Thursday, May 17, 2012

Today we got to go on a field trip first to Cu Chi and then to Tay Ninh. Cu Chi was about an hour or so outside of HCMC in the countryside. Riding there, we passed fields and fields of rice patties and Vietnamese workers wearing the iconic Non La hats. Cu Chi is a village out in the jungle that was home to many Viet Cong fighters during the war. They build a network of tunnels underground that they used to hide in when American soldiers passed through. They also set bamboo traps and grenades to try to kill soldiers. We toured the area and saw models of bamboo traps and other war artifacts, including a U.S. tank, VC clothing, and weapons. We also crawled through some of the tunnels. The tunnels were apparently enlarged for tourists, but even so I had to crawl on my hands and knees for some of it.

Next we drove another 2 hours to Tay Ninh. We came to see the Caoist temple there that is quite spectacular. I knew absolutely nothing about Caoism before I came to Vietnam, and I still want to research it a bit to understand more about its origin and core beliefs. The temple was covered in paintings of an eye bounded by a triangle, the columns were adorned with colorful dragons, and the ceiling was covered in stars. When we got there, monks were gathering for worship and they came in single file and lined up along the floor. They all kneeled and bowed simultaneously while traditional music was being played. They kneeled and chanted for a long while, and we had to leave before the ceremony was finished. Dr. Berman told us that Caoists believe we are all watched over by an all-seeing eye. The religion takes elements from many other religions such as Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Taoism. Something that I thought was a little peculiar and I would like to know more about is that Victor Hugo, the writer of Les Misérables, is one of the Caoists’ saints. We had lunch at a street vendor in Tay Ninh. We all ended up getting sweet and sour pork with rice and vegetables.

After we got back to HCMC, we met some of our UEF friends to go to Ben Thanh market again. I bought even more presents, which I will not name yet, and I think I’m finally done shopping. Afterwards, we went to another t-shirt shop and then had dinner. We went to a European restaurant that was famous for beef steak and tiramisu. I got Spaghetti Carbonara because I’ve really been missing pasta. It was absolutely delicious, but it made my stomach hurt a little bit after only eating Vietnamese food for so long. When I get home, I’ll have to watch out for that. For dessert, we all got Crème Brule. It was really good, but it was so rich I couldn’t finish it. I think it’s really interesting how we can still see the effects of the French Colonial period in some of the Vietnamese culture today. For instance, the most popular brand of bottled water here is called La Vie, and all of the music we have heard played here is either American music from a decade or two ago, Vietnamese instrumental music, or French pop music. After dinner we got our suits. I couldn’t believe what a good deal I got on mine. I’m really happy with it. At night, we went back to Lush and danced some more.