Day 10 - Another Zen monastery and some food galour

On our way back to Saigon, we visited a temple that has a similar name to the well known Truc Lam monastery in Dalat, however this one was outside the city and I've given up trying to find it on the net. Situated in the mountains, this Zen monastery covered a wide area of beautiful forestry and lakes that makes it ideal for meditation. It also acts as a peaceful and tranquil resort for visitors to stay in, and at the center of the monastery is a temple that sits behind a huge lake full of huge koi fish. It's actually quite a spectacle when the fish sense people coming towards the water and they go CRAZY as if they're expecting to be fed. You can buy a small packet of pellets to feed the fish for 5000 don, which can also be used to feed the white pigeons kept around the park. They also won't hesitate to fly up onto your arm to feed from your hands! 

Ok so the trip back to Saigon wasn't really exciting, so I'll just mention some of the dishes we tried in the city. 

One evening we went to Quan Nyon, which was highly recommended by travel books like Lonely Planet. The restaurant was quite a big building, however because it gets busy later in the evening from tourists, it pays to go earlier to get a free table. There were hundreds of different types of Viet cuisines to choose from, not just the typical Pho and rice. We ordered rice with pork chops, viet vermecilli and soup, and club sodas which were given with a small lime and spoons of sugar in a glass (viet people love adding sugar to almost anything). As usual we were given fish sauce to pour over the rice, but personally I find the flavour surprisingly not as strong as the ones from home. I remember being told by a local friend that major restaurants (aka those found in tourist areas) have been making fish sauce with less of the pungent smell to avoid drawing foreigners (and perhaps some locals) who didn't like or weren't used to it away, and hence the flavour has been lost somewhat. The pork chops were otherwise well cooked, and the noodles I was told were "ok".
 For dessert we had 3 bowls of Che Dau Trang (Coconut, sticky rice and bean pudding).

 [First 3 photos from Nyon Restaurant, last 3 from Viet Chay Vegetarian Restaurant]

Viet Chay is a chain and highly recommended vegan restaurant, and the one we went to was located in Cholon. It gets really busy during certain festivals and special days, otherwise on normal days it's actually quite easy to find a table. As a small complimentary drink we were given a cup of cocoa mixed with a dash of tea upon arrival – on a 38 degrees day this was definitely very nice and refreshing.

Because we arrived at the beginning of the Christmas season, we were able to enjoy some of the festive season night lights set up by large and fancy shopping malls.