Temples and Tunnels

The fourth day was our trip to the Cao Dai temple and the Cu Chi Tunnels.

Another early morning, we got on the bus to the Cao Dai temple. We ate lunch at an astoundingly early 10 30 AM, but it was the only way to do it if we wanted to catch the noon Cao Dai ceremony.

The lunch was another constant barrage of food, which was much enjoyable. They didn't charge me for my water, so I got away with a free water bottle. They were charging double what it should be anyway.

Cao Dai is a very new religion. It is sort of a combination of many other eastern religions, and their temple was beautiful. The eye in the pyramid is their thing, similar to the emblem on the dollar bills.

We took of our shoes and went inside. The rules were that we could take pictures of the inside, just not pictures of OURSELVES inside of it. We took our pictures and walked around and then headed up to where we could watch the ceremony.

Many people wearing white robes followed a few people wearing red and yellow robes into the middle of the temple as music played. Then we stood there and watched them pray. Not the most interesting thing in the world, but the music was good.

The highlight, though, were the Cu Chi tunnels. It is where the Vietcong hid during the Vietnamese war. They developed some amazing ways of digging and living underground. We climbed through two of the original tunnels. The first one was incredible dark and there were bats whizzing by our heads. We saw booby traps that were scattered around the jungle and learned a lot about the survival techniques of the Vietcong.

Our tour guide, Mai, was incredible. She looked like was was 30 at the most, but was actually 52. She came from a very rich family, never having to lift a finger for herself. When communism came around, her whole family fell apart. She fled Vietnam when she was 22, was forced to drink diesel on the boat out of Vietnam, and made it to Canada. She came back to Vietnam in 1993 (circa) to be a tour guide and get away from her father, for reasons I am not sure. Someone needs to document this woman's story, but it cannot go untold for any longer.

She has no nationality. Her father is Chinese, but she was born in Vietnam. The Vietnamese say she is Chinese. But Canada and China say she is Vietnamese. She explained this in more detail then I can remember, but you get the idea.

She taught us so much about the history of that time in Vietnam, and I left with a much greater understanding.