Day 11 - The Dissenter's Tour

We arranged for a tour the next fay of two places outside of Ho Chi Minh City. Since we pretty much just picked the first place we walked past to arrange the trip it could have gone either way. This tour though was great, owing mostly to our tour guide and his long unusual speeches. Besides telling some jokes and doing the normal tour guide stuff, he talked more about his history and what he thought of the government than any Chinese person would, even to a friend. It's possible, I suppose, that some or all of what he said was exaggerated, though I don't see why it would be. He said that his family was originally from North Vietnam and they went south to avoid the Communists after they took over. He talked about how he was an English translator for the South Vietnamese army. He even mentioned at one point that he wished that Ho Chi Minh City would be renamed Saigon. Mostly he just described war as very bad and hoped it would never happen again. The guide book describes Vietnam as a place that's been colonized for thousands of years by the Chinese, French, and finally Americans. The just generalized wish for peace was just something that people mentioned a lot every time the "American War" came up. It was not really clear to me if this was a reaction to the intensity of the last war or the fact that Vietnam was ruled by someone or other for a very long time. Either way it was just pretty stunning just to hear some one express opinions not in lock step with the government. China works really hard to make sure dissent like that is kept quite. To hear it expressed on a tour to a bunch of strangers was jolting.

It took a few hours to get to the first place we were going, the Cao Dai Holy See. Cao Dai is a Vietnamese religion started in the 30's which blends Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam into one odd religion. There wasn't a lot of information about the religious practices except it involves some sort of ancestor worship. The Holy See, meaning literally holy seat or center of the religion, was an enormous temple that looked a little like a church in that it was a long building with a high roof and an alter at the far end. The temple was open a lot to the outside with some big doors in the center open and all the windows having intricate designs but no glass to prevent air from passing through. The most striking part of the building was just how brightly it was painted. The whole building was warm pastel yellows, blues, and oranges, giving it a really amazing look. We arrived just after 12 for their mid day prayers, they hold services every six hours. The allow tourists to go up to a balcony that runs along most of the building overlooking the long hall. All the worshipers were dressed head to toe in long robes of various colors denoting I don't know what. At the back on the second floor was a number of people playing musical instruments that reverberated all around the temple.

From the top floor you could see down into the main hall where the worshipers sat in tight rows along the floors forming little sections, usually by the color of the robe. They were all just sitting apparently listening to the music and a small choir. The inside was just as brightly painted as the outside with beautiful columns everywhere. The ceiling was painted to look like the blue sky. A lot of their art focused on depictions of the all seeing eye. The all seeing eye is usually depicted in a triangle, there's one for instance on the back of a US $1 bill right above the unfinished pyramid. They seemed to have no problem with people watching and even taking flash photos as long as you were quite. It was an odd service to watch as people would occasionally bow together moving in time with some unseen command. I was mostly amazed by how well maintained the temple was especially since Cao Dai had hard times after the Communists took over. During the war they had actually maintained their own fairly large standing army but had never helped the Communists who seized most of their holy sights after the won only returning them about 10 years ago. The place was so pretty and lit so well from all the natural light that it was basically impossible to take a bad picture.



I've never seen any tourist sights, religious ones included, that makes less of an effort to get your money. There were one or two donation boxes right near the entrance, but beyond that there was just nothing to spend money on. Around the temple was a lot of space and several more buildings but nothing resembling a gift shop. The whole effect of the place was really interesting. Going to religious sights is pretty standard tourism, after all it was the religions who built most of the big ancient buildings, but you don't usually see ones with big active services going on, especially ones that allow flash photography. The music also gave it a sort of reverence, and couple with looking down from the upper level gave it a sort of voyeuristic quality. I spent so much time looking around that I almost missed the bus and our track star Dave had to run and get me. I went jogging back to the bus only to have our guide wonder why I was in such a hurry. We stopped for lunch at some small place along the road which must give the tour company a huge kick back for bringing a bus load of people for lunch every day. The food was actually pretty good and I had a soda that tasted like liquorish.

After lunch we headed to the Cui Chi tunnels. The tunnels were build by the VC from the Cambodian border almost to Saigon so that they could disappear underground when soldiers came and move unseen. The Cui Chi tunnels were some of the most famous from the war. The original tunnels were almost totally destroyed toward the end of the war when the whole area was carpet bombed, but they've rebuilt sections for tourists. To enter the area you walk in a wide tunnel that slopes gently underground emerging a few feet later in a rare show of architectural symbolism. The tunnel area is a green forest dotted with things to see. One of the first things I saw was an entrance hatch so small you can only go in holding your hands above your head. They let people in the group try it and in a second they've disappeared leaving no trace behind. It's hard to imagine that the entrance to a whole tunnel complex can just disappear, but their it goes. Next they took us to a recreation of some small mostly underground buildings used by the VC. With plastic dummies, and in one case a whole set of animatronic VC soldiers, the whole place started to take on a circus like atmosphere. The oddest moment was at an old destroyed US take that everyone climbed all over to take pictures.



The whole place lacked a serious atmosphere, and at some points almost became like a children's amusement park. In the fields of Belgium, or at other major battlefields, you just expect to see it treated with more of a sense of reverence. Finally we came to a section of tunnels you could crawl in. It was about 250 meters long with exits every 50 meters. Inside it was really low and narrow, though I think still larger than it used to be, and you could only advance by squatting down really low and sort of crouch walking. It was also amazingly hot in those tunnels with no air coming in from outside. Considering that these tunnels were expanded for tourists, the original ones must have been nightmares. I only made it about 100 meters before I wanted out. Only about 1/3rd of the group made it the whole length. After that there was a display of booby traps used by the VC all of which where absolutely terrifying. All of them simply involved some way of shoving rusty nails into people. After that we came to a break point where there was a target range where you could pay to fire rifles. Again it just seemed disrespectful to have the sound of gunfire echo above a former battlefield. They also sold ice cream and snake wine. I just don't think the Communist revolutionaries fought so American tourists could be sold ice cream and souvenir drinks.

Finally we went to a large dug out room where we watched an old propaganda video from the 60's or 70's. It very odd to be watching honest to God propaganda. They talked a lot about peasants who had won medals for killing Americans. Every country gives medals, and all medals are essentially for killing the enemy, but it's just not usually so naked. At the end we got on the bus and headed back for Ho Chi Minh City. People were speaking all sorts of European languages around me. It was an odd reminded how lucky I was to speak English. These people all spoke some other language at home but here in Vietnam their best bet was English.