Yes, I finally learned what is where in southeast Asia!Once a professor wrote that he spends his Christmas holiday with his family in Singapore and Taiwan, I said, "Enjoy the adventure, as people do everyday in east Asia." He wrote me back, "My travels were not quite as adventurous, Singapore and Taiwan are very stable countries", thus indicating my total ignorance about southeast Asia!
Yesterday, I met a friend from Indonesia. I got too much surprised after hearing the fact that about 90 percent of population are Muslims, while the population is about 200 million. A friend said, "Didn't you really know that Indonesia is the world's most-populous Muslim nation?", again showing my total ignorance about southeast Asia!
So, I decided to at least look at the map as a first step. Starting from top left:
Myanmar, known as Burma, where sadly an ethnic war is going on there right now...
Thailand, Cambodio, Laos...
Vietnam, only reminds me of the Vietnam War, which I just found out was finished in 1975 (before my birth)...
Then, on south,
Malaysia, where 60% of the 30-million population practice Islam...
Then rich and small Singapore with 5 million population, one of the Four Asian Tigers (Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan), Buddhism more practiced religion (30%)...
Indonesia, big but I think poor, 90% of the 200-million population practice Islam...
Two other countries I have been interested to find, not named on this map: Bangladesh (on the most west of this map), and Taiwan (a small island on the right of Hong Kong).
Hope to learn more about southeast Asia.
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