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March 23rd 2007

Published: August 6th 2007

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amandainshenzhen

For most, this was not a joke

We thought the hats were funny, while most others thought they were so very fashionable

Would saying it "was too good to be true" be too cliche' to say right now? Might you see where this is going. The "price was too right" for our upcoming weekend with a Chinese tour group to China's second largest island (behind Taiwan?!?!) to be spelled out in long days along clear beaches sipping coconuts and perfecting our already pretty perfect tans. We embarked on our journey with high hopes, each of us being exposed in minor incidents to the idea of the Chinese tour, that we would prevail. As soon as we touched ground. we had plotted, we would ditch the tour for hours upon hours of ruining our beautifully white skin and adding fat to our bodies with cup upon cup of coffee. We weren't sure what the Chinese tour group had planned, but it was surely surrounded around fun in the sun and bountiful hours of beach time, what else could you do on an island?

We found out that it was possible to almost completely avoid the beach whilst vacationing on an island. Instead of sinking our toes in the sand, we were off running all day long.....We frequented pseudo-rainforests (concrete paved paths that ended

Team America!

We had to stay together, stay strong, and stay keeping the chinese guessing "what the hell are they doing?

in a gift shop), pearl shops (priced ridiculously high), we visited a butterfly park, cultural village, minority village (where breathing cost fifty cents), jewelry shop (priced even ridiculously higher than the pearl shop
0, which mary informed one of chinese tour groupies that she had spent way too much on her new bracelet....our new friend quickly left the table), a candy/ coconut store, coffee factory (which the factory was 1/8 and the gift shop taking up the rest which felt more like a race with winding maze requiring you to pass every aisle, every sampler and every employee before reaching the finish line...i mean the register ), we spent an morning driving down the road in our tour bus watching the beach go by, never venturing out into the sun fearful of what it might do. We stopped at hot springs, for boat rides laden with fake supersoakers for the 40 year olds to squirt each other with. (Luckily there was an effort to cover yourself in head to toe ponchos, so no one actually got wet.) We ate each meal in under 15 minutes (fearful of lost activity time) we hiked mountains, prayed at Buddhist temples, explored sea museums

Where's Waldo?

If waldo were ever hiding in china, one would never be able to find him

that contained nothing living.

Truth be told, the majority of the trip was spent waiting for the fellow tour groupies to finish their latest activity. Basically, we went to everything was free, which was little beyond our hotel and meals, so at every activity, Maggie, Mary, Agnes and I positioned ourself in the appropriate waiting area amongst the many tour bus drivers and bored employees. I read two books, finished several sudokos and caught up on a bit of shut eye that our 6 am wake-up calls had deprived us of. We were like parents and our kids were at the park for the day and we were waiting for them to finishm playing. Chinese students study so hard during their "formative and play years" that I felt like I was on a trip with 13 and 14 year olds. They were always late, bought everything, and had to be constantly entertained.

Although frustrating at times, I couldn't have asked for a funnier vacation. All four of us took everything in stride....well almost.... Our little weekend in hainan was a real confirmation to the chinese way of doing things.....which is just weird...

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