Whoever came first, whatever their motives, they came through the river.
The first wave had come and settled on the bay, setting up communities that would soon become great kingdoms, on shores placed squarely at the crossroads of Southeast Asia.

Those who came after them, finding no place to stay, explored the river and settled on its banks.

But only the bravest - or the most desperate - kept going. For at the end of the river they found another sea. Not salt, like the one they had just left behind, but bitter.

It was her.

The bitter sea.

Capricious, moody, jealous, unforgiving. And yet, at the same time, generous and giving. On her shores they would find rest and plenty. But they would be hers. Bound to her cycles, her ebb and tide. Bound to her fate.

They would name their homestead after her - the woman that is the lake. The Woman of the Bitter Sea - Ang Ba-i ng Dagat Tabang. Or, as some mispronounce it, Ba-yi, and later, Ma-yi.

Who were these people? Where did they come from? What became of them?

We need to know, because they became us. The people of the Bitter Sea.

Having decided to transform my Multiply account ( http://diwanggising.multiply.com )  into my primary homepage, I am pleased to have found WordPress to be a great site for relocating the old content of that account - which was originally intend to be a page dedicated only to my Ma-Yi Novel Trilogy project.

And since today is my 28th birthday, I suppose it’s a rather auspicious day for moving in.  So that’s exactly what I’m doing.  The next blog will contain a brief introduction to  the Ma-Yi Novel Trilogy, which was previously my main profile entry for my multiply site.

So that makes Multiply my main webpage,  Friendster my biggest social network, and WordPress my main blog repository.    Hm.  At the very least, nobody can say I don’t get around.

RE de Leon 27 September 2007, 01.30h PST

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