21. Malaysia

Malaysia covers an area of some 330,000 km 2,and controls large sectors of the Gulf of Thailand and the South China Sea, which separate the Malay Peninsula from Borneo.The Malay Peninsula itself has a mountainous core rising to 2,000 m,consisting largely of karst country,whereas the Borneo territories of Sarawak and Sabah comprise heavily forested ranges,capped by Mt Kinabalu rising to over 4,000 m,being drained by the mighty Rajang and Baram rivers. The Malays themselves are of mixed origins,coming from various places throughout Southeast Asia. They also have some Arab blood from early traders,perhaps explaining why most belong to the Muslim faith. Chinese immigrants comprise about one-third of the 29 million inhabitants,some having been there for generations. Various indigenous tribes just survive,but most have now lost their cultural identity through integration. The timber industry now decimates the forests of Borneo,destroying the habitat of the Punan indigenous people,who have been forced to exchange their blow guns and parangs (machetes),with which they used to procure wild boar and wild sago in the forests,for squalid lives in run-down apartments.