PUTRAJAYA SHANGRI-LA -August 2003 BACK
First of all, I need to extend my gratitude to Uncle Andrew for bringing me to Putrajaya for a spin. I enjoyed my trip to KL. On the last day of my stay in KL, he took me to visit Putrajaya with his brother. We took alot of photos in Putrajaya but I will have a special page just for Putrajaya Shangri-La Hotel.
Putrajaya generally is divided into many parts of development, commercial, housing, government departments and so on. The township seems to be trying to sustain by itself as a high-tech new town. I don't know how good are the technology facilities in the area though. I doubt it will be very good since Malaysia is always famous with nice claims, lousy services and only physically aesthetics. I'm very sad to say that but that is how it is in my country, they spent so much on the physical beauty but the services and maintenance is terrible. Probably it is exceptionally different for Putrajaya because it serves as a platform to project Malaysia's image to the world. It is to show a good image to the foreigners who visit Malaysia that 'Oh! See? All our towns are so nicely maintained and providing great services'. I believe the expatriates and foreigners who stay down in a longer term will find out sooner or later how bad it is.
Enough said about that, Putrajaya Shangri-La Hotel is situated at one of the hill tops of the whole area. From the entrance, we can see the building top being filled with creepers, perhaps the design is to soften the solidness of it. According to Uncle Andrew, the theme of design is to merge technology with tropical setting. Thus, they interpret it literally with using a lot of timber + steel, not very sure whether it is accurate information though.
The parking area has a nice leave motive for grass to grow through in future. It is at this point where you can actually see most part of Putrajaya because of the height. The scariest thing is parking the car at the edge of the cliff, any braking failures will be costly!
The entrance is fronted by a roundabout with water fountain. I particularly love the facade with that steel motive resembling the batik. It is very beautiful. The motive helps make the steel feel light as well as the glass above it. Just beside the entrance, they grow very nice plants.
On closer examination, some of the plants are cross-breed. Very nice foliage colour, the green is not very tropical. I remember the hotel person telling us that 1 of the species is a cross-breed of Jasmine flower. It also gave a nice smell of the whole path.
The main reception is being carved into the atrium space, and it is at the almost top level. It seems like there is some space constraints up here for the hotel. The entrance opens up the view of Dr. Mahathir's Prime Minister's office. I took some time to take my own photo with the piano. Ah! Reminded me of the good old days when I have so much hatred of the piano for practicing those boring piano pieces for exam.
We went to the west wing and saw this glass + timber staircase. The wall finish makes it very nice and brings out the grandeur of the staircase timber floating in mid air. There is another big atrium space with an indoor garden right at the bottom. We decided that we shall visit it later as we want to explore the whole west wing first. All the surrounding spaces are hotel rooms.
The end of the wing is a swimming pool, spa and jacuzzi. Again, you have the view of the Prime Minister's office and part of Putrajaya. The wooden louvers that are very tall is an installation at the right side of the pool, facing the King's palace. Uncle Andrew joked that it is to block the view from the King so that he won't peep at the swimmers. Haha! Well, I guess it is because of security reasons that they don't want people to have direct view of the palace which is at the other hill top just next to the hotel.
We enter the toilet, spa and jacuzzi area and was impressed with the nice finishing and furniture. It does make it feel very classy.
I also particularly love the furniture design, with a combination of steel and timber. Thus, this made me to think that these are specially made for this hotel. I may be wrong though, but I don't mind having some around my house. :)
The swimming pool have a curved edge, and thus make it feel soft. It tries to imitate some of the Balinese design. It will be nice to sit on those chairs and relax.
After touring the swimming pool, we decided to go down and have a look at the indoor garden. It was evening time and the interior lights start to light on. We need to take the lift down, and we found out that there are many fern like foliage shrubs around.
The timber finishes that framed the whole garden at the side is very nice. I also particularly love the vertical timber pattern with some steel strips tying them together horizontally that spreads over the transitional space between the entrance lobby and the west wing.
The ceiling of the lobby is angled at a certain degree that is good enough for the soft light to be seen. The ambience of the place is just right, the lightings are not overpowering and is comfortable enough for the eyes.
Again, the cool furniture like these tables with non-linear legs. I like the timber flooring of some areas, especially the two sitting areas below.
Even the restaurant have a nice blue and light brown pattern combination to the extend that the furniture and utensils have to match as well.
Some nice paintings to help brighten up the whole place. The vibrancy is enhanced with the right colour combinations that echoes the lighting quality.
As we go down, there is a park that started with a water fountain and ended with a Malaysian flag statue. This reminds me of Sentosa where they also have this long stretch of water feature that flows downwards as you walk down the elongated series of water features. Since it is too dark, I just take a few photos and called it a day in Putrajaya and left for a spin in Cyberjaya. I'm glad that I had visited this hotel, it is definitely very different from many of those I had visited. Again, many thank to Uncle Andrew.
