Another early start, as we left at 7:30am for our 2 hour drive to the infamous Cu Chi tunnels. The tunnels of Củ Chi are an immense network of connecting underground tunnels near Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). The tunnels were used by Viet Cong guerrillas in the 1960’s as hiding spots during combat, as well as serving as communication and supply routes, hospitals, food and weapon caches and living quarters for numerous Viet Cong guerrilla fighters against the American (& Australian) armed forces. The tunnel systems were of great importance to the Viet Cong in their resistance to American forces, through which they secured American withdrawal from Vietnam and ultimate military success. (read the full story at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%E1%BB%A7_Chi_tunnels)
The tunnels & history (from the Viet Cong perspective) was fascinating, and I actually crawled thru 20 metres… Liz opted out to carry my backpack to the other end. There was around 250km of underground tunnels & rooms.. an awful lot of work in digging the tunnels out, which were dug over 30 years after WW2. See photo gallery for more photos of the tunnels.
We then continued onto another large temple site the ‘Cao Dai Temple’. Cao Dai is an unique Vietnamese religion that merges 3 religions – Catholicism, Buddhism & Confusium. The Cao Dai Temple is like a Walt Disney fantasia of the East. Its exterior is decorated with multi-colored dragons of all shapes and sizes competing for space with a number of swastikas. Above the main entrance is the all-seeing holy eye, the symbol of the Cao Dai sect. We stayed in the gallery to watch the people have mass & prayers, which happens 4 times a day.
Lunch was a pre-arranged meal at a local restaurant, obviously set up for tour groups, and food was sub-par Vietnamese (ie: I think it was meant to be Vietnamese??).. very ordinary, and disappointing.
The long 2 1/2 hour drive back to Saigon on very bumpy roads was a bit uncomfortable, but we survived.
For dinner, we got adventurous, and decided to walk 15 minutes across the town at night to a recommended street stall style Vietnamese restaurant, crossing many streets, still packed with commuters on motorbikes. Basically many different cooking stalls around the edge of the alfresco area, prepare different dishes off the common menu & the waiters work all this out… food is very authentic (after our lunch experience). Some of our usual favourite Vietnamese dishes were not on the extensive menu, so we had to be adventurous in our selection and we ‘won some & lost some’.. however saved by the standard Banana fritters & coconut ice-cream. Anyway it’s all adding to our memoirs, and we made is safely back home.
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