Cu Chi – Tay Ninh

The tunnels of Cu Chi are almost a must for the historically interested visitor to Vietnam. Nowhere else can you learn more vividly why it was possible for the Vietnamese "David" to defeat the American "Goliath". We will refrain from firing ammunition to enhance authenticity, preferring instead to make a flying visit to the "Holy See", the almost exclusively Vietnamese "ideal religion" of the Cao Dai, near the Cambodian border.

In the morning we will pick you up at your hotel and drive to Tay Ninh, about 100 kilometers away. The drive goes along rice fields, sugar cane and rubber plantations.

As we do not join the tourist crowds at the souvenir stores, we reach the "Holy See" of the Cao Dai far earlier than the masses. So we have enough time to explore the spacious area and to talk to some of the very hospitable members of this unique religious community.

Also one invites the visitor gladly to the participation in the (strictly vegetarian) midday meal, in the large communal dining room of the community. Culinary perhaps no highlight, but the warm-heartedness of the people goes through the stomach.

Afterwards we attend a prayer ceremony of the community, before we make our way to Cu Chi.

The network of tunnels of Cu Chi, altogether about 200 kilometers long, is an impressive symbol of the unconditional will for self-determination of the Vietnamese people. For years, and despite the most adverse circumstances, the Vietcong partisans resisted the overwhelming military power of the US Army.

The simplicity of the means, the inventiveness and the inconceivable stamina of the resistance fighters, with which the American high-tech military machinery was brought to its knees, are displayed in a kind of open-air museum, which occasionally reminds one of a fairy tale park, in a "politically correct" manner.

On our visit to this historic site, we are also accompanied by a local guide. Many of these guides still have relatives who had found shelter in the tunnels and of course they present the view of things desired by the official side. Thus, they provide the critical visitor not only a lesson in history, but also an insight into today's society. Around 5 pm our excursion ends at your hotel in Saigon.