On arriving in Putrajaya you see the vast expanse of green cover and a beautifully designed township where even the street lights have a fancy design. Putrajaya was made to house government offices and residences to ease off the congestion in Kuala Lumpur, is an architectural delight. My second visit to this city and I still spotted lot of new things. From a lake cruise to an agricultural heritage farm and learning the process of rubber making, it sure was a fun-filled journey. Read on...

Putrajaya Lake Cruise | Agricultural Heritage Park | The Making of Rubber | Wetlands Park |

Putrajaya Lake Cruise

Instead of going around the place in your bus or car, take a cruise on the man-made lake and see the various landmarks the city has to offer. We hopped into the passenger cruise boat, which is an air conditioned boat that takes you round Putrajaya Lake for 45 minutes. Come hop in!

There is a guide in the boat who points out the places of attraction on both sides, so I was running from one side of the boat to the other taking pictures. This is the Ministry of Finance, quite an impressive structure. Its an award-winning design. Located next to the lake, is the pink-coloured Putra mosque. It is the main mosque of Putrajaya and has a huge courtyard in front. If you have read my previous post on Putrajaya, then you will remember this palace. Its the weekend palace of Sultan of Selangor. Malaysia still has sultans. Nine states of Malaysia have hereditary rulers, titled 'Sultans.' Kings are elected for five year term from among the nine sultans. The king also is the leader of the Islamic faith in Malaysia. Standing tall at 68m is the Millennium Tower. When you look at it from top, its in shape of a hibiscus, Malaysia's national flower. As its rightly called, it was built to usher in the millennium, and contains historical milestones of country, embossed on it. A closer look at the image below and you can the cravings on the glass. Its a timeline talking about their freedom struggle, achievements and their local leaders. A good way to teach history to children, and from the tower you can also enjoy the view of the place. The bridge is appears like a sail boat, and the guide said that it symbolises Malaysia will become a developed nation by the year 2020. There are several bridges in Putrajaya each having a different design and structure. Another uniquely designed bridge called Seri Gemilang bridge. It has a very heritage look to it. Seri Saujana bridge is the main bridge in Putrajaya. Wonderful design. The kite-shaped Putrajaya Convention Centre. The roof of the convention centre is actually in shape of a belt buckle. The evening cruise gave the opportunity to see the setting sun. Its always beautiful. Streaks of orange spreading at the horizon as the fading sun light reflects on the placid water.On reaching back, adjacent to the lake are also couple of restaurants to take a quick bite. Lot of families come to sit by the lake, have a leisurely walk, shop and eat. Here's a beautiful lantern I saw outside one of the shops.
Agricultural Heritage Park

Nearly 40% of the place is lush green with well landscaped gardens and wetlands. One of the parks here is Agricultural Heritage park. Spread across 14-hectares, the agricultural park is like a live musuem of fruit trees, spices and herbs. We also saw a demonstration of rubber-tapping and how its manufactured. Lets have a look at some fruits, which you would have eaten and relished, but didn't know how the tree looks. Its an organic park meant for research and experimentation.

Chikoo tree or Sapodilla
I didn't know it was called Sapodilla until I started writing this post. Chikoo is a slow-growing, long-lived, evergreen tree and its leaves are quite ornamental.
Water Apples or Malay apples

I had eaten these until I tried them at the hotel in Kuala Lumpur, and just loved it. Water apples also called rose apples is presumably a native of Malaysia. It has nothing in common to an apple, except for the red texture. They are extremely juicy, with 80% water content, and sweet, the redder the apple the sweeter it is. Water apples tastes something like white Jambu, which is available in India. They are quite smaller in size as compared to water apples.

Fruits were covered in plastic bags to prevent it from being eaten by the birds.
Jackfruit

Its believed that jackfruit originated from the rainforests of the Western Ghats in India. It is the largest tree-borne fruit in the world, its fruit rarely less than 25cm in diameter and can reach 36 kg in weight and up to 90 cm long.

Here again the fruits were covered with plastic bags so that the birds don't spoil it.
Pineapple plant or Ananas comosus

First time I saw a pineapple plant. The fruit doesn't actually come from trees, they grow from herb plants that can go up to 5 feet.

Hairy lychee or Rambutan

A native of South-east Asia, Rambutan are similar to lychee. In the image below the fruit hasn't riped, and when it does they turn red.
Coffee plantations

Coffee, the source of the world's favorite drink, grows on small trees or shrubs. The plant starts flowering in three to four years. The white coffee flower has five to six petals and it has jasmine-like fragrance. The flowers are short-lived and wilt as soon as fertilisation takes place. After a few days, the flowers bring forth cherries, which change color from green to red as they ripen. One tree can produce over 30,000 flowers in a year. In the image below you can see a bunch of green and red coffee berries, which ripes in eight months. So a plant can simultaneously have flowers and berries in all stages of development. Once ripe, coffee berries are picked, processed, and dried. The seeds are then roasted at varying degrees, undergoing several physical and chemical changes. The guide opened one of the berries and showed the bean inside, hmmm...it smelled like coffee. (I was too excited to see this, so the picture hasn't come clear)
Pomegranate

That's the Pomegranate tree, it grows around 5m to 8m tall. The flower of the fruit is so pretty.


The Making of Rubber

Saving the best for the last. Towards the end of the park is the rubber conservation plot where around 1500 rubber trees are planted originating from 71 rubber clones. Now I will take you through the rubber-tapping process. It was a good learning experience for me. Rubber-tapping is basically a process to gather rubber. A tapper starts before dawn, as the coolness of the air at that time encourages the latex to flow, thus improving the yield. An incision is made in the bark of the tree, in a downward spiral motion, with a special tapping knife to shear off the thinnest layer of the bark. The cut cannot be too deep as it could reduce the life of the tree.

The latex begins to flow into a vessel or cup attached to the tree. By noon or early afternoon, latex stops flowing. Then the rubber tapper goes back and empties the latex into the tin. After which the latex is poured into moulds and formic acid is added to coagulate the liquid latex. This will transform latex into firm solid block of rubber. The solid block of rubber is initially rolled using a wooden roller so that it is thin enough for it to be rolled by the mangle machine. The machine will also squeeze out the water making it easier to dry. The drying takes place in a smoke house. Its just like a sauna, where the heat dries the sheets of rubber.The dried rubber sheets, which are golden brown in colour, are kept on a rack and that's about it, rubber is ready. What a wonderful experience it was, the guide explained the whole process to us. Sometimes they let visitors do it as well.

On our way back, we saw the Aloe Vera plants and some other herbs.

With wealth of information fed into my brain, I was quite happy, as the 45-minute trip to the Agro farm came to an end. They also have restaurants, cafe and souvenir shops, from where visitors can by any of the agro-products, fruits etc.

Wetlands Park

Following this we headed to the Wetlands Park, it is the largest constructed freshwater wetlands in the tropics. I had been last on my last visit, nothing extraordinary about the place. They have a flamingo pond, picnic areas and other public amenities.

That was the end of our visit to Putrajaya, overall pretty satisfying. We got back to Kuala Lumpur for some much-needed rest. There is lots more coming up, so stay tuned and continue reading on my journey to Malaysia.