South Vietnam, Diverse in Everyway

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Do you want to live like a millionaire?

There are several countries in the world where that is possible, among them Vietnam.  For as little as $58.00 USD you too can be a millionaire.  In June of 2009 the exchange rate was roughly 17,000 Dong to one U.S. Dollar.  Something that cost 50,000 Dong would have only been worth $3 USD.  Before leaving Saigon, I had to withdraw a sufficient amount to pay for our hotel rooms, taxi fare to the airport and snacks during our flight.  I had to keep reminding myself that the $2.5 million Dong I withdrew from the ATM was only about $150 USD.  It's true what they say . . . rich people do constantly worry about going broke.

A caution to anyone visiting Saigon is to be wary of the taxi drivers.  They are notorious for ripping off tourists, especially the cabs without meters.  However, as we learned the hard way, even those with meters can take advantage of the uneducated traveler.  The best way to avoid being ripped off is to know the exact location of your destination, and have someone at the hotel where you are staying write it out in Vietnamese.  In addition, ask a hotel representative what the fare should be to that destination, and don't pay anymore even if the driver claims the cost is higher.

We took two tours outside of the city, which were as different as war and peace.  The first was to the Great Cao Dai Holly See, and the second to the tunnels used by the Viet Cong during the war.  Both were remarkable in their complexity and their capacity to boggle the mind.

The temple complex was home to a religion like nothing we've ever seen.  Its overarching faith combines Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Catholicism, and Islam into one; however, followers are also allowed some flexibility to pursue their own original beliefs.  The complex consists of one huge ornate temple, and many smaller temples plus large open spaces and gardens.

According to Fommers online information, the Cao Dai religion is less than 100 years old and is a broad, inclusive faith that sprang from Buddhist origins to embrace Jesus, Mohammed, and other non-traditional, latter day saints such as Louis Pasteur, Martin Luther King, and Victor Hugo.  Practitioners of Cao Daism are pacifists, pray four times daily, and follow a vegetarian diet for 10 days out of every month. Cao Daism is practiced by only a small percentage of Vietnamese people, mostly in the south.  There is so much symbolism and references to other faiths it's impossible for the uninformed to understand their significance and how it all fits together.  For example, a prominent and recurring feature throughout the temple is the all seeing eye, which, oddly enough, looks much like the eye on the U.S. dollar.

The Cu Chi Tunnels were used as an underground base by the Viet Cong to fight the French and eventually the allied forces during the Vietnam War.  The tunnels are approximately 50 miles southwest of Saigon and consists of more than 75 miles of subterranean passageways, which in some places has up to three separate levels.  The labyrinth of interconnecting tunnels contains living quarters, kitchens, medical facilities, water supplies, air vents, and entrance and exit hatches completely concealed by leaves and other debris from the jungle canopy.  The tunnels were virtually undetectable and during the war were home to thousands of Viet Cong.

The tunnels are so small and narrow that it is not uncommon for Westerners to get stuck.  The Western diet combined with the obesity epidemic does not make a good combination for those who want to experience the tunnels firsthand.  The Vietnamese are a petit race of people, and even today can cover great distances underground in a short period of time.

As Americans we were use to visiting various locations during our trek and being portrayed as the "good guys".  Not surprisingly, that was not the case in Vietnam.  We were the only Americans in the group lead by a local tour guide.  He constantly referred to how his country fought and won against the Imperialist Americans and the lengths they went to defeat the aggressors, which included vivid details of the booby traps and other horrors of war.  It was a strange and rather uncomfortable feeling to be viewed in this way - sometimes the truth will do that to a person.

There are also many things to see within the city.  Among the countless markets throughout the city is one almost exclusively devoted to Vietnam War era memorabilia.  Some was authentic and others were obviously knock-offs.  The windproof lighters used by the GIs were a very hot commodity.  Based on the number we saw being hawked, the GIs must have left every single lighter behind.

The Reunification Palace, formerly the Presidential Palace for the South Vietnamese Government is a must see for any visitor.  It is the location where U.S. helicopters lifted off the roof with South Vietnamese officials just as the North Vietnamese tanks were breaking through the front gates.  The enormous building is now a museum.  The inside of the building seems as if it's in a time warp because the furnishings appear to have been there since it was built.  Apparently they used the same interior decorator as the Brady Bunch.

Somewhat surprisingly, there are probably more Christian Churches in Vietnam than most other parts of the world.  In Saigon, there are many including the Notre Dame Cathedral Basilica built by the French between 1863 and 1880.  It is a beautiful structure reminiscent of its namesake.

We spent nearly two weeks in Saigon and were constantly looking for activities to occupy our time.  During one of our many walks we discovered a large multistory mall with high-end retailers of all kinds and a multi-screen movie theater at the top.  One afternoon, we went to the cinema on the 13th floor and watched Night at the Museum 2.  It was very strange watching a movie in a major Vietnamese city all in English with no subtitles.  We were the only Western faces there, which says a lot about the locals' ability to be conversant in more than one language.  Something we could not claim.

We had spent two months in Southeast Asia and were ready to move on to Oz, also known as Australia.  It had been our collective lifelong dream to visit the vast continent down under, and it did not disappoint.  The next leg of our trek covered more than 5,000 miles of driving.  Even so, we saw only a tiny fraction of a country roughly the size of the United States.

And remember, "Travel is the ultimate education."

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