Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Beautiful Putrajaya ruined by stupidity

Wooooot!

Went to the Dutch Embassy this morning to submit my passport and relevant documents for them to prepare my MVV (temporary residence permit)... finally! My MVV was approved ages ago, but because I had to collect so bloody many governmental and legal documents, it's just been a long time coming for me to actually pick it up. Anyway, it's ready Wednesday morning and then it's finally DONE!

Before I could head on over there this morning, I had to get my birth certificate and its translation from Putrajaya. I had ordered it before CNY, and although it's normally ready in 2 days, because of all the holidays, I ended up going to collect it more than a week later.

I already blogged about JPN (National Registration Department) earlier, so this time I'm gonna talk about getting my translations done at the Palace of Justice. Although Malaysian birth certs are dual-language - Nama/Name, Umur/Age - strangely, the answers are only in Malay - 'Informasi tidak didapati' etc.

The birth cert only costs RM5, but the translations cost RM40 for two copies, signed and stamped by the translator/penterjemah.


Yelleh Belleh had followed me to Putrajaya, and so after collecting my birth cert, we walked across the road and diagonally towards the Palace of Justice. Isn't it pretty? I love all the trees and landscaping in front and in between all the buildings. Although the buildings have their own individual shape and design, the landscaping all around brings the look all together.



Grand entrance!

Security, unfortunately, like most services in this country, is lacking. There is a show of it, but it doesn't look very effective at all. You'll know if you've been in there. Glad I don't work there.


The interior is amazing! It's like a 5-star hotel, with rounded staircases at the end of the lobby. Marble columns and carved columns everywhere. Really beautiful. Too bad it has to be spoilt by the ugly, superficial security system in front.


It's almost like those churches or mosques that tourists go abroad to visit for their architecture :)

Signing off now, Friends (yes, I still watch it!) is starting and I've run out of Putrajaya pics.

Oh, but before that, I really have to remark that everything in Putrajaya is really beautiful and the people are well-trained... but THE DAMN SIGNBOARDS ARE STILL AS STUPID AS IN THE REST OF THE COUNTRY.

Looking for Wisma Putra (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) from Precinct 2 (where all the government departments are) took me, literally, 20 minutes of going up and down that big Precinct 2 road, looking for the turnoff towards Wisma Putra. There are absolutely NO signboards to Wisma Putra from Precinct 2 until you actually reach the road which turns into the building itself. How idiotical is that?!

Not to mention the countless (and I'm seriously not exaggerating!!) signboards strategically placed BEHIND the uniformly-spaced trees. The trees were obviously planned that way, so how could Mr Signboard NOT know that? Utter, utter stupidity!

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