Two weekends ago I found myself on the receiving end of a phone call invitation to watch the Super GT race in Sepang. For those that don’t follow the F1 races, Sepang is the home of Malaysia’s F1 circuit. As such, I’ve always wanted to visit, but the price of the races were unsurprisingly astonomical, and therefore I’ve given it a miss the last two years. You can imagine my surprise then, when my friend said he had a spare ticket for free to watch the qualifiers. I instantly jumped at the chance and we set off for the race which was due to start at 4pm.
Now, before I continue, there is a tendency here to mostly relax and not rush for anything – which is usually a noble trait to have in a person. However, when that same tendency makes you casually drive to Sepang, stopping off at several points to “get a drink”, it becomes worrying. It is therefore no surprise that after picking up another member, we found ourselves finally reach Sepang for 6pm, with the race officially ending at 5:50pm. I technically had no cause to be angry, after all, I didn’t loose any money just my Saturday afternoon, so I tried to see the upside of it. We did in the end manage to see some further drag races occurring on the side roads which were immensely fun however short-lived.
On our way back still feeling the sting of missing to see any proper Super GT cars, we decided to stop off at Putrajaya, the administrative capital of Malaysia. I say “administrative capital” because, while it is home to all the Government agencies and even the Prime Ministers office, the Capital still remains at Kuala Lumpur. Basically all the MP’s work in Putrajaya, but live in KL, where the Parliament is. In the end, I just had to go along with it.
By the time we reached there, it was already sunset and so we managed to find another place to sit and have some satay. The place we chose was directly next to the Prime Ministers Office, which my friend Dubbed “the Malaysian Brown House”. In truth, if my friend had not mentioned it was the PM’s office, I would have assumed it was a Palace for the local Sultan. It did not feel like a Government building at all. After months of witnessing the election debates I finally understood what the main opposition was referring to when they said that the Government was not in touch with the People. How could they be, when their offices are placed on a pedestal, high above the common ground, very reminiscent of the ancient Palaces.
From what I saw of Putrajaya, I could see that it was a young City, barely older than 10 years. It had the feel of a masterplanned utopia, with all the amenities except the one thing that makes a city feel alive – people. The roads were deserted by sunset, because many were already inside their homes or gone back to KL. For all intents and purposes Putrajaya was still playing second fiddle to KL in terms of a social life. After our dinner, there was nothing left but to drive back to KL, having seen two cities albeit briefly. I would not mind seeing either one again and spending a while longer to actually experience it more. That said, it was an interesting bite-size chunk of two cities that served as a great taster for further adventures.
