RICE! :)

OOPS! Haven't been here in a long time D:
But yeah, rice :D

Bai Cha, cool khmer rice dish!

A dish that came from Cambodia.

Bai Cha is a Khmer (Cambodian) variation of fried rice. It includes food like Chinese sausage, garlic, soy sauce, various vegetables and herbs. The rice is fried in soy sauce, thus giving the food a brownish colour. There are many different recipes to Bai Cha and they each have slight variations, but they are all counted as Bai Cha.

I couldn't find a picture of it, though I think this dish is quite cool :)

Overview on SEA countries.

Firstly, I shall post an overview for South-East Asian countries. It will include information on the countries, and probably some useless trivia that people might actually find interesting.

Enjoy :D

I'm referring to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southeast_Asia for most of the information, just paraphrased, plus my own comments about the countries.

Location of SEA! It's highlighted in green.

Countries in South East Asia:

1. Brunei
2. Cambodia
3. East Timor
4. Indonesia
5. Laos
6. Malaysia
7. Myanmar
8. Philipines
9. Thailand
10. Vietnam
11. Singapore

Ten of the countries stated above are part of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN, in case I've never mentioned it before.). The only country which is not, East Timor (a.k.a Timor Leste), is an ASEAN candidate state.

Let's start with Brunei.
Taken from http://geography.about.com/library/cia/blcbrunei.htm.
Location: Southeastern Asia, bordering the South China Sea and Malaysia
Geographic coordinates: 4 30 N, 114 40 E
Climate: tropical; hot, humid, rainy

Population: 372,361 (July 2005 est.)
Age structure:
0-14 years: 28.6% (male 54,342/female 52,084) 15-64 years: 68.4% (male 134,908/female 119,814)
65 years and over: 3% (male 5,301/female 5,912) (2005 est.)

Country name:
conventional long form: Negara Brunei Darussalam
conventional short form: Brunei

Next, Cambodia.
http://geography.about.com/library/cia/blccambodia.htm
Location: Southeastern Asia, bordering the Gulf of Thailand, between Thailand, Vietnam, and Laos
Geographic coordinates: 13 00 N, 105 00 E
Climate: tropical; rainy, monsoon season (May to November); dry season (December to April); little seasonal temperature variation

Population: 13,607,069 note: estimates for this country take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower population growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July 2005 est.)
Age structure:
0-14 years: 37.3% (male 2,559,734/female 2,510,235)
15-64 years: 59.7% (male 3,887,642/female 4,232,313)
65 years and over: 3.1% (male 150,862/female 266,283) (2005 est.)

Country name:
conventional long form: Kingdom of Cambodia
conventional short form: Cambodia local long form: Preahreacheanacha Kampuchea (phonetic pronunciation)
local short form: Kampuchea
former: Kingdom of Cambodia, Khmer Republic, Democratic Kampuchea, People's Republic of Kampuchea, State of Cambodia

East Timor. timor leste!
http://geography.about.com/library/cia/blceasttimor.htm
Location: Southeastern Asia, northwest of Australia in the Lesser Sunda Islands at the eastern end of the Indonesian archipelago; note - East Timor includes the eastern half of the island of Timor, the Oecussi (Ambeno) region on the northwest portion of the island of Timor, and the islands of Pulau Atauro and Pulau Jaco
Geographic coordinates: 8 50 S, 125 55 E
Climate: tropical; hot, humid; distinct rainy and dry seasons

Population: 1,040,880 note: other estimates range as low as 800,000 (July 2005 est.)
Age structure:
0-14 years: 37.1% (male 196,108/female 189,753)
15-64 years: 59.9% (male 318,173/female 305,479)
65 years and over: 3% (male 15,353/female 16,014) (2005 est.)

Country name:
conventional long form: Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste
conventional short form: East Timor local long form: Republika Demokratika Timor Lorosa'e [Tetum]; Republica Democratica de Timor-Leste [Portuguese]
local short form: Timor Lorosa'e [Tetum]; Timor-Leste [Portuguese]
former: Portuguese Timor

For now, let's leave it as that first, I will continue soon! (and add more pictures as well.)

On a more serious note:

The next few posts will be more ... formal. And probably a lot more dry than the introduction since, well, that was an introduction.

Nevertheless, I hope to keep people who like SEA occupied and interested in more updates!(:

Introduction(:

Since this is my first post on my blog, I expect I have to introduce myself (even though the name's already there on the link).

My name is Hazel, and this is my blog for the Regional Studies Programme (RSP). I can't guarantee it's going to be the most interesting blog ever, but I expect it to keep your eyes glued for more details! (that's going to be really hard.)

Anyway RSP is a program where we learn more about happenings in South East Asia (SEA! I like the abbreviation, it sounds cool.), and some about trips I've made to countries in SEA. It won't be very educational, since I really didn't bother about SEA when I was young -- Primary 4-6. (It was all 'PSLE! PSLE!' then. Oh, and HOLIDAY! HOLIDAY! = FUN! FUN!)

...Oops?
-coughs- I'm getting carried away.

So anyway, this is the end of my introduction, I'd spice up my blog's background and blog more soon!