Green and red everywhere

My pink bike in front of the green scenery.
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Today was much more relaxing than yesterday.  Whew.  We had a tour of Vietnam's countryside by bike and by boat.  We drove (actually, we were driven) 2 hours outside of Hanoi, Mark, me, and our guide, Ngoc Tuyen or "Black Pearl."  He wanted us to call him Black Pearl and it kept making me think of pirates.  Our pirate guide was really great.  The countryside is so green - lots of rice, lots of bamboo.  But all the other areas were really green as well.  I think this area was called Tam Coc.  I had a pretty pink bike.  Previously, I wasn't really too fond of pink.  But for some reason, being in SE Asia makes me like pink more.

Crazy street with crazy flags. See - it's all red and green! For those color blind folks, I swear that it's all red and green.
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We then went to this place that is known as the "inland Halong Bay."  Halong Bay is near Hanoi and has lots of karst formations.  We originally wanted to go there, but we decided we had enough of karsts and bays after Thailand.  I'm definitely pleased with our decision to go to the green version.  There were these boat women that ferry you in and out of this area that is entirely covered with water except for these big limestoney mountains.  Very picturesque.  And, as a bonus, this was water without mosquitoes.  At least ones that bite Ranyees.  There were these really cool dragon flies, red ones, orange ones, blue ones, yellow and black ones.  We also passed through this huge tunnel cave.  By huge, I mean wide and long.  Not high.  We had to duck quite a bit to avoid hitting our heads.  Our boat women were pretty helpful and nice, until they started distracting us from the scenery by trying to sell us souvenirs and getting us to tip them.  So they asked for money, said they were tired, and that was fine.  We gave them a rather large tip, much larger than what was suggested by the guide.  After we gave them a tip, they asked for more!  I've never seen that before!  Our boat women were a mother and daughter pair and the mother took the tip and then said that her daughter needed some money too.  Since we had already given them a tip, we tried to explain in English and in French and in gestures that it was for both of them.  So for the last 10 minutes of the trip, they kept hounding us and alternating between sad puppy eyes and angry aggressive eyes.  We were concerned that maybe we should have given money directly to the girl in case the "mother" didn't share the money, but our pirate guide assured us that it would be okay.

Are Vietnamese people able to eat a lot more than even Mark?

Green countryside, with a little red roofed house. All of these photos are red and green. The only non-red and non-green thing is my pink bike!
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We did this tour through Handspan, a travel agency recommended in Lonely Planet.  This was before we discovered many poor recommendations in Lonely Planet.  They said that this place was more expensive than others, but it was worth it.  You would get what you promised, and get good service.  We did get what we were promised and our day was lovely and we did get a very good pirate.  But I don't know whether other agencies would have provided the same thing.  We did see a few other larger groups, and our group only had Mark and me.  Our guide also seemed to be more patient and informative than the little I saw of other guides. Also, very good English and seemed to care about the conservation of Vietnam and the environment.  And our guide said that the other groups that we saw didn't go boating where we went, which appeared, when we passed by, to not be as nice.  So, it seems like it was a good deal, but did we pay another stupidity fee?  We are supposed to go to the Perfume Palace tomorrow, and we booked a (much cheaper) tour through a random agency.  So we'll see how that goes.

The red boat and our boat woman. While she was still being friendly.
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We've been eating large meals here in Vietnam.  Many of the places that we've gone to eat don't really have "dishes" to "order," for whatever reason.  They kinda just plop a lot of food in front of you.  So far, each time this has happened, it's been too much for us to finish.  And Mark has a large appetite to!  Are they giving us more food than the people here?  Are Vietnamese people able to eat a lot more than even Mark?  When I've looked around, it seems like they give everyone the same amount of food per person, but all the Vietnamese people are finishing everything!  Is it okay to turn food that they bring to you away if you know you can't finish it?

Our view from the red boat.
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Oh yeah, I titled this entry "green and red everywhere."  I've already talked about the green, although you can't see it b/c I'm using the free hotel internet and I'm not going to go out and pay to get a computer with a USB port.  So the red.  There are Vietnamese flags everywhere.  Every building seems to have at least one.  And there are all these red banners in the street.  I also noticed that there were a number of banners with 2-9 (September 2nd) on them.  That's today's date.  There was even this big monument with a big electronic display with 2-9.  I originally thought that the Vietnamese people like to have the current date posted everwhere.  It turns out that today is a national holiday.  Maybe there aren't usually so many flags around?  And I don't think they have big displays which keep you updated on the date.