Mingalarpar

မဂၤလာပါ။

Welcome to my personal blog! This is the first post. I apologise for being not yet able to write in proper ျမန္မာစာ (Myanmarsar).

I wanted to learn Burmese some time ago. I have always felt strong affinity for the Burmese community (perhaps a strong past life link?). So, I told myself that I shall pick up the language and literature one day.

Being able to communicate in a native language helps us form close friendships. There is nothing closer to home when traveling overseas than to hear someone speaking your hometown language :)

Learning to read and write in Burmese script can be quite a challenge for those not accustomed to it. For a quick start, I have learnt how to write the numerals. Next, of course, will be the 33 consonants. I can sense more challenges coming with the vowels.

Fortunately, I found some script notes and character notes which came in useful as a guide towards understanding the script system.

The name of this blog is ကရဝိတ္၏ ေတးသံခ်ိဳ (Karaweik Ei Tay-Than-Cho). Why did I choose legendary commuter bird ကရဝိတ္ (Karaweik) as my nickname?

Here is the story...
I was on an 8-day Myanmar tour (Update: I posted a short review of the tour in December 2007) with my wife during December 2006. On the last day of our itinerary, we received a surprise gift from our main tourguide (Arcadia Travels).

She, who is also the wife of the tour agency founder, treated us to a wonderful Chinese snack meal at the Karaweik Palace Restaurant on Kandawgyi Lake. I liked the scenery around the Royal Lake very much. I was also immediately attracted to the Karaweik facade of the Royal Barge replica.


I read that Burmese traditional music masters during the Konbaung Period (1752-1885 AD) sometimes carved words such as "Karaweik Than" or other similar meaningful words on their harps. I have an unexplainable fascination for the ေစာင္း (Saung)... that past life thing again? This deepen the decision for my chosen nickname. Yes, I will learn to play the Saung one day :)

Unfortunately, the blogname "Karaweik" was already taken up by someone else. I have to come up with an alternative name, yet I still prefer to use "Karaweik" as the theme. So, I put up a request for help... I have to credit a good friend and talented writer for suggesting a wonderful blogname :)

ေက်းဇူးတင္ပါတယ္။