6/ Heading down the Mekong, we reach Cambodia 🇰🇭, which has a population of about 16.7 million people.
Part of the extended river system is the Tonle Sap lake. This unique lake expands and contracts dramatically with the seasons, growing from about 2,700 in the dry season to over 16,000 km² in the wet season.
7/ The border between Cambodia 🇰🇭 and Vietnam 🇻🇳 has long been a source of tension, particularly in the Gulf of Thailand.
Cambodia continues to hold a strong nationalist sentiment over what they call Koh Tral, known to the Vietnamese as Phú Quốc. This is rooted in history, with the 🇫🇷 French-drawn Brévié Line of 1939 being an administrative boundary that was never formally ratified by either nation after independence, leading to an ongoing maritime dispute.
8/ As mentioned in our Thailand 🇹🇭 thread, 🇰🇭 Cambodia's border with Thailand also has a history of disputes.
The dispute over the ancient temple of Preah Vihear saw the International Court of Justice rule in 1962 that the temple belonged to Cambodia. However, the area around it has remained a source of armed conflict and tension for decades.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambodian%E2%80%93Thai_border_dispute
10/ Finally, let's consider Myanmar 🇲🇲 (often still referred to as Burma) a country of about 54.2 million people. It is an ethnically diverse nation, with 135 distinct ethnic groups officially recognized, though a single group - the Bamar - makes up the majority.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnicity_in_Myanmar
Unlike Laos 🇱🇦 and Cambodia 🇰🇭, Myanmar was under British 🇬🇧 colonial rule.
10/ 🇲🇲 Myanmar’s coastline has its own geopolitical peculiarities. In the Bay of Bengal, the Coco Islands belong to Myanmar but are located just north of 🇮🇳 India’s Andaman Islands.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coco_Islands
Their strategic location has led to decades of rumors and reports of China 🇨🇳 building a signals intelligence facility there, creating diplomatic friction.
11/ In a major act of administrative weirdness, 🇲🇲 Myanmar's capital was moved from Yangon (also known in English as Rangoon) to the newly constructed city of Naypyidaw in 2005.
The new capital's remote, central location was chosen for strategic reasons,. Civil servants were given very little notice. Many people believe astrologers chose the timing. The city is famous for its enormous, nearly empty highways, some with 20 lanes.
12/ Myanmar 🇲🇲 is often listed with the US 🇺🇸 and Liberia 🇱🇷 (and, in some aspects of life, the UK 🇬🇧) as a country that hasn’t officially adopted the metric system.
Traditional units are still common in daily life, though the government has been slowly moving toward metric.
13/ The Wa State is a self-governing region and de facto independent state made up of two remote districts, one bordering China 🇨🇳, the other Thailand 🇹🇭
In practice Wa State operates like a small Chinese-influenced country, using the Chinese yuan and Mandarin, the central Myanmar 🇲🇲 government has little to no control here.
14/ That brings our look at the #geoweirdness of mainland Southeast Asia 🇲🇲🇱🇦🇰🇭 to a close! What have we missed?
If you enjoyed this thread please share it (so critical here in the fediverse) and have a look at the many others linked over on our blog: https://blog.opencagedata.com/geothreads
If you liked this you may enjoy our threads about:
🇻🇳 Vietnam: https://en.osm.town/@opencage/115133798226980951
🇨🇳 China https://en.osm.town/@opencage/114166463386958370
🇹🇭 Thailand https://en.osm.town/@opencage/115033422470732114
@opencage not only that, the river connecting it with the Mekong "flows" "upstream" in the rainy season:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonle_Sap?useskin=vector#Volume_fluctuation_and_flow_reversal