Saving Aeneas

So here I am, out of Asia and in Europe - Budapest, Hungary to be precise. The land of my ancestors.

I have a one-person flat in Obuda. Obuda (or 'Old Buda') is a pleasant enough neighborhood, though there's not a whole lot to see. my street has a post office, a supermarket, and some Chinese restaurants- what more does a person need?

Speaking of food, Budapest seems to have a passion for 'Turkish' fast food, especially gyros and falafel. Pizza is also popular but most of it is pretty lousy. As mentioned, there are also greasy Chinese takeout places everywhere and plenty of chain burger joints too.

Budapest is a beautiful city. It's kind of a shock to see fine buildings everywhere after the comparative poverty of Vietnam, but I suspect that if it weren't for Communism half of those buildings would have been torn down to build shopping malls and Gaps.

The public transit system is pretty good. There are basically three metro lines which cover Pest (with one sneaking over into Buda) and there is a bewildering network of bus and tram lines, which I am still trying to figure out. The trouble is that the metro shuts down at 11:30, forcing me to use a cab to get home.

Budapest is also a shockingly quiet city. Downtown on a weeknight seems practically like a ghost town. At first I thought this was just in contrast with bustling Saigon, but locals and expats confirmed that Budapest really was was that silent.

So Farr's long-awaited visit to Indochina finally took place. He arrived late Friday night and took up residence in Stefan's dress shop along Hai Ba Trung.

He took to the difficulties of Southeast Asia - the traffic, the crowds, the constant demands for charity - with surprising equanimity, as if it were all local color. He was also agog over the low prices and took to photographing all of his meals.

The one thing neither of us could really take was the heat. After an hour or two of exploring we'd be forced to find an air-conditioned cafe and restore ourselves with a cold drink or two.

We did the usual tour things - War Museum, Reunification Palace, Cu Chi Tunnels. We also went in search of a tailored shirt that would meet his exacting standards (no luck( as well as cheap DVDs and various Vietnam trinkets (success). John was particularly taken with a shop selling old propaganda posters, urging the Vietnamese to raise more pigs and fight imperialism and so on.

Then, Angkor Wat, which are not any less magnificent for having seen them already. The usual swarms of postcard-hawkers were there, though they seem to have absorbed a great deal of information about the Obama family, which they used to gain our sympathy (and money).

It was all over before we knew it, and we each went our separate ways again. Until November.

After about 10 days in Vietnam I began to get worried that i wasn't getting enough calcium; I can't remember the last time I had a solid glass of milk and so I decided to head over to My Chau Pharmacy, which was recommended by Let's Go Vietnam.

You see, Stefan's shop (www.stylespy.vn) is located on Hai Ba Trung, the 'fashion street' of Ho Chi Minh City. It is lined with stores selling shoes, jeans, dresses, and every other f=piece of clothing you could wish for. For some reason, near his shop there is a small strip of pharmacies selling what I assume are dodgy generic medications.

Still, I felt confident enough to try for some basic vitamins and minerals. I waltzed into My Chau and gave the clerk a small slip of paper with 'calcium' written on it. In return, he gave me a very small packet containing four pills and demanded 500,000 dong (about $28). That seemed distinctly odd to me. I looked at the package and realized he had given me Cialis, not calcium.

Strong bones, indeed.

So now that I've escaped the PRC and their internet filters, I can say a few words about my life in Huizhou.

Huizhou is what in China would be considered a small city (roughly 3.75 million people) in Guangdong Province, about a 90 minute drive from Hong Kong.

It is, according to Wikipedia, 'In the provincial economic development strategy, Huizhou is regarded as a site for a world-class petrochemical industry, as well as the hub for solidifying information technology, and expanding exports and trades'.

That about sums it up. The whole place is as bland and uninteresting as a foreign metropolis of almost 4 million can possibly be, dominated by Wal-Mart and KFC. Also, there are no toilets.

The students were nice, but I didn't have many teaching hours and most of my time was given over to looking at grad schools and reading every book in my possession, including:

- The Red and the Black
- The Beach
- Kiss Kiss (by Roald Dahl)
- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
- The King of Torts. That's right, I read a John Grisham novel

Sometimes, the gods punish you by granting what you ask for. I was feeling a bit cramped in Saigon and wanted to get out. Now that I'm back, it's never looked like such a cosmopolitan and exciting place.