Grand Soluxe Hotel & Resort Sanya

... the camera. It was a good thing too because he spoke no English. I was a little worried when he started taking it apart, but it works great now.

After looking around a bit, I was ready to get back to the ship. I got back about 1pm, and even though "all aboard" wasn’t until 4:30, the Chinese immigration officials closed the port at 2pm and no one was allowed ashore after that. You just never know what to expect.

... either 40 or 75 seconds, what a good idea. Again, there is a lot of car honking, but it is still ‘car talk’ for excuse me, coming through, not road rage. Our bus made some left hand turns that would have ended up in a Canadian collision, but in Sanya, he was let in no problem at all. There were not near as many cars here as in Beijing, but the roads were still busy.

Our 1st stop was Deer Park. Our bus let out at the bottom of the hill ...

... br>
Other than these two excursions, I really just spent my time in Sanya sleeping, eating fruit, applying sunscreen, chatting with people, playing the hostel's guitar that was missing the d-string, swimming, lying on the beach, eating yoghurt, swimming, applying sunscreen, sleeping, swimming, eating street food, sleeping, eating seafood, chatting, lying on the beach, etc. It was exactly the island experience I had been hoping for.

... Afterwards, Sam and Gabe had a mango coldstone concoction and Lo and I bought pearls, which are harvested right off of Sanya and therefore are abundant and cheap. We were planning to buy some tortoiseshell bracelets, but we asked the guy if they broke easily, and he exclaimed "Yes!" and broke them in front of us. It was not a great sales ploy, to say the least. After a long haggle, we went back to the hostel, satisfied, and all retired to our respective rooms.

Was not overly impressed with Sanya. Sanya is 100% tourist. Mostly Chinese with a lot of Russians. The town is very pretty and the beaches are great. I enjoyed talking with some of the Russians. I guess I did not like the fact that it was one huge tourist trap, not my cup of tea.

... past each other they would have water fights. It looked like fun. When he came back he guided us to the docks to catch a boat. But we had to wait for a small tourist group to come and then we would get on with them for free. It is the way the locals do it. Our boat was not one of the water fighting boat but at one point we did get close enough to get wet. Off we go to this strip of sandy beach off the coast. It must have some significance but ...

'I'm not sure if it's good to have freedom or not... I'm really confused now. If you're too free, you're like the way Hong Kong is now. It's very chaotic. Taiwan is also chaotic... I'm gradually beginning to feel that we Chinese need to be controlled. If we're not being controlled, we'll just do what we want.' -- Jackie Chan to an audience of business leaders on Hainan island.

... there was no local bus to XXXX. Only way was taxi. We'd read that taxi drivers here had a bad habit of agreeing on a price and then asking for more before they take you back to the port/your hotel etc. But this was our only choice. The guide, and she tried very hard, found a cab and then negotiated a price for us. She kept saying 600 but wrote 300 and said it over and over. Eventually she realised she was getting her numbers confused and said yes, RMB300. So about ...

... with some really good surfers from Japan and China. I am still really bad at surfing, but I was able to get up on some big waves and get taken out by a lot more. At one particular point, I wasn't paying attention and one huge wave took me on one fantastic, chaotic, spinning ride under the water and I managed to bash both my chin and nose off my board somehow! Fun times! I can't wait to surf again! One the way home I talked to Joy while Kasey was passed out in ...

... attest to that. I would definitely like to go to Shanghai/Beijing to "actually experience China," as others have said. My friend is doing a train trip on the Trans-Siberian from Tibet to Europe, and I would love to meet him in China. I will keep you posted if this materializes. If you have any comments or questions about this entry, please let me know. Or, if you want to tell me how you are doing or anything else, please email. As always, all the best, Bill