AhPek Biker - Old Dog Rides Again: November 2016

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Putrajaya - Brompton Malaysia Picnic 2016

Group photo at Maritime Centre

Putrajaya & Cyberjaya Lakeside - 13th November 2016

Large Group Ride : Putrajaya Maritime Centre>China-Malaysia Friendship Garden>Seri Wawasan Bridge>Cyberjaya Lakeview>Putrajaya Maritime Centre.

Cycling Distance Covered : 19.23 km. : Level: Easy
Time : 7:45 am to 9:55 am
Time Taken : 2 hrs. 10 mins. (including stops to visit Friendship Garden, for photos & re-grouping).

Route Recommendations :
1. Ride Conditions
- Except for some sections at Cyberjaya, the route runs along cycling/pedestrian path most of the time. Most of the route is along the scenic Putrajaya Lakeside.
- The route is fairly flat.
- The paths along the lakeside is quite shady, however along the main roads certain sections do not have much shade, so do cover up or apply sun-block lotion.
2. Points of Interest:
The lake-side by itself is very scenic, but do look out for the following:
- The Seri Gemilang Bridge (GPS: 2.90011, 101.67902).
- The modern office towers at Dataran Gemilang (GPS: 2.90374, 101.68039).
- The China-Malaysia Friendship Garden (GPS: 2.91262, 101.67748).
- The Putrajaya Millenium Monument (GPS: 2.92348, 101.6826).
- The Seri Wawasan Bridge (GPS: 2.92802, 101.68417).
- The Perdana Leadership Foundation (GPS: 2.91333, 101.67404).

PRELUDE

Happy jump at Guar Petai, Penang.

With its members growing to more than 600 cyclists, the MY Brompton Malaysia group is getting more active in creating awareness of the Brompton Bicycle in Malaysia. This year alone it had organised several rides for members to cycle together and get to know each other better. And it's not just the usual ride around Kuala Lumpur. We have taken the train up to Ipoh (... see blog), a boat ride to Pulau Ketam (... see blog) and even a Penang ferry ride to Guar Petai in Penang (... see blog).
This time round we are not just going cycling, we were going to have a picnic!
And it's at a lovely place - the Putrajaya Lakeside.

THE RIDE

Cycling Route: Putrajaya Maritime Centre>China-Malaysia Friendship Garden>Seri Wawasan Bridge>Cyberjaya Lakeview>Putrajaya Maritime Centre.

The route kicks off from the Putrajaya Maritime Centre crosses two beautiful bridges with a stop to visit the China-Malaysia Friendship Garden. It then cuts through the Ayer 8 shopping area to go into Cyberjaya before looping along a highway back to Putrajaya.

7:00am - Many of us had arrived early at the Putrajaya Maritime Centre to take the chance to meet up and chat with our friends. Some had not met each other for a while and this was a good opportunity to catch up.
"Hey! Your bike has changed colours 😍!"
"Hi! I am a newbie. It's great to meet you all seasoned cyclists 😎."
"Hello, you are looking younger..... Er... yes... it must be the cycling 😆!
"Where's the food? I am hungry 😏!

After that bit of catching up, we rolled off a bit later; not that much just about 15 minutes and we were riding along the lakeside, the morning sun casting our long shadows onto the walking/cycling paths.

At this time of the morning, photography was not the easiest but still we stopped often to snap away; the place is just so beautiful - tall modern building next to nice bridges with their reflections onto the lake, wide pathways running in between the lake and green gardens.

Riding under the Seri Gemilang Bridge. Putrajaya has several nice bridges; some are of modern design and a few, like this one, followed some traditional accent. The Seri Gemilang Bridge looks very royal with "gold" buntings and prominent corner towers that follows a Perak royal building.

Slightly ahead, we stopped to take photos - selfies, group photos, etc. with the traditional looking bridge next to contrasting super-modern looking office towers.
Here, we were at the Seri Empangan Park, situtated next to the "Empangan", i.e. weirs that hold back the waters that form the Putrajaya Lake. Pak Adib, an engineer and Putrajaya resident, took the opportunity to give some background of the weir and the odd looking butterfly bridge next to it (... click here for photos of the butterfly bridge). The bridge, which is not opened to the public, actually leads to some maintenance valves of the weir.

From below the bridge we make a quick loop round the park and was soon cycling over its span. It is really a beautiful bridge, too bad that poor maintenance has marred its beauty, and vandalism/theft had deprived it's beautiful balusters of all their intricately engraved brass caps. Ahead was Dataran Gemilang, with super-cool looking modern office towers.

Across the bridge, we ramped down back to the lake-side. This is really a nice place to cycle, there are so many pocket parks here, making the lakeside landscapely green!

Down here, there is a great view of the Putrajaya Marina and the Pullman Hotel, with their reflections shimmering on the calm lake.

Next... the China-Malaysia Friendship Garden. We stopped here for quite a while as many had not visited this garden before. Although not a very large garden, what intrigued many was that almost all the building elements were brought in from China, and were put up by China-come Chinese craftsmen.
And it has that philosophical calmness of a Chinese garden.

The walls of the garden follows Beijing Hutong district's grey walls. This makes for good location to pose for photos.... "Helloo.... we are here in Beijing!"

Inside, Pak Adib was in a more firm pose, looking very disciplined. Put him into some traditional Malay costume and he could be an envoy visiting the Chinese royal court.

And Jui Li here could be MY Brompton poster girl.

8:35am - We leave the Chinese garden via the Anjung Floria, a royal garden, one more western looking one. Putrajaya is so full of surpises and contrasting beauty. On the right is Berenda, our buddy from Singapore.

Winnie & Larry, at a cascading fountain near the Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin Mosque. They together with some friends had come down from Penang to surprise us with their presence!

This golden needle is the Putrajaya Millenium Monument. Buried below it is a time capsule, come the year 2020 AD, it will be opened to reveal some of Malaysia's past history.

Riding across another bridge, the Seri Wawasan Bridge, a cable-stay bridge; with it's cables radiating like a spider's web emanating from a tall mast that looked like a Malay keris pointing skywards.

It's such an impressive bridge - "We must take a group photo here" all echoed.

Some old Volkwagen car fun at Ayer 8, a new commercial area.

From the Ayers 8, we loop southwards passing a small peninsular (located here is the often missed Perdana Leadership Foundation, a museum of sorts, dedicated to the prime ministers of Malaysia. Slightly ahead, we would be leaving Putrajaya and enter Cyberjaya which share some common shores of this lake.

The lake itself were full of activities, here some were practising rowing their dragon boats. There is an annual Putrajaya Dragon Boat Festival.

This side of the lake is more of a residential area, a few of us were lagging behind a bit; which gave us this chance to snap a photo of our buddies cycling with their reflections on the lake.

Further on we exited to the Route 29 Highway. There's a motorcycle lane here suitable for cycling, and the best thing is ...... hardly any motorcycle uses this lane.... Yeah, for cyclists!

9:45am - Approaching the Hotel Pullman Hotel; after close to two hours and almost 20 km. of cycling fun we must be hungry.... no worries.... our picnic is awaiting us!

And here's our picnic food. To do justice, there was much food than this, somehow during the cycling, my camera lens got blotched and this was on of few photos that came out clear. There were jellies, cakes, lots of fruits, fish-balls, muffins,m cookies, etc.

And our buddies whole-heartedly brought good food that they made or bought to cordially share with their friends. This chicken pie was my favourite, I whacked several slices of it 😭😭😭.

This Tiger energy drink looked cool and fierce, but some of us did find it a tad sweet.

Amid our eating, some took part in fun competitions, like this slowest cyclist race. The person who cross the finishing line last without touching their feet on the ground would be the winner. Looks easy..... hmmmm..... not that easy actually.

While some were eager competing, others like these girls were bringing back their childhood days of pretend smoking with long cookies snaps.

And most intriguing was the one-armed maestro.... a competition to see who can fastest unfold the Brompton bike with one hand. Tip here: those with big bellies has an advantage - some used theirs as leverage to hold the bike in place 😭😭😭

Till we meet again:

RIDE WELL & RIDE SAFE!

(For more photos of the ride & picnic, click here)

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