Sunny Sanya?

The first part of our adventure started in Sanya, the southern most tip of Hainan. We flew from Beijing to Nanchang where we had a 7 hour layover (what were we thinking?) and from Nanchang to Haikou, the capital. We stayed for one night and the next day took the new high speed train down to Sanya. This line opened just weeks before we arrived in Hainan and was all the rave. The colossal station they constructed was still being finished when we took our train.



This train cuts travel time between the two cities from 6 hours by bus to less than 2 hours. Obviously it's a big hit.



And it's comfortable too!



While "paradise" may not be a word I would use to describe Sanya, it certainly was fascinating. A constant hum of creation and destruction. Just 2 months have passed since we were there and I wouldn't be surprised if half the places we saw no longer exist.

The first hostel we stayed in took us a zillion hours to find. Using the city buses, our terrible Chinese and a smile we somehow arrived at our destination. Keeping our pact with each other to travel as cheap as possible and have an authentic experience, we got on and off the number 2 bus far more times than necessary, told 6 motorcycle-taxis that we didn't want to go with our backpacks on the back of their motorcycles, got off at the end of the road and walked in circles for a few minutes only to get back on the bus we just got off. How we found our hostel is still a mystery to me.

(More on our authentic bus experiences in the next few posts!)

The Lost Club is up on a hill in a small village built along Lovers Bay. A mildly deceptive name for the small strip of beach, sand and construction that lies between Sanya Bay and Dadonghai Bay, two very touristic areas. Still, it was nice to be somewhere quieter. It wasn't exceptionally romantic or charming but maybe I'm being a bit harsh... the Perigord is hard to beat!

The weather was pleasant and we soon found that the area was full of little surprises. The village consisted of a narrow road with homes whose front yards doubled as restaurants in the evening. Children ran around everywhere and chickens pecked at the ground. Hundreds of stray dogs roamed the streets producing bizarre but friendly offspring.

Fresh coconut cost 2¥ and we had one for breakfast every morning. At night plastic tables and chairs sprouted along side the road and the street was filled with the aroma of Hainan's famous barbeque. The local outdoor karaoke started up around 8 and introducing us to the delights of Chinese pop music from the 80's and 90's. For the next 4 hours, bizarrly captivating songs were carried through the breeze to our hostel making it a little difficult to sleep. Still it was all so new and exciting that even the annoyance was tolerable.






Traditional style house, foreground. Luxury apartment, background.


Make shift garden.


Rubble.


Up up up they go.


Golf for the rich, less beach access for the poor.



After a few nights at the Lost Club we moved to Sunny Sanya Family Inn in Dadonghai Bay. The owner Sophia was a doll and the hotel was as lovely as promised. This time we were a 5 minute walk from the beach but we stayed away as much as possible. This is where the mixed-up madness goes down... Chinese bathing fully clothed and Russians with nothing but a sun burn, a glass of vodka and a string. Plus, everything is under construction or has already been constructed with poor taste. Think the Jersey shore meets South Beach meets Coney Island minus the Cyclone.

I guess I was hoping it would be more like this, but we'll have to go to Thailand next year. Still, we made the best of the nice weather and took an adventurous stroll down the beach and beyond where we discovered some interesting places and had a great time people watching.

Please please please let me find a teaching job in Brazil so I can experience tropicalia, tropicalismo, and tropicalization on a real level.



Off to scuba they go...



We weren't going scuba diving with 100 Chinese people for 25 minutes (you should have seen how many trips this boat made a day!) so we went for a walk instead. Down the beach and around a bend we followed a dirt road past a run down water front restaurant, and suddenly fell upon a string of abandoned luxury homes that have been taken over by some kind of hybrid Chinese construction workers/squatters. It seems like projects spring up all over the place but often the money runs out or changes hands resulting in a plethora of deserted, overgrown homes, apartments and hotels in varying stages of disarray. At least some people are smart enough to take advantage of beach side property with a view!







Only in China would a bride and groom use a half built deserted cement bridge in the middle of the sea as a back drop for their wedding photos.













The food was overpriced so we got our Ramen noodle on at least once a day...



And of course we made the most of our tropical outfits. ;-)