Brayar was a really good guide. The best guides are those who have actually gotten out of their countries. It gives them perspective.
About a month after the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia, Mom and I went there and we had already gotten in touch with a relative of a medical intern in Missouri whose family still lived there. Miroslav was a Ph.D. in languages who, under the Communists, was turned into a tractor salesman for the Soviet allies like Syria. Because of this, unlike his countrymen, he traveled all over the place. So he could compare life in Prague and in the rural areas with other places in the world. It is the contrasts that make life interesting. He knew Communism and Capitalism both and could distinguish the best and worst of both too.
Brayar was one of these. He is a seismic engineer and he had lived in wild places looking for oil. These included China, Uzbechistan, Congo, Uganda. His insight into life was colored by these experiences and added depth to his knowledge of his own country. Because he speaks Chinese and Russian he did not just skim the surface in his experiences and he shared his knowledge readily.
He has his daughter Saruut and also a new 18 month old son. I invited his family to dinner as I felt that he is out having fun, going to cool places and the family gets left behind. That’s why we sequestered Saruut to come with us to the tourist camp. I also learned that K-Pop is all the rage. Oh sorry, you don’t know what that is? Are you so out of it? Korean Pop, naturally!!
Speaking of that I became enamoured of Hot Pot where you eat at a table with hot plates embedded in it and you order the broth which bubbles away. You then order whatever you want to add like veggies and meats and shrimp etc. It’s a really nice meal because it takes a long time to eat like fondue and the result is wonderful. I am thinking about buying a hot plate just to do this at home for friends.
