A car parked at the gate, a bicycle in the shed, flip-flops on a mat, normal items you would see outside a house, except that all were defying gravity and hanging upside down. Inside the house, the cabinets in the kitchen hung from the ceiling while the flowers on the windowsill remained inside an upturned pot. We were at the upside down house, inside the Kuala Lumpur Tower complex. A cheerful yellow and white building resting on the spine of its sloping roof inside a garden filled with potted plants and palm trees. A fairy tale house begging for a story. And so different from the majestic towers all around Kuala Lumpur, especially the Petronas and KL Towers.
The buildings in Putrajaya on the other hand presented a different picture. The green domed Putra Perdana or the Prime Minister’s office complex, the Putra mosque and assorted buildings housing the offices of the government, dominated the landscape amidst clean and wide roads that were curiously not too crowded.
Putra Mosque, made out of rose coloured granite, sits on the banks of the Putra lake. The water body, a 600-hectare large artificial lake created to cool the city, also provides recreation opportunities. The courtyard surrounding the mosque offers an expansive view of the lake with the Putra Bridge on left and the asymmetrical Seri Wawasan Bridge on the right. As we stood and watched the lake take on the palette of colours painted by a waning sun, a ferry glided out from beneath the Putra bridge completing the picture. The splendour of the city was further enhanced when lights came up on the bridges and the surrounding buildings at dusk. The dome of the Perdana Putra glowed jade green while the chandeliers in the mosque glittered in the moist air, making us feel as if we were walking inside a giant jewel box.
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