Mike'Station: 11.10.2010 - Caodai and Cu Chi Tunnel Tour

We woke up on a gloomy morning in HCMC. Came back to stay at the same hotel before we left for the Mekong delta tour. As the Chinese saying, cheap and nice.

Opposite our hotel was this odd-looking An An Hotel jutting out into the sky. The reason being, land in HCMC was very limited and expensive. So, if you have no land to extend your premise sideways, you go upwards, of course. And so the 9-storey hotel rose up among a row of double-storey shop houses.

View from our hotel balcony. That Crazy Buffalo pub was a landmark in De Tham street. And those electrical wires would drive TNB electricians crazy.

Typical Vietnamese breakfast: pho with a large basket of vegetables (didn't touch any of the content), small table and chairs.

We took a 1-day tour today to visit the Caodai temple and Cu Chi Tunnels. Those places were out of town, and travelling independantly would be time-consuming, so taking a local tour was the logical choice. Only USD$8 per person, and free-of-charge for Ryan.

What on earth was Caodaism? (I always misread it as Keldaism). It was a religion made in Vietnam for Vietnam, combining teachings of Taoism, Buddhism, Confucianism and Christianity. They believed that the many religions in the world came from a same god, but has caused much disunity. So the god of the universe chose the Caodai religion to reunite mankind. That's why macam-macam ada.

The HQ of Caodaism was this temple in Tay Ninh city, about 90km northwest of HCMC. 'Cao dai' meant 'high platform' in Mandarin.

Our guide Thomas explained about Caodai religion in front of the main temple.

Ryan riding the cute and colorful lion statues.

There were a few smaller temples surrounding the main one.

Ryan telling the story of the big fish that got away.

A worshiper getting ready for the noon mass. The Caodais have four masses each day, at six hour intervals.

Playing around in the compound while waiting.

Male worshipers waiting for the noon mass to begin. The guy in the middle looked a bit like Tok Guru Nik Aziz don't you think so.

Caodaism believed that god of the universe was symbolized by the divine eye on the globe.

Elaborately decorated chairs in the temple hall.

This uncle looked like a Taoist monk. Apparently the dress code signified which way of teaching the believers followed... yellow for Taoism, red for Christianity, white for Confusionism... something like that.

The worshipers entered the hall with full reverence.

The noon mass in progress. We saw only old folks mainly. Maybe the younger believers were away working.

Colorful wasn't it. Same color scheme as our Malaysian flag.

A bit of Islamic flavor too.

Tourists were allowed to view the mass, but from upstairs only.

The worship leaders.

The backup singers and the musicians.

The music and chanting sounded very repetitive... a bit like the music played during a Chinese funeral.

There was this painting at the entrance of the temple, depicting three saints signing a covenant with God. Guess who they were... Sun Yat Tsen from China, Victor Hugo from France, and Nguyen Binh Khiem from Vietnam.

From Tay Ninh we turned back towards HCMC, stopping at the famous Cu Chi Tunnels. It began to rain, but thank God the rain stopped when we reached the tunnels.

The tour in Cu Chi Tunnels started with a black-and-white video presentation, with the theme of cruel-Americans-and-brave-Vietnamese. In those days, the Americans based in South Vietnam wanted to stop of flow of communist support and supplies coming downwards from North Vietnam. So they bombed the forests and sprayed a herbicide called Agent Orange to wipe out the forests so that the communists had no place to hide. But they didn't expect the Viet Congs to outsmart them by building a 120km-long network of underground tunnels to launch guerrilla attack against the Americans. Clever!

Maybe the Viet Congs got the concept from the ants. Imagine surviving in such conditions for 20 years, gosh!

The original size of entrance to the tunnels on the ground.

Some entrances have been made bigger to accommodate orang puteh waistlines.

So big that even an elephant could go in.

Fake tunnels for little boys to play inside.

You wouldn't want to mess around with these booby traps.

There was a shooting range where tourists could play firing bullets from antique guns used during the Vietnam War.

Choose your gun.

Then buy the bullets.

Having very limited resources, the Viet Congs had to survive with many modifications. One of which was this Uncle Ho Sandals, made from tyres of US Army trucks that were destroyed. Simple, yet very durable.

Many sizes available, from baby-size ones for tourists, to Goliath-size ones to scare the American soldiers off. Looking footprint of those sandals, the American soldiers could not make out which direction the Viet Cong was going.