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up at your hotel, travel by roads to Tay Ninh to see the ornate temple
of Cao Dai and attend the fantastic mid-day service when the followers
fill the hall wearing colored robes, a symbol of the curious
combination of the Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism. After wards we
continue to the famous Cu Chi Tunnels. At the height of the Vietnam
war, the tunnel system stretched from the outskirts of Saigon all the
way to the Cambodian border of over 250 kilometers of tunnels. The
tunnel system, built over 25 years starting in the 1940s, let the Viet
Minh and, later, the Viet Cong, control a huge rural area. It was an
underground city with living areas, kitchens, storage, weapons
factories, field hospitals, command centers. In places, it was several
stories deep and housed up to 10,000 people who virtually lived
underground for years.... getting married, giving birth, going to
schools
The ground here is hard clay, which made this whole
thing possible. But even so, the planning and construction was
incredible. People dug all this with hand tools, filling reed baskets
and dumping the dirt into bomb craters. They installed large vents so
they could hear approaching helicopters, smaller vents for air and
baffled vents to dissipate cooking smoke. There were also hidden trap
doors and gruesomely effective bamboo-stake booby traps. Today, the
trees and bushes have grown back. And since 1988, two sections of
tunnels have been open for visitors. Transfer back HCM city. Drop off
at your hotel. End of tour.
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