I have always been pretty pathetic when it comes to geography. I’m particularly bad the farther I get from the USA. So I decided to start researching the subject so that I won’t be as dumb as I look….
We went to Laos as a part of getting my retirement visa, so I knew where that was. I didn’t know “Laos” is pronounced, “Lao”. We visited Luang Prabang. What I saw was beautiful and it was a nice trip.
I was really ignorant about what countries surrounded Thailand. I didn’t even realize that Thailand used to be called “Siam.” There is a place called, “Siam – Celadon” on the way to the nursing home. Maybe we’ll stop and see it one of these days. This map is a good one as far as basic information on the countries around me now.
This is a closer look at Thailand. I am in Chiang Mai, which is in the northern part of Thailand. It’s quite mountainous in this area, making for some spectacular views. Chiang Mai has a population of approximately 1.2 million people. (As a comparison, Greenwood, Arkansas, (my former home) has a population of approximately 9,730.)
You can see here that Thailand goes all the way down to Malaysia. I was also interested to see Cambodia, with whom their are skirmishes from time to time over boundaries between the two countries.
I hope I haven’t bored you to tears with this ‘geography lesson.’ I just suddenly felt intensely stupid to know almost nothing about my new home. I hope to collect new information from time to time so that I have a better understanding of where I am.
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