Bye-bye Haikou, Hello Sanya

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Knowing we wanted as much time in Sanya as possible, we got up early to shower, pack and head out of our hostel by 8:30am. We headed out to the main street, flagged down a taxi easily and 15 kuai later we arrived at the South Bus Station. There were tons of people outside yelling "Sanya? We take to Sanya!" but we decided it'd probably be safest if we took a real bus rather than hopped in someone's gypsy cab for the 3.5 drive down to Sanya. 78 kuai per person gets you a rather cushy seat on a comfortable air conditioned bus, complete with 2 movies (in Chinese, of course). We bought some muffins and water and boarded our 9:20am bus.

Apparently it used to be a lot harder to get between Haikou and Sanya, but with the new expressway that goes down the side of the island rather than through the middle, it's a rather painless trip. Martin read and I slept the entire time. As we pulled into the bus station, we could already tell that Sanya had much more to offer than Haikou. It took a little bit to get a taxi, but we eventually got one and got dropped off on a road near our hostel for only 10 kuai. We stayed at Blue Sky International Youth Hostel, which we'd read about in Lonely Planet and came pretty highly recommended- it was great! Weird location, as it was down sort of a random alley that usually smelled of garbage, but we've gotten pretty used to that in China. The only drawback of the place was that they didn't have our reservation on file, despite Martin having called a week prior (you can't currently book it online). Luckily it wasn't a busy time to be traveling, so they had plenty of rooms and check-in went quickly.

We settled into our room with a VERY soft mattress (we both sort of fell into it, we've gotten so used to hard mattresses) and immediately headed out to find food. We'd heard about a cafe/bar called Rainbow that was maybe a 3 minute walk away and knew it would be perfect. We've been craving nachos for a long time now and they HAD THEM. Real tortilla chips, salsa, cheese, jalepenos, everything. No meat either! We were in heaven. Martin ordered a "New York style burger" and I opted for the burrito, sans meat which they were more than willing to do.

I know, I know, a lot of our time here seems to revolve around food. I never thought I'd miss different tastes that are so readily available in the USA, but I really do. We've found some Chinese food we really love, and have tried so many new things...but sometimes you just want familiarity, and vacation is a good time for that. We were shocked at one point during our meal when the waitress came over and said "Excuse me...how is everything for you?" This is a custom us Americans are more than used to, right? It usually happens once, twice, 15 times while you're eating and you just want to tell the waitress to stop checking up on you. Here in China, nobody asks. You have to call the waiter over if you want to order something else, if you have a problem with the food, even if you want the bill. Not bad, just totally different...and it surprised us to have someone ask us how the food was after three months of no one asking!

After lunch, we hung out at the hostel for a bit just relaxing and digesting, and then changed to go down to the beach. We were staying right by Dadonghai Bay, one area of Sanya that was supposed to have a nice beach yet also have things to do. Yalong Bay was another area we could have stayed at with supposedly VERY nice beach areas, but only has high-end resorts and no other places to eat, etc.

On the walk to the beach (about 5 minutes), we noticed just how many signs were in Russian. Chinese people were yelling at us in Russian to buy their stuff. There were tons of Russian tourists walking around...it was so weird. We knew it was a big tourist destination for them, but had no idea to what extent.

We made it to the beach and walked down pretty far to get to a much less crowded area. We took turns going in the water so that one of us could guard our stuff. As Martin was splashing around in the waves and enjoying the warm ocean, Chinese people were walking by me slowly and staring, staring, staring. Really, guys? There are Russians everywhere! Why don't you stare at that gigantic beefcake of a man with bleached blonde hair and a speedo? I had to laugh out loud pretty hard when a Chinese couple passed me and couldn't take their eyes off me- they were wearing matching 'Hawaiian' print shorts along with matching white T-Shirts with a picture of themselves on the beach on them...and matching crocs. And you think I'M something to look at?! Wow.

After about half an hour, Martin got out and gave me my turn in the water. It was fantastic. I found myself even squealing out loud a few times at the excitement at being in such warm water. The beach was beautiful and the waves were great. The weather outside was also perfect, as it wasn't too hot and there was a slight breeze. We spent some more time lounging on some chairs around other Russians, until we realized it was part of one of the fancy hotels and we clearly weren't really supposed to be there. Nobody ever approached us though, probably too afraid to question the foreigners as to whether or not they were guests of the hotel. Oh well!

As we left the beach area, we decided to get some popcorn and bubble tea at one of the many cafes. Unfortunately, China doesn't really know what POPCORN is- they only know kettle corn. I think this needs to be remedied. We kept walking, and suddenly stumbled upon a street vendor making chao bing (literally translates as fried ice), a treat we'd heard Haikou would have but didn't find there. You choose whatever fresh fruit you want, they blend it up with some kind of coconut milk and then put it on this machine that sort of looks like a frying pan- it basically gets the mixture really really cold and then it has the texture of sorbet. We tried mango-pineapple and it was AMAZING. We were both in heaven!

Once again we went back to the hostel to change. On the way in, we decided to book a trip to Nantian Hot Springs (http://www.nantian-hot-spring.com/enu/index.asp) with our hostel, as they gave a good discount with round-trip transportation included. We once again headed out to find some dinner, this time ending up at a restaurant that had all kinds of food- Martin got sweet & sour pork w/pineapple, I had vegetable curry and we shared a plate of AMAZING mashed potatoes. Mmm...I want some more now.

We spent the rest of the evening just walking around and enjoying what Sanya had to offer. There was a pretty lively night scene, with a newly constructed boardwalk area that had many bars/cafes right on the beach. We ended up enjoying a Mai Tai and Pina Colada at one of the outdoor bars while a group of 3 performed live English music. While it's still definitely China, I couldn't help but feel like it was pretty Hawaii-esque...drinking a Pina Colada with the sounds of music and waves crashing against the sand in the background? Pretty fantastic, I'd say...

And with that, we were off to bed, eager for our next day in Sanya...

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Photos

Nasty Nachos
These nachos were NOT nasty, but they were called Nasty Nachos. Find them at Rainbow, a good restaurant in Sanya

Dadonghai Bay
A shot from the beach, just down the street from our hostel.

Staci
So relaxing.

Beach
Close-up of the beach.

Chao Bing
One of the best desserts/drinks you can find near the beach.

Cocktails
Since we were on the beach, we had to get a mai thai and a piña colada

Comments

[Elyse]

Sounds Fun
Ahh the beach and the food sounds like a good time. We know what you mean about eating all kinds of Western food while on vacation, gotta get it while we can.