Today was an early start.
We were day tripping to the Cu Chi tunnels and the Cao Dai temple in Tay Ninh.
The Cu Chi tunnels were really amazing. Although once again having to deal with
listening to the Vietnamese side of the story, they were very fascinating. We
started off by each of us climbing into a tiny hole in the ground. Once the top
was covered with leaves you became invisible, it was like you were never even
there. We walked through the jungle where American soldiers had clashed with
the Vietcong. Our guide showed us the huge network of tunnels that allowed the
Vietcong to not only survive but to defeat the Americans. We were allowed to
walk down into a tunnel. I could never have stayed down there for long periods
at a time like the Vietcong did. It was very small and there was only enough
room to crouch. We made it to the next entry/exit point. A group of us thought
it was too cool that we had to try it again. Our guide showed us another tunnel
that we could walk down. This time the journey through the tunnels was longer
and the tunnel got to a point at times where it was too narrow and too short to
fit through without going sideways and crawling. Dr. Berman and our guide told
us about many of the stories that occurred here. It was pretty cool being at a
place that held so much history.
Next up was another long
bus ride to Tay Ninh. Tay Ninh is the Vatican of the Cao Dai religion. It is
the headquarters and origin of this small, historic religion. The temple was
amazing but at the same time slightly disconcerting. It’s hard to describe in
words. There was plenty of colors and figures everywhere. The large hall had an
eerie feel to it. At the end of the hall was an altar to which the worshipers
of Caodaiism prayed. The top of the altar featured the all-seeing eye. The
picture of the eye just added to the strange overall feeling the temple gave off.
We stayed to watch as the monks (I’m not sure exactly what to call them) began
their daily worship. It just added to the eeriness of the place. They all lined
up on the ground and would bow their heads every time a gong went off. It was a
very cool thing to watch. We left Tay Ninh and stopped for lunch at a place to
eat on the side of the road. It was a bit sketchy but it turns out the food was
pretty good.
After getting back to the
hotel around 3:15, the UEF kids took us to Ben Thanh again to test our
bargaining skills. I was eager to bargain as I had not bought much our first
time there. While I was buying a souvenir for my sister, I was attempting to
get the price to 40,000 VND. But the lady would not budge. As I was walking
away she made the final price 50,000 VND. I thought I could get it somewhere
else for 40,000 VND so I continued walking away. As I left her shop she yelled
to me “Save your 40,000 VND so you can buy incense when you die!” Apparently I
really angered here LOL. I found the same souvenir at another place and tried
to get it down to 40,000 VND but it was hopeless so I took it for 50,000 VND
after all. I bought another item from the store in a pretty good deal after a
lot of hassling and bargaining. The lady there told me I was very good at
bargaining and when I took out my wallet to buy the souvenir she noticed that I
had a lot of dong and asked why I bargained so much if I had so much money. I
finished my shopping at Ben Thanh and headed to the main entrance to meet up
with the rest of the group. We could not fit into one taxi so I just waited for
My to come and pick me up. Tuan then planned to take us to a t-shirt store that
sold shirts with funny sayings in Vietnamese on them. But on the way My and I
fell behind and got lost. We finally made it to the store. The shirts in the
store were funny. The one a few of us bought said “Not drunk, Not going home”
In Vietnamese. We then walked to a European restaurant. On the way we had to
cross a few streets. Crossing the streets was very challenging in Vietnam with
all the hundreds of motorbikes and cars. Crossing a street in NYC is almost
comparable to crossing one in Vietnam, but not quite. I thought I could do it
pretty well so I decided to go solo on one of my crosses. This almost ended
disastrously as I had to hurry forward to get out of the way of one bike while
stopping myself from walking into another one. They nearly sandwiched me but I
made it out okay! At this dinner, I was looking to try something different. I
asked My about a bunch of the foods on the menu. One of the more interesting
was ostrich wing, which My said was very good. But I could not bring myself to
order an ostrich so I stuck with a simple plate of pasta. This dinner we
refused to let any of the UEF kids pay. They had done enough for us already. We
got home early and a few of us wanted to go to Lush, the club run by Glass Egg
Digital Media. I wasn’t very interested in going out as I felt the trip coming
to an end. I just wanted to hang out with some of the people staying back,
write this blog, and talk to My, Tam, and Tuan. But I ended up going out
because I figured it would be the last time that I could go to a club and order
drinks for a while. Lush wasn’t anything special and I left early. I was still
trying to avoid thinking about our upcoming departure. I did not want to think
about having to leave Vietnam and all of my new friends.
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