South China Sanya

This is one of the ports that we bypassed on the last cruise because of a typhoon. It was the very first time the Holland America cruise line had docked there. As a result, I don't think the town was ready for the 1600 people that hit shore. From the ship briefings, there wasn’t a lot there that interested us or that Cub was physically able to do. (I must add a note here: We received a comment on our blog from a reader we ...

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By the time we were finished lunch I had a bad headache, which I rarely get, it must have been from the heat & humidity. I quickly checked my e-mail & then back to the cabin for a couple of Tylenol & I laid down for a nap. At about 1515 the Cruise Director was on the PA stating that due to this being our last port in China, the Chinese Officials had closed down the gang plank and no one was allowed off the ship. It was stated 4 or 5 ...

... in-training, among others, from Sweden, Scotland, England, Canada, Iceland, Brazil, Germany, Austria, Australia, he Netherlands, and China, not in that order.

Besides hanging out with these people, my two and a half days in Sanya consisted of regular intervals along a two-point axis from the hostel to Dadonghai Beach. I deviated twice from this axis, once to hear a live band in a Sanya bar (cheesy Chinese cover band ...

... touts often try Russian before English when shouting at white people. We snuck our bags onto hotel lounge chairs that we did not pay for and scampered into the water. Wow was it warm! And so very clear. What a paradise in comparison to the dirty water we'd seen elsewhere in China. Fun fact: Sanya is advertised as having the best air quality in China (probably true) and second best in the world (probably not).

After a long swim, I laid down to read while ...

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.

... little roadside stand just full of beach shirts and bathing suits. The prices on them was $20, but that is for the tourist the driver said. I got my $2.50 suit and each of the girls got theirs for $4. Off we went to the hot springs. Now I was starting to think how much extra this was going to cost as we arrived to this very nice looking place. I was told not to worry they can get us a special price. It was late afternoon now about 3:00. We ...

'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.

... better but they are the victim of the port here. There is only one narrow extendable gangway at the terminal building. Passengers being passengers they all want to get off asap. So the aft stairwell was packed and the line extended right along deck four to the showroom, that is, the full length of the ship. We'd never seen anything like it. Mathias, our German friend told us to head down to deck 2 and join the line down there. We all got the most fantastic death ...

... and certainly came across as more KGB than standard police. I had a long conversation with him about how his favorite Russian was Stalin. He claimed that Russia needed a strong leader...'like your queen' was my favorite quote. The vodka the Russians had was unlike anything I have ever tasted before; it was so smooth you could just drink it, though I think we were all happy when the bottle was eventually polished off. As I had been up since 5 am ...

... between pairs of trees. They were everywhere. We walked halfway along the beach but decided it was too hot to linger for any longer, and planned to come back another day to see the rest. On the way to this beach there were a number of restaurants where we checked prices of seafood. The usual response was to look at me and immediately increase prices. As soon as a staff-member has to ask another for the price we know it is going to be inflated. At last we found a small ...