Religion and War with Jason Super Star

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Today it was show time with our guide, Jason Super Star. He is very good guide and an amazing entrepreneur. Unlike most guides, he is self-employed and gets his clients on the internet, primarily from TripAdvisor.com. I had a clue as to what to expect since the emails I received from him usually had 4 or 5 fonts, multiple font sizes and a rainbow of colors – no Ariel 10pt black for Jason. The van was old, but it had a DVD player and he showed us two documentaries as we left Saigon, one about why the US lost the war and one about Kim Phuc who is the woman whose picture became an icon for the barbarity of the war. She was the 9 year-old as she ran screaming towards a camera having been seriously burned by napalm. Our first stop was the site of this attack and the Cao Dai temple where the local people had been hiding before fleeing to the street in fear of being bombed. Cao Dai is a pantheistic religion that includes Buddhism, Hinduism, and Confucianism and then throws in Islam, Christianity and anything else that someone believes in. There are more than 6 million followers in southern Vietnam. Jack took a lot of photos. The next stop was the headquarters for the Cao Dai faith. Their temple took more than 2h. Their temple took more than 20 years to complete, from 1933 – 1955. While we were waiting for the noon service we amused ourselves watching a local woman feed a troop of cute little monkeys. No one seemed to know the breed, but we took lots of pictures for Jess who is particularly fond of monkeys.
The main building was beautiful and we stayed for half of the hour long service. The participants sat in well ordered rows while a small chorus chanted from the balcony. While we were waiting our guide struck up a conversation with four local 10 year-old girls who were sent to observe by their teacher. With some coaxing, one of them read to us from her textbook about Helen who was sick with spots and told by the doctor to stay home from school. They were very cute and accomplished.
The final event of the day was a visit to the Cu Chi tunnels. Unlike the tunnels we saw in the DMZ, these tunnels were the base for fighting rather than hiding. There are miles and miles of them which crisscrossed under a major military base. The ground was also heavy clay which enabled the Vietcong to carve the tunnels and then the exposed dirt hardened to prevent collapse. We had a demonstration of a variety of booby traps that were deadly to anyone who stepped into one of them - really gruesome. The guide pointed out how the tunnels were constructed to permit ventilation and route smoke from cooking yards away so if would not disclose the location of the tunnel to air surveillance. The one opening that had not been enlarged for tourists was too small for me to enter and I’m actually relatively small. Part of the visit is having the opportunity to shot the weapons that were used in the conflict. Jack and I opted for the AK-47 which was what was used by the North Vietnamese and Vietcong. According to the Vietnamese it was the superior weapon primarily because of its durability, ease of use and simple construction. Supposedly even a child could and did use it. My shots were uniformly too high. I guess I was not cut out to be a guerilla fighter. Both of us were surprised by the noise and only imagine how difficult it would be in a firefight if you didn’t have ear protection. We took a pass on visiting a village where people who have significant disabilities because of exposure to Agent Orange make ceramics. It would be too hard to see. The photo exhibit at the War Remembrance Museum was more than I could deal with. It seems that people who have these disabilities suffer discrimination and are discouraged from having children. The problem affects millions of people in a small, poor country.

By the end of the day, Jason Super Star provided us with two DVDs documenting our day and incorporating background material. There were lots of images of Kim Phuc as he documented her story repeatedly. The presentation was a mix of video clips and still photography that included images that flew in, rotated, split and then rejoined came in and out of focus and emerged from the background. It was dizzying. On top of the presentation he superimposed balloons, hearts and snow and set the whole thing to music. If I can get them off the CD he gave us, I’ll post Jack and I crawling through the tunnels and my tea service in the underground bunker of the Viet Cong commander in the area.

We had left at 7:30 and arrived back at 6 hot and dirty. We had an 8:30 fitting scheduled with the tailor and it was pouring, so we had a quick bite in the hotel. Neither of us had the energy for much else. All in all, thanks to Jason Super Star and our experiences with the Cao Dai temples and the Cu Chi tunnels it was a great day.

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