Cao Dai and Cu Chi tunnels

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This morning we woke up and got to the travel office at around 7:30 to wait for the bus. 20 minutes later we walked with our tour guide to another office a few streets away where the buses met. This office was literally across the street from our hotel -- we could have had another hour of sleep! Anyways, after some confusion when other buses came to take people on other tours, we were on our minibus/minivan at 8:20. Our first stop was the standard in Viet Nam -- a visit to the Handicapped Handicrafts store. All of the tours stop at these places (we did going to Ha Long Bay too), but this one was pretty neat because here their specialty is with egg shells so they have a more difficult process to go through than in the north and we got to see each stage while they were working. I can't imagine having to do work like that -- it reminds me of when I was in China and saw them painting...the art is so tiny and they have to be so careful. I would never succeed in that line of work.

After this we were at the Cao Dai Temple. Our tour guide didn't tell us anything about it before going in and waited until after we were finished to answer whatever questions we might have. So I'll start from the top.
Here's what I knew going in: it is a mix of Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity, and Confucianism that was created in the 1930's and the followers wear white. Here's what I saw: a building of pastel multicolors.
When we walked in, there were worshippers sitting in the entranceway and some others that were sort of like guards so the tourists didn't walk into the middle of the temple. We took a stroll around and then went upstairs in the back and found some musicians waiting. We stood overlooking the first floor from the side balcony and a ceremony began. Only a few had on blue, yellow, and red robes while the others where all in white, some with black turbans (?) and some with white scarves (?). They walked in two lines and got into their formation and bowed, sat down, and the music and singing began. There was someone else at the far end by the large eyeball that was banging on a gong every now and then.
Back on the bus we asked some questions and here it is folks, from our tour guide who was quite the fountain of knowledge...
• "Cao Dai" means "High Palace"
• the religion was founded in 1936
• a virgin couple built this temple
• followers pray four times a day: 6-7, 12-13, 18-19, 24-00. This was the "ceremony" we thought we were going to see
• the ones in colored robes have been followers for the longest time and they apparently can choose which religion to follow (this part was not explained, what a surprise) and then wear color-coded robes: yellow for Buddhism, red for Confucianism, and blue for Taoism
• 10 days a month they do not eat meat

He also made some confusing description about their hands and labeled each finger and joint with different animals. No idea why, but they touch their thumb to their ring fingers and then their hands together to their foreheads when they pray.

After this we had a terrible, over-priced lunch and then another 1.5 hours on the minibus to the tunnels. When we got there we went right in and saw our first tunnel. One of the workers got inside and closed the cover and then some of our group did it. It really is amazing how covered and well-placed the openings are. You absolutely cannot see them. This is also true for the traps the Viet Cong used against the South and Americans -- mainly they made spikes out of bamboo and hid them under the ground. After all, this was a rural town and the people were pretty much all poor and had almost no real weapons apart from land mines...they had to steal what they could find from whatever the captured from the other side. We saw some of the weapons and clothes and their famous rubber shoes made from tires...these apparently could be put on backwards when they wanted the enemy to think they were running in the opposite direction. We went through one of the tunnels too -- I could fit if I hunched over, but Ronald and some others had to be on their hands and knees to get through. There was also an opportunity to fire an AK47, M16, or machine gun, but it was really expensive so only one person in our group did it. After this and last was a really bad "documentary" that was in black and white with old sound and looked like a propaganda film for the Viet Cong.

Coming back we waited in the rush-hour traffic for a loooong time but finally got back at around 19:00 and then went to dinner at La Cantina only a couple streets away. Ronald hasn't been feeling well so we moved our Mekong tour to Friday and will have a free day to relax and recoop tomorrow. Hopefully we'll hit the night market tomorrow night!

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Photos

example of a painting
pretty incredible

Cao Dai temple
I think it's in Tay Ninh, but it's outside of Saigon

Blue guy
Taoist apparently

chairs and eyeball
for...no idea. the pope maybe? the omniscient eye is int he background

first Cu Chi tunnel
the worker got in to show us its camoflauge

tunnel ventilation
...sneaky