Monday, September 13, 2010
10:21 PM
2010 Vietnam Cambodia trip - Day 2 HCMC, Cao Dai temple & Cu Chi tunnels
Joined a day tour by Sinh Cafe to visit the Cao Dai temple & Cu Chi tunnels. According to my research, Sinh Cafe is a very famous tour agency in Vietnam, with more than 15 yrs of history and lotsa other tour agencies stealing its name (apparently there's no such thing as copyright in Vietnam) to pass off as the fake Sinh Cafe. This is no joke man, everywhere we go, there's tour agencies naming themselves Sinh Cafe!
Coincidentely, the hotel we stayed at is an alliance of Sinh Cafe, hence it helped us booked the tour without the hassle of us gg down to the agency itself. But but but, i wanna say dat Sinh cafe did not live up to its reputation at all! Our tour guides r all seriously crap (we booked 3 tours wif Sinh cafe) and we regretted booking our tours wif it. So my advice to anyone gg to HCMC, look for other tour agencies instead!
anyway, back to our day trip, visited the Cao Dai temple located in e northwest of HCMC. the Cao Dai religion is a sum of Confucianism, Buddhism & Catholicism. kian thinks dat it is really weird to hav a religion dat sums up other religions. according to wikipedia, started officially oni in 1926, it has abt 6mil followers presently out of Vietnam's population of 86mil (FYI-viet is e 13th most populous country in e world). the symbol of Cao Dai is e divine eye, representing god.
Nx up we hav e Cu Chi tunnels, the base of the VC (Viet Cong - Vietnamese Communist), a political organisation & army in South Vietnam that fought the US and South Vietnamese government during the Vietnam War. Below is a model of how the tunnels looked like... it's super smart of the VC to tink of digging tunnels & living in them to avoid the US army as well as sprang surprise attacks on them. there's even meeting rooms & kitchens inside the tunnels!
a trap set by e VC for e US army~~
weapons used~~
gg into e tunnels~~ the original size of e tunnels r much smaller, jus enuff to fit e asian size, so dat e americans wif a much bigger build were not able to enter e tunnels. however, due to the development of e area into a tourist destination, e tunnels hav been enlarged to fit the ang mohs.
a demostration by e local guide on how e tunnel's opening is concealed & how e VC entered e tunnels.
inside e tunnels~~
Had dinner at Quan An Ngon, a really famous restaurant selling authentic vietnamese food dat is super popular wif both locals & tourists. housed in a colonial style building, atmosphere is really lively thou prices r of course more ex than eating at e night mkt/rdside stall. we spent abt S$11 per pax for e food below including drinks.
a pt to note: be careful of ur slingbag (i alr noe i shdnt carry handbag, but now i wont even carry slingbag after this incident), best is to carry a backpack. i was robbed in HCMC when walking near ben thanh area. 2 ppl jus zoomed past me on a motobike & grabbed my slingbag. luckily my bag was opened at dat time(cos i was looking for something) & everything jus fell out all over e rd, so they oni got an empty bag which they threw away after 100m. i wasnt hurt by e impact, cos e string snapped when they pulled e bag, but we had a really bad scare.
Joined a day tour by Sinh Cafe to visit the Cao Dai temple & Cu Chi tunnels. According to my research, Sinh Cafe is a very famous tour agency in Vietnam, with more than 15 yrs of history and lotsa other tour agencies stealing its name (apparently there's no such thing as copyright in Vietnam) to pass off as the fake Sinh Cafe. This is no joke man, everywhere we go, there's tour agencies naming themselves Sinh Cafe!
Coincidentely, the hotel we stayed at is an alliance of Sinh Cafe, hence it helped us booked the tour without the hassle of us gg down to the agency itself. But but but, i wanna say dat Sinh cafe did not live up to its reputation at all! Our tour guides r all seriously crap (we booked 3 tours wif Sinh cafe) and we regretted booking our tours wif it. So my advice to anyone gg to HCMC, look for other tour agencies instead!
anyway, back to our day trip, visited the Cao Dai temple located in e northwest of HCMC. the Cao Dai religion is a sum of Confucianism, Buddhism & Catholicism. kian thinks dat it is really weird to hav a religion dat sums up other religions. according to wikipedia, started officially oni in 1926, it has abt 6mil followers presently out of Vietnam's population of 86mil (FYI-viet is e 13th most populous country in e world). the symbol of Cao Dai is e divine eye, representing god.
Nx up we hav e Cu Chi tunnels, the base of the VC (Viet Cong - Vietnamese Communist), a political organisation & army in South Vietnam that fought the US and South Vietnamese government during the Vietnam War. Below is a model of how the tunnels looked like... it's super smart of the VC to tink of digging tunnels & living in them to avoid the US army as well as sprang surprise attacks on them. there's even meeting rooms & kitchens inside the tunnels!
a trap set by e VC for e US army~~
weapons used~~
gg into e tunnels~~ the original size of e tunnels r much smaller, jus enuff to fit e asian size, so dat e americans wif a much bigger build were not able to enter e tunnels. however, due to the development of e area into a tourist destination, e tunnels hav been enlarged to fit the ang mohs.
a demostration by e local guide on how e tunnel's opening is concealed & how e VC entered e tunnels.
inside e tunnels~~
Had dinner at Quan An Ngon, a really famous restaurant selling authentic vietnamese food dat is super popular wif both locals & tourists. housed in a colonial style building, atmosphere is really lively thou prices r of course more ex than eating at e night mkt/rdside stall. we spent abt S$11 per pax for e food below including drinks.
a pt to note: be careful of ur slingbag (i alr noe i shdnt carry handbag, but now i wont even carry slingbag after this incident), best is to carry a backpack. i was robbed in HCMC when walking near ben thanh area. 2 ppl jus zoomed past me on a motobike & grabbed my slingbag. luckily my bag was opened at dat time(cos i was looking for something) & everything jus fell out all over e rd, so they oni got an empty bag which they threw away after 100m. i wasnt hurt by e impact, cos e string snapped when they pulled e bag, but we had a really bad scare. lessons learnt:
1) to buy cheapo goods like me, or else if ur bag's sling is of too good quality n doesnt break when pulled, u'll be e one getting hurt!
2) to leave ur bag open! haaha...