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Published: September 8th 2010
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The Park
A Chinese park, with hundreds of people flying kites, and about a kilometre of exrecise stations. So, cycling to the beach didn't totally work, It turns out that Haikou is a lot bigger than we originally thought!!! We did see a huge park with loads of chinese people flying kites though, which was quite interesting. We also discovered a building project that perfectly illustrates how ridiculous the chinese are...there were lorries and lorries full of rocks driving out along a small track out to sea, which we thought was quite weird, and then we discovered that they were trying to build another island out at sea...that would be connected to Hainan by a tiny track about 5 foot above sea level, kinda dodgy considering that there are about 2 months of typhoon weather a year, and any kind of rough sea will leave this little island completely isolated.
Anyway, not to be dissuaded on our quest for hainanese beach, we decided the next day to get up early and head out by taxi, then bus, and then taxi, and then bus, and then tuktuk...to get to the beach, the last leg of the journey done with 3 of us in an tiny tuktuk with Hannah perched on my knee. However, the beach certainly didn't disappoint, practically
the suspension bridge...
Huge and very scary to cycle along... deserted, huge, and white, we couldn't understand why there were barely any people there! On the beach there was a really beautiful looking spa resort, and as we were getting quite peckish, we decided to get lunch there then! We were taken to the most amazing room with a circular table, and wooden folding doors that opened onto the beach. On the way to our room we were directed past a mahoosive selection of fish tanks with some pretty cool fishes! We eventually chose some of the biggest mussels ever, octopus, water snake, and some other bits and bobs... We were gonna get pufferfish, but it was a 'lil bit too expensive..and also a 'lil bit dangerous. We finished our meal (drinking watermelon juice) and headed out into the sea, which felt a bit polluted, but was like stepping into a warm bath. There were also random wooden constructions, and loads of little fishes that jumped out of the water as soon as we were close to them.
We had noticed that there were volleyball nets right next to where we had been lying on the beach, so Pete and I decided that our next mission should be to
View from the bridge
All the fishing boats and houseboats on the river. obtain a volleyball. Having no idea where to get one, we decided to ask the coconut people (i'll come to them later). The answer was the same everywhere, that there was nowhere to get volleyballs around there. We finally saw a policeman, I say policeman, but this guy had been sleeping on a chair in the hotel for the entire morning and seemed to have nothing to do here at all. We asked him the same question we had asked everybody else and he just told us to wait there for a minute. Hopeful and intrigued we decided to hang around there for the following 5 minutes as he disappeared off round the corner. When he came back, he was on an old off road motorbike, and looked incredibly pleased with himself. He drove up to us, cut the engine and told us that he there was a place quite close that we could get one from. I know momma won't be happy with this, but we decided that it would be a giggle and climbed on the back. There was just enough room for the three of us, and every bump in the road bounced us off the bike
Room at the hotel.
amazing...and this meal cost us £5 each... a little bit, but the policeman seemed confident in his little bikes ability, and so off we set! Bear in mind that Pete and I had come straight from the sea, so we were in boardies, and I'd put my flip-flops on, but Pete was going barefooted. It was quite obvious that none of the locals had seen anything quite like this before, as the policeman shouted out to all of the little cafes we passed, needless to say there was a lot of laughter and every single person we passed just watched us until we were out of sight. The route we took was also rather disconcerting, he drove us on a very dodgy looking track through a little section of rainforest, past some terrible smelling slums, and past an army camp with a number of cannons and jeeps and the like and some very alert looking armed guards. Finally we arrived into a small town where there was a little shop that sold volleyballs. The policeman even bargained for us, as the woman was trying to rip us off, and then took us all the way back again, volleyball in our hands! I gave him 10 kuai for
his troubles (he wouldn't accept 20) and invited him to join us, which sadly he refused.
Now with our volleyball we started a volleyball game, and slowly got a group of teenage chinese girls involved, not many guys wanted to play, but we got a couple. We were all laughingly terrible, I don't think we got the ball over the net more than a couple of times in a row, but it was fun messing about in the sand! After a while we decided that it was time to head back, and with the amazing help of a receptionist at the hotel we'd eaten at, we managed to get a taxi all the way back to the university for about £15, we were probably getting ripped off, but considering fuel is the same price there as it is here, and it was over an hours journey, it cant have been that bad.
An early night and we were all ready for our classes in the morning. Classes start at 7 40 which is good, as it's not too hot then, and continue on to 11 40, with 2 10 minute breaks, and 1 20 minute break and although
The Table
...a table... we're in quite an advanced class, it's not too bad, we can just about understand bits and bobs, which is encouraging! After class we did some work and then that evening Pete and I decided to go to the gym, which is meant to close at around half past 7... We went at 6ish, and it was closed, so we decided to play tennis on the uni courts instead. After bargaining rackets and balls from the guy in charge of the courts we had a nice hour and a half long match, which was absolutely exhausting, and very warm!!!
Right bedtimes, hope you enjoy!
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jamie Giles
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WOW!
Beach looks awesome, mum says she wants to come..we are still in the same session looking through the blog....its pretty awesome so far!!! xxx