Southeast Asia consists of eleven countries that reach from eastern India
to China,
and is generally divided into “mainland” and “island” zones. It has so many
highlights but it’s not easy to know where to begin. Southeast
Asia own many ancient temples, giant mountains, bustling cities,
beautiful beaches and large oceans…etc. The tourists can whisk through such a
diversity of the cultures and geography with so much ease that no place in the
world has.
If Jakarta is the melting pot
of Indonesia, Bangkok is in your face-
at turns confronting and attractive. Singapore
where is “ shopping Asia” , a luxury country
and is a green lung of region. But for most travelers, the Philippines is
the most perfect volcano. And Vietnam is famous with the palm- fringed
beaches such as Nha trang, Phu
Quoc Island.
History
The history of SoutheastAsia has been characterized as interaction between regional players and
foreign powers. Each country is intertwined with all the others. For instance, the
Malay empires of Srivijaya
and Malacca covered modern day Indonesia,
Malaysia, and Singapore while the Burmese, Thai, and Khmer
peoples governed much of Indochinahttp://southeastasialtravelguide.blogspot.com/. At the same time, opportunities and threats from
the east and the west shaped the direction of Southeast
Asia. The history of the countries within the region only started
to develop independently of each other after European colonizationwas at full steam between the 17th and the 20th century.
During the 1990s, Southeast Asia
emerged as the fastest growing economy in the world. Its successes have caused
some to call Southeast Asia an economic miracle and Singapore one of the "Four Asian
Tigers". Though the Asian Financial Crisis struck in the late
1990s and left many crippled, the economy of the region has started to pick up
again at a more sustainable rate as demand from the United States and People's Republic of China soar. ( http://en.wikipedia.org)
People and technology
Modern South-East Asian belong to four main groups. The
Negrito, descandants of the oldest residents, who physically resemble
Australian aborigines, are found in places like the mountain of Luzon and Peninsular Malaysia.
Member of the Austronesian language family populated Taiwan from the Asian mainland as early as 4000
BC, and then moved southwards through Malaysia,
central, western and eastern Indonesia;
from approximately 1000BC this expansion continued eastward into the Pacific.
Pottery was being produced in Thailand as early as 8000 years
ago.
South-East Asia around 5000 years ago, when pottery of a
different style, painted red of stamps with designs, appeared on the islands;
its spread has been associated with the migration of the Austronesian
peoples.
Rice was being cultivated in North-East Thailand in the
northern Vietnam as early as
4000 Bc (China,
by contrast, was growing an consuming millet at the time), and bronze
bracelets, spear points and axes were being produced before 3000 BC.
By 500 BC bronze casters in Dong Son, northern Viet Nam, were
making huge, elaborately decorated bronze drums. Some were transported as far
away as eastern Indonesia, which suggests that where was a complex trade
network linking the cultures of South-East Asia by this time.
