I Am a Superstar!!

    Since I asked to see temples my host sister's very close friend's family took me to Ninh Binh (pronounced Ning Bing). The largest temple in South Asia is there and because I said Hai Long bay is beautiful they wanted to challenge it with the scenery at Ninh Binh.
    The morning started at 5:30. Just getting up, didn't have to be on the road till six. But the family was running late so Hostess and I stopped for breakfast. Not an American breakfast. We were on the road by 6:30, which is when all of Hanoi is usually up and going. It was a two hour drive so I caught up on some sleep. The friend's little sister was with us. and talked all day long.
    Our first stop was a ride around the lake system there. I was stuck next to the kid the whole time who acted exactly like you would expect a kid to act. I am really not a kid person so those few hours were torture. The scenery was stunning, little temples hidden away, plenty of caves that we rode through. The whole trip took about three hours and by then I wanted to throw myself overboard just so I would have enough room to be comfortable. The rower would often hit me in the back so you cannot sit far back on the seat. You cannot sit too close to the edge or the balance will be off and stretching your legs out fully (if you're a giant like I am) is out of the question.
    We ate lunch after that. It was an all meat meal. An all goat meat meal. The province we were in is famous for it's goat meat. Depending on how it was prepared most of it was delicious. Discovered that onions are delicious since they were on the plate 3 out of 5 times. Passed out from too much food for a bit then
    After the nap we went to the temple. I think they were very happy to have a foreigner with them since many of the vendors who normally crowd around selling random items backed off when they saw me.Mostly everyone called me pretty as I walked by. The temple was far from where we were forced to park so we took an electric car up. Then came the walking. This temple is mostly stairs. Flights and flights of stairs. So many stairs. It never ended. You could touch the statues of monks as you went by for good luck. Even though the temple was new and still being built, the statues were well worn on the knees, feet, hands and bellies.
    The family made an offering to the Buddha. We prayed and wished for good things. Got lost/separated from the group. People asked to take pictures with me. One guy had me pose and then some other people joined in without asking. Turns out the first guy worked at the temple taking photographs of people for money but he took mine to put up as an example. By the time we left it was night and we had a long drive ahead of us. We were taken out to dinner by the family (I was saying thank you all day Mom) and they fed me even after I said no more.

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