Hot and sunny today for our trip to the Cao Dai Temple and the Cu Chi underground tunnels. It’s going to be a long day as it’s 70 km to the temple and we are aiming to be there for 12am to catch the midday prayer session. We are then going to brave the tunnels in the afternoon on the way back to HCMC. Tung picks us up at 9am and we spend a good hour negotiating the manic Saigon rush hour. We still puzzle over why there are not more accidents particularly as there seems to be absolutely no difference between red and green traffic lights – here both mean go. Tung is bringing his wife along for the drive, so we pick her up on the way and they chatter away non stop whilst we watch the scenery flash by. It’s touch and go whether we will get to Cao Dai in time, but we arrive with 10 minutes to spare and stay for 45 minutes of the service. We arrive at the Cu Chi tunnels after lunch and fortunately there are no tourists here apart from one other couple and we have a guide to ourselves. Arrived back in HCMC for 8.30pm; a long day in the car!
The Cao Dai holy see was founded in 1926 and is situated 4km east of Tay Ninh in the village of Long Hoa. As well as the Great Temple, the complex comprises accommodation, administrative buildings and a hospital of traditional Vietnamese medicine. The Cau Dai religion is a fusion of Eastern and Western philosophies which contains elements of Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, native Vietnamese spiritualism, Christianity and Islam and there are some 2 to 3 million followers in Vietnam. The Great Temple is a striking mix of architectural styles and is colourfully decorated in bright yellow and baby blue. The temple is built over nine levels representing the nine steps to heaven and each level is marked by a pair of columns entwined with multi-coloured dragons. The temple holds prayer sessions four times a day at 6am, 12am, 6pm and 12pm and about 250 clergy participate. The clergy all file into the hall and take their positions; the men on the left and the women on the right. Some are in vivid, red, blue or yellow robes denoting the three branches of the religion, the rest in white. The services takes the form of chanting to traditional music provided by a small ensemble on the first floor gallery and is periodically punctuated by the resonant sound of a gong.
The Cu Chi tunnels are situated 40km north-west of Saigon. They were started by the Viet Minh during the French war and extended significantly during the American war creating a 250km network on three levels. The tunnels were used extensively by the Viet Cong to control the Cu Chi area during the American war despite the presence of a large US military base in the district which the Americans unwittingly built right on top of the network. Apparently it took the Americans months to work out how the VC were getting into the base and shooting the GIs in their beds! The tunnels also allowed the VC to establish control of the strategic hamlets which had been set up with the specific purpose of re-locating villagers from communist-controlled areas. There are two sections of the tunnels open to visitors and we go to the the section that has been enlarged to allow access for westerners – there is no way we would have been able to go through the original tunnels which measure 1.2m high and 80cm wide.
The tunnels included a field hospital, meeting room, rest rooms and kitchen although none are exactly as the real tunnels used to look. There is also a interesting section on booby traps – all of which involve spikes in one form or another and all intended to injure rather than kill (according to our guide) as carrying away the injured means that 3 soldiers are out of action rather than just 1. The entrance to the tunnels are well camouflaged with dead leaves making them impossible to spot – and very small – our guide only just being able to squeeze through an original opening. So small were the trapdoors that the Americans had to recruit South Koreans and Filippinos to go down them as the GI were too large. The VC were also very inventive in avoiding detection by American sniffer dogs using captured GI clothing in the air vents and even washing in American soap! After trying various strategies to dislodge the VC including chemical defoliation and napalm, the Americans resorted to carpet bombing the area in order to destroy the tunnels by which time the Americans were already in the process of withdrawing from the war.