Happy 55th birthday to Malaysia!

55 years ago on this day, the Federation of Malay united with Sabah (known as North Borneo then), Sarawak and Singapore to form Malaysia. Though Singapore is no longer a member of the federation since 1965, Malaysia has always fought hard in developing the country for its residents and to gain a worldwide recognition.

Image from User:SKopp, distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

On this special day, we would like to share with you 10 fun facts about Malaysia.

Malaysia has one of the top highest lightning activities in the world

Image from: Nate Zeman

September is one of the inter-monsoon periods in Malaysia so we’re seeing a lot of rainfalls and thunderstorms happening recently. In a typical year, there are 180 to 260 thunderstorms happening in Malaysia. So stay indoors while you can. 🙂

The world’s largest roundabout is at Putrajaya

Screenshot taken from Google Map.

The Persiaran Sultan Salahuddin Aziz Shah in Putrajaya is the world’s largest roundabout with a diameter of 3.5 km. The roundabout is so gigantic that you won’t even realize that you’re moving around it.

Sarawak has the world’s largest cave chamber

Image source: Sarawak by Scurion.

The Sarawak Chamber, which is located at Gunung Mulu National Park is said to be able to fit in a few Boeing 747 aircrafts in it. That’s what I heard from my mom though. This article states 40!

The name of Kuala Lumpur means “muddy confluence”

Kuala Lumpur is commonly flooded during heavy rain seasons. Nonetheless, it is the main capital of Malaysia, the largest city in Malaysia and the city that holds WordCamp KL 2018!

You can find the possible highest number of cockroaches in the world in Sabah

Photo by Mike Prince, distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

The Gomantong Cave, which is located near the Kinabatangan area, probably breeds the highest number of cockroaches in the world, thanks to the bat droppings. Imagining the sight of the cockroaches in the cave makes me shiver. The cave is famous for bird nest harvesting too.

The Petronas Towers are the world’s tallest twin towers

Photo by 
Lukeaw, Nachbearbeitet von: Wladyslaw, distributed under the 
 Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Also known as the Petronas Twin Towers, it used to be the tallest buildings in the world from 1998 to 2004. The connecting bridge located on both 41st and 42nd floors of the towers brings visitors one of the best city views in Kuala Lumpur.

Make sure you pay a visit to the towers and also the Suria KLCC shopping mall which can be accessed directly from the lobby of the towers.

Resorts World Genting owns the world’s largest hotel in Malaysia

Image source: Pamper.my

Located at about 35 km from Kuala Lumpur, the Resorts World Genting is one of the famous tourist spots in Malaysia. The hotels, theme parks, retail shops and restaurants situated on the 1,800 meters high Mount Ulu Kali make it a perfect spot for family recreation activities.

With 7351 rooms, the First World Hotel is the largest hotel in the world, recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records.

The digit “4” could be replaced as “3A” at some places

Image source: Cilisos.my

Some Malaysians believe that the digit “4”, which sounded like death in Chinese languages is taboo. So don’t feel strange if you see the floor number “3A” instead of “4” at some of the buildings in Malaysia. 🙂

Durian is the King of Fruit in Malaysia

Photo by Jonny Clow on Unsplash

Crowned as the King of Fruit, durian could become one of the major commodity exports in Malaysia, making it one of the world’s largest exporter of durian. 14,000 tonnes of durians were exported in 2017 and more to be expected this year.

If you’re eager to try out the taste of the durian, check out this article.

1 Utama is one of the Top 10 largest shopping malls in the world

Image from: One World Hotel

Situated at Bandar Utama Damansara, 1 Utama Shopping Centre is the world’s largest shopping mall when it was first opened in 1995. With the gross built up of 5,000,000 square feet, the mall is currently the largest shopping mall in Malaysia and seventh largest in the world.

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