Day 23 - Visiting Cao Dai Temple and Cu Chi Tunnels

Awaking after another rough night with restless sleep due to the cough and congestion, I ate breakfast at Saigon Mini Hotel 1 (small piece of watermelon, small banana and for me, cornflakes with yoghurt, juice, and coffee, and then I met my guide, Chung, for the Urban Adventures tour. We set out to pick up the others - one couple had changed hotels so we had to find them. There were two other couples, both from Australia, one from Sydney and one from Darwin.

The drive took about two hours to Tay Ninh, northwest of Ho Chi Minh City. First stop was a home stay for lunch which, as usual for the home cooked food was good. The young (late 20's ?) couple from Darwin were interesting - she is a travel agent, he some sort of government administrator. Both were dressed rather fashionably for this tour - he in designer jeans, shirt open, and she in a long black knit dress with cleavage showing. She had little interest in even tasting the food, claiming she had eaten a big breakfast, but finally under duress did submit to tasting some. The man Ryan, early on expressed great interest in being able to shoot a gun when we got to the Cu Chi tunnels (to be addressed later).

We left shortly before 12 PM to go to the nearby Cao Dai Great Temple built in 1927 for the 12 PM service. The guide book gives some background. This religion was started by Ngo Van Chieu in the 1920's who was contacted during a séance by a superior spirit calling itself "Cao Dai" or high place, instructed him in its principles in the use of the Divine Eye to represent the spirit's existence. There were additional revelations and the religion developed based on a universal god and fusing Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism and elements of Muslim and Christianity. The five commandments are: avoid killing living beings, high living, covetousness, verbal deceipt, and temptations of the flesh. During WWII, the Cao Dai were anti-French, but then during the French war fought against the Viet Minh (precursors of the Viet Cong). There are now 3,000,000 followers. The pictures show the service which was solemn and meditative, accompanied by music played by a small group of musicians in the balcony at the rear. Those dressed in yellow, blue, and red represent Buddhist, Taoist, and Confucian elements.

After spending quite a bit of time at the service (we stayed longer than any other tourists) we left for the Cu Chi tunnels. The actual site we went to had reconstruction of the original tunnels to demonstrate to the tourists. These tunnels were built by the ant-colonial Viet Minh in the 1940's, primarily to store arms. They were later expanded by the Viet Cong so that by 1965 there were 250 km of multi-level tunnels in the area with one section running directly under the American army base at Cu Chi. The Viet Cong lived in these tunnels for years with challenges faced including removing soil after digging by hand, developing air supply, sanitation, insects, scorpions, and snakes, providing outlets for smoke from cooking and all completely camouflaged. Booby traps were built for the Americans. The tunnels were too small for most Americans to fit in them. The Americans were unsuccessful in flushing the Viet Cong out of the tunnels.

Seeing these tunnels, the traps and reconstructions of the Viet Cong's life, and entering one and crawling through was mind-boggling. There were several displays of weapons, a display of an American tank the Viet Cong had blown up, and real bomb crater from a bomb dropped by a B-52. The war had been fought right where we were. There was one area where one could, for a price, fire a weapon (see comment above). Walking through this area with the background noise of frequent gunshots was surreal and distressing. I spoke briefly with an Australian man about my age walking out who had avoided by 16 days being conscripted into the Australian army to fight in the war. In our brief conversation, we shared the mixed and very confusing and disturbing feelings we had about being there.

Then a drive back to HCM City to arrive around rush hour. Traffic is not good in HCM City, but a definite improvement over Hanoi. The major roads in and out of the city have separate sections for motor scooters and for cars and trucks. People actually stop at red lights and there are many more traffic signals. I found, in general, that it was easier to cross the street in HCM City than in Hanoi which was just insane!

The guide, Chung, a young man in his early 30's, also works as a tennis coach. He is quite bright, very well read, and speaks English very well. I enjoyed his observations and comments throughout the day (and as this is a late entry) he and I are now connected on Facebook.

Once back at the hotel, I took his recommendation and went to a small nearby restaurant for dinner, the Kim Café, and then back to the room to organize for the next day's departure and check-out and hopefully to get some decent sleep.