Cu Chi Tunnels & Cao Dai temple

Yesterday, I visited a province in the Mekong delta region called Tay Ninh.  Tay Ninh has the largest population of Cao Dai worshippers.  Cao Dai is a religion that combines beliefs from Buddhism, Confuciousism (abc?), Hinudism, Islam, etc.  Cao Dai literally translates to "high tower".  Cao Dai is another name for God.  Anyways, in Tay Ninh we saw a Cao Dai temple as well as the traditional prayer ceremony that occur 4 times a day.  It was really fascinating to see how all of the different aspects of each religion was apparent in their practice.  

After we visited the Cao Dai temples, we went to an area called Cu Chi.  Cu Chi is famous for the intricate tunnel system built by rebel soldiers.  These guerillas were called VC: Viet Cong, Victor Charlies, or simply Vietnamese Communists.  In our tour of the area, we saw many trick traps that the Cu Chi guerillas used to harm or kill their American/right winged Southern Vietnamese enemies.  It was interesting to see how the Cu Chi guerillas contributed to the Vietnamese victory in American War (Vietnam War back home).  The main attraction was the tunnel system.  The tunnels stretched 60 km long and were half of one average American tourist size.  For the area we were in, they widened the tunnels twice the size and it was still REALLY SMALL.  To walk through the tunnels you had to crouch (squat really) and do a "duck walk".  It was nuts.  In the real tunnels, Vietnamese men, women and children would crawl on their stomachs with supplies to transport.  In the tunnels they also built schools, kitchens, areas to eat, etc.  

In my next blog, I will write about visiting the War Remnants Museum.  This museum stores artifacts from the American War and was definitely made me ashamed to be an American...