Xuwen Hotel Zhanjiang

... the further we walked, as the was no suitable area to sleep on. We couldn't just sleep on the beach as there are hundreds of mosquitoes and out bugs out as night especially around the bush areas.

Luckily on the bus to the plantation a gentlemen was meeting two Chinese girls to take them to his accommodation, he gave us his card and showed us his rooms just encase we wanted to stay there. This has been the only time a tout has been useful. The rooms were Y60 a night ...

... see a very excited Margret running towards us and then we are shepherded outside in to 38 degree heat and very high humidity. This was soon forgotten when the cars arrive with so many excited people- Henry and son Jason in one car in which Ken travelled with Sheila travelling with Margret and husband Lee. The trip for Xiao Lan took about 2 hrs through very busy traffic and a few detours as we lost our way- neither Henry or Lee have ...

... she had her finger up her nose, digging away like an archaeologist (hmmm, what's wrong with this picture?...more than one thing I think). The plane did a stop-over somewhere (I forget where). Everybody had to get off the plane for 20 minutes & then we all got back on again. This is China. I was determined not to take taxis everywhere & had found out that a No.19 bus went to my hostel after taking an airport bus part of the way there. After travelling on the No.19 for a while, it ...

... rauhallisesti jarruttamisesta kuullutkaan. Oli siina kylla aika homma kun bussi oli ihan tays. Mulla oli rinkka selassa sit piti viel seurata kartasta missa mentiin et osattiin jaada oikeella pysakilla. Meinasin kyl mari kertaa menna mukkelis makkelis... No olihan se vaara asema. Me oltiin itaisella bussiasemalla ja bussi Sanyaan lahtee etelaiselta. Eihan me tallasta hokattu. Ja taas oli mentava taksilla. Siita eteenpain kaikki suju hyvin ...

... on the intertnet,and when I express it her answer is "Me too". We are sitting down for a meeting in a corner of the hall. The boss of the company is greeting us welcome. Her name is Ms Long. She is giving me the surprise, which is an invitation for me to write articles and also publish pictures from my trips around Hainan. The have just started the work with a new homepage. I am very honoured and glad for the invitation and will do my very best to ...

We arrive in Haikou in the wee hours, with our meeting set at 8:00 AM the next morning. We are staying at the Sheraton Resort. The Chinese call this place the Hawaii of the East. It is beautiful, although our first day is very overcast. We held our meeting in the Hainan Hotel, walking distance, and were served an elegant lunch at a huge round table ...

... Sinopec. Apparently the government owns it so there isn't any other. When we are in small towns or country roads, sometimes oxen or other animlas will begin to cross and we have to either stop for them or people go around them however they want since there are practically no rules. Beibei taught me some Chinese today! Hopefully I'll still learn more. I know how to count and some basic objects and sentences.

... soup, vegetables. I try to at least try everything I'm served. After that we went into the Chinese countryside with Sineerat's family. There were some small old houses there. Sineerat's family did some ancestor worship by offering food and burning incense. They also set off a huge string of firecrackers. The biggest I've ever seen of that type. It was to welcome us. We walked farther into the ...

... paddy field and the farmer had to stop us. Making a huge back track and following some directions we thought we understood, we managed to end up, not on the spectacular scenic countryside route of a few hours ago, but a construction site where they were building a new road. This was now our only option and we were happily waved past diggers and lorries and cranes and quarries by workmen laughing at possibly the only tourists they had seen navigate ...

... in colourful costumes, followed by a man dressed in ordinary clothes, who sang for about twenty minutes, using sheet music which kept blowing off the music stand. His performance was actually the best singing we heard all evening. He later talked to us and we found he was just visiting his home-town, and actually lived in Australia - in West Footscray of all places! During each performance, members of the audience would get up and go to a flower-seller sitting at ...