I never thought I would be speaking Justin Timberlake’s name at any time on my trip in Burma. I don’t say Justin Timberlake’s name when I am at home. I am not a master of languages by any stretch, but usually I can tackle the basics of Hello, Thank You, How Much Does it Cost and Good-bye without too much trouble. I always like to at least attempt the tongue of the country I am visiting and not play the part of the ugly American too well. Welcome to the Burmese language, where it seems that every simple word like Hello makes you comprise 4 words to match. Hello (Ming ah La ba) I got down pretty well. It was thank you that plagued me the entire trip. I was told to speak it like Justin Timberlake’s name (chi zoo tin ba deh). It is the “tin” in the 5 words that seemed to get me. So I would start out with chi zoo and merge into Timberlake. Horrible I know, but I kind of whispered the Timberlake, so they would not know how badly I was botching Thank You.
While certainly not savoring my Burmese language skills, I am intrigued by Burma’s circular writing called Calonh. I was told that this is the only place in the world with a rounded alphabet. So I took several snaps of curly cued signs. Like the ferris wheel without electricity I saw on Anthony Bourdain's show about Burma. I have just spotted one of the wheels from the bus window, boys climbing barefoot up the sides like monkeys and propelling it to go round and round by hands and toes. Burmese letters, my words and gangly legs scaling all spiral endlessly around, but I want to stay on the ride and keep spinning so don’t make me get off yet.
