Putrajaya is Malaysia's planned administrative capital, carved out of former oil-palm estates in the late 1990s to relieve the congestion of central Kuala Lumpur. The federal government's ministries and the prime minister's office moved here, and the result is a strikingly orderly city of grand boulevards, manicured parks and a man-made lake, sitting about 25 km south of KL between the city and the international airport. It makes an easy half-day trip, more interesting for its monumental architecture and civic ambition than for any traditional sense of place.
The centrepiece is Putra Mosque, its rose-tinted granite dome rising beside Putrajaya Lake at the head of Dataran Putra, the vast ceremonial square. Next door stands Perdana Putra, the domed office of the prime minister, and a short walk away the Putra Bridge, modelled loosely on a famous span in Isfahan, carries the main approach across the water. The Iron Mosque (Masjid Tuanku Mirzan Zainal Abidin) on the far side is a contrasting modern structure of steel mesh rather than concrete.
The lake is the city's great asset. You can take a cruise on a traditional perahu or a covered boat from the jetty near the Putra Mosque, paddle a kayak, or simply walk and cycle the shoreline parks. The Putrajaya Botanical Garden and the wetlands at the lake's edge are pleasant in the cooler hours, and the city's many ornamental bridges — each designed differently — are a quiet draw for photographers. Come for the Hot Air Balloon Fiesta in spring if your timing is lucky.
Putrajaya can feel sterile and empty, especially at weekends when the civil servants go home, and there is little of the street-food bustle that makes other Malaysian cities tick. But for an afternoon of bold, slightly surreal twenty-first-century planning it rewards the trip. Reach it on the KLIA Transit train from KL Sentral (about 20 minutes) to Putrajaya & Cyberjaya station, then a local bus or taxi into the core.