Friday, September 22, 2006






I never thought I'd be so technical and I never thought I'd have the capability to do this from all the way across the world, but here I am. Acutally I'm living in the lap of luxury, we're currently staying in District 2 in Saigon, aka Ho Chi Minh...we were told it's still referred to as Saigon as a matter of history & tradition. Were living for the weekend at a house that used to be occupied by the prime minister & is now occupied by a couple we'll be doing some volunteer work for through an organization called East Meets West (more to follow about that soon). We'll be staying at this same house for 3 weeks in October when the couple goes to the U.S...the house has granite floors, stairs, and walls, a nice, large pool in the back yard, 7 bathrooms, and a staff of 10 (chauffer, cooks, maids, etc...) today I had a massage & facial poolside!! I digress...

Many of you have been requesting photos, which is largely why I started the blog, those you see so far were taken in Tibet, which are some of the best. Then I'll back track and post a few from China, then I'll jump ahead to Nepal and my current location, Vietnam. All in all so far I've been to Nanchung & Chengdu (China), Lhasa (Tibet), Kathmandu (Nepal), Mui Ne & Saigon (Vietnam). We only stayed in Kathmandu a week because of political protests & riots due to Maoist activity. It wasn't necessarily unsafe and they don't necessarily target tourists or Americans, although they do throw stones if you happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. We found it extremely difficult to get around because the streets would be blocked and the taxi drivers would threaten to strike, so we decided it didn't makes sense to be stuck in a hotel room, moved on sooner than we'd planned, but may go back later when things settle down.

Alrighty, I'm anxious to post more photos & post this blog as my first test page....so far I can only post 5 photos at a time. FEEL FREE TO WRITE/POST COMMENTS!!!!!

Much love to each and every one of you,
Lori

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

YAY, Lori has a BLOG. Good for you. The photos are awesome, I really enjoy reading!

xoxo
Lori

Anonymous said...

give us more of the local flavor ie whats the temperature how crowded is it thee what do things cost in us dollars etc keep up the good work enjoy your reports -- your biggest fan.

LDB said...

To anonymous (my biggest fan)....
the weather everywhere we've been so far is hot, hot, hot!! it's coming on the tail end of the rainy season in vietnam, but mostly the morning & early afternoon is sunny & nice, then rain, thunder & lightening comes in the evening & at night. i quite enjoy a thunderstorm at night while i'm going to sleep.

saigon isn't too crowded, but there are TONS of motorbikes on the roads & crossing the street feels like participating in a game of Frogger (remember the old video game from the 80s?). i often wonder how one learns to drive and what the first time behind the wheel feels like....another thing we've enjoyed is seeing the many things people cart on their motorbikes, such as large tvs, window-sized panes of glass, their dogs, and an entire family of 6!!

costs here are CHEAP, CHEAP, CHEAP!
a typical meal is anywhere from $2-4, in fact i had a HUGE platter of fresh crab right on the beach for $9. beer is at most $1.50. most hotel rooms are $10 at most, which usually include breakfast, sometimes a refrigerator, and sometimes free internet service. internet otherwise about $.50 for an hour. a taxi ride to town from the palatial house we've been staying at is around $4 for about a 20 minute ride. the ladies that work here at the house also do sewing & tailoring work, i've had them make me 3 skirts, 1 blouse, and 1 dress for about $100 total including labor and fabric. so, it's definitely affordable here & you're money goes very far!!

p.s. anonymous, my biggest fan, email me to let me know who you are, unless you want to keep you're anonymity, i am intrigued, however!