Putrajaya

SSU travellers with the  Putra Mosque in the background

On Tuesday we visited Putrajaya.  This is a city built from scratch starting in 1993 to be the federal administrative center. It covers 49 square km and has many very impressive buildings and bridges; it even includes an artificial lake big enough for cruise boats.  Interestingly, the parliament still meets in KL, so KL is the capital, but all the civil service lives in Putrajaya.  Some say this is so that the civil servants can ignore parliament more readily.

Kathleen in her Mosque suit

And they do live there- all 67,000 of them.  There are rows upon rows of houses and apartments.  Civil servants get housing provided free of charge.  Quite a perk!  But the civil service is restricted to Malays only - no Chinese or Indians are allowed even though they comprise more than 35% of the population.
  After a fun excursion to a botanical garden where we saw how they tap and process rubber from rubber trees, we visited the Putra Mosque.  The girls had to wear pink robes and were restricted as to where they could walk.  A challenge for the ardent feminists in our group.

Putrajaya made me think of Disneyworld  and the Epcot center.  Very beautiful but a bit sterile and aimed primarily at making an impression.  Putting on a show.

Murugan - Batu Caves

After lunch we traveled to the Batu Caves, a Hindu shrine just north of KL.  Straight out of A Passage to India.  There was nothing sterile about this place.  There were monkeys everywhere - we were warned to hang onto our glasses as the monkeys might grab them. I hesitated to hold the handrail for fear of what I might contract as we climbed the 276 steps to the cave.  It was hot and sunny: 35 C and 90% humidity.  It felt like 43 C.  But we made it to the top.  The cave was spectacular and the 42 meter gold statue of Murugan  at the base of the cliff was a clear reminder that we were not in North America.