Today we'll be visiting the Cao Dai (Cao Đài) temple in Tay Ninh prefecture and Cu Chi tunnels.
When we reached the Mai Linh shop, we were told to wait there. so whilst waiting i saw a lady selling bagettes with sardines or ham on her push cart. I decided to buy 1 of the sandwiches. it cost me 10 000 dong for the sadine filling. it was nice. then my parents and brothers started to buy the bagettes too. hahaha... and very soon we waited for about 30min and the bus was still not here yet. hmmmm... by now we were a little irritated. then suddenly 1 guy appeared and told us to follow him. finally we smile a little. and he brought us to another road and told us to wait for a moment. the bus would be here soon. together with us were a couple of canadians (2 big guys), 1 mother & son and another american. hahaha... when the canadians heard what the vietnamese man told us... they started commenting that yeah the bus would be coming in a moment. guess the vietnamese man must haf told them numerous times that the bus was coming.. but the bus had not come. finally the bus came at around 8.50am. i was surprised that the bus was huge. but..... it was going to various places to pick up tourists. very soon the bus was full to the brim. it was then that we got to know that the vietnamese guy who kept telling us that the bus would be coming in a moment was our tour guide for the day. his name was trung. (hahaha... same name as my prof)
anyway trung was telling us that he used to be a teacher. But before that he was fought for the viet congs. and for the past 14years he worked as a tour guide. he was quite a funny guy. hahaha... and he tends to repeat what he has said. but its good... in a way that we'll remember. lol
vietnamese having some fun in a garden
Advertisement of communism in a village on our way to the cao dai temple
1st stop was the Cao Dai temple in Tay Ninh prefecture. its also known as the Tay Ninh Holy See. Cao means "high" and Đài means "dais, as in a platform raised above the surrounding level to give prominence to the person on it." Figuratively, it means that highest spiritual place where God reigns. Caodaiists often use the term Đức Cao Đài (Venerable Cao Dai) as the abbreviated name for God, the creator of the universe, whose full title is Cao Đài Tiên Ông Đại Bồ Tát Ma-ha-tát (translation: Cao Dai [the] Ancient Sage [and] Great Bodhisattva Mahasattva). According to Caodaiists, the full title was purposefully chosen by God because within it are representations of the Three Teachings: Saint, Sage and Buddha. and Cao Dai temple is unique... as in there will be a distinct painting of the human 'eye' on the walls of the temple. take a look at the picture to understand what i mean.
Cao Dai temple in front
Full view of the temple
obelisk in a courtyard in front of the temple
Devotees praying
taken from the balcony of the devotees
Main hall in which the ceremony was being held
Orderly manner in which the devotees were seated praying
Person who sound the gong
the 7 buddhas that cao dai devotees carved on the wall
CK posing for a photo in the balcony
The Cao Dai temple was really colourful. And at the main entrance hall there is a painting with 3 men. Inside the Holy See is a painting depicting the Three Saints signing a covenant between God and humanity.. From left to right these men are: Sun Yat Sen, Victor Hugo, Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm. 
From left to right: Sun Yat Sen, Victor Hugo, Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm
Colourful flooring tiles in the temple
mum & dad posing for a photo in front of the temple
after visiting the temple it was time for lunch. in this day trip, our lunch was not provided. So we've got to pay according to what we order. Whilst some of the tourists signed a package that included meals pricing. Think they would have paid lots more than what we paid. hee hee....
after lunch it was back to the bus. this time round we'll need to travel for 1.5hrs to Cu Chi (pronounce as: ku chee) tunnels. The tunnels of Củ Chi are an immense network of connecting underground tunnels located in the Cu Chi district of Ho Chi Minh city and are part of a much larger network of tunnels that underlie much of the country. The Củ Chi tunnels were the location of several military campaigns during the Vietname War, and were the Viet Cong's base of operations for the Tet Offensive in 1968.
Map showing what we can see in the Cu Chi tunnels park
banner welcoming us!!!!
The tunnels were used by Viet Cong guerillas as hiding spots caches and living quarters for numerous guerrilla fighters. The role of the tunnel systems should not be underestimated in its importance to the Viet Cong in resisting American operations and protracting the war, eventually culminating in an American withdrawal. So these tunnels are really really small... small enough to fit a skinny person's body inside only. u've got to see it to believe what i'm saying is true.
the viet cong was going down the 'rabbit hole'
lucky me.... i was still able to fit into the normal tunnel. that's for vietnamese people. hee hee....
almost 1/2 my body is in the hole
The tunnels that we visited had been purposedly widen to accomodate larger sized Western tourists.
going down the modified tunnel
in the modified tunnel
One of the many different booby traps the viet cong used
In our tour of the region, we were also treated to steam tapocia and vietnamese tea. these were the usual food that the viet congs ate when they were lying in wait for the enemies there then. and they were really smart. coz our tour guide explain that for those cook house where the food was prepared, the smoke tat was produced did not come out from the house, instead it was being channeled to another place and came out as smoke. for enemies who see it, they will bomb that 'dummy' place. Hence, this can serve as warning signals to the viet congs and also save the viet congs lives. but the tea was not much of a tea... i mean there was no tea taste... juz boiled water. i commented this and 1 of the american tourist heard this and laughed very loudly. embarrassing.... =(
there was a house that showed case the methods and equipment that the viet congs used to produce rice wine and rice paper.
rice grinder that the viet cong used in the past
after our tea session... we headed to 1 of the low lying houses and watched a historical movie of the vietnamese war and the purpose of Cu Chi tunnels.
one of the tankers that the viet congs brought it down
some of the bombs that were dropped in the cu chi district
after the movie... it was back to the city again. but i must say today's events had been pretty interesting. and it makes u wonder y did people want to get invovle in wars... and furthermore the war in vietnam could have been prevented. and its really really silly that the vietnamese were fighting against the vietnamese. so many innocent lives were lost. and also the involvement of external parties.... hmmm.. u can say that the external parties are busy body people....... but if there were no war then, i believe till today, vietnam will still exist as north vietnam and south vietnam. i guess with the war it came with a super heavy price.
when we reached the city, we went to phở 2000, a shop that was juz beside the ben thanh market. this shop sells different flavours of pho dishes. we decided to eat there instead of walking to other places... coz we were a little tired. hahaha... anyway... when our bowls of noodles came... my brothers and mum love it. hahaha... and my brothers who are pretty picky on food commented that they don't mind having pho everyday!!! surprising!!! i ordered a sapodilla shake... coz i was not sure what sort of fruit sapodilla was. hahaha... and when my drink came.... we all had a taste and i must say... it was really really gd. (its was like 2 days later then i came to know what sort of fruit sapodilla was.. in fact i've eaten and seen it before juz did not know its english name. we know this fruit as chiku)
after dinner, we had some time, so we strolled in the street night market that was set up beside the Ben Thanh market. over here u can buy lots of stuffs... very touristy stuff. I bought 1 shirt. hahaha... pretty nice.
Street market. mixture of shoppers & motorcyclists. pretty chaotic
in the round about there was some sort of celebration. sort of like to welcome 2011. i think... there was songs and dance... and the place was really very nicely decorated.
performance on the stage
after shopping it was back to the hotel to knock out. tomorrow will be a pretty relaxing day. considering that we'll be cruising in the mekong delta region. onward to tomorrow!!! =D
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