Cao Dai Temple and Cu Chi Tunnels

Yesterday we took an all day tour by bus to the Cao Dai Temple and the stopped at the Cu Chi Tunnels area. The Cao Dai Temple and religion is a rather surreal, bizarre experience. As you can see The Temple and its decoration makes Baroque look tastefully understated. The religion was started in 1926 and blends Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism. Of of the 3 saints in the religion is Victor Hugo, the French author of "Les Miserables". The temple is about 100km northwest of Saigon.

 

 

 

 

We stopped for a couple of hours on the way back to Saigon at the Cu Chi Tunnels. This is an area that has a 200km network of tunnels that was begun in 1948 during the french War and reached their height in the late 1960's.  They were in 3 levels, and varied in diameter from 15 inches to 3 feet. VC solders lived down here for months at a time appearing and disappearing to fight and drive their enemies crazy. There were kitchens and an operating room. US soldiers went down in after the VC engaging in hand to hand combat in the darkness and subjected to ingenious and brutal booby traps.

The tunnel openings were very small and well hidden:

 

There was an expanded tunnel that was built for tourists to experience:

 

There is a fascinating book by 2 Aussie journalists about this phase of the war called "The Cu Chi Tunnels".
Frightening stuff.

Tomorrow I am going to take it easy at the hotel roof top pool and take a vacation from the vacation. Then on to Thailand Monday for the final week of the trip.