Tuesday February 22, 2005

(View from hotel in Sanya)

As agreed the night before, we slept in. Neither the Chinese people nor the tour guides had the insight to cancel our wake-up calls the night before. So once again I woke up to the recorded telephone voice tell me “It’s time to get up.”

I heard the Chinese people getting ready for the trip to the park, rolled over and tried to go back to sleep By 8:30 am all was silent again but I was awake for the day. I made coffee in my room, read in bed and went to take a shower only to discover the toilet would not flush. Hmm………couldn’t call the desk and explain……….everyone was gone except for my english cohorts who were still sleeping and wouldn’t be any help anyway………what to do? I read, had another coffee and waited. I heard a maid in the hallway. I opened the door, motioned for her to come in and showed her the problem. She shook her head to show me she understood and proceeded to flush the toilet several times only to flood the bathroom floor…………..she left………returning in a few minutes with a plunger………after a few tries she gave up and left. About 10 minutes later the receptionist from the lobby desk arrived and proceeded to plunge. That didn’t work either, so they both left………leaving the door open………….and ten minutes later two men arrived…….they looked like plumbers or at least maintenance people. They were empty-handed though……….hmmm…….what would they do? I sat by the window and read………..they tried their hand at plunging………..one left and came back with a plumbing snake to unclog pipes. Now we’re talking! Within a few minutes they had the problem solved. The maid came back to mop the floor and I was alone again with my toilet that would flush properly. I took a shower and got dressed. So much for my “morning lie in”.

The rest of our tour group arrived back from their visit to the park. We asked them what they saw, what they did………..how was it? “It was nice” was their response. They told us we had 10 minutes to be downstairs and on the bus to head out for lunch, some serious shopping and then to the beach. Now we’re talking! At last we were going to do something we wanted to do………and they actually told us ahead of time about the beach – good thinking!

Once on the bus we asked where we were going to shop. We were told "To many, many places to buy many, many things." Ok! The bus was heading out of town…………. We pulled into a huge parking lot of what looked like a big company. The sign said "Pearl Institute of Sanya." We went inside to an awaiting guide complete with headset and microphone. Of course it was all in Chinese and the signs on the exhibits had no English on them either. If we could have understood what the pictures represented and actually learned how the pearls were cultured it would have been very interesting. The language barrier only made it frustrating to say the least. All we could do is look at the pictures. These rooms led to a maze of counter after counter of pearls for sale. It was like a monstrous jewellry store that sold only pearls. And there was only one way out. Excellent strategy! At the exit there were stalls of locals selling cold drinks and the same souvenirs and knick-knacks we had seen the day before. I wandered around outside to take some scenic pictures of the harbour area and a wall that had been built into the side of a mountain.

Next stop was lunch…….same old, same old…….but we were hungry and ate the rice, noodles, fish and seaweed soup, knowing we could get really good food at the beach later on.

Our serious shopping expedition turned out to be more exhibits as described above. Read the paragraph above three times changing the word pearl to gems, crystal and dried seafood. We had been scammed big time! Just take us to the beach………. No? We have more shopping to do? A Tea Exhibition?

It turned out to be the most interesting one so far. We were seated in a room on low stools around a tea service. Wow, this might be a Chinese Tea Ceremony! The commentator spoke only in Chinese demonstrated how to make tea properly, clean the cup and the lid and how to make the tea and pour it. There was nothing ceremonious about it. She made three pots of different kinds of tea…..of which we could only call them “the blue one”, “the green one” and the “yellow one”……..according to the colours of the packages. We got to sample each one. Most were very bitter like green tea. But one tasted bitter at first then turned sweet when you swallowed it. That was really a different sensation. After the demonstration a large basket of tea for sale was brought into the room. Aha, english on the boxes! I bought the “yellow” one which states it is good for throat and lungs. I can always use some help in those areas.

After our shopping expedition we were back on the bus and heading for the beach. We were informed that we would have one hour and fifteen minutes there………..you gotta be kidding? Yesterday we went unprepared and stayed over three hours…….today we are totally prepared and only have just over one hour? Ridiculous!

I arrived at the beach, paid 20 yuan for a lounge chair which I never sat in (to read my book was the plan), rushed to the change area, got into my bathing suit, went into the water, played with ChiChi for a few minutes, swam out to the deeper area, swam back in, got dried off, changed, grabbed a chicken leg, gathered up my stuff and headed back to the bus………..now wasn’t that fun?
Sorry, no time for pictures here.

We decided we would skip the mundane hotel food and find an authentic seafood restaurant for dinner and pay for it ourselves. The Chinese staff on our tour agreed to go with us! Wow, maybe they too were getting tired of “same old, same old”. It was always good to have them along to direct the taxi drivers and do the ordering. We gathered in the hotel parking lot to flag down several taxis. There were approximately 18 of us in total. One taxi pulled up on a side street and was followed by several more. And they kept coming! Soon there was a traffic jam of taxis, drivers and people clogging the intersection. The traffic light changed but cars could not get around them and started to honk their horns. Oblivious to the mayhem, the taxi drivers were out of their cars and were huddled around, smoking and bartering with our Chinese people. There are two ways to take a taxi. One, you let them run the meter and pay the price. Two, you barter with them for a set price ahead of time and they don’t run the meter. Listening to all this, as the voices got louder and louder, you would think their lives were at stake………..in reality it was all over 2-3 yuan. A deal was finally made and we scrambled into the cabs.

Our convoy of taxis arrived at a very posh looking restaurant. We started to get out but were told to keep still. Another ‘meeting’ was held on the side of the road………..seems the taxi drivers were trying to convince them that this place was too expensive and wanted to take us to a different place. It was agreed so off we went. We finally arrived at a sidewalk seafood establishment. The taxi drivers stayed on for a while, parking their cabs and huddling around, smoking and watching us. (My thoughts were they were waiting for their “commission” from the owner of the establishment.)

There were tanks full of fish and sea creatures lined up on the street. Now that is fresh! We got to choose what they would cook for us. It was decided we would order as two groups, english people and chinese people. We ordered oysters, shrimp, a large fish (what kind I don’t know) clams, and crab. Before we finished our first glass of beer, the food started to arrive and we pigged out! We sat outside in the warm, night air eating our seafood and drinking beer for almost two hours. When it was all over we had created quite a mess!

It was still early in the evening so we decided to walk around this area of town, which was across a river from our hotel. En masse we started walking down the street and proceeded to walk across a busy intersection. We soon found out that cars and pedestrians in Sanya don’t play chicken with each other “a la Changsha style.” We caused another traffic jam! We were crossing on a red light into oncoming traffic that squealed it’s brakes and honked it’s horns. We made it safely across the street and reminded ourselves that this may happen when we go back to Canada or whatever country we came from. A scary thought!

(Mid-point of the bridge crossing.........see below)

Soon everyone was tired and decided to hop on a bus. Marrie and I still wanted to walk off our dinner and decided we would continue walking. We knew the general direction back to the hotel. After a leisurely stroll across the river and gabbing all the while, we were on a stretch of a four lane expressway that seemed deserted. There was a park ahead where people were enjoying an outdoor concert. A car with dark-tinted windows kept pulling up beside us and stopping. We couldn’t see who was inside. We got a little spooked and headed to the park just as a taxi dropped off his fare. We jumped in the taxi and gave directions by pointing our way back. We lost our ‘stalker’ and arrived safe and sound back at the hotel! There is safety in numbers and we decided we wouldn’t wander off on our own again……….at least not in the dark!