Found in translation

Your Name in Arabic
Kathmandu, Nepal

Isn't this cool? Reem is offering a free service; transliterating your name into Arabic script. Just go to her blogpage and send an email. She will post a jpg file of the graphics onto her blog page.

Arabic has got to be the most beautiful-looking script in the world. This service is not a translation - that is, my own name means "singing," but she will not give the Arabic word for "singing" - just a transliteration of the phonic sounds.

I haven't received the reply for transliterated "Sirensongs" yet (Reem says it has to be "songs of the siren"). But my sister's name is Karen; and here (above) is what "Karen" looks like in Arabic.


Laura of Arabia
And yet another cool Arabic-related blog, Carolyn McIntyre, aka Girl Solo in Arabia has devoted herself for the past year and half to journeying in the footsteps of 14th century Moroccan explorer Ibn Battuta. A very literary blog with exceptionally elegant template.

BabelFishing
Speaking of translations: after a few requests from foreign viewers frustrated with English, I have added the AltaVista Babelfish translator on the sidebar. With just a few clicks you can translate Feringhee into Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, German or French.

If anyone knows of a web translator for Hindi, Tamil, Tibetan or other Indian languages, please let me know.

"Sirensongs" in Italian is "Canciones del Sirena." I like it. I guess in Hindi, it's "Jalpari ki sangeet," or maybe, "Jalpari ki gana." ("Jalpari" literally means "water faery." The movie Splash was released here as Jalpari.)

Vote for Meeeee
If you vote for me for Best Travel Blog in the Blogger's Choice Awards, I promise a rickshaw in every garage and dal-bhatt on every stove. Or at least, I promise to tell you where to get the best dal-bhatt and how not to get ripped off by the rickshaw.

You can vote here. Thank you, come again!