Saigon - Cu Chi Tunnel Tour

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Right after we had our so called “lunch”, we continued the journey to Cu Chi Tunnel, the place where Viet Cong guerillas hid during combat. The journey took another one and half hour of rubber trees and paddy fields along the way.

We saw an entrance in the middle of the hedge plant on the left side, but the bus kept on moving straight. How I wish the bus stopped there, as my back and waist started to feel numb. Nevertheless, the bus stopped about 5km from the first entrance and we saw few tourist busses parked at parking bay.

Yes! Finally!

We hopped down the bus and almost all of us headed to the gents and ladies! Haha! Tak tahannnnn! Natures call! We paid the entrance fee and followed the tour guide. He asked us to follow him closely as we shall move in a group. (Never get lost! You don’t want to step onto the booby traps!)

Every group will be occupied with one official tour guide, who wore Viet Cong’s attire. Serious and unfriendly. Haha! First thing that we saw, a large-long-dark-tourist tunnel with communist flags, which was built to give the intro sentiment of Vietnam War, to visitors. We had to undergo this tunnel to get to the other side of the area, where the real location of Cu Chi tunnel located.

Few big sheds built over the hard clay, had made the whole thing possible. They had sick bays, living and dining halls, bedrooms, kitchens, command centers and even weapon factories! 10,000 people, getting married, giving birth, lived underground??? My goodness! 30 years of war, and the bomb used, were like 3-4 times more than WWII! Such a survivor!

It’s been said that this tunnel was stretched from the outskirt of Saigon, all the way to Cambodia border, something like 250km! They dug with their own hand tools and had their own air vents and traps. We went in few sheds that were formerly underground (but now over the ground, just for the tourism purpose). They have 2 sets of tunnels, where the earlier place that we saw on the bus is open for locals (smaller and narrower, remain the originality), while the one that we went is for tourist (slightly bigger and organized, complete with pre-screening and souvenir shops). In this tunnel, you can see tables, chairs, cabinets, and I tell you, they lived like normal people down there!

We then moved to this section, where they illustrated the self-made Viet Cong’s weapons and traps. Almost every trap had “hole” featured, with sharpen spikes attached to it. Step on it, fall into it, and get stab by it. Booby trap! Easy. That was for ground attack. They also had swing doors with sharpen spikes and thrown down sharpen “durian” shaped weapon.

“Ok, let’s go to the other section, where you can see the bunker and tanker”, our tour guide voiced out. Best nih! We tried to catch up with him (yeah, he walked fast, just to make sure that he is ahead of other groups…it’s a competitive world! Haha…no la, I think, better to be that way, as we will have plenty of time to listen to his explanation and take pictures.)

We stopped at this one big tent where a tanker was displayed. Copying the way of one internet blogger shot his pictures, hubby and I started to post. I even sat and joined the “askar buatan” macam geng plak. Haha! Best gile! And one of our groupmate, one old Singaporean auntie, climbed onto the tanker with her wedges, and sat on the top of it! Gile kuat!

Being two of the left out people at the back, we ran to the rest of the groupmates (don’t worry, the official tour guide will ensure you won’t left behind…and make sure, you walk using the trails that have setup, ok?). The tour guide later showed us one small jungle floor area and asked “Ok, now, can someone tell me, what you see here?” and everyone replied “Nothing…”. “Can someone show me, where is the secret door?” and everyone knew that there was a camouflaged door down there, covered by leaves.

I volunteered to show where the hidden closed door was and I almost got it right with few inches away! And guess what? I was one of the visitors that got the chance to step down into it! The official tourist guide went down at first and did the demo. He was slim and slender, and so I thought I can fit into the hole. I later did the same thing, where I was asked to close the cover (I tell you, it was super darn dark and small!), and pop out in a minute later. It was as small as my size and my muffin tops did touch the edge of the hole ok! Hubby? Say goodbye to the small hole and he can never fit into it lah! The tour guide told us that there will be another camo door that fit American size. They built it on purpose. So big sizer, don’t worry…you’ll get your chance to try.

We passed by few underground tunnel entrances and had our chance to experience how they looked from inside. Neon lights and gasoline smell filled the chambers. No one can stand of the smell and started to climb up. Haha! Suffocated siut! We later moved to few sheds that demonstrated Viet Cong attires making (they even had sewing machine to do the job) and sandals making (it was made from rubber that cut from lorry tires…creative!)

Along the way out, the tour guide asked us “What is this?” and pointed to a huge termite nest that stuck between the woods. And for sure, everyone answered a termite nest! Duhhhh! He later explained that yes, it was a termite nest butttttt, it was also an air vent for the people down there. Oooo…there was a hole below the nest…another distraction for the Americans! Put in your hand, got bite by termites! Haha! He also showed the kitchen ground chimney, where they only cooked during dawn and midnite. Why? Because smoke=fog. Clever!

Almost towards the end of the expedition, we stopped at one small tunnel entrance. The tour guide allowed us to try it and he will wait us at the other exit. 50m or 100m, we made the call. Half of us agreed to try and hopped down the tunnel. Dark and narrow. The gasoline smell attacked! Ducked and bended knee, we continued the mission. We only managed to go to 1^st and 2^nd tiers of the tunnel and we surrendered! (For info, there was a 3^rd tier and we didn’t have a clue, how and where to get there.

Lost the battle to the gasoline smell and suffocation, afraid to get lost and being trapped alone in that rat-sized-tunnel, we made a right turn and tried to find way out! And guess what? We were actually there without the official tour guide supervision at all! What if we really can’t find our way out? Will they come and rescue us??? Crazy!!!

We met our tour guide at the souvenir shop, where I bought one Cu Chi tunnel printed jewelry box. There, they had this one shooting range that offered visitors to shoot the barrels with AK46 and M16. Having this love-and-hate relationship with military weapons, with super expensive bullets, I passed the activity.

Smelly, sweaty, dirty, weary, sleepy, we walked to the bus. Another one and half hour to the Ho Chi Minh City. We took a nap and woke up an hour later. The bus approaching the city. We decided to hop down near the Ben Than Market, for dinner and final shopping. Managed to buy some magnets and bookmarks as souvenirs, rain started to pour.

We ran to the nearest shop to get an umbrella or raincoats. I saw one hung near the door and asked the girl “Where to get this?” and pointed to the raincoat. She lifted the plastic cover that covered magazines from rain and gave us 3 raincoats to choose. Lucky she sold them to us for RM5 for two! It would be easier to walk in the rain with bags and cameras under it. I took the purple while hubby took the blue. The girl giggled with her friend, looking at us who happily wore the raincoats in front of them like we never seen it before. Haha! (She took a glimpse at my Titus watch and ankle band, and smile…don’t know why.)

Walking down few blocks with wet and slippery sandals, we stopped twice to ask where the hell was Parkson (that being pronounced as “Pakson”) just to have a dinner at D’Anjung. I even bought a stupid PUMA flip flop to replace the stupid mary-jane CROCS! (Always get a pair of comfy shoes when you travel.)

At last, we saw Parkson in front of us. It was actually situated new the Uncle Ho’s statue. And this Parkson was not as usual Parkson that we have back in M’sia. What you see in Pavillion is what you see in their Parkson! All branded brands like Lacoste, Guess, Salvatore, you name it. So I guess, only the rich shops here.

We walked straight to the foodcourt and didn’t manage to find D’Anjung. Celaka tul! The place that we fight for, wasn’t there! What we found was a stall named Taj Mahal that was really “mahal”. We ordered 2 plain rice, chicken curry, and mixed vege, for RM40. While eating the food, hubby laughed and said “Ayang, you nak tau kat mana D’Anjung?” I stunned! “Tuuuuuu…” he showed the stall right behind me. It was just a small stall that sold nasik lemak RM6 and kuih!!! Arghhhh!!!

Finished our food, we head back to the hotel. Beforehand, failed to find the Russian Market, we went to the Saigon Square, with the helped of one Viet-spoken Arab and his quiet-sexy girlfriend. Haha! Surrendered with the early closed shops (bodo gile tutup awal), we went back to the hotel and zzzzzzzzz…

Saigon - Cao Dai Temple Tour

On the moving bus, the tour guide made an announcement “Ok, now…we will continue…our journey…to…Cao Dai Temple…in one and half hour later…” (Later? Main petik je!) We laughed and acted like we were well understood on the funny part that we had to go through another back and waist pain on the bus (by the way, we were forced to do our “business” before we hopped back onto the bus. Nature’s calllllll!)

We stopped at one small café by the road side, that fulled with construction mud. The tour guide told us that we will have lunch here at this place, before we continue the journey to Cao Dai Temple. Hmm…definitely non-halal café la ni kan! The problem that we faced was all the foods served were non-halal. When I said non-halal, pork comes in the picture. But guess what, not even pork, you can find snake and frog in the menu! Haaaa even non-exotic restaurant pun bleh served snake meat tau!We just had our canned drinks and sat on the same table that eating porks. But lucky us, the Malaysian Chinese, Singaporean Chinese, pure Indian from India and a Korean, were well-understood of our religion. They even say “sorry” before eating. Get used to this situation, we asked them to go ahead and ignored us. Haha! We then started to chat about the comparison between Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam…even Thailand got into the picture. (Note that the Korean guy just remained silent and finished his pork soup. Haha…lost in translation.)

After one and half hour journey with scenic paddy fields on both sides of the road, we at last, saw the gate to Cao Dai Temple. There were temple, houses, schools, clinics, it was a town by itself I must said. We saw few people in white outfits and more walking forwards, when we approached the one and the only great divine big colorful temple.The bus was parked, and the tour guide has again, made an announcement “Now, we go inside, you can take their picture, with the temple, but you cannot take picture, with the temple…” (I hardly understand his Viet-English but I guessed, I got him). “Take as many picture, as you want, but never make noise…they will pray 4 times a day, and if you a believer, you have to pray, at least once a day…” “Ooooo…” I dropped my jaw.

He later explained that this religion is called Cao Dai and was introduced by a China-man who came to Vietnam. He started to improvise the belief and combined 3 kinds of faiths, that are Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism (perghhhh! Sukati je!)

Actually, the reason why hubby wore long pants was because, in the Internet, it was told that you can not wear short pants or sleeveless. Addressing the rule, I, myself did spare a long skirt in the bagpack. But approaching the main entrance of the temple, I saw almost all tourists (the whites) wore short pants and sleeveless. Come to think of it, yeah, how to enforce the rules to the whites, for that’s how they wear they life, kan?

Wasting no more time, we took off our shoes (stupid me, I took off my socks as well!) I stepped on the mosaic-steps, along with other tourists, and suddenly “Hey you…” (Huh? Who? Me?) “You…” (Shit! It’s me!) I looked at him. He wore white outfits with some kind of weird holy white hat, with serious-statement on his face. “Take off your turban.” (Huh? Did I forget that I was wearing turban this morning?) “This?” I pointed to my camo-U.S-army scarf. “Yes.” He pointed to the same thing. “Owh ok…” I took it off. (Setan!)

Inside, we were ushered to the first floor, where we can observed the ground floor that full of the believers, sitting on the floor, at the main entrance of the temple. Women and men, both genders wore white outfits (more or less look like “ao dai”, the national outfit). Only few had in blue, red and yellow (follow top ranks).From the upper corridor, waiting for them to perform the prayer at 12.30pm, all tourists looked around the temple, noiseless, like a ghost. The pillars were coated with colorful dragons, the ceiling was sketched with stars and clouds, the floor was decorated with checkered and circled mosaics, while the shocking part of the temple, the windows were crafted with one eye! The Eye! The Divine Eye that symbolized The God! ILLUMINATI! (The only person that appeared in my mind was Adib, who obviously annoyed with this secret-society.)“Panggggggggggggggg” “Oo mak hang!” English-man besides me giggled. Hehe! Why? Coz one of the red-wearing old man beat the huge holy bronze bell! Ye la, out of sudden, there was a loud sound that broke the silent, sape tak terkejut! It was the time to perform the prayer. The musicians started to take out their traditional musical instruments and play opera-notes, while a group of 8 young ladies in see-through white “ao dai” started to sing and hit high notes. Non-stop!An old couple in red and white outfit with hood on, walked slowly to the center of the temple, followed by several men in yellow, blue, and red outfit. They were identified as the high ranked people. The rest of the believers who in white outfit, will follow behind them, row by row in 2 separated sections. And last but not least, few men stood still next to the pillars, as well as behind the believers (must be the guard, I guess…orang lain sedap duduk, diorang berdiri, dah la tua…and we were informed that a session of prayer will last up to an hour!).Closed eyes, palm to palm, bow, we still heard the mantra. Standing at the corridor that full or tourists gave us the limitation to see what the thing that they worshiped was. But looking at The Eye, I bet, it’s The Eye that they praised for.

Bored with the same long no-action activity, hubby and I made a move out from the upper corridor. We walked through the aisle and moved to the musicians’ area. From there, I finally saw a very huge metal sphere depicting The Eye, right in front of those believers! Haaaaaa! Tu la dia! But why left eye? It was specifically chose the left eye because Yang is the left side and God is the master of Yang, and it is aligned with the heart. (Owh mannnn…sampai camtu skali ke?)Without waiting the session to come to an end (we were given 25minutes to watch all that), we walked back to the bus. Sigh…Illuminati, Illuminati…Perfectibilist konon!

Saigon - Handicapped Handicraft Tour

“Wake up…wake up…”We took our bath and get ready for today’s tour, Cao Dai Temple and Cu Chi Tunnel, which we booked directly from the hotel reception. The price was more or less the same as Internet charges (always do comparison, check tour itinerary and rate before you confirmed any tour package). We paid 12USD=444,000VND=RM88 for two, which considered the cheapest of all. It was a group tour (cheaper than private tour that offered private car and tour guide) and we were transported by an air-conditioned medium-sized tour bus.We waited for more than 20minutes from the arranged time, but the bus arrived just before the hotel reception made a call. With camo scarf and short pants (but hubby wore long pants coz he said, we need to crawl inside the tunnel and prepared to get dirty…hmmm, I don’t bring any long pants la ayang…hehe…) we hopped onto the bus.

There were 8 tourists who already occupied the front and the middle seats. Hubby and I, both sat separately (left and right), for we wanted to ‘cover’ (photo hunting) on both sides of the Saigon roads.On the way, we saw Saigon River that was not up to our expectation (it wasn’t Mekong River anyway, so never expect much). Full of construction materials and improper drainage, it was not look great to our eyes. Alongside of the roads, there were shops and hawkers, but having motorcycles blocking almost 90% of your view, you couldn’t see what behind them. Haha! Lucky they nowadays use alphabets compared to what they have back then, where all wordings were written in characters.About an hour, we came to this one un-tarred road, filled with mud and holes, and covered with water. The tour guide informed that we have reached at one medium-sized industrial unit, where we can shop for souvenirs. Yeay! Right after we jumped off from the bus, we saw a signboard stated “Handicapped Handicraft”. Oooo…this is the place where government employs the handicapped to do crafting. Hmm…at least, Vietnam government did something for them to survive kan?There were also other tourists from other package tours, so we have to walk along with them, for we were only allowed to have a one way in and a one way out. Not to worry of the room to walk and browse, as the place can cater enough tourists at one time.
As I walked from one to another disabled people, I felt sympathy…with no feet or no hands, and hardly performed their duty, they still did it for a bowl of rice. But believe me, the outcomes were marvelous and beyond description! Fantastic! From egg shells, oyster shells, I-don’t-know-what shells, they made almost all goods looked pretty damn good! Some did the gluing, some did the carving, some did the polishing, some did the cleaning, everyone has his/her own specialty.The price? Don’t ever dream to get one (not even a piece of bowl or lagi kejam, not even a piece of pebble!) Drop dead expensive! (Aren’t factory supposed to sell cheaper???) Come to think of it, well, it was made by disabled people…so it should be special and unique la kot. We didn’t get anything except for few pictures with the goods. Hehe!Suddenly we didn’t see any tour members left. On the way out, our tour guide came to approach us and asked “Anything that you would like to buy?” and we replied “No…” with displeased-smile (mahal kan…) He later escorted us to the bus and at that point of time, we noticed that everyone was waiting for us. Hehe! Sorry ar kan…gua pun bayar gak…kihkih!