it's hard to recommend anything to anyone because we don't know the person (physical attributes), his budget, expectations?

First thing for a new buyer to do is visit some shops near to them to gain some initial outlook on how the whole biking scene works, the below directory might be of some help...

http://www.baikbike.com/bicycle-shops/

generally, one would first determine a set budget to follow... then follow by the specs of a particular bike within budget or the physical appeal of it whichever comes first... brand is a very preferential thing.. most major brands like merida, fuji, khs of lesser known level has that sort of reliability there... but some people would prefer the major brands like trek, specialized, scott, bmc, colnago and so on and so forth... again, all this depends on your budget as well known brands will no doubt be more expensive for the save level of bike range...

for starters... polygon and merida would be a good choice... if the prices of those can be accepted easily... then you can progress and take a look at better brands and see if you can stomach those... .but anyhow, generally... for something real decent would expect no lesser than RM4k with everything related to biking in (helmets, gloves, lights, etc... if you choose to buy them)

of course, if you could borrow a friend's bike to ride around for a couple of days or longer... it will be better as it helps you find out what size would suit you better and gather some requirements that you might want to have as an ideal setup on your bike... no one can tell you without knowing or seeing you in person... having friends would be of some level of help if not hindrance (starts telling you to buy un-necessary stuff)...

for routes... there is many but the main ones where a lot of people cycle would be kesas, genting sempah, ulu langat, etc...once you get a bike... see if your bike shop has a riding group and join them for some riding...

Carbon is not fragile... it won't break just by riding it..

however, there is higher chances of damage to carbon if you crash it heavily (and i do mean heavily, rider in hospital type heavy)...  alloy bikes might have dents, dings, and etc but depending on situation... it might still be rideable back to your starting point if you are not badly hurt..

polygon is not as well known as major brands like specialized... but they are also not as poor as some other brands like XDS or some of the cheaper chinese brands out there... Polygon bikes are rather reliable and they usually spec the complete bike in general very well and has high value for money... brands like XDS might try to shove in a few nice things at noticeable points of the bike to make it appeal to customers and cut massively at things that they don't notice to cover for the price difference....

to put it simply in my own words

High End Specialize = BMW (upper class)
Low to Mid Range Specialize= Honda / Toyota levels
Polygon /Merida types = Perodua / Proton (cheap yet affordable and comes with respectable equipment), At least you still trust them.
XDS / TRS and god knows what = imagine China cars like QQ which sells for unbelievably cheap price (gives you bodykit, 18inch rims and nice stereo) but generally poor quality and design all around the car. Trust or not is up to you.

Go survey around some models and prices first. Most importantly, dun rush your purchase.

Generally, people like folding bikes does ride into city areas... but they do it on days where there is considerably less traffic like weekend early mornings...  it is a bit more dangerous to ride in city due to the traffic.

If you are in seputeh, you can actually ride Kesas from sri petaling to subang and then back. It is not too far from your place.

please do not confuse stiffness and strength... those are 2 very different attributes on a bike and you are talking about stiffness while micdy is talking about strength of the bike in the situation of a crash or general riding

stiffness is where the tubes of the bike does not yield when force / torque is applied on it...  this will equate to how well the frame transfers the force applied from your pedals to the road
strength is where how much the tube can bent out of place before it could not return to it's original state or break totally... this determines how much impact a alloy or carbon tube can take before it starts getting damaged permanently

in simple, an uncooked strand of spaghetti is hard and stiff and breaks easily if you try to fold it in half... a cooked strand of spaghetti will be soft and will flex when you try to bend it instead of breaking....get it?

read this for more understanding on carbon modulus.. very nice piece written by cervelo engineers
http://www.cervelo.com/en/engineering/ask-...of-modulus.html

and to re-iterate my statement... i am not saying that you have to buy carbon.. but nowadays... the gap between carbon and alloy both in price and manufacturing levels have close so much that carbon can be a consideration...

unless you think of yourself as a flip floppy fumbling fool who is going to crash more often than staying upright... then alloy is the way to go....