Off to...... Malaysia

Next Tuesday, Lucy and I are jetting off to South Asia on a three week trip exploring Malaysia. It's a part of the world that I've never been to before so i'm pretty excited about exploring its geography and culture.

I've been checking out a few facts about the country over the last few months to get a picture of the people and country (geography geek alert). Apparently, Sarawak in Borneo has the largest cave in the world and the largest insect egg measures 1.3 cm and comes from the Malaysian stick insect. It's like Jurassic Park but without Richard Attenborough.

Until 1957 Malaysia was a British colony, history i'm hoping we can search out on our trip around the peninsula and Islands.

Malaysia! source:https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/my.html

Weather wise, it looks hotter and more humid than London than this time of year, although the difference isn't as much as I was expecting.

August 1st 2013 weather from Kuala Lumpur and London. Miles apart but rain/sunshine seem to feature in both. Source: www.bbc.co.uk/weather

 

To find out more about Malaysia it's worth checking out the country's profile on the CIA world factbook or comparing it with the UK through the Gapminder bubble graphs. If you were going to 'label' Malaysia you would class it as a Middle Income Country (MIC): Its population is generally quite young, it is starting to branch out into services and manufacturing but still relies a lot on exporting raw materials, whilst the GDP/per capita (a rough estimate of standard of living) and life expectency is still below the UK and other High Income Countries (HICs).

Gapminder screen grab combaring Income per person (GDP per capita) with life expectancy across the former Empire. Kenya - Low Income Country, Malaysia -Middle Income Country and the UK - High Income Country. Source: http://www.gapminder.org/

We're heading to Penang in the North East of the country first. Updates to follow.......