Well, here we are again. I know it is only a few days but, while I have the time, I will keep you all posted.
Sunday was National Day here, celebrating independence form the Chinese. Monday was their day off, so we decided to do the tourist thing. We paid $8US each for an all day tour to Cao Dai Holy See Temple and the CuChi tunnels. We really only wanted to go to the temple but unless we paid $50US for a private car, we had to do the two together. We spent the first hour literally driving around the same block twice, to stop at different hotels to pick people up. Even though it was a public holiday, the traffic was frantic. Apparently all the people from the country come in to do their shopping. So it was no different from a normal day.
The Cao Dai religion was founded in the 1920's by a Viet guy and is kind of a combination of Buddhism and Catholicism. Some of their patron saints are Joan of Arc and Charlie Chaplin (yep!)
They have a mass every 6 hours (6am 12 6pm MN) and we watched the midday one. The temple is quite colorful and the ceremony of the procession in worth the watch. It was great, would have liked more time there but because we were on a tour, it was on the bus again.
How lucky were we, the tour guide, a 60 yr old ex Viet soldier who had lived in the tunnels, doubled as the entertainment. He writes songs, in English and Viet, and had a captive audience. Who was game enough to say no after he showed us his bullet injuries. James encouraged him by asking if he had a CD out. Alas ...no, But he did have more songs for us later.
Lunch at a little road side cafe then we were told we could sleep till Cuchi.
The country roads were shocking (Yankallila after torrential rain is magic Darryl), and the housing in country towns that we went through were shanties. But that was that resilient smile and friendly wave.
They are trying to enforce the wearing of helmets for motor bikes, especially on the 'freeway' and if you saw the way they drive, you have to question their road fatality rate or worse still, the head injury rate. The whole family fits on the bike, until the kids get too big, then they buy 2 bikes. There are 10 million motor bikes in Saigon alone. Families travel together, babies wrapped in blankets to toddlers standing between two parents....scary stuff. Trucks travel in the middle of the road, then cars then bikes. If the truck or car wants to turn off the road, they do, and the bikes just have to get out of the way. Amazingly, we haven't seen any accidents, everyone seems to know where the next guy is going. We were going to the Aust Consulate this morning and with petrol tanker approaching on left and bus on the right, the taxi stalled. The driver just laughed.
CuChi was probably what I expected. You couldn't see a thing through the trees, and that was after defoliation. Apparently the Aust Gov has donated trees to help to re-vegitate the forests....nice of them. We didn't go into the tunnels, though a rather large American guy did, then complained about how tiny they were. They have a rifle range there where you can pay so much and shoot the big AK45's and other guns. Not nice, the sound spoilt the peace of the jungle.
Back on the bus with Gus, another delightful serenade about lottery ticket sellers in Saigon. We cheered anyway 'cos he was a nice guy.
James has been checking out another school for work, I am quite happy with working with children at CitySmart, but James hasn't felt comfortable there. We are also looking for our house, hoping it will be big enough for all our Aussie visitors. It will be nice to get out of the hotel and spread out a bit. It would be great if this was just a holiday, it is close to the markets and walking distance to most things, and cheap.....but not home. Can't wait to get a place and buy a vase, the markets are full of the most amazing flower stalls. You should see the size of grapefruit.....huge, could play footy with them, about the size of rockmelon.
Well guess I've bored you enough. Hope everyone is doing well at home and that your footy team wins on the weekend.
Love to everyone.....Di and James
