"As you've already read it (or not) in my personal bio, Malaysia is one of the closest countries
to my heart as my father and his side of the family grew up there. My Father is from a small town called, Teluk Intan, located in the state of Perak. Here is a little history of this beautiful country
and hopefully you will have the chance to visit it personally as well."
Malaysia
Peninsular Malaysia juts from the southernmost tip of continental Asia creating a barrier between the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea. East Malaysia, with its even bigger landmass, straddles the northern reaches of Borneo, the enormous island it shares with Indonesia which calls its portion Kalimantan.
In the rugged mountainous interior, threequarters of Malaysia is covered by the oldest jungles on this planet. The equatorial forests of the Amazon and the Congo are relative youngsters by comparison.
Archaeology is still in its infancy in Malaysia. Early man's origins are shrouded in mystery, but current theories indicate that the earliest Negritos and, later, ancestors of the Malays came from somewhere near Taiwan and gradually filtered down through the islands then the mainland of maritime South-East Asia.
Capital: Kuala Lumpur
Population: 23,522,482 (July 2004 est.)
Government: Constitutional Monarchy
Border countries: Brunei, Indonesia, Thailand
Lowest Point: Indian Ocean 0 m
Highest Point: Gunung Kinabalu 4,100 m
(I climbed this mountain twice, ten years apart)
Natural Resources: Tin, Petroleum, Timber, Copper, Iron ore, Natural gas, Bauxite
