October Break Part 2:Sanya, Hanan

---

I arrived in sanya at roughly 2am and having no checked luggage grabbed a taxi to the sanya backpackers hostel. Taxi driver had no idea where to go so i directed him using a map on my camera. Once in the general vicinity i got off not wanting to pay him to drive around uselessly.
The hostel was in Lu Ming - a fenced enclosure and the staff of both nearby hotels had no idea where the hostel or the Lu Ming was. Even though it was less than a block away. The Lu Ming was hard to find but by process of elimination i found it. I walked in and walked around for a bit. It was a bunch of multistoried apt buildings. I found 'Backpacker's Hostel'.
No one was at the hostel and my friend's phone wasn't on so could not get into the room and didn't know which one. After repeatedly messaging and calling i settled down to sleep on the roof. There were some inflated boat and mattress so i plopped it down and tried to sleep. It was a little encove in the stairwell on the roof. I was there for about 1.5 hours before my friend figured out i hadn't arrived and that her phone had no reception. It turned out that i was in the wrong hostel, but the right one was locked and had no external sign. They were about 10m apart.
I met my friend and got into my top bunk with was very unstable in getting off or on. Prone to tipping.
The next morning was the typhoon although it ended up being nothing more than strong winds and heavy rain.we stayed in a cafe until it passed and then walked along the beach. We headed into town for dinner and the two fluent Mandarin girls tackled the market to buy food to take to a restaurant to cook it for us. Apparently it's a hainan thing to do.
The next day we went on a tour to surf, seadoo, banana boat, and atv. But the atv was broken, there was one seadoo for 20 people, and they wouldn't even let anyone drive. The surfing instructions were basic. We had a few turns to practice but i never got on fully. The after lunch i tried skimboarding and fell onto my ankle and badly twisted my ankle. It hurt to walk for the next few days and i was forced to stay on a beach. We went to a western restaurant for some of the best food we've had in China.
The next day we went to the famed Yulong beach which is mostly hype. Its where all the fancy resorts are but the beach while nice was nothing special. Any beauty that once was there was long lost to the over-expansion and commercialism. I set up my little hammock off to the side near a military restricted zone.
That night we went to Dolphin's bar which was a western restaurant with great food. We ended up going many times.
The next day we all split up to do our own thing. 2 went to do a rainforest trip which sounded lame but apparently ended up being quite good. That said they got the Chinese price whereas they would have charged me about double for being white. Normative racism. Very common in Asia. The other 3 went shopping and got facials done. I rented a bike which was in bad shape, fixed it up for the hostel and toured around the Sanya peninsula.
Both tires were flat and the back rim was warped meaning that the brakes would be either too loose or too tight.
I rode around the coastline for a while until i got to the top of a hill. There was some hotel looking building there but couldn't see where the rooms were. Just one big lobby. Behind it was a path to a lookout. I rode my bike along it and decided to set up my hammock there. It had great views of the peninsula, mainly the golf course, and a little bit of dadonghai bay - where i was staying. After laying in my hammock for a couple of hours it stayed to pour so i quickly packed everything away and rode to an umbrella table outside the building. I waited out the rain and then bike back down the hill towards a fancy resort and their groomed beach.
I passed a ton of construction along the way. There are many resorts going up in the area.
I found the resort and was about to lock my bike to a tree when i was waved off by a security. So i locked it on a tree some distance away and then snuck down to their private beach.
I went for a swim on the small stretch of beach that wasn't full of rocks. Once done i walked along the beach to find a cushioned laying chair (no idea the real name) and relaxed there for a bit. After a bit of time I found the pool for a swim and then had a shower. I headed back towards the hostel up the mountain. The gears were rusty and the bike was far too small so it was more difficult than it needed to be. On the way down from the pass it started to pour. It was here that i noticed the front brakes had a tendency to come undone while riding. That plus a big downhill, slippery wet conditions and loose back brakes made the ride a tad exciting. I had to use the 'ol foot brake a few times.
I got to the hostel without any real incident, and met up with the rainforest duo. The shopping crew wanted us to meet them for dinner downtown, but when we got there they wanted to eat at dolphins back near the hostel. On the way some of them picked up cheap mangos to take to Dalian. But then it took an hour for one girl to get the best price so we took off. I think she saved 50cents.
The next morning the 5 of them took off to fly back to Dalian while i stayed on an extra day. It poured heavily the entire day so I wasn't able do much except hang out in a cafe. It kept raining all day and the streets turned into rivers. You would have to wade through parts to cross streets by the night.
Sunday morning the weather cleared up for my flights back to Dalian.

---