Sunny Sanya

Was it really Sunny? Ooooh, yes. I have proof. I am beat red from head to toe and can't lift my arms, carry my backpack, sleep with blankets, or take a normal shower for the pain of the sunburn. Yikes!! But the trip as a whole was great.

We left Wednesday morning on the bus. It turned out to be a really long ride to the coast because we were stopped a few times by traffic or whatnot. The coolest part was when there was this really cool parade that was taking up the whole street so we were stopped for almost an hour. It is probably the most authentic cultural Chinese experience that I've witnessed. Meaning that it wasn't a parade for show for tourism, it was a real live cultural event. I'm not sure what the parade was for, but it was really interesting. The people were dressed in very bright, traditional clothing. There were groups of people carrying these platforms with incense, gods, some had children dressed beautifully with their faces painted like the Chinese opera people (u know what I mean?), there were musicians playing traditional flutes and gongs. There were several dragons... u know how several people carry this long dragon and make it dance? It was so interesting. All of this we watched while sitting in the bus waiting for it to pass.
Once we got to the coast we hopped on board the ferry. Hainan Island is a little over an hour away by fairy. It was a really cool experience. The weather was awesome.
We arrived on Hainan Island in the capital city Haikou, where we got back on our bus and continued the treck to Sanya which would be another few hours away. Sanya is one of the furthest southern places in China. Total travel time was about 8+ hours. The ride to Sanya was really nice even though we were getting sick of being on the road by that time. The scenery was fantastic. It is deffinitely more tropical there than even Zhanjiang. Zhanjiang is considered sub-tropical, and now I can see the difference. Hainan has some beautiful mountains, a bazillion palm trees, acres of rice fields, and it seems more green and fresh.
When we arrived in Sanya, we got a taxi to take us to a hotel that Arthur suggested. But unfortunately it had closed down since he was here last year. So we just checked into the hotel very near the bus station. Sanya is definitely a tourist town; it's hopping with shopping places, cute restaraunts, tons of people with "hawaiian" shirts on, and many foreigners.
Brenda and I had dinner at a cute place very close to the beach. We ate there til the sun went down, and decided to get some rest so we could boogie the rest of the next day.

Thursday morning was not so great. Brenda didn't get a wink of sleep the night before because the walls of our hotel room were paper thin and we could hear every little thing that went on throughout the floor. It wasn't all that bad, but she just couldn't handle it. I would've gotten more sleep myself if she wasn't cussing and throwing a hissy fit all night. I guess she thought that if she wasn't able to sleep, nobody should. She went really overboard. It was pretty disturbing. But God is so good. He gave me so much grace and patience to just let it go and not get furious with her. So I just let her cool off, which took a few hours, and we went about our day.
We had dumplings at a place near the beach. The waitress there spoke English so it made it so much easier then most other places. And the food was really good. We did a lot of shopping and running around this day. We found how to get to a nearby park, and how to take the city bus which saved us lots of money. Then we took a little three wheeler motor bike. The driver lady was so sweet. She took us to the park and waited for us so she could take us back. The park was kind of a rip off. There's this expensive entrance fee, but then inside you have to pay for every other little thing. Like a guy kinda gave us a tour, which we never asked him to do... we had to pay for that. If you want to walk accross this one bridge you have to pay. If you want to bang on these drums you have to pay. Surprisingly it was free to pet the deer. And that was the best part! They were so cool. I pet Bambi! I got to hold an aligator and and python!! But then found out we had to pay for that, AND for each girl who posed in the picture. Such cheats. It's amazing. We got rid of our tour guide and just sat on a bench enjoying the sunshine and cool breeze.
Then our driver lady came and got us, and took us for more of a ride around the island. It was really awesome to be there. We went through a little fishing villiage, and fields of coconut trees.
We got on the bus again and let it take us around the city just to look around. We ended up at the most resort-type place on the island. The beach was so nice. And we saw so many foreigners. (When I say foreingers I usually mean White people!!) But I think they were mostly Russians or some European flavors. We ate Rambutan (a tropical fruit), watched a guy make fresh mango ice cream, and enjoyed the awesome weather.
We walked all around the city just looking around at stuff. We had dinner at our "usual" place... the one where the girl spoke English. I had shrimp, and they made it really good.
Then we went to the river and hoped to find a place where we could go on a boat ride. We found this cool little place where we could rent a little boat for an hour. It was so cool, and it would never happen in the U.S. They just put us in this little boat and sent us off without life jackets or a clue about where we were going or if we even knew how to work this thing. It had a little trolling motor so it's not like we could go very far. But it was so cool. It was dark by this time and the city lights reflecting on the water were so beautiful. There were tiny little fish that would swim and jump right next to the boat. One time one of the fish actually jumped right up and hit Brenda in the face!!! and then landed in the boat!!! It was SOOO funny. We knew we had only an hour, so I turned the boat around after a half hour down the river. When it was turned it felt like we weren't even moving!! We were going against the current now! It was really funny, cuz we were basically stuck there! We were moving SOO slow. We knew we'd never make it back in time so we just enjoyed the time we had on the boat regardless. Then after about a half hour after we were supposed to be back, a guy came to rescue us and motored us back to the dock. It was great fun.
Then we went to a cute little shop near the ocean and had some iced tea, then took a walk on the beach. This beach was not as nice as the one near the resorts. It was full of pebbles and shells and didn't make for good bare-foot walking. But we saw the coolest thing. There were little specks in the water that would glow this bright blue, then disappear. It's a similar light to that of fireflies. The blue light was really tiny, but really bright. And it would disolve into the water. Yeah... disolving light. So interesting. I scooped up a handful of sand where a light was, and learned real quick that it was a tiny little crab!! Then I looked closer at the ground near my feet. These little crabs were EVERYWHERE!!! So I put my shoes back on. he he. I've never seen anything like that before, though. The light was so cool. Does any one out there know what I'm talking about?
We didn't get home until pretty late so we decided to stay in that hotel once more.

Friday morning was worse then Thursday morning. Brenda was even more spastic this time. And her bickering and going on kept ME awake almost the whole time too. The only time something from the outside woke me was when a prostitute rang our door bell by accident instead of the door accross the hall at 2am. Wow. Brenda get's so angry she can't keep quiet and she bangs all around and swears every swear word you can think of and cries, and hollars, yeah... she's not very considerate when she's ticked off. It makes for a really unpleasant time. I'm surprised I got as much sleep as I did. And the Lord once again gave me the grace to let it go and not be mad at her. She left the room a few times, and the door has this alarm on it when the key card is not in the right spot. So one time when she left I was all looking foward to getting some peace and quiet, but the alarm went off and would not stop no matter what!!! So I had to get the housekeeper, then she got the matainance guy and he had to drill a hole in the door to get it to stop!! I couldn't sleep at all after that. So I just got ready for the day.
After Brenda came back and was a little more cooled off, we went and had breakfast at a different place. Then we went to the resort beach and spent the day relaxing. This is where I got the burn!!! The water was just too beautiful and nice to not enjoy it. So I went swimming a lot. The scenery is similar to Hawaii! The blue green ocean, the beautiful beaches, the tropical mountains on the distant shorline. There were people parasailing. I wanted to do it too!! It looked really cool. Now that I think back, I should've just done it. But yeah, a great day of just relaxing and hanging out at the beach. Afterwards we had dinner at the "usual" place, and I decided to splurge since I can. So I got fresh crab and mussles! I've never had these before. I got to pick them out of the tank while they were still alive, so I know that it's as fresh as could be. And it was really good. The crab was a lot of work to eat, but tastey.
Afterwards we went to the bus station and left for Haikou. Brenda did not want to spend another night at that hotel, and I wasn't about to suggest otherwise!! We arrived there pretty late and the taxi driver helped us find a place to stay for a good price. Finally, a full nights rest... except for the fact that I was so burned that I couldn't stand to have the covers on me. The pain of the burn was so intense! I dreamed that night I was trying to kill a rattlesnake... I wonder if there was a connection. I felt so cold, and my tummy hurt. Way to go, Leah!! I know I'm smarter then to get burnt to a crisp. I guess not this time.

We got some help from a friend of Maggie's to get our bus tickets back to Zhanjiang on Saturday morning. So we took the bus, then the fairy again (always an interesting experience!), and bussed it all the way home. It's good to be back in my place, but Sanya was so nice. I could've stayed longer.

We tried to find something to put on my burn, so we went to the pharmacy. They gave me somekind of lotion, but it's all in Chinese so I'm not sure exactly what it is. I hope it's not the whitening lotion that they like to use.

We have another week of teaching, then after that is a holiday! So we have more days off next week!! I don't think I will be going anywhere this time, though. After that, it's like nine weeks straight of teaching. And then home sweet home. It will go by super fast, I'm sure.

I'm gonna go fix me something to eat. If you ever get a chance, you should go to Sanya. It's really nice, and you will get a good taste of China, too. I'll post some pics so you can check it out.