Friday February 20th, 2026 Queen Anne, Port Klang, Malaysia
- Neil Wylie
- Dec 28, 2025
- 6 min read
When I was growing up in England there used to be kids TV show, it was a series of stop-action animated shorts featuring these pink knitted mouse-like creatures living on a moon near to earth and it was a big hit. Today is our second visit to Port Klang and each time we come I hark back to my childhood, sat in front of our black and white telly, trying to understand this weird new show called “The Clangers”.
There is not much to do in the vicinity of the port, it’s surrounded by mangrove swamps, but the main attraction is the capitol city of Malaysia, Kuala Lumur, which is about one hour away. However, today we have opted for a ships’ tour to a city called Putrajaya – also about an hour from the port and 30km south of the capitol. The seat of the federal government of Malaysia was moved in 1999 from Kuala Lumpur to Putrajaya because of overcrowding and congestion, whilst the seat of the judiciary of Malaysia was later moved to Putrajaya in 2003. Kuala Lumpur remains as Malaysia's national capital city per the constitution and is still the seat of the head of state and the national legislature (Parliament of Malaysia), as well as being the country's commercial and financial center. Putrajaya was built from the ground up to accommodate the government and was envisioned to adopt the latest in IT technology whilst at the same time being a garden like environment with nearby housing for the government workers.
Leaving the ship we crossed the long walkway from the dock to the cruise terminal; I was immediately reminded of the somewhat oppressive and energy sapping climate that pervades Malaysia – hot and humid. Over the years my job brought me to Malaysia, specifically Penang Island, quite often and I never got used to the climate. So it was with some relief that we boarded the air conditioned coach, met our guide, and set off on our adventure. As we crossed the bridge from Putah Indah, the island where the cruise terminal is located, we noticed acres of palm trees set out in a regular pattern – these were the palm oil plantations. Palm oil is a major export from Malaysia, especially to India and China where it is used for cooking even though Palm oil is primarily considered harmful to the environment because its massive, rapid expansion drives significant tropical deforestation, destroying critical habitats and driving species toward extinction. Our guide was quick to defend the palm oil industry in Malaysia, pointed out that palm oil is in most of our favorite snack foods.
By the time we reached Putrajaya we’d received the full download from our guide; he described the carefully planned and constructed city as a paradise with flowered gardens and parks, unique architecture, a beautiful manmade lake and accommodation within walking distance of the offices – all for a mere $8B USD (in 1995 $). I’m sure the government employees couldn’t wait to pack up their home in Kuala Lumpur and flock to the new oasis. As we drove into the city the reality appeared to be very much the way the guide described it however, I had some reservations. There were very few people around and lots of empty parking lots; maybe all the workers were eagerly beavering away in the massive government buildings having hiked the several miles from the housing developments. I was left with the impression that while the city may have met its brief as a functional administrative hub, it really appeared to lack a soul. At night I bet this place is a ghost town. I’ve observed the same thing with “planned” cities in the US and the UK, all very pleasant and regimented.
Our initial destination was the Palace of Justice, which, despite its name, is not a palace but rather serves as the equivalent of the United States Supreme Court. It was here, just a few ago, that the former prime minister Najib Razak was sentenced to 21 years in prison for embezzling from the Malaysian national investment fund. The building has a very impressive façade with Arabian style arched windows and domes over the entrance. A huge granite square, polished to a water-like finish, led up to front of the palace with 16 tall flag poles. We were there for about 15 minutes and didn’t see a single employee.
The lake dominates Putrajaya with most of the large government buildings situated close to the water and several prominent bridges enabling access to the various zones of the city. Interestingly, the bridges were constructed before the area was flooded to create the lake enabling easier construction. I raised a simple logical question in my mind… if they had not flooded the area, they would not have needed the bridges.
The Millenium Monument sits in 37 beautifully landscaped acres right on the shore of the lake. At first, I thought they had recycled a cold war era ballistic missile to create the 68M tall obelisk, but the guide assured me this was not the case and since Malaysia never had ballistic missiles, I was inclined to believe him. The central “missile” was surrounded by a wide spiral staircase and on the outside of the staircase there were a large number of etched glass panels depicting the history of the country up until the year 2000. It is really quite impressive. The staircase also afforded some excellent views of the “Iron Mosque” which can entertain 25,000 worshippers, the Pink Mosque” and also views of some of the unique bridges.
Finally we stopped in the main “square”, which is actually a gigantic roundabout, in front of the presidential palace. From the square we descended to a dock complex and, after a short wait, boarded a large boat for a tour around the lake. The boat accommodated about 120 passengers seated in the air conditioned interior with tinted glass windows allowing nice views; it reminded me a bit of the tour boats that cruise up and down the Seine in Paris. Our narrated 45 minute cruise passed under a couple of the bridges and enabled us to get some great views of the interesting architecture.
Back up in the square the sun was reaching its zenith, to say it was blisteringly hot would be a monumental understatement. There were a few kiosks and, while Sandra sat in the shade, I bought some cold water and a popsicle – I had to dig around in the ice chest to find a non-durian flavored popsicle. I’d sampled the fruit of the durian tree on a previous visit to Malaysia and to this day cannot understand how they treat it as a national delicacy, it’s one of the few things in the world that I have not been able to swallow once I’d committed to try it. In the UK we often say something tastes like “shite” to indicate it’s not very good, in the case of durian, that epithet applies quite literally. I took 10 minutes to walk into the square and capture some pictures, including the spectacular Pink Mosque, but at that point I was afraid I would literally melt so I headed for the air conditioned bus.
Putrajaya certainly lives up to its reputation; it does what it says on the tin. The architecture is beautiful, the city is well planned, the gardens and parks are well tended and given the climate, amazingly colorful, and the lake is magnificent. But I still felt it was all a bit sterile and soulless. I’ve met many worked and with Malaysians over the years and they are almost all tremendously patriotic and proud of their country, our guide today was no exception and from the moment we got on the bus he had described a country where everything just worked splendidly, with happy citizens all aligned with the governments policies. He even described to us how the “sermon” we had heard back in the main square, being broadcast from the Pink Mosque during the pray service, was written by the government and would be the same in all mosques across the country for that day. Sandra wondered if his pitch to us today had been similarly delivered! As we left Putrajaya the guide happily pointed out the gigantic complex of forbidding looking buildings that he explained was the Anti-Corruption Department.
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