Vietnam Day III - Deep in the earth & AK47

We took an organized tour to the Cu Chi Tunnels and the Cao Dai Temple by the Delta Adventure Tours today.

Our guide of the day, Minh

We started my day with a strong aroma Vietnam coffee, bread and egg. Our tour guide company rep picked us up from guest house at 8am. The bus journey to the Cao Dai temple was about 3 hours long. In Vietnam, they did sound the horn very often but unlike in Cambodia, their road condition was better. They have 2 lanes along the way. Hence less horns and not continuously and not that irritating.

Along the way, we passed by paddy fields and small villages. Though Cambodia was just miles away, but the living standard was different. Here, almost every house was powered by electric and has TVs at home. Antenna can be seen shooting up. And almost all houses were made of bricks. No more wooden house here. Mostly have a fencing or gate and they were build on ground. I remembered most houses in rural area of Cambodia was raised on 4 pillars.

The great craftmen

En route, we went to the Handicap Handicraft center. We visited the factory where the crafts were produced. The master piece was unique and so detailed. However to to our budget constrained, we purchased nothing there. Wishing them all the best!

With the master pieces

An hour ride later, we arrived at the Caodai Holy See. This complex housed the Caodai Great Temple of Caodaism religion. This was a local founded religion. It was a combination of Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, native Vietnamese spiritualism, Christianity and Islam.

the symbol of the Cao Dai

The Great Temple Complex

The great temple was impressive. It has dragon pillars of 2 stories high. Pillars surrounding the globe of eye. I believed that the globe was the symbol of the believe. On the great altar, you would see the many religious icons...Buddha, Jade Emperor, Jesus and I could never imagine that all these could be placed together under 1 roof...what a harmony world!

look at the goddess icon in the Great Temple

pillars of the world

The ritual or the prayer session was well mannered. There were rules for everything, the seating, bow and etc.



Our lunch today sucked...very expensive!

The Cu Chi Tunnel was build hidden in the jungle. The guerrillas were smart in building the tunnel network...making Saigon River their emergency exit...utilizing all natural resources...reuse and collect scrape metal of US Army bomb to build their own bomb. They made simple but brutal weapons. This was totally different from what they have showed in the RAMBO.

brutal trap

look at how small the holes were

The most exciting event of the day, was the AK47 riffle shots and the tunnel crawl. Never got the feel of the deadly weapon. The momentum and the sound was really large. Luckily we are all equipped with our own ear bud. I could not believe that I have just fired 5 shots. I didn't know how many actually hit the target board as everything was so fast.

aimed and aimed

the deadly bullets on my hand

While the tunnel, I could only described it as scary. It was in total darkness. I could hear the sound of me crawling, smell the soil and touch the earth. I could only moved forward, crawling like a baby. The tunnel height and width were approximately 80cm and 60cm respectively.

it was really small and sophisticated.

the ranger that led us through the tunnel

After the video session, we headed back to the Motorcycle City. The journey was very long and tiring.

Back in the town, we went hunting for Lac Thien, another restaurant recommended by the Lonely Planet...but as our issue was quiet outdated, the restaurant has moved a block a way. So we went round and round. It was all worth it when we got a great meal. The hue-style food served here was excellent. The best that I have had since I arrived int his city...Oh yes...this was a must come restaurant according to the book for it was ran by deaf people...so while you eat happily, you are doing something in helping others. Don't worry the waitress was not deaf perhaps it was just the persons at the back...food was cheap...not too expensive for a charity organization...and the Phon...yummy yummy!

Yummy Phon

After the meal, we walked to the nearby supermarket. It was crazily packed. I just wondered what it would be like on weekend...oh god! We bought some local products. Among them were some dried phon and noodles. And a box of Vinamilk green bean ice cream...yummy! From our survey, grocery there was rather cheap compared to in Malaysia.

our local cakes, ice cream and yogurt

By the end of the day, we went to a restaurant claimed to be the best authentic Italian and Vietnamese in town for a coffee. But the coffee was rather poor...

Apart from the food today, we were happy and enjoyed our day here!