Temples & Tunnels

Leaving the hustle and bustle of Ho Chi Minh City behind we journey 2 ½ hours into the countryside bound for the Cao Dai temple in Tay Ninh district.  First stop will be at a local family for home cooked lunch. After the lunch, we time our visit for the noon ceremony at the temples which provides an insight to this interesting religion.  Founded in Vietnam in the 1920's, Cao Daoism borrows elements from Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Taoism and Confucianism and blends them together in an effort to make the perfect religion.  Cao Dai means "high place or abode"
Following visit of Cao Dai ceremony, we continue to the Cu Chi Tunnels.  The Cu Chi tunnels were built by local fighters during the Indochina conflict as a base from which the Viet Cong could operate from close to the Southern Vietnamese capital. The location proved of significant strategic importance, at the end of the infamous Ho Chi Minh Trail and within striking distance of the southern Vietnam capital.  Initial construction started in 1948 when the Viet Minh required somewhere to hide from French air attacks and by 1965, the tunnel complex was estimated to consist of 200km's of tunnels.  It included, hospitals, schools, meeting rooms, kitchens and sleeping quarters.  Life was difficult for the inhabitants and to protect against outside intruders bobby traps were laid throughout the complex.  Today the Vietnamese government have preserved approximately 75 kilometres of the tunnels as a memorial park, in some areas tunnels have been widened and low powered lights installed so that western tourists can now fit through the complex.
Our local guide will take us on a fascinating trip around the Cu Chi Tunnels where we learn more about the conditions the people lived in, the hardships they faced and the amazing ingenuity employed to maintain life in the tunnels.  We walk past huge bomb craters , evidence of the heavy bombing campaigns in the region during the Indochina conflict, discover hidden entrances right beneath your feet, wander past tiny little chimneys in the ground that dispersed smoke from the underground kitchens, sample some of the simple cuisine that local fighters would have survived on and have an opportunity to venture into the tunnels and explore the complex. 
Following our step back in modern history we return to the chaos of Ho Chi Minh City.