away we got ready.
Bye guys! Thanks very much for your warmwelcome. See you this afternoon in KL :-)
Bah! rain, rain and rain!
Sometimes, the rain becomes heavier so we copy the locals and find a bridge :-)
After 30 minutes on the road, we are getting very close to Putrajaya!
It would be much better if the weather was on our side.
Putrajaya is a very modern city. It’s surrounded by water and 8 designed bridges that make the connections with the manmade island.
This morning, Amir and his wife offered us a gift before we left. I thought it was a box of chocolate at first haha but it’s not, it’s a sarong.
We will try this later because I’m not sure this is the best thing to cycle with haha :-)
As the rain became heavy again, we stopped at a park where there is a big roof. The sun seems to be around, slightly. Maybe that’s time to go again!
Let’s cross the lake and get through the city centre.
Everything is super clean here.
Stephane in action.
Some building with totally different design cohabit with each other.
That city was planned from scratch but obviously they did not planned everything… All this area has been submerged by rainwater. This is a swimming pool, not a footpath anymore.
A big mosque surrounded by “melted floor lamp” :-)
Another “design” architecture.
The mosque again.
Top part only.
This building is gonna be cut in half soon by a giant saw!
Ouh, there is something serious happening over there.
It’s an islamic UFO ;-)
Design! :-)
This one is the ministry of finance.
That’s a fancy bridge over there.
The same one from a closer look. The picture is blurry because it’s raining. The objective of my camera doesn’t like it much.
That’s the Masjid Putra (Putra Mosque), a large pink mosque.
Closer look.
The avenue that leads to the mosque.
Nice pastel colors and patterns.
We finally left Putrajaya and continue cycling towards the city centre of KL. The traffic is becoming more and more heavy but fortunately the GPS helps a lot to find the smallest roads as possible.
Let’s have an ice cream break :-)
I don’t know if this neighbourhood is safe or not but those apartments are very well secured.
Let’s continue! This is where it becomes fun. Most of the roads that entered in the city are highways and that’s the same one that we try to avoid absolutely. The Thai cyclists I’ve been travelling with told me that they always get on the highway once in KL. They don’t use any GPS so this is for them the easiest way to get in but definitely not the safest one. That’s not for me.
At some point, we cannot avoid them unfortunately but it’s not too bad.
KL is overwhelmed by construction sites! It’s dusty, noisy, grey (and yellow :-)… well no the kind of place I dream off. I’m so kind, here the sound atmosphere of this place :-)
The first step for us is to find a bicycle shop called “the Basikal” that is apparently specialized in touring. Shen, the developer I met in Melaka is actually working their, building their website. The owner has also a guesthouse and propose to travellers to help them building, their website, a garden on the rooftop, managing the hostel or fix bicycles.
After turning around the place, we finally found the exact address at the back and… this is not really what we expected… I knew the shop was upstairs but I did not imagine that place like this. It’s actually a very tiny workshop of about 4m2 where 3 people fix bicycles. Shen told me that they just started but it’s not the dreamed place at all. The neighbourhood is noisy, dirty… I did not dare to get on the rooftop to see the garden they planned the realize. I might be picky on this one but it’s not really the place where I would stay for a month. Melaka is much MUCH better!
The positive thing for me is “The Basikal” is certified by Rohloff so I could buy another oil kit. But Everything else about touring gears they don’t have. They don’t have any stock. The owner redirect us to Ipoh, a town roughly 200km north of KL where there is a shop that has stock and touring products. The owner of that place imports stuff from Germany.
Ok, we are done here, let’s meet Amir again at his workplace.
Contrary of what I’ve heard from others, the city centre is quite tough to travel through by bicycle. The traffic is dense, quick and we need to do lots of detour only to cross one road. To top up the story, the rains came back… We finally got to the building where Amir and his wife are working. They share an office that is mostly the clinic where Sabariah is working. Without any surprise, everything is super clean, unlike us… haha. Anyway, we sat down in their meeting room for a little while and described our journey. They told us that for the next two weeks, they are going to stay at their secondary house and offered us to stay at their primary one in Ampang, which is situated on the eastern side of KL. Wow! Really! Amir gave us the address and repeated again: “enjoy Malaysia, enjoy your stay :-)”. Sure we will! How can people trust us like this straight away? It reminds me when I was in NZ, Maila said to a friend of her that was a bit concern of inviting a stranger in her house: “I know, he is not going to steal my TV haha”. That’s true Maila ;-) I’ve got enough to carry!
Once ready, we left Amir and Sabariah’s workplace and started cycling again for another hour through the city towards Ampang.
Lots of traffic, concrete, towers, shops and cranes. This is KL.
I thought I would have seen the Petronas towers from far away but they were kind of hidden by the city. The eiffel tower is actually reaching only the second “ring” of those towers but they look surprisingly not that tall. Their name comes from the company who built them: “Petronas” which is an oil company…
This point of view is much better. We will come back tomorrow or later to get some better pictures. For now, we still have a long way to go.
At this time of the day, the traffic is heavy. Even by bicycle we cannot ride very fast.
Finally, after largely more than an hour later we arrived at Ampang where Sabariah and Amir were waiting for us. They showed us how things work like the lights, the fans, the air cond, the washing machine, the internet, roughly where to buy some food, where is the train station, everything! They gave us the double of the keys, told us to enjoy our rest again and drove back to their secondary house. Ok… Thanks for trusting us :-) See you later!
Wow! They are very nice people, making very good impression about Malaysian.
C’est décidé, je préfère Putrajaya à Kuala Lumpur !! La mosquée rose est vraiment superbe ! Merci de ma part à Amir et Sabariah de vous avoir si bien reçus !