Learning to Cross in Traffic, and Other Adventures

When stepping off the curb into a flowing mass of traffic, remember to move slowly and steadily across the street. Motorbikes will weave around you. Cars and trucks are less maneuverable and expect you to wait for them to pass in the flow. Joy is getting really good at it even in heavy rush hour traffic on the 8 lane roads. I, however, started thinking about what we were doing and got more and more nervous until we had to stop and have famous Vietnam Pho noodles and beer for dinner. (My hands were shaking to much for a picture of the noodles.)
But before that, we spent the day on a tour to the largest Cao Dai Temple and the Chu Chui tunnels which were a huge Viet Cong tunnel complex about 2 hours outside of Ho Chi Minh City.
The Cao Dai Religion ( we saw a small temple yesterday in the Mekong Delta) was founded in 1926. Our tour guide said that this religion attempted to resolve conflicts in Vietnamese people's minds over being taught Confucianism, Budhism, and Catholicism by different colonial powers of China, the French and the influences of India over the last 1000 years. This religion lets a person pick one of the three as a personal core religion, and add from both of the other religions to achieve a total belief system.
Tourists were allowed into the galleries of the temple to watch a worship service in progress. We were allowed to take pictures. The worshipers wore different color robes--white for those of less than 10 years membership. Yellow, gold, and blue for beyond 10 years to identify which of the three is their base religion. there is also some sort of hierarchy involved. It felt a little disrespectful to be an observer along with a ton of other tour groups but apparently it is ok with them. The service was mostly chanting while we were there. The people are required to worship three times a day for 45 minutes. The faithful apparently go home, put the robes on over their clothes, worship, then go on with the day.
Next we went to the Cu Chi tunnel complex. The Vietnamese built up a three level, 200 km long tunnel system from 1954 to 1975 that included kitchen, hospitals, and booby traps. Some children literally were born and partially grew up in the tunnels. On one hand it was really interesting to learn about. On the other hand, it is never comfortable being referred to as the "American Aggressors" over and over. Even though the section open for tourists has been enlarged, it was a snug fit. We went only one or two hundred feet to the next opening. My legs were still trembling from walking hunched down so far. You can see Joy in her blue shirt leading into a narrow passage.
The last picture is of people with booths in the day market, packing everything up for the night. Only to have to unpack it the next morning.