Cu Chi- First of all, Happy Father's Day!!! Dad, I hope the bluegrass out in Telluride is treating you well! Well, today we ventured from Saigon to Cu Chi to explore the iconic forest domain of the unification fighters against the U.S. troops and the Saigon army. These forests have been depicted in countless war movies about Vietnam. The woods seemed so peaceful, but we could see land mine craters, the horrible forest floor traps that were once hidden under leaves, and the incredibly disguised hideouts for these warriors. The Cu Chi woods are most famous for the system of secret underground tunnels, and we were able to crawl on our hands and knees in the pitch black darkness for 40 meters through one tunnel- I could barely fit my shoulders through some areas, and many Cu Chi peoples actually lived in these tunnels for years during the war! Children were born underground and people would light fires to make themselves sweat in order to cleanse their bodies. I can't even imagine- 4 minutes down there was more than enough. I thought several times about how these woods were really quite similar to those in south GA at the Kea Mill. I was handed an AK-47 and shot several rounds into a target on a shooting range before we left. On the way back to Saigon (the younger generation only refers to the city by its newer name, Ho Chi Minh City), we stopped at a temple of the Caodai religion, which is a mix between Buddhism, Taoism, and Confusianism. The service going on was an incredible sight to see. Designed more like a basilica than a Chinese temple, the floor was covered with worshipers in all different colored robes and hats in perfect lines facing forward. Traditional instruments and a very oriental sounding chant played through the entire service. The temple itself was extremely colorful so the pictures turned out really neat. Interestingly enough, Victor Hugo is hailed as a patron saint of Caodai. We then returned to Saigon, and when one of the kids looked out the window and saw Bud's ice-cream of San Francisco, he yelled and we all cried out to have the bus pulled over. We stormed the ice-cream shop and just went crazy! Delicious! I then went to the biggest bookstore in the city and miraculously found "Atlas Shrugged" on the bottom shelf of a horribly organized section, so now I can stop watching looped CNN spots talking about how awful things are in Iran right now. Only Sandra (the consultant from California) and I went to dinner (another French restaurant, thank goodness!), as the others were "too tired". I asked Sandra about her experiences being here having lived through the Vietnam war era herself. She told me many sad stories, one about her boyfriend who never returned and that she had found several of his letters in a box only a few months ago, and she admitted that these past two days had been especially hard for her. Tonight is our last in Vietnam. We're off to Cambodia tomorrow morning! Have a great week!