Sanya - Hunting for Hotels

Trip Start Jan 25, 2006

Trip End Feb 04, 2006

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Flag of China Sanya, China
Saturday, January 28, 2006

It turned out to be a very comfortable bus ride. I took my belt off after a while. Yoong's didn't work anyway. There was only one stop for half an hour where we had the usual basic bus-stop meal. There was a toilet on the bus, which was very clean, a modern self-flushing type. The ride included the ferry, where we had to alight and sit on rather hard seats for about an hour, but at least we could walk around a bit.

As expected, most of the hotels in Sanya had put their prices up for New Year. We had information from someone on the internet who recommended the Wu Zhuang Hotel, where he stayed for only Y60. We did not expect to get anything for that price, but walked to the south of town to check it out. On the way we checked the Zhuo Dai hotel in the same street and found it had a room for Y168, certainly cheaper than anything else we'd seen on our way there. They seemed to be saying that if we stayed the next night it would be over Y700, a rather steep rise even for Chinese New Year

01 The bridge to Dadonghai

. We thought we had better accept the room for one night rather than risk losing it. It is quite a nice room, though very small. The more expensive rooms, though bigger, have windows facing onto the corridor and are, therefore, very dark. We would not want to stay in one of them, and they all seem to be empty. After checking in, we walked out to find the Wu Zhuang, hoping to book something reasonable for tomorrow. Before we reached it, we saw yet another place, the Wan Xiang Hotel, which actually had rooms for Y60.

The Y60 rooms turned out to be on the 6th floor, but otherwise the only difference between them and the Y100 rooms was that they had no air-conditioner, which we don't expect to use anyway. The rooms were basic, but acceptable and, surprisingly, they claim they are not putting up the price over the New Year. We offered to pay in advance for a room, but the girl said they had plenty available, so we said we would come back tomorrow. We then finally got to the Wu Zhuang. Yes, they did have rooms for Y60, but tomorrow they would be going up to Y200. We thought it would be safest to go back next door and insist on paying for the next two nights in advance to be sure of getting the room we chose.

Now that we had at least three days of accommodation sorted out we went out to find some breakfast

02 The bridge to Dadonghai

. The market area is very close to these hotels and we found a stall boringly out freshly cooked vegetables and meat. A tofu dish that had just been cooked looked very inviting and we pointed at some aubergines which had not yet been cooked, hoping they could make this the next dish. Of course they obliged, and we enjoyed these dishes with rice, together with a chau kway teow that Yoong ordered from another stall. To complete this excellent meal, we went to a shop that calls itself the "king in bean milk" and had bowls of hot soy bean milk with a delicious muffin-like cake.

It had been raining lightly intermittently, but we decided to walk to Dadonghai, the beach area three kilometers from town. We checked out the Youth Hostel which we thought was very over-priced at Y300, though it is well-located for those who want to spend a lot of time on the beach. It was full of young Western travelers and they said they only had one room left. We spent some time relaxing at the beach, sitting under a palm tree. It is a pleasant place, but we didn't find the surrounding area particularly interesting, so were not tempted to move away from the town.

It was raining again in the evening, more heavily, and the market was very muddy so we did not go back there for an evening meal

03 On the way to Dadonghai

. Instead we found a small Muslim restaurant where we had pull-noodles and fried rice. Not bad, but a bit oily. Then, when we tried to pay with a Y50 note, they refused to accept it. It turned out we had been given a counterfeit note from the hotel in Shenzhen. At the time I thought it a bit unusual when our Y100 deposit was returned in the form of two Y50 notes, but I didn't query it as I prefer to have smaller money. It didn't occur to me to check for fakes, though we have seen the locals do it. We intend to confront the hotel when we get back. The woman did seem to be in a hurry to get rid of us and didn't look us in the eye when we said goodbye.

Tomorrow, weather permitting, we hope to go to Yalong Bay for the day.

Raymond's Travel Page