Tourism at its finest.
After getting up nice and early, we had the most amazing breakfast to be consumed by any biped in this galaxy. Seriously. The hotel has a smorgasbord of food items for morning consumption; truly a way to start your day in Vietnam. They had the greasy baked and sugared items for the Americans, but the more adventurous diner or a local could chow down on some pho or a whole mess of other traditional foods that are available. Tea is always brewing, and mango juice complements the normal orange juice option. Dragon fruit and papaya is side by side with pineapple and watermelon. We were given breakfast vouchers for each day we are here, and I can’t see us tiring of the selections.
At breakfast Tuan, a teacher at APU, caught up with us and he helped us get booked on tours for the rest of our day. We got put on a very typical day trip to the Cao Dai temples in Tay Nihn and the Cu Chi tunnels. This trip was a straightforward, hands down example of exactly how weird Vietnam can be. The Cao Dai religion was the brainchild of a French con man that was later jailed for embezzling church funds. It is a conglomerate of Buddhism, Catholicism, Taoism, Confucianism, and Hinduism with the sole purpose of being able to include members of each separate religion under the same roof and to collect donations from all of them. All my information on this cult/religion comes from the ramblings of some strange dude on our tour, codename Jacque Cousteau. He just wandered over, smoked a hand rolled cigarette and spilled all the beans on Cao Chi and on everything wrong with post-French Vietnam. This pacifist religion had its own army in the 1950’s (slight contradiction there?) and has a strange affectation for neon. The main temple, the robes of the practitioners, and everything related to the religion blends together to form a Technicolor nightmare. And there are two million practitioners of Cao Dai in Vietnam today! I hear the Moonies are making a comeback over here as well.
After a rather delicious lunch, we headed over to the Cu Chi tunnels. This area was the glorious stronghold of communist resistance deep in South Vietnam during the American War. We got a wonderful display of the fighting prowess of our comrades and their dedication to the liberation of the south from the American oppressors. In other words we got to watch bald-faced communist propaganda films and then see some of the damage done to the jungles during the war. There were fighting trenches dug by the guerrillas and bomb craters left by the B-52’s that pounded the area, both of which were probably authentic. However, the tunnels that we got to crawl through were most likely recent constructs as concrete was used to build them, as concrete construction was not within the abilities of the people who supposedly used the tunnels. Regardless of authenticity, the tunnels were an excellent taste of how Vietnam views the war and we got to fire guns. That’s right. They handed me live ammunition and let me fire both an AK-47 and a M16 at a dirt mound. Silly buggers.
The real highlight of the trip turned out to be the bus ride to these locations. The ride took us out of HCMC proper and through their version of suburbs. We even got to see some of the more rural areas full of rice fields butting up against derelict communist factories and teeming with water buffalo. A Vietnamese suburb only means that the houses are a little farther back from the road and there is less traffic. There is still the odd mix of brand spanking new houses adjacent to sheet metal huts. Doug (the fearless leader of this expedition) was saying that in China they have a phrase where everything is either being built or torn down. Vietnam appears to be in the same state of flux, for better or for worse. The bus was the perfect looking glass to peer at a real Vietnam; a Vietnam not trying to sell you anything or putting on a show for Western eyes. When locals waved at the strange faces staring at them from the bus, they were doing it out of pure kindness and curiosity. Ironically the biggest tourist trap in town, a day trip to two ‘must-see’ locations, provided one of the most realistic views of Vietnam that I have come across thus far.
To cap the day, the APU staff took us out to eat at a Very nice southern Vietnamese cuisine restaurant. I’m talking about a swanky place. A very swanky place. It was a great chance to meet and greet with the APU staff; Dr. Tran played the gracious host for dinner and CEO to APU. Tuan, Natalie, and Terry also were with us and we had quite the gastrointestinal experience. After tonight we were promised central and northern meals. Vietnam is wonderful. 
