Vietnam Day 10, Flying Solo

W woke up on day 10 not feeling very awesome, so I took one for the team and decided to go solo on our tour for the day. I'd paid for it, and after 10 days of spending every minute together who wouldn't like a little peace and quiet. On the docket for me: a trip to the Cu chi Tunnel complex , and and a stop at the Cao Dai Holy See. We started with a good solid drive out to the Cao Dai holy see, a place and religion that even for the purpose of this writing, I don't fully understand. All I took home from my visit was that their building is pretty spectacular, the all seeing eye is important, and Victor Hugo is one of the three important saints. We watched part of the mass, which was mostly singing, praying and drum and gong playing, while wearing brightly colored robes and hats. It was a cool thing to watch, but I found it difficult to get much out of the experience, while trying to talk about it enough so as not to disturb what was happening. After that my guide for the day took me to the designated tourist hole for lunch. This was by far the worst meal I ate on the trip, and I spent most of the time thinking I was glad I hadn't dragged W with me. After that we were off to the Cu Chi Complex. You start with a movie in the language of your choice that tells you about how the noble Vietnamese lived in the tunnels fighting off the evil imperialist Americans with their vastly superior weapons to maintain their independence. Being on the wrong side of history kind of sucks. You get to see some of the improvised weapons and traps made from whatever was available, and you get a sense for just how well the complex was hidden and how they managed to keep it that way. I spent some time crawling through one of the tunnels, and it was hard work. for a guy of my stature, and I wasn't carrying any fighting gear. A nasty Sarasota style thunderstorm blew through while we were there, and didn't seem all that interested in leaving, so I ended up kind of soaked for the ride back to Saigon. When I got back I found W and described my adventure, while she told me about her adventures getting a mani, and a shampoo, while I was out crawling through a tunnel and dodging lightning. I was almost a little jealous. For dinner that night we decided to try the Barbecue Garden, after having passed it several times in our travels. It was easily one of the best meals of the trip, and we had a lot of good meals. You cook your own stuff, on a gas powered cooking plate in the middle of your table, and the stuff was so good we'd eat what we had and order something else. the beef short ribs stuffed with cheese are something I'm going to have to try to figure out for myself. After dinner we wanted to go check out a recommendation from our favorite Aussie Paul, the Sheridan's Irish House. The directions we got there weren't spectacular, but when we did actually find it, it was worth the trip. It's a nice place to grab a real beer in a place where all the beers are lite on alcohol and flavor. After our beer we made our way back to our hotel for a night of rest before our last big day in Saigon.