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The Holy See was founded in 1926 in Tay Ninh Province in South Vietnam. The complex is enormous and houses amongst other things, The Cao Dai Great Temple. A mystic called Ngo Minh founded Cao Daism; he studied both eastern and western religions and was a great communicator with "the other side". The Cao Dai religion is a mixture of Buddhism, Taoism and also has some Confucian influences, followers of the religion believe in one god, the existence of the soul and communication with the spirit world. Spirits who have been in touch with the Cao Dai include Joan of Arc, William Shakespeare and Victor Hugo. Most of the Cao Dai’s literature has been communicated to its leaders in seances. Both men and women can become clergy but only the men are allowed to make the highest ranks.
Obviously after reading up on this interesting religion we wanted to learn more so booked ourselves on a tour that included a visit to The Cao Dai Great Temple. The temple holds four ceremonies daily, one at 6am, another at noon, one at 6pm and the last one at midnight, as part of our tour we were promised a chance to
The Divine Eye
Inside the temple the congregation face The Divine Eyeenter the temple for the noon mass. We arrived at The Holy See at 11.45am and after leaving our shoes outside entered the massive colourful temple via the side entrance where we were ushered upstairs to the balcony. The mass consisted of singing and music - the band were seated upstairs in the balcony close to us, there was no dialogue and we didn’t see anything that resembled a bible. The clergy wore Red, Yellow or Blue robes and were seated on the floor in the centre of the main hall with the congregation in white robes seated to the rear on either side. The roof of the temple is painted to look like the sky with white fluffy clouds, at the front end of the hall is a dome supported by columns entwined with dragons, the dome represents the heavens. Under the dome is a massive blue glittery globe with the “divine eye” on it. In front of the globe are several chairs one of which is reserved for The Pope, the position of Pope has remained empty since 1933. We stayed for the full length of the service - the congregation were quite reserved but a few of
them pointed us in the right direction to get better vantage points for photo’s. Outside after the mass an old man approached me still wearing his red robes and signalled that he wanted to have his photograph taken, he waited eagerly to see himself on the screen, according to the guide books the people seldom grant permission for their photo’s to be taken so we must have caught the old guy on a good day!!!
As part of the tour we got to visit the Ben Dinh Tunnels at Cu Chi. The tunnels enabled the Viet Cong to take control of a large area of rural land during the 1960’s when they were at war with the South Vietnamese and the Americans. The tunnel network was several storeys deep, housed storage facilities, hospitals, weapons factories, kitchens and living areas. The tunnels have been made bigger so that it’s possible for tourists to enter them and get a real taste of what it must have been like for the communists who spent weeks at a time under ground. Before entering the "tourist" tunnels we were shown the REAL tunnel entrances - tiny holes big enough in our opinion only for
Protective Dragons
The congregation are protected from evil by the dragons children to get into. We also saw some of the traps that the VC used during the war….very nasty!!! The area around Cu Chi was known as the iron triangle because there was so much shrapnel lying around, it was re-claimed by the VC and made into weapons and bombs by the women in the underground factories. The tunnels were so well hidden from the enemy that the VC could come out from one of the many entrances scattered around the jungle and kill men before going back underground via trapdoors without being detected. We met a couple in Nha Trang who had been to Cu Chi so we knew what to expect, the girl told me that she’d missed the escape exits because she was concentrating so much on not panicking and ended up having to go the full 250m length of the tunnel - doesn’t sound like a long way until you get down there!!!
Barry decided that he wanted to video the whole episode, which meant that I had to go first into the bowels of hell…..Not an exaggeration by the way!! The entrance wasn’t too bad, we followed the guide down the steps into a
Colourful Robes
The clergy wear Red, Yellow or Blue smallish area that was very well lit and not at all claustrophobic; the next thing we knew the guide had disappeared and we were left to literally find our way by following the tiny red lights that had been dug into the right hand side wall of the tunnel. It was unbelievably hot down there; the air was musty and damp. The worse thing about it was the fact that you knew you couldn’t turn back, you had a queue of tourists behind you and besides that there simply wasn’t room to turn around let alone pass by another body. The tunnels have been excavated to 80cm wide by 1.2m high - like I said it was the bowels of hell, god only knows how they lived down there. After scrambling past two tiny red bulbs I felt my way around a corner into total blackness, it lasted for only a meter or so until the next red bulb came into view but it felt like ages. The stress on your legs and lungs as you navigate the tunnels is painful and after 45 seconds I was feeling like I was going to suffocate…..I suddenly started to panic in case
The guide exiting the REAL Tunnel
The US soldiers called these "spider holes" because they were so tiny I missed the escape exit but remembered that Barry had said to look for the sun coming through from above so that I didn’t miss it. Apparently there are 3 escapes along the 250m stretch but I wanted to get out as quick as possible. All the time you’re underground you can hear the echoes of people ahead fumbling and moaning as they try to get through and you realise that it’s only going to get worse!! After approximately 50 metres and what felt like a lifetime I spotted the sunbeams. “This is where I get out” I called out behind me to Barry who was still trying to video the whole performance - I was surprised when he emerged into the jungle behind me, I imagined he’d have gone the full distance as this was one of the things that he really wanted to experience on our trip to Vietnam. In fact he was finding it impossible to get through the tunnels with the camera so he’d decided to come out and hand the camera over to me before going back down underground - to do this he had to start back at the beginning. It wasn’t just me
There's NO WAY I'm getting in that
The US soldiers called these "Fox Holes" - slighty bigger than the "spider holes" but still not big enough for tourists that made a sharp exit - quite a few in our group did too (not all girls either). I was terrified that Barry was going to collapse down there or have a panic attack so was relieved when after a few minutes he re-emerged at the final exit…….he’d completed it from start to finish!! He was dripping in sweat and his thighs were in agony but at least he did it. He said that in parts you could feel yourself going down a level and at one point he was on his stomach and could feel the roof of the tunnel on his back…………good job I got out when I did, I’m sure I wouldn’t have lived to tell the tale!! Our tour guide Minh was brought up in the Cu Chi area and was an Interpreter for the US during the war, he told us afterwards that he’d only ever been into the tunnels once in all the time he’d been bringing tourists there because he found them too horrific.
After such a traumatic time in the tunnels we thought a few drinks were in order back in HCMC. We'd tried the famous Rex Hotel for a few
Entering "the bowels of hell" for the second time!!
At the bottom of the steps it gets narrower, lower and darker drinks on a previous night and it was really lovely, also we'd given the Caravelle a whirl.....my god it was sooooo expensive!! Tonight we reckoned the best place (and cheapest) to reflect on our day was at the local Bia Hoi bar close to the hotel, we decided to spend £1 on beer - I don’t really drink beer but after the tunnels I was on a roll and thought I could stomach anything. The Bia Hoi bar doubles as a shoe shop in the day but come 6pm the shoes are cast aside, tables are put in place and the beer flows freely…….well it might as well be free because at
11p per litre it’s not going to make much of a dent in your pocket!!! Five litres later and we’d only managed to spend 50p, this MUST be the cheapest beer in the world, needless to say we staggered back to our room and had a great pair of hangovers the next day.
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jonny red
non-member comment
my round!
Hey ,!!p a litre? I am going there tomorrow and bringing a suitcase of it back! Mind you, I bet it dont taste like the Mild beer in the Crows Nest! Cheers!!!