Pick up was announced to be 7.30 am at our hotel and then we were on the bus for almost three hours. Interesting notion: I did not exactly expect people to be that precisely on time - but they always are. We did have a very astute guide and so the drive up to Tay Ninh was actually very entertaining. He told us the complete story of his life - He had maried young and then fought in the Vietnamese armee. For some reason he had to escape and ended up in the USA, where he served in the marine corps. He even made it into a higher position. After the Vietnam war was over, he went back home, but found nothing there anymore. His wife had died, the kids or other relatives had sold the house and estate and he was not able to find a job - although he was a medical doctor and had worked in is job before the war had started. But he had served in the army with the wrong political mindset. Coming back to Vietnam he was brought to a work camp and was brain-washed. 6 years. His family moved away to Australia, ... Although he did not have anything left, he is proud to be Vietnamese and devoted to his country. Ever since he had worked here and there and has been a travel guide for almost 10 years... in 2 years he turns 65 and is able to retire. Then he wants to head to NYC. He kept his dog tag and will request a nice pension from the US. That´s the plan. And Mr. Binh is smiling. (He could have been Mr. Bean though.) There is a book about his life "Three moon in Vietnam", published 1990/91 in London.
We stopped at a souvenir manufactury where victims of the agent orange attacks. While this is a very sensitive topic, we were not quite sure how much those people we saw really get paid well for their work and have a good life or whether they were ripped off. Note to myself: Find out more about Agent Orange and the Vietnam War. It´s a very unsatisfying feeling to recognize, that you do not know exactly a lot about that part of history.
Tay Ninh was pretty much the last city before one entered Cambodia. The mountains there were called "Black Hills", because the weather and sun always made them look really dark. The area around the famous Cao Dai Temple is about 10 square kilometers. The Cao Dai religion was established in 1962. They do have between 2 - 3 million members throughout the world - most of them live in Vietnam and the US. The Cao Dai religion sees itself as combining the other world religions. That´s as far as the facts go. Now to the appearance: Astonishing. From the outside the temple already looked friendly and colorful, but once inside you were not quite sure whether you were in some holy halls or in Disney land. Pinkish and baby-blue colors everywhere, the pillars were decorated with dragon ornaments - in a very intense green. When we got there, a ceremony was taking place and we could watch from the balconies above. Men and women sat separately - also in groups according to how close they were to heaven, I guess. The Cao Dai pray three times a day for their deceased. They did not seem to have a pastor and everyone was singing through the whole service.
Of course we had taken our shoes off, before entering the temple. I was wearing sneakers. I put them upside down on the ground. While we were in the Temple it started raining. My shoes were swimming in a puddle. Soaked. Awesome. Good thing it was warm and I just could walk barefooted.
Lunchbreak was then at one of the little restaurant places along the streets. I had continuously wondered how they could even all stay in business. Just imagine a looooooooong road and on each side there was one restaurant next to each other. (Which gave you the impression by the way, that you had never really left the city in the first place - but the houses were just along the street - not in second or third row.) Anyway, all of them offered the (it seemed) very same menu and selection of drinks. They were never crowded. Barely a few people sat in the hammocks. Even stranger were the one-table-and-one-woman-shops. It really wasn´t much more than that. And again - they all had the same stuff to sell. Right along the highway. How can that be working out for them? They must have arangements with the bus companies or something similar - each day, each bus stopping at a different shop?! There is no other way they could survive. So, if you want to open up a business, just rent a place, check what your neighbour sells and go get the same stuff. That´s as easy as it gets.
And then we were heading for the tunnels. When we had finally arrived, it had just started raining - seems like a promising walk through the mud was just ahead of us...
First of all we were brought in an underground movie room. We learned that the Cu Chi Tunnel System was about 200 km long and established during the 1948 war against France. The tunnels itself were organized in three layers - 3 meters, 6 meters and 9 - 10 meters underground. Their height is about 80 - 130 cm and their widths used to be barely 60 cm. The Vietcong had thought of everything in order to be able to live there - they had extra rooms for food, cooking, a nursery and best of all had figured out a very smart air ventilation system - made of bamboo wood. They even had a connection to the Mekong river - a long time undiscovered means of escape. The US army tried several tactics to drive them away: fire (which just hardened the clay walls), water (which just floated down to the river - and you would have needed a lot water to flood the whole tunnel system), gas (which did not harm them because of their deep down tunnels and the connection to the ground through the bamboo wood ventilation. The dogs the US army had sent out eventually got killed in especially for that occasion created dog traps. No strategy proved to be successful.
Afterwards we walked through the woods and our guide showed us all the different traps they had build to kill people - all of them used spikes of some sort. I understood they were in a war, but that was shocking. Before finally entering the tunnels, we stopped at a shooting area, where we could try the guns ourselves.
The entrance to the tunnel system was pretty convenient. Nowadays the tunnels are well enlightened, and who cannot stand the narrowness can get out every 25 m or so. We went down two stories. Initially it was quite easy to walk in there - you had to bent down a bit, but not too bad. Suddenly the tunnel became more narrow. Ok, alright, walking like a duck. That worked only so long though - then we had to crawl. Luckily that was just a short very tight passage - it was supposed to get the Americans stuck, in case they made it down there (their butts were bigger). According to our guide the western people do have big butts because we do use the lazy toilett. Well it is true, the Vietnamese are able to crouch down for hours - to read, sleep, eat, shoot a gun - and don`t get shot back, because noone assumes a person down there in the woods. Anyway, I was pretty sure with a bit of training I could be able to crouch that long as well.
It was a very impressive trip to that part of the country´s history.
We arrived back in Saigon around 18.15. Martin, since still feeling sick, got to choose the restaurant and type of food for tonight - and picked a Pho-place. It was one of the very typical ones - with only 2 different dishes, plastic chairs and tables - and not a single person speaking English. Neither did any of the guests. In order to choose our food, we just went around the restaurant and showed them, which soup we wanted, luckily they understood our order of beers. The Pho was delicious - although ordering a second dish was not possible - they probably though, we meant that they had forgotten one plate, which was not the case. Maybe you just don´t get a second order in Vietnam? Well, since the food was not pricy at all, we spend the saved Dong at the rooftopbar of the Rex Hotel and enjoyed a good view of the business district. Afterwards it was Pham Ngu Lao time again. This time we sat down on the plastic chairs right by the street - and because they did not have enough space, even the police helped to set up more chairs on the street as more people came.
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