Ninh Binh - the legend continues

We had a plan to be in Vang Vieng - Laos at the 2nd of October, so we decided to stay one more day in Ninh Binh. We didn't really have plans so again we rented bikes and rode north, to the villages. We stopped at a "shirt store" located on the side of the highway, and bought a few light long sleeves shirts, and continued. We passed by a small street when Amit said he thinks he saw some ceremony going on, so we went back to take a look. Turns out we came just in time for lunch. Hundreds of people, lots of noise and strange odors, a huge statue of Jesus, and just one person that speaks some English. We were offered a seat of honor with some locals at the center. They gave us food and beer, and made us drink whole cups of it in single sips. They gave us rice wine shots and together we emptied them, everyone was laughing excitedly, trying to figure us out. When we said we are from Israel their eyes opened widely and they noted that this is the land where Jesus came from. They asked us if we are also catholic and to avoid religion clashes we crossed our hearts and said yes. After a loud meal and a lot of alcohol we went into a small cave carved in a boulder nearby where statues of Maria where located and "prayed". The whole scene was ecstatic, their excitement and hospitality were overwhelming, together with their ability to use a camera. It was a true walk into the past, the only sign of modern life there were motorcycles and a few people holding a cellphone, but their lifestyle is that of farmers from the previous century. After that we thanked them a lot and kept going. We saw their church - it was huge and well taken care of considering the size of the town. Next we met a few children playing and we took some pictures together, a couple are a must see - but I give the honor of posting them first to the photographer - Amit. We kept on going until we got to the far ends of the town, and we reached a small Buddhist pagoda by the river, where a couple of people were writing, and one girl was standing on a small canoo in the river, maneuvering only with a long stick. We didn't want to break the harmony of this place so we stood there until a lady signed to us that it was ok to pass. Around the corner we saw another small canoo, and with our hands we asked for permission to use it. We got it, and slowly crawled into the canoo, at first it seemed like it wouldn't be able to carry both of us but if we didn't do sharp moves we managed to stay above water. I tried using the long stick on board, apparently it's a lot harder than it looks, we barely moved one inch but we manages to twist around ourselves a few times. The girl that ignored us up until then silently came near us and handed us a couple of small rowing sticks, and started to sail down the river, we tried following her, one was using the rowing sticks, the other the long stick, but we couldn't keep up, eventually she disappeared and we found ourselves in the middle of a river, with a canoo that had a little too much water in it. We found a small artifact that looked like half a bucket that was good to take water out of the canoo. We started heading back, with a little more experience one was responsible of going forward with the rowing sticks, and the other who was using the long stick was responsible for the direction. Every once in a while we stopped to take some more water out of the canoo. The job was really exhausting but we reached land with our iPhones dry and our spirits elevated. We kept going. The rest of the day we saw some more beautiful sites on the countryside and eventually came back to the hostel just when it started to rain. Our day was amazing, we've seen so much, and we have planned nothing of it. This was our last day in the first phase of Vietnam. Tomorrow we are heading to Laos. Vietnam is special, it's amazing and authentic and full of small heavens, all you have to do is get there, the way to do it - get lost.