Having a field day at Masjid Selat Melaka

Friday 11 days ago I went to Masjid (mosque of) Selat Melaka to do my congregational prayers.

The mosque is situated on a man-made island off the old centre of Melaka city, that is the part called Banda Hilir. So it offers a picturesque view of the Straits of Melaka.

The mystical island of Pulau Besar in view. Refer to these old articles :-

Pulau Besar 1: Enter the 'big' island!

Pulau Besar 2: Why so many long tombs?

Pulau Besar 3: Time to move on...

Liliputian midget in Pulau Besar, Melaka!

Batu Belah (split stone) of Pulau Besar, Melaka

Sedikit citarasa Itali di Pulau Besar? (A bit of Italian taste in Pulau Besar?

Pemandangan sekitar kelab golf tinggal di Pulau Besar (views around the abandoned golf club at Pulau Besar

Then my wife brought the kids in. They started playing around...

A visit to Bukit Melaka with the family

Last weekend me and wife brought the kids to Melaka and stayed at a guest house in town centre. From there we could walk to the main tourist attractions at Bandar Hilir, among it Bukit or Hill of Melaka.

Yhis place is known to many as Bukit (Hill of) St. Paul. Bukit Melaka is actually the old name before the city of Melaka was colonised by the Portuguese starting 1511.

The Portuguse then built a church on top. The Dutch colonised the city in 1641 and make it theirs.

It is the remain on the church which became a major attraction here.

This is supposed to be the statue of St. Paul, the Christian missionary who came after the Portuguese took control. The church is named after him and so the hill became by the same name...

The hill offers a wide vista of the city.

It happened that we went down as an art performance was in play...

The broken stretch at Semenyih Dam

Continued from Exploring the upper level of Raja Alang mosque.

Tuesday, 12th Nov. After spending the night at a family house in Kajang I decided to ride down Semenyih before heading for Hulu Langat. That's when a found there's a stretch of road which have been closed for some time because of a major landslide.

The stretch lies along a lake created by the Semenyih Dam. Motorists would have to turn back and take another route to get ahead which is equivalent to more than 50 km travel!

However those on bikes can take their chance.

I saw about 2-3 bikes which managed to pass through but all of it were small bikes. It is much riskier negotiating the slippery paths on big bikes such as mine so I decided to walk first and survey.

So far so good. The stretch though slippery looked manageable as I have experienced much tougher terrain on my bike.

It's just that I've just recovered from a broken right leg. I could not afford to make mistakes.

Thank God I've survived the ordeal, the toughest being a climb at 30-40 degree upwards up a rather slippery read earth part. Here's looking back at the broken stretch...

Exploring the upper level of Raja Alang mosque

Continued from Putrajaya and its two big mosques.

The following day, Monday 11th Nov, I travelled from Bangi to Beranang using a rural road. Upon arriving I stopped by at Raja Alang mosque.

I've been here a few times before but can't remember noticing this steep steel staircase.

So I can't resist the urge to climb up and see what's up...

Putrajaya and its two big mosques

Continued from Global Economics and Monetary Crisis - What needs to be done?.

After the forum I went to Bangi then to a friend's place around. In the evening I went to Putrajaya again, this time with the friend who also rides a bike.

From on top a main hill we enjoyed the wide vista of this administrative capital of this nation.

I don't remember the name of the hill. Here stood this monument which should represent 21st century Malaysia...

Then we went down to the wide open circle in front of the Putra mosque.

At first we thought of just watching the activities around. Then I felt we should visit the mosque.

We ended up doing our Maghrib (after dusk) prayers here.

Next we went to Presint 4.

A look at the international convention centre.

Nearby lies a hill which is left out of development due to mysterious circumstances causing machineries like tractors to fail. It is believed that this area is the seat of government of an invisible kingdom...

From there we went to Masjid Besi, the steel mosque.

We did our Isyak prayers (the one after Maghrib) here.