Ho Chi Minh
Trip Start
Jul 07, 2008
1
17
29
Trip End
Oct 01, 2008
Ho Chi Minh City,
Vietnam
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
It has some very nice wide leafy streets with clear influence from previous colonial masters (even a Notre Dame Cathedral!) as well as the usual little alleys, markets and millions of buzzing scooters.
We have spent some time just walking around taking it in and also did a trip north of here to see the Cu Chi tunnels and the Cao Dai temple.
The Cu Chi tunnels were built/dug by guerilla fighters (starting as early as 1948 in battles against the French) and used most extensively in the Vietnam war to fight against the US/South Vietnam army
Cao Dai worshippers
. At the complex there is an interesting if somewhat gruesome display of the various booby traps that were used to defend the area, complete with bamboo spikes, nails and other pain inducing implements. There was also a section of tunnels which tourists are allowed to crawl through. This section has apparently been made "king size" to accomodate tourist frames but were still incredibly tight and hot. The guerilla fighters were working and hiding in tunnels half the size which is quite unimaginable. The jungle around the tunnels is also littered with bomb craters and some munitions found in the area as well as a destroyed American tank which was blown up by an anti tank mine which was made in the jungle from, ironically, the gunpowder found in American bombs which had not been detonated.The Cao Dai temple was a bit different, Cao Dai is a religion founded in Vietnam in the 1920's but influenced by and worshipping amongst others, Buddha and Jesus. There are, we've been advised, about 3 million Cao Dai-ists in Vietnam so they must be doing something right. The temple itself is pretty amazing, bright and colourful as the colours symbolise the other religions and the altar area is dominated by the "Divine Eye". The ultimate aim is to escape the cycle of life and death (ie not get reincarnated) and live with God in heaven. We saw part of the service of Cao Dai "mass" in which the congregation, men dressed colourfully (some of them, of a higher rank) and women in white sat on the floor of the temple and chanted. Interesting.
