Art, literature and temples

I realise I have been talking a lot about food, so I am NOT going to begin this post mentioning the absolutely amazing butter chicken I ate last night or the melt in your mouth coconut squid at Little Hanoi...

Just a short walk through green trees, a wander along a busy street and a few totally hair-raising intersections later (haha..gulp..) you come into the luscious green gardens of the Temple of Literature.

It’s lovely, a little touristy but reminiscent of moss covered Angkor temples scattered around Cambodia (minus all that cool old Cambodian temple energy).

Anyway, I see now I should have hired a guide because the whole time I didn’t get what was so literary about the place. It looks like the sort of place skinny monks wander reading fat spiritual texts in perfect solitude surrounded by lotus ponds filled with golden carp. Of course, Simone later told me it’s not a spiritual place but actually the first Confucian university – bloody cool place to study if you ask me.

Only another short walk down the street is the Museum of Fine Arts, after wandering up and down the same street four or five times I was a little embarrassed at having missed this enormous building. Truly Vietnam has some amazing art (and a great café culture to show it all off)! The museum had extraordinary contemporary art, cultural art so beautiful it made me want to cry, Stone Age exhibits and ceramics and finally some very weird boob focused art I stumbled upon in a temporary exhibition...

As you can probably see immediately from my entries I still haven’t found gainful employment (or read through the Lonely Planet guide properly), but after this week I’ve realised I’m not actually looking. I’ve given myself an official two weeks grace. For someone who flew across the world to work, I’ve slowly realised there should be more ‘holiday’ to this ‘working holiday’.

So for the moment, my job is Cat Nanny and Official Tourist. And oh boy, is it a fun job. If this became a proper job I would be the happiest traveller on the face of the planet.

Temple of Literature
Tuesday to Sunday from 8:30 to 11:30 and 13:30 to 16:30
Quoc Tu Giam St