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Now I hate guided tours and everything about them - being herded into buses, only having set times in places and having to listen to the guide go on and on.....
So what do we do, we booked a day tour to see the Cao Dai temple and the
Củ Chi tunnels (Wikipedia's article linked here is great) . As we have no means of transport ourselves, and there is no way I would get on a moped here, this was the only way to see these as they are about 75km out of Ho Chi Minh.
The journey out to the cathedral, heading northwest out of Saigon on Highway One, is lined with pancake flat paddy fields and farmland. Its' present day tranquillity belies the ferocious fighting experienced here during wars of previous decades. Tay Ninh District is virtually encompassed by the foreboding lands of Cambodia, and the imposing Nui Ba Den - Black Lady Mountain -holds its lofty head high above.
I found this description on the Internet and it is a good one:
"Cao Dai actually means "palace or high tower", which is suitably apt. Built in 1927, the massive nine-story Cao Dai Temple is part cathedral and part pagoda. It
is also a rude assault on your eyeballs. No signposts are required for this one, just a massive gateway signaling your arrival. Sunglasses may be obligatory not only for the brilliant mid-day light but also the outrageous mixtures of colours, icons and detail that greet you - and that's before you have even stepped inside the temple. Fluorescent shades of pinks and yellows scream out from its exteriors and rococo walls and mosaic-mirrored tiles glint in the sun. A giant Divine Eye beams down sandwiched between two grand square towers. It appears like a Disneyland debacle constructed of sugary candyfloss. The buildings' weird mixture of styles, colours and icons found both in the interior and exterior mirror the hot-potch of religious ideals. Indigenous to Vietnam, Cao Dai, is in fact a fusion of the best from Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism, with Christianity and Islam thrown in for good measure. Their hierarchy closely resembles the Roman Catholic Church and their colour scheme seems lifted straight from a Hindu Temple. Cao Daoism was founded in Vietnam only as recently as the 1920's as the answer to the ultimate ideal religion and insists that its' earth-based intermediaries or messengers include such luminaries as
The Cao Dai Temple
Its the front. Isn't it exciting.William Shakespeare, Joan of Arc and Napoleon Bonaparte!
Within what is in fact the sects' main headquarters, males must enter on the right and females to the left and shoes have to be removed before entering the massive main hall. From the bustle, heat and dust of the outside world comes inside the Cathedral immediately a sense of calm, peace and light.
Ever-increasing numbers of international tourists silently pad around in sticky feet, politely inquiring whether they can take photos. Serene white-robed persons waft through as if on another planet. Mingling with the visitors and attending to offerings, they surprisingly do not seem to feel invaded and happily answer inane questions. The Divine Eye encased in a triangle is a recurring motif on both walls and ceilings. Gaudy pink pillars guarding the sacred inner nave are intertwined with snarling green dragons complete with elongated red tongues. Fluffy clouds, stars, bright pink lotus blooms and a huge glittery blue sphere above make this temple appear like a far-out hallucination seen through illegal substances. After extensively checking out the extraordinary murals and central altar - which is heavenly adorned with fruit, flowers - and curiously statues of storks - it's
My hand
Aristi demanded that I take more photos. This was my response.
Fight the power!
;) time to observe the ceremonies. The sects' services are held four times a day - the most convenient one and appropriately the most heavily attended is the midday service. Many tour buses schedule this into their day trips. Before the ceremony is about to commence, you are led up a narrow stairwell. Just behind the main balcony, a small string band accompanies the dozens of upwardly moving feet with weird and wonderful music. Once upstairs, you are then led onto the balcony, which runs the entire length of the cathedral. This holds a frightening amount of inquisitive on-lookers, who all peer down on the proceedings. There is hushed silence up in the gods and an air of growing anticipation The Cao Dai worshippers spill out from annexes below, adorned in either white, red, blue or yellow flowing robes, signifying the Buddhist, Taoist and Confucian elements. Those with peculiar white pointy hats, emblazoned with that Omni-present eye, are in fact the priests of the sect. The sound of gongs now accompanies them as they take their positions on the vast floorspace below. Rows and rows of gracefully attired worshippers kneel down before the elevated altar. Gongs now beat time with the
Amazing!
By an incredibly improbable coincidence we found an exact waxwork model replica of Aristi within the temple - how weird is that!? string instruments and harmonious voices chant like in some surreal dream. It almost seems sacrilegious to take photographs but amazingly, it's allowed and is an awesome photographic opportunity not to be missed. Friends' back home won't believe the descriptions of this cosmic temple, so you may find it to be a necessity.
The increasingly bolder music, uplifted off-tone singing and swirling incense is almost hypnotic. But after a while, the excitement of the proceedings dies off a little. The stuffy air, crowds and repetitive hymns make the eyes glaze over the dozens of souls below and loose a sense of reality. The service can last about forty-five minutes so many voyeurs at this point politely take their leave. "
It was worth going to see but it is a very Art Deco thing, if you get what I mean.
Next stop, the Cu Chi tunnels. The tunnels of Củ Chi are an immense network of connecting underground tunnels located in the Củ Chi district of Vietnam, and are part of a much larger network of tunnels that underlie much of the country. The Củ Chi tunnels were the location of several military campaigns during the Vietnam War,
and were the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam's base of operations for the Tết Offensive in 1968.
The tunnels were used by NLF guerrillas literally as live-in villages during the day... Allowing dug in troops to face normally insummountable odds both nullifying artillary and air support and acting as a death trap to any enemy that had the guts to enter the rats nest of tunnels. They also served as hospitals, food and weapon caches and living quarters for numerous guerrilla fighters.
We were shown booby traps that had been set up to capture American soldiers - or rather, hurt and kill them. We were shown around the various village huts (sat in deep holes with only a roof above ground) - hospital, dining room etc, before being led to the shooting range where one could fire a bullet from an AK47, M16 or even an M60 (thats a heavy machine gun for the unaware) amongst others for 1.3US dollars.
This fascination with providing tourists with opportunities to "have a go" is quite depressing in some ways, I am not sure it is a good thing considering the history - the same applies to
Guide in a hole
Despite the small size of the hole, countless numbers of people seem to fall into it. Cambodia. However quite a few people in our group stepped up. The noise was scary in itself. Apparently the reason why the guns are now mounted on rails (a fairly new change) was due to a South Korean Tourist emptying a clip into the target and then shooting himself in the head with the last bullet...
We then had the opportunity to go into the tunnels. They had apparently widened them to be twice as wide and high as they were during the war, and at present they are about 55cm wide by about 90cm high. We all crawled 100 m and that was enough.
Beedge: I've have to say it was the most claustrophobic experience I've ever had. The tunnels were extremely cramped (I had to crawl though Aristi could just about crouch and walk) very very hot, pitch black (no torch duh!)... the levels changed throughout, with twists and turns, and you had to sometimes climb down to the next level! Together with all that, they sent all the tourists down in one big line. Really silly. I wouldn't be surprised if someone had had a panic attack down there - but I guess most people
Tunnel Diarama
Before we saw the tunnel complex we got to see a special propoganda video about the US and the 'puppet soliders' of the South. There was also this diarama of the tunnels - pretty good idea of what it was like too. willing to get in it must know they'll be okay. Apparently a month before we came a German tourist had a heart attack down there and died... its a morbid thought, but I have to wonder how long it would have taken to get the body out.
It gave us a good idea of what it must have been like then.
Our tour guide actually fought in the Vietnam War (on the South side with America). He had a lot to say and it was interesting. On the way back, he said that America and Vietnam are friends now and the 4.5 million tourists who come every year would bring foreign investment to the country.
As I said before, I don't like tours, but this was worth doing, especially at 5US dollars per person.
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