The Hawaii of China

I was absolutely determined that at some point in my travels, I would wind up on a beautiful white sand beach. After reading Lonely Planet, and checking some travel forums, I settled on Hainan Island, and more specifically, on the beaches of Sanya, the resort destination of China.





I flew in on a Saturday morning from Guangzhou. I had reserved a room at Lama International hostel because they advertised free airport pickup. They had not responded to my email giving my flight details, but I was still hopeful that I'd be met at the airport. Nope. No one there for me. I took the shuttle into the Dadong Bay area of Sanya and managed with a little trial and error to find the hostel. Ick. It was a dump of a building in a residential neighborhood blocks from the beach, devoid of charm or other tourists. Not exactly what I was hoping for. I was tired from searching out the hostel, so I decided to stay one night, and find something better for the next two nights. I told the guy, who was completely unapologetic about failing to get me at the airport, that I'd like to only pay for one night. This is when he piled on the last straw. I had already paid a 30 yuan deposit on my room. He said that he would only apply 10 per night, so I would lose out on the other 20 if I didn't stay there for the entire reservation. That's when I told him to piss off and that I would be arranging other accommodations.





I set off with backpack in place in search of Blue Sky International Hostel, LP's number one pick for Sanya. I had wanted to avoid it, 'cause the #1 pick for LP is typically also the number one party spot in a town. I wanted to veg on the beach, not be up all night drinking. I found the hostel, a block from the beach, in another unappealing building, but right in the center of things with loads of other tourists in residence. I booked myself a single room with ensuite bathroom and a balcony and counted my blessings. My 30y deposit over at the other hostel was well lost. I have definitely learned my lesson about booking through hostelworld.com in China. Don't do it. Call and book your room over the phone. Every hostel gives free local calls, so calling is never a problem. If you go through hostel world, 1/2 the places will inflate their prices so that your deposit turns into a booking fee, and the other 1/2 are not places you would choose to stay in after getting a look at the facilities. Either way, the money from your deposit is a loss.





After doing a quick unpacking job, I threw on my bathing suit and raced off to the beach. Pure luxury. Floating peacefully on my back looking up at the sky, listening to the sound of happy people. It was heaven. All of the stress washed off into the ocean. I did get a jolt when a Russian lady ran into me when we were both floating on our backs. We screamed simultaneously, then I started laughing and apologized, though she ran into me. No response. I had a nice refresher course in Russian etiquette. By laughing and smiling, I revealed my imbecilic tendencies and social inferiority. I need to work back up to my blanket glare of disdain with which to greet strangers.






I swam in the lovely turquoise water and walked along the beach. Then, after a shower and dinner at the hostel, I went shopping. Pearls are incredibly cheap in Southeast Asia, and I felt an urge to buy some. Then, it was cat toys, then snacks at the Food Festival market, then ice cream made on the street from fresh fruit. Replete, I headed back to my room, flipped on the air conditioner and drifted off to sleep.





In the morning, before breakfast, I went down to the beach for a swim. That is the life. Being able to stumble out of bed, into a bathing suit, and into the water on a tropical beach - priceless. After breakfast, I had an early siesta with a book, then set out on my rented bicycle to explore a bit of the island. After riding for 3 minutes, I realized that the gears on the bike were not going to shift. The derailer or some other part of the bike was broken and so the gear was stuck on the smallest front sprocket, meaning that with me pedaling as fast as I could, I was going maybe two mph. Great. I went back to the hostel and one of the workers manually moved the chain up to a larger sprocket. OK. There are no real hills, so as long as I was in a good cruising gear, a one-speed bike was fine. Then, about 15 minutes away from the hostel, the chain slipped backed to the smaller sprocket. Argh! It took me 25 minutes to get back to the hostel, where I requested, and received a refund. Very annoying.





Luckily, something to assuage my irritation was coming up next. Scuba diving! Yes, I've told many people that I had no desire to dive, that my shark phobia was too intense and that I could live without diving. Well, there are shark nets up in Sanya. There were many other people out in the water at the same time, making the chances of me being chosen as a snack exceedingly slim. So, I decided, why not?





At the diving center, I found out that this would be an assisted dive. After I got into my wetsuit, I was told that: 1) OK sign means I'm fine; 2) thumb down means I want to go deeper; 3) thumb up means I want to go up; 4) pointing to my ear means that my ears hurt; and 5) pointing to my stomach means that my stomach hurts. That was it. I've seen beginner diving classes before, and they were much more intense, and boring than that. What the hell, it's China, and I had a basic idea of what I would need to do. The guy strapped my tanks on, led me into the water and then floated me out to a coral bed. Then, we dove.





We went down about 6 feet to start with. We swam around a bit, looking at coral and fish while I got my bearings and got used to breathing through my regulator. I also needed to learn how to equalize the pressure in my ears. Finally, I was comfortable, and we decended to a little over 10 feet under water. It was amazing. Looking up to see the surface so far away. The water was absolutely clear and I was able to see the color of the reef and the fish and the anemones and the sea bed. Unfortunately, the guy with me kept trying to guide my hand to touch the coral. Not good. In Sanya, they try to increase the demand for scuba diving by advertising that you are allowed to touch the coral. This kills the coral and is not something that divers are ever supposed to do. I finally got through to him that I did not want to touch the coral, but did agree to touch a sea anemone and was enthusiastic about trying to catch a fish. After 5 minutes or so, I was swimming around on my own, and swam right into a school of yellow and black zebra striped fish, each about 5" long and 4" high. It was one of the most amazing moments of my life. I definitely want to do that again, as soon as I get over my shark fear.





Finally, my 45 minutes was up, and we headed back in. It was so cool, the guy actually towed me in to shore. However, I noticed that all of the Chinese women were brought to the lowest step, where all of their gear was removed. I was left to clamber up to the top of the stairs and actually had to call out to get my guy to come take my tanks. Of course, those same ladies spent their time in the water effectively snorkeling, rather than diving. They were on the surface the whole time. I'm not sure why they didn't just snorkel, but we all had fun doing what we felt comfortable with, so that's what matters.





I was so jazzed up after having finally dived for the first time that I decided to rent a scooter when I got back to the hostel and head out around the island. I should have known by the way that the bicycle had (not) been maintained that this was not the best idea. The hostel has two scooters. One was broken and not available, the second was brought out and the hostel guy took it on a little test drive to make sure that it was working OK. Well, there was a problem. A half an hour later, I was no longer waiting patiently. I asked if there was anywhere else that I could rent a motorbike or scooter. Nope! I sincerely doubt that this was true, but was so fed up that I decided to toss the plan and go to the hot springs instead.





Nantian Hot Springs is the must-do spot on Hainan. It's a huge complex of hot springs at a resort on the south side of the island. Tickets cost around 180 y and cover entrance to the springs, a locker, towels, and sandals. There are numerous pools of different temperature in different settings, as well as a children's play center, pools of various liquids (milk, coffee, etc.), an infinity pool with a basketball hoop and a fish therapy pond. The fish therapy pond is definitely the highlight. It is so so amazing. Tiny silvery fish come and eat your softened dead skin. It's a little disturbing when you see dozens flock to you, and it made me recommit to a better exfoliation program, but it's an amazing feeling to be nibbled alive. Mostly, it just tickles, and it's hard to stay still. The bigger fish though seem to actually have teeth, and they hurt a tiny bit, just like a very delicate pin prick. They are fairly easy to shoo away. I can see why they call it therapy. I found it to be extremely relaxing.





After the hot springs, I took a cab back to Dadonghai and splurged on the fancy Italian restaurant, Roma. What a fantastic decision that was. Roma's restaurant is in a rooftop rotunda with candlelight and fainting couches with silk pillows. I had a 3 course meal while lounging at my leisure. It was fantastic. The best food I'd had since the Wenshu monastery in Chengdu. I paid Western prices, but since it was as good as or better than Italian food that I can get in San Francisco, I considered it to be well worth the price.





That night, Typhoon Francisco hit Hainan. I woke up to pouring rain. So much for my plan of a morning on the beach and an afternoon on a motorbike. I hung around the hostel with the other housebound travelers until there was a break in the rain around 2. Then, I caught the double decker bus out to Yalong Bay to see how the other half live. Sanya is divided into three sections: the city, Dadong beach, and Yalong beach. Dadonghai, where I stayed is the more economical and had more tourist services at lower prices. It has supermarkets, shops, restaurants, vendors, etc. It also has filth, burning garbage, rabid rats (a guy at the hostel a month before I got there was bitten and needed rabies shots), bugs and lizards. Yalong Bay has the same gorgeous beach, but no shops or restaurants other than the ones provided inside the Hilton, Sheraton, etc., and it is spotlessly, beautifully clean. In the future, I'd go in the off season when they give deep discounts and I'd stay in Yalong Bay.





Walking along the beach in the wind from the typhoon was exhilarating. There is not much in the way of waves in Hainan, but this was as big as I'd seen them. The wind tugged my hair and blew in my eyes. There were very few other people, and those that were out looked just as happy as I felt. I had to turn back when I hit a restricted military zone, but kept walking in the other direction. Finally, I'd had enough and decided to catch the bus in the other direction and head up to Tianya-Haijiao Tourist Zone, also known as the end of the earth. This is a park complex that is the southernmost part of China. I was expecting a cliff, and instead found an extensive topiary park complex surrounding a nice stretch of beach, charging a 65 y admission price. It was nice, but not quite what I was hoping for. After walking around for a bit, the wind had really started to pick up. I headed back out to the carpark to catch a bus. This started one of my odder interactions during my trip.





I checked a few buses and none were going to Dadonghai (hai means bay by the way). I stood around at a loss for a second until I noticed someone watching me. On the beach at Yalong, I'd exchanged grins with a fellow surf watcher who was clearly enjoying the typhoon as much as I was. Then I left to get the bus, and only vaguely noticed when he got on the bus, too. It seemed normal that he was also going to the end of the earth. After all, it is one of the few things to do in Sanya. However, I did notice that he didn't go inside when we arrived. I thought it was a little odd, but supposed that like me, he was disappointed by what it was, and unlike me, was too wise to waste his money on it. Then, he was waiting when I came out of the exit. Hmm. I started to wonder if it was possible that he'd followed me. Surely not. Then, it started to sprinkle. He brought me an umbrella. He didn't try to chat me up, just insisted that I use his umbrella and stood quietly about 3 feet from me, far enough to be outside of my personal space. Interesting. After a minute, he asked where I was going. I told him. After another minute, I asked where he was going. He laughed and after a pause, said that he also was going to Dadonghai. Then, he proceeded to find us a bus. He took care of all of the travel arrangements and still didn't try to interact with me. He seemed content to just be near me. Then we got to Dadonhai. I said thanks, and that this was my stop. He said that he was going further and goodbye. That was it. He didn't try to go for a drink or even ask my name. A very very strange incident.





That night, the typhoon really hit. The door to my balcony banged and whistled and whined all night. I slept with earplugs not to drown out the sounds of the storm. In the morning, it was still going strong. I was a little concerned for my flight. It was at 2pm, and I wasn't sure if I was nervous that it wouldn't take off and my plans would be delayed, or that it would take off and we would crash and die. Conundrum.





Either way, I packed up, checked out, and recovered my deposit, with difficulty. Keeping deposits seems to be a sideline for the hostel. A woman checking out after me not only didn't receive her deposit back, but was being charged an additional 100 yuan for a stained sheet. I'm not sure how much dry cleaning costs in Sanya, but I doubt that it is 150 yuan.






Well, I lucked out. The storm blew itself out by 11pm and my 2 o'clock flight was only slightly delayed. We actually left by 3:30, which was amazing considering the pandemonium at the airport. Some morning flights weren't rescheduled to leave for 7-8 hours and the airport was packed with angry, frustrated travellers. Not quite the end most people want for their vacation in paradise. Personally, I strapped in, declined my snack of dried shredded squid and settled back with my book for the flight back to Guangzhou. I had a lovely time in Sanya and would love to go back to stay at an actual hotel, with actual amenities. I was reaching the end of my hostelling limit. Read my next post to find out when and why I do get to the end of my tether regarding filth and discomfort.

To see the photos from this part of my trip, see: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/christine7world/Sanya