Yalong Bay Mangrove Tree 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.

... that it was the Chinese Officials decision to close the gang plank. There seemed be a little frustration in the tone of the announcement. At 1700 we pushed off & headed on our way to De Nang, Vietnam.

We ate in the Lido Buffet again tonight. I find we are eating a lot less then if we were served a 5 course meal in the main dining room and are enjoying the informality of it. The Captain was eating dinner with some lady but was just about ...

... 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 ...

... to Sanya for 80 rmb per person, but when we realized that it would take four hours and would take more time and money to get to the bus station, we decided that a taxi would be worth it. After a brief and unsatisfying lunch at the Welcome Cafe, we negotiated with the driver to take us down to Sanya for 300 kuai, which would shave an hour off of our trip (worth it). The interior of Hainan was beautiful, but very boring because the coastal towns are where most people ...

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.

... and a bag full of "gifts" for the guards there. Why pay an entry when you know someone. A group of temples each higher and bigger then the one before. Like in Dali but here only 4 temples. Ending with a 7 seven story pagoda with a 3 story tall statue in side. The area is surrounded by beautiful gardens. As we walked around the garden the friend disappeared for a while. We watch as some boats were towed in a long chain down the river. As ...

'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.

... dinners, and we'd decided we wanted a last Chinese meal at our last Chinese port. There was a huge restaurant beside the bridge. In we walked. It was like royalty had arrived. We were escorted to the upper level. Sat down and a hoard of about 10 girls surrounded us, half of them asking questions in Chinese. When we'd entered there were dozens of plastic bins full of fish and crabs and shellfish. So I guessed we went down there, chose something and then they cooked it ...

... These were in the form of tradititional Sanya beachwear, a hawaiian style matching shirt and shorts combo. They're awful, but religiously worn by the chinese who see it as a status symbol (i.e. 'I've been to Sanya, see, look at these photos of me wearing silly clothes'). We then headed off for a sea fishing trip, with quite a lot of beer. Several hours and a small bucket of pitiful fish later we head back to shore. This was ...

... much better than it began. We took a bus back to the town beach in the evening, where there was a lot of activity taking place. - crowds of people, groups dancing, groups doing sword tai-chi and a continuous display of colourful and noisy pyrotechnics. We found a lovely pla\ce to eat, the Windmill Bay Restaurant, which had Western food as well as Japanese, Indian, and, of course, Chinese. We had a candlelit "Romantic Dinner" facing the beach and watching the fireworks ...