Malaysia physically consists of two major parts - West Malaysia or Peninsular Malaysia and East Malaysia. West Malaysia is situated roughly on a North-South axis between Thailand and Singapore. East Malaysia is situated on the island of Borneo.
The capital of Malaysia is now officially Putrajaya, a city created specifically for that purpose but the largest city and old capital of Malaysia is Kuala Lumpur.
The population of Malaysia is about 21 million. Roughly half are Malay, about a third are Chinese and Indians make up most of the rest (with a small number of expatriates)
Malaysia (then known as Federation of Malaya) became independent from the British in 1957 under the leadership of Tunku Abdul Rahman who became Malaysia's first Prime Minister. The other British colonies of Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore (hmm... 3 Ss) joined the federation in 1963 and it was renamed Malaysia. Singapore withdrew from Malaysia in 1965 to become an independent republic.
No nuclear weapons here*, but there exists a dangerous fruit called the durian.
There is to be a high bandwidth area called the MSC or Multimedia Super Corridor which is to be Malaysia's own Silicon Valley ... Gigabit Internet access ... yummy!
Delicious food at cheap prices. A food lover's paradise. Penang is especially good for satisfying your gastronomic desires. Check out the Penang assam laksa and curry mee. mmm...
*: this refers to a now deleted writeup that used to be above mine ... which dates back to Everything1. | 
