Knowing Malaysia's ABC

Malaysia with a total landmass of around 330 square kilometres is a country located in South East Asia with Thailand, Singapore, and Indonesia as our neighbours. Together, we all shared the hot and humid weather all year round. Land of Malaysia is separated into two by South China Sea. Therefore, we have a land called Peninsular Malaysia on the west while East Malaysia on the east.

Malaysia celebrates its independence day at 31st August every year. However, this is not the time when we are named Malaysia. We got our independence as Federation of Malaya. The day when we are named Malaysia is during the September 16th of 1963. Now, both of the days are announced public holiday and we celebrate it annually. 

We have 11 states in Peninsular Malaysia and 2 states in East Malaysia. In the state of Selangor lies two Federal Territories with one of them as the Capital of Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur) that has the busiest lifestyle among others and another one (Putrajaya) as the government administrative centre. There is another Federal Territory in East Malaysia named Labuan which is an island near the state of Sabah. 

The 3 main ethic groups in Malaysia are Malay, Chinese, and Indian. We also have some indigenous ethic groups that made up minority of the Malaysian population. Together we shared the land, the resources, the hot and cold, the good and bad of Malaysia. Malay language is the official language in Malaysia. However, we do speak more than one language. Most of us can speak English and some mother-tongue languages such as Mandarin, Cantonese, Tamil, and so on. 

Malaysia has Islam as the official religion. But, we are free to believe in whatever religion we wish to. There are Buddhist, Hindust, Christian to mention some of them. We are very open-minded, so you do not have to worry about having any difficulties due to different religion or political view. We welcome guests from all over the world to our home land. 

Except multi-races, what Malaysia is rich of is its natural resources. We were once well known for being one of the world's main port for herbs and spices. Now, palm oil is our major business. Well, these give us money. As a tourist, the rich flora and fauna is what attracting. We have many rainforests reserved as they are naturally waiting for your discovery. We have the biggest flower in the world, but it smells like corpse. 

We trade using Ringgit Malaysia (RM or MYR) in Malaysia. Approximately MYR3.20 is equivalent to USD1.00 (true for time this post is published) if you would like to know the current conversion rate. Malaysia is in the time zone of MST (UTC +8). If you are thinking about driving in Malaysia, well, we are driving at the left side as opposite to USA, Germany or Italy.

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