Church, War, Shopping, and Puppets

We began our Sunday by heading to the Notre Dame Cathedral for the English-language Mass. A few wedding parties were taking photos outside. Inside, the service was absolutely packed, and it was exciting to see people from all over the globe--including a lot of Africans--at the service.

After church, we went to the War Remants Museum, previously known as the Museum of Chinese and American War Crimes. The museum focuses on what we in the states call the "Vietnam War", but is known to the Vietnamese as the "American War". The brutality of the war is graphically depicted in photographs throughout the museum, many of which we had to steer the boys past quickly. The aftermath of the chemical aspect of the war, particularly as it affected children, was pictured front and center. The horrors of the war were difficult to shake from our minds; the Communist propaganda, laid on thick throughout the museum, was by turns frustrating, humorous, and odd.

We decided to break the mood by taking Cyclos to the market. Charis flew solo, with Barek and I in one cyclo and Steve and Asher in another. Vietnamese traffic is a mighty thing to behold. I actually think their system makes perfect sense: everyone simply heads the way they want to go and no one stops for anything, yet it all works out. For example, if you want to turn left across oncoming traffic--as we did in our cyclos--you simply go for it. And somehow the oncoming traffic swirls around you until everyone gets to where they want to go. Intersections often look like schools of fish encountering oncoming schools of fish. What makes it work is that 90% of the vehicles on the road are motorbikes and everyone travels at relatively low speeds. I don't have a great shot of the motorbikes on the road, but suffice it to say that there are 8 million people in Saigon--and people claim that there are 10 million motorbikes. Ten years ago, there were only bicycles and many wonder if in another ten years, all of the motorbikes will turn into cars.

As for walking across a road, you simply go out in the traffic and walk at a steady pace: if you stop or if you rush, you may literally die. But if you walk ahead at a steady pace, drivers from all directions will "get" where you are and go around you. When you are out in the middle of 6 lanes of traffic, it looks and feels like a school of fish swimming around a rock in the river.

On the outside of the Ben Thanh Market, fresh and dried fish were for sale, along with meat and produce.

Inside, the market was filled with shoes, clothing, and souveniers. The bargaining was tough, but luckily we had little Asher as our good luck charm. All of the ladies wanted to hold him and pat his head! The bargaining was more intense here than in China; we got some good deals, but in the end did not find too much at the market that was a great bargain. The theatrics, though, of some of the shopkeepers were priceless! Lots of anger and dismissal on one hand--and some excellent renditions of deep sadness on the other. It made it doubly nice to actually connect with someone and have a more authentic exchange. The woman in the photo above really did love Asher and we could tell that holding him made her day!

The heat was near 100 and the day was extremely humid. We had to take a break from shopping and get a soda at a nearby stand where we watched the traffic go by.

Reunification Palace, formerly known as Independence or Presidential Palace, was once the symbol of the South Vietnamese government. On April 30th, 1975, the first communist tanks crashed through the gates above. Steve is pictured in the President's Office.

A defunct helicopter on the palace roof calls to mind the famous photo of the American helicopter making one of its last rescue flights during the fall of Saigon. That photo, pictured above, was thought to be taken at the American Embassy, but the rescue actually took place at a Saigon apartment building roof.

We found the Golden Dragon Water Puppet Theatre near the Reunification Palace. The live music and superior production elements made this performance a delight. Six musicians, seated on either side of the stage, provided lively vocals and excellent musical accompaniment on their traditional string, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The stories presented at water puppet performances are nearly always quite similar: the production opens with "Teu", the Everyman Vietnamese farmer, welcoming the audience, and the vignettes include swimming children, a cat chasing a duck, dragons fighting, a processional, and dancing ladies. The stories are simple, but the young people in the audience were charmed by them--and so was I.

Here are three clips from the Golden Dragon production:

Cao Dai Temple & Cu Chi Tunnels

We set out on an SAS trip to the Cao Dai Temple (pronounced "cow dye") and the Cu Chi ("coo chee") Tunnels. All sorts of conveyances were on the road: a motorized cart carrying steel, massive loads of just-harvested peanuts, and a motorbike filled with Jackfruit.


Steve and Barek looked over the candy at our rest stop.
After a three-hour journey, we arrived in the town of Tay Ninh and ate a lunch which included the traditional Vietnamese Pho, a noodle soup containing vegetables and pork.

Tay Ninh is the headquarters of Caodaism, an indigenous religion Steve described in our previous post. This temple is one of the most striking and extravagant in Asia. We were glad to be there during a service so we could hear the musicians and chanters and observe the people united in prayer.

Followers of the Cao Dai religion must attend at least one service every 24 hours. The temple offers services at 6am, noon, 6pm, and midnight. Here a woman bikes away after the noon service.

Next we headed to the Cu Chi Tunnels, a 200-kilometer network of underground tunnels created and used by the Viet Cong forces during the wars against the French and the Americans. In the first two photos, Steve lowers himself into a tunnel that was actually enlarged for the sake of tourists. He crawled through this tunnel, but the rest of us waited for the even larger tunnel, which was still quite tight.


Here Charis and Barek attempt to get into one of the real tunnels, which were too tight even for them.

Further down the path through the jungle our tour guide shows us shoes that the Viet Cong made out of old tires. The footprint on the shoe is turned the reverse direction so that the soldiers could elude the enemy. The workers above are making the same style of shoes for tourists to buy.

The entire Cu Chi experience was surreal. The area included an odd array of fake Viet Cong soldiers set up at various locations in the woods and several demonstration stations of Viet Cong traps used during the war. Tourists could take photos on American tanks and there was a firing range where, for a price, you could fire an AK-47 or an M16. The shots rang out throughout the jungle and our tour guide recounted times when American vets had returned to see the Cu Chi area and had not been able to handle the gunfire from the tourist firing range. Even for us, hearing those shots in the Vietnam jungle was quite vivid.

We heard lots of interesting stories about North and South Vietnam and the war, but will share those in person.

The day had been long and hot: temperatures in Vietnam are in the upper 90s with 100% humidity. We showered and went into Saigon for an eclectic meal of Vietnamese and American food at what seemed to be the Howard Johnson's of Vietnam. SAS students took our picture in front of the People's Committee Building, an emblematic structure of Saigon originally built as a hotel in 1908, and now home of the Ho Chi Minh City Communist Party.

Here is a short clip of the Cao Dai service:

Saigon! Water Puppets, Temples, and Churches

We awoke to find we had left the South China Sea and were headed down the Saigon River towards Ho Chi Minh City, known by all the locals by the "old" name of Saigon. Each time we head into port, a local "pilot" boards the ship and helps navigate the channel. Our Vietnamese pilot boarded around 1am and we docked about seven hours later. Closer to Saigon, traffic on the river picked up. Yes, no one could resist shouting, "Good Morning, Vietnam!"

This lovely group of Vietnamese women greeted us in their traditional "ao dai" dresses.

Our first stop was a Vietnamese Water Puppet performance in a lovely outdoor venue at the History Museum. The performance was one of my "FDP's", Faculty Directed Practica, meaning that I had incorporated this visit into my courses and many of my students joined us for this excursion.

It was great to see the puppets up close--and to see the puppeteers for a wet curtain call.


We were glad for the opportunity to talk with the artistic director about this fascinating form of theatre unique to Vietnam. Water Puppetry originated in 11th century Vietnamese villages where it made sense to develop an artform that relies on water. The local people made puppets out of fig tree wood, painted them with countless coats of special lacquer, created an underwater rod and pulley system for the puppeteers to manipulate from behind a screen, and enacted stories of village life and ancient tales familiar to all. In the past several decades, the art form has enjoyed a resurgance as a source of culture pride for the country and an accessible and entertaining tourist activity. A dissapointment for me was that this performance was accompanied by a taped soundtrack, rather than the live instrumentalists and vocalists I had hoped we would hear.

Several of the SAS families joined us for the trip, and the kids posed for a photo after the show.

Next up was one of Steve's FDP's: Temples and Churches of Ho Chi Minh City. We began this fascinating tour by driving past a memorial to the Buddhist monk who set himself on fire to protest the Catholic regime of President Diem, who was in power in the 1950s and 60s. His self-immolation became a model for several others, but his was the first and most famous. They are actually constructing an entire park across from this memorial to honor him. We then went the Pagoda that was at the heart of the Buddhist resistance to the Diem government. Diem's raid on this temple set in motion the events that would lead to his murder. This temple is called the Xa Loi Pagoda and contains a relic from the Buddha (a bone piece that was allegedly saved from his cremation--it is only displayed on very special occasions).

This is a Taoist Temple dedicated to the Jade Emperor, a Taoist divinity who is connected to many stories about the creation of the world and an original paradise (as well as stories about cowherd girls). It was incredibly colorful and baroque. There are very few pure Taoists in Vietnam (estimated at 5000) but in Taoism is easily assimiliated into Buddhism by most Vietnamese.

Behind the Jade Temple was a repository for ashes. Throughout Asia, Buddhism is the religion people turn to for funerals. (In Japan they say Buddhism is for the sad times and Shinto for the happy times.) In front of the Temple, visitors could buy a small bird to set free for good luck. Steve bought one for Barek, who held the small bird and let him fly free into the air. I don't know what Barek wished for, but I prayed for no bird flu as I doused him with hand sanitizer!

This is the Le Van Duyet Temple, dedicated to the South Vietnam General who saved the South from invasion and is a great national hero to the South. The Communists did not like him (because he was evidence of a distinct southern identity) and barely tolerated this temple up to four or five years ago. Our tour guide said guards were there constantly and anyone caught talking to a Western visitor in the Temple would have been sent to prison. Fortunately, the Communists decided a few years ago to start tolerating religion, though members of the Communist party are forbidden to believe in anything except Communist doctrine and the semi-divinity of Uncle Ho.


There are many Catholic Churches in Vietnam, but this is the largest and is located in the heart of the city. Notre Dame Cathedral was built by the French in 1883.


There were tens and tens of thousands of Malaysian Muslims in South Vietnam, but almost all of them left after 1975 when the Communists took over. This is their central Mosque. It was refreshing and startling to see a place of worship that was so spartan, abstract, and devoid of imagery after visiting the various Buddhist temples.


There are a number of Hindu Temples in Vietnam. This one was dedicated to Mariamman. There are only a few Hindus left in Vietnam, but the Buddhists have adopted this temple as one of their own.

This is a small Cao Dai Temple (at least compared to the large one in central Vietnam). This religion was founded/created in the 1920s by a man who wanted to honor and unify all the religions then present in Vietnam. Some think of it as a form of Buddhism (greatly expanded), others as a brand new religion (though it is found only in Vietnam). Victor Hugo is the patron saint, and they worship just about everyone, including Jesus Christ. It was growing for awhile in Vietnam but has been in decline in recent years.

We ended our day at a very nice Vietnamese restaurant overlooking the city where we ordered away, consuming more food and drink than we needed--and paid only about $50. Charis ordered fresh grilled shrimp that arrived looking more like small lobsters. She bet Barek $5 to eat a set of shrimp eyeballs--and he did.

Here are two short clips from today's puppet show: