SE Asia 2014 Day 3

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After breakfast at the hotel, we are off to Cu Chi to visit the underground city that developed there during the Vietnam war. It is a beautiful day–already 30ºC and very humid, with a bright blue sky speckled by clouds.

As our bus glides through the ocean of motorbikes, we take in the Saigon atmosphere. The basic building style in the city is a narrow building of from 2 to 8 storeys, stacked tightly together. There are endless rows of these units along Saigon streets. Typically, the ground floor is a shop of some kind, and the upper levels are homes or apartments. As in the market we visited yesterday, the shops tend to cluster by type; so, for example, there will be a series of furniture stores, then a group of women's clothing stores, and so on.

Saigon is vibrant and messy. Buildings and sidewalks are hodgepodges, bearing the visible legacy of past and present projects. Electrical and telephone wires snake like tropical vines around each other, creating impenetrable nests on street poles at junction points. I can't imagine how they figure out how to fix connection problems. Daily life and work tend to spill out of doors, sometimes right on to the sidewalks. I start to realize that the Vietnamese do not make the same clear distinction that we do between indoors and outdoors. Regrettably, people drop trash everywhere, although small armies of workers do their best to keep on top of it. Still, there are inevitable pile-ups of trash around corners.

Occasional parks break up the dense urban sprawl. Some of them are beautiful, oases of calm amid the hurly-burly. As in China, you can see groups of people in the parks exercising, dancing and singing, as well as playing sports like soccer, badminton and table tennis.

The traffic is dense and chaotic, but because everyone plays by the same set of rules, it all works out. The basic rule for motorcyclists is to proceed firmly and evenly in the direction you want to go, but to gracefully yield right-of-way when absolutely necessary. Generally, speeds are slow. People don't rush but take their time and take their turn when they have to. Horns are used constantly to warn those ahead that you are going to pass. Other than these rules, the sky's the limit. You can ride your motorbike on the sidewalk, in the oncoming lane, along pedestrian crossing, even right over the meridian, if you can get away with it.

We pass by some modern shopping malls, a soccer stadium, schools and government buildings. Gradually the buildings start to shrink, giving way to greenery, palm trees, farms and rice paddies. Water buffalo are common. Besides rice, other crops like fruit, nut trees and tapioca are grown. We also pass through a rubber plantation. A.J. tells us that fortunes were made on rubber in the early 2000s.

Eventually, we reach our destination, Cai Be. This area northeast of Saigon was of high strategic importance during the Vietnam war, and the Americans launched several campaigns to subdue the area. As a result, much of the population moved underground, digging a complex of rooms and tunnels where entire families lived for sometimes years. Today it has been transformed into a tourist attraction.

We start with a video of the story of the region during the Vietnam war. The Americans are vilified as villains wanting to snuff our the peaceful lives of the villagers for no particular reason. We then tour the grounds, where we are able to see some of the entrances to the underground facilities and visit recreated bunkers, living quarters, hospitals, etc. For the adventurous, it is possible to climb into selected tunnels and squeeze along to the next exit. There are several displays of the insidious traps planted in the jungle to kill and maim American soldiers, as well as displays of captured American armaments and shells, including an entire tank. Towards the end, right by the cafeteria where people are eating their noodles, there is of all things a shooting range, where for a fee visitors can fire off live rounds from vintage machine guns.

A very interesting and educational experience. But, to my mind, the whole concept is somewhat macabre and, in a way, disrespectful to both the Vietnamese protecting their homeland and the hapless American soldiers doing what they were told to do.

Our next destination is Tay Ninh, the home of an ecumenical religion called Cao Dai, which aims to combine the best of Buddhism, Christianity, Taoism, Confucianism and Islam. The Cao Dai Great Temple itself is a marvelous creation, almost Disney-esque in conception, with cotton-candy domes and vivid painted columns. It is located on a huge park-like area with spacious boulevards and elaborate gardens. We arrive just in time to catch the end of the noontime service. The lines of hundreds of devotees, all dressed in identical white frocks, swaying, chatting and singing together is impressive. The service over, the white frocks pour out of the church, hop onto their motorcycles and zoom away. We tarry for a time in the impressive flower garden, then reboard the bus to head back to Saigon.

We stop for lunch at a roadside restaurant that combines Chinese and Vietnamese cuisines. The eating area is open-air, and despite several hard-working fans, it is stifling. The food is excellent, however.

We still have about a 3-hour bus ride ahead us because of anticipated rush-hour traffic. About halfway, we stop for a break at a spot that is a particular favourite of A.J.'s because of the sugar-cane drink they make and serve there. We watch the young girls running raw sugar cane stalks repeatedly through a manual press to extract the juice. A.J. also buys everyone servings of tapioca root in coconut milk, an interesting concoction. As we sip our sugar-cane drinks and sample the tapioca while watching the raucous interplay of Vietnamese life unfolding around us in all its messy glory and intense smells and sounds, I experience an "Anthony Bourdain" moment. This is why we travel.

Back on the bus to complete the long trip back to Saigon. Supper is a boat cruise on the Saigon River. The boats are festooned with lights in imaginative shapes. Our boat sports gigantic wings. The supper follows the usual pattern of several small courses served consecutively, typically a salad-like dish to start, sometimes followed by a soup, then two or three "protein" dishes, then a rice dish, then fruit for dessert. A small group of performers entertain us after supper with traditional songs and dances. Looking outside, we can see the downtown Saigon cityscape on one side, with many buildings sporting impressive light displays, and the port facilities on the other side, where, even at this hour, cargo is being loaded and unloaded.

Along very full day and we are happy to return to our hotel for bed.

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