We took a side trip from Saigon to visit the countryside. The first stop was Cao Dai, which is the Holy See, or Vatican, for the Cao Dai religion. Cao Dai is a religion that was founded in the 1920s and basically incorporates the best parts of Islam, Christianity, Buddhism and Hinduism. The architecture of the building was interesting, very psychedelic, for lack of a better word. We witnessed one of their ceremonies - of which they have four per day, one every six hours.
The next stop was Cu Chi, a small city outside of Saigon. Cu Chi was the end of the Ho Chi Minh Trail during the Vietnam War and was the entry point for the Viet Cong into South Vietnam to launch their attack on Saigon. Cu Chi is specifically notable because it was home to South Vietnamese rebels who supported the North and fought against fellow South Vietnamese. They dug a number of tunnels - which we got to explore - and used a variety of booby traps to subdue and defeat the South Vietnamese through guerrilla warfare. To get to the tunnels, we walked through the jungle - Charlie was everywhere.
Ceremony at Cao Dai
The next stop was Cu Chi, a small city outside of Saigon. Cu Chi was the end of the Ho Chi Minh Trail during the Vietnam War and was the entry point for the Viet Cong into South Vietnam to launch their attack on Saigon. Cu Chi is specifically notable because it was home to South Vietnamese rebels who supported the North and fought against fellow South Vietnamese. They dug a number of tunnels - which we got to explore - and used a variety of booby traps to subdue and defeat the South Vietnamese through guerrilla warfare. To get to the tunnels, we walked through the jungle - Charlie was everywhere.
No comments:
Post a Comment