Thursday, February 24, 2005

We were up and at ‘em early by way of a wake-up call. We had one hour to pack and get out to the parking lot. That was just enough time for my morning coffee and a quick shower. I took a picture by the pool which was surrounded by beautiful flowering bushes. Too bad we didn’t have time for a quick dip!

It was a beautiful sunny morning and not too hot, but it would be scorching by noon. I dressed in shorts, t-shirt and sandals, knowing it would be my last day to indulge in summer attire. Tonight we would be flying back to the cold, damp weather of Changsha.

As we loaded onto the bus, this dog wandered by and hopped on the bus much to the delight of most of the people. He then refused to leave and could not be coaxed off. Finally with a little persuasion via Jurgen’s feet, he left and we were on our way to the first stop of the day.

Just outside XinLong we arrived at the XingLong Tropical Botanical Garden. It was a beautiful day for walking through the amazing tree-covered walk-ways and the many plants growing there………….all tropical of course. We passed giant aloe vera plants that were over four feet high and as wide as a garage door. The bamboo trees (pictured above) blanketed us from the sun and made for a cool walk through the forest. We came upon giant Christmas cactus plants about ready to bloom and many types of palm trees along with the traditional palms found in tropical areas all over the world and Cacao - the stuff that chocolate is made of!

Philodendron, which is a houseplant in America, grew wild as groundcover (pictured above) and wound its way up the trunks of trees.

The Beetlenut tree is interesting. The fruit of this tree are small brown nuts that taste like sweet tobacco. In Changsha and I’m sure in all of China you can purchase them loose or packaged. Mostly men chew them for the juice then spit them out on the ground. One of my students gave me one during a break from class not too long ago. It was like chewing on a piece of wood. You do not swallow it! People say they are disgusting but not because of the taste but the fact that men spit them out on the street. When they dry out they look like small brown turds! I saw them on the carpet in my classroom and didn’t know what they were until someone told me to warn students not to chew beetlenuts in class.

We went through the Hainan Provincial Engineering Research Centre for Tropical Spice and Beverage. This lady was harvesting the vanilla beans which grow on vines undercover. There were also Jackfruit trees which I had never heard of before. Emily brought a jackfruit home from Hainan and cooked it up with chicken and gravy. The fruit is like a sweet onion. It was very delicious! She was also surprised to find a plant there (don’t know the name) that is used to flavour rice. She was familiar with it in Indonesia. We picked a piece off the plant and smelled it. To me it smelled like Bastsami rice which has a distinct scent. Maybe that’s the name of the plant………..I don’t really know.

Our tour continued through many beautiful walkways passed coconuts trees that were re-rooting themselves via the coconuts that had fallen to the ground, large Snake plants that are also known as “Mother In Laws Tongue”, beautiful flowering bushes, flowers that were a variety of orchid orchid and a huge Lucky Bamboo fountain. (Pictured below)

Our tour finished with samples of coconut coffee, chocolate coconut coffee and a variety of teas. We already had our supply already of coconut coffee but not “chocolate coconut” coffee, so we added a bag of 24 packages to our list of coffees we would enjoy back home.

At the end of the gardens we posed for a group shot when our guide graciously accepted the task of taking photos with everyone’s camera………that amounted to about a dozen!

Back on the bus again……..we headed for our last lunch……..which of course was once again “same old, same old.” We were starving after not having had breakfast except for a few snacks on the bus. This was not one of the nicest lunch places. It was clean in the eating area but the W.C. (washroom) left a lot to be desired. This was a concrete building with a trough running through it and small partitions to section if off. I was getting used to using the Asian or "squat" toilets but I will never get used to the smell! There is never toilet tissue so you always carry kleenex in your pocket. And if you are lucky there will be a cold water tap nearby.

After a short bus ride to the next city arrived at what looked like a flea market. A long row of stalls selling the same souvenirs we had seen all week at every stop. Over and over again I saw the flip flops I had bought the first day! The WC was clean (because there was a cover charge for someone to keep it that way but well worth the ½ yuan….about 8 cents). We were told to walk through to the end of the lane (passing many tables of locals playing Mah-jong) to a docking area. There we boarded flat-bottom boats and headed out to an area called “Three Rivers”……..which turned out to be a strip of sandy beach where two inland rivers met the ocean. On one side of the strip was fresh water from inland and over the hump to the other side was the salt water of the ocean. The strip of two-sided beach went on for a couple of miles. There were no beggars here, no stalls selling cold drinks or fruit or any kind of food. The only person we saw selling something was this man playing some kind of instrument. Groups of tourists walked barefoot, leaving their shoes by their tour group’s flag.

Jurgen decided he would go into the ocean and announced that he would do his “Mr. Bean at the Seaside” routine. He had recently watched an episode where Mr. Bean changed from his street clothes to his swimsuit in public. He wanted to see if it really worked. He was serious! And it was hilarious to watch him. He proceeded to put on his swimming trunks underneath his shorts.

He actually did it! The funniest part was that as he headed toward the water he was shouted at and told you were not allowed to swim there! He hadn't noticed that no one was in the water! Then he had to do it all over in reverse. He never got his swimsuit wet but we laughed so much we almost wet our shorts!

It was late afternoon when we arrived in Haikou, the capital city. It was a shock to be back amongst the hustle and bustle of a big city. Haikou looked like Changsha, minus the pollution of course!

We arrived at our final dinner place. We passed by all the popular fast food places and flagged down a taxi as soon as we got off the bus. Take us to McDonalds! After indulging in Big Macs and fries we headed down the street to buy KFC for the plane ride home. We made it back just in time for the bus ride to the Haikou Meilan International Airport.

After checking our luggage and changing into long pants and jackets we found out our flight would be delayed for about an hour. The announcement was first in Chinese and being an international airport it was also repeated in English. “Flight number 3372 to Changsha will be delayed due to a delay.” Well, that made a lot of sense! That didn’t tell us much other than the fact that we would be sitting at our gate for another hour. We were bored……..and tired…….and then we got to singing……much to the surprise of the rest of the people who would be joining us on the flight! The Canadians sang 'O Canada' to start it off and then it became a cabaret show with an international theme. Emily and Grace sang the Indonesian national anthem. Jurgen sang the German national anthem and Bella sang (and danced) to the Iranian national anthem. Marrie, from England wasn’t sure of the words to God Save The Queen, loyal Brit that she is, so I helped her out. I still remember singing it in public school before Canada got it’s own song!

The time passed quickly and we finally boarded for the hour and a half flight home. Just as Marrie and I got settled in our seats and started to eat our KFC (it was after 11pm by this time) the flight attendants came down the aisle with a food package for everyone……….go figure! On the flight over they served drinks only ……….this time we brought our own food, only to be served with more! It was a fitting ending to our vacation which had included many wrong guesses………that turned out to be a comedy of errors……..just like the Mr. Bean episodes!