16 September: Malaysia Day

Today is Malaysia Day - so here are some things you may not know about Malaysia.

1. Malaysia is literally a country of two halves: Peninsular Malaysia to the west and East Malaysia to the east. Peninsular Malaysia is located south of Thailand, north of Singapore and east of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. East Malaysia comprises most of the northern part of Borneo and shares borders with Brunei and Indonesia.
2. Its capital city is Kuala Lumpur, which means "muddy confluence". Possibly due to the fact it rains here on as many as 200 days a year. The city is home to the tallest twin towers in the world, the Petronas Towers which house the headquarters of the national oil company Petronas, the only Malaysian company in the Fortune Global 500.
3. Malaysia’s currency is the ringgit, which means “jagged” in Malay, and originally referred to the separated edges of Spanish Silver dollars widely circulated there.
4. Malaysia is home to several things which are the largest of their kind in the world. At 700 metres (2,297 ft) long and 70 metres (230 ft) high the Sarawak Chamber is the largest cave chamber in the world; the pomelo, the largest citrus fruit in the world, which weighs from 2.2–6.7 lbs. (1–3 kg) and can reach the size of a small football; the world’s tallest tropical tree, the Tualang, which has a base diameter of over 10 feet (3m) and reaches heights of around 262 feet (80m); the Rafflesia, the largest flower in the world. This bloom can be up to 3-feet (1-m) wide and weigh 15 lbs. (6.8 kg); the world's largest insect egg, that of the Malaysian Stick Insect (Heteopteryx dilitata), which lays eggs of 1.3 cm, larger than a Peanut; the largest undivided leaf, Alocasia macrorrhiza. A specimen found in 1966 measured 9.9 feet (3.02m) long by 6.3 (1.92m) wide; the longest King Cobra in the world, measuring 5.54 metres, captured alive in Port Dickson in April 1937 and grew to 5.71 metres in captivity in London Zoo; and the world's largest roundabout at Putrajaya in Malaysia, which is 2.2 miles (3.5 km) in diameter.
5. Famous people from Malaysia include the actress Michelle Yeoh and Shoe designer Jimmy Choo.
6. The first person to become a citizen of Malaysia was Kok Shoo Yin, 17, who received his official documentation on November 14, 1957.
7. Kuala Kangsar district office is the site of the last surviving rubber tree from the original batch H. N. Ridley brought from London's Kew Gardens in 1877. Rubber is an important export. Malaysia is the world’s third largest natural rubber producer. In 2011, the country produced 996,673 metric tons of the stuff. Malaysia is also the world’s largest supplier of rubber gloves.
8. The tallest mountain is Mount Kinabalu, at 4,095.2 metres (13,436 ft) and the longest river is the Rajang River in Sarawak at 760 kilometres (472 mi).
9. Malaysia’s national dish is Nasi lemak, a Rice dish cooked in coconut milk, often served wrapped in a Banana leaf. It is usually eaten for breakfast. The national drink is teh tarik (“pulled tea”), which is Tea that is thrown across a distance of about 3 feet (1 m) by Mamak men, from one cup to another, with no spillages. Originally this was to cool it down ready for customers to drink. The English word “ketchup” is thought to be derived from the Hokkien word ke-tsiap.
10. Some Malaysian sports teams employ a shaman, or bomoh to smudge their equipment with holy smoke and if possible, place a charm near the goalposts before a match. Other superstitions include the belief that if a Cat jumps onto the coffin of a dead relative, the person will come back as a ghoul, and that one's dead relatives will give one the winning lottery numbers if one visits the graveyard at night bringing offerings.