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Published: November 18th 2009
Hot Springs
The Nantian Hot Springs are quite relaxing.We slept in a bit and decided for breakfast we'd get something quick at the bakery down the street from our hostel.
The bakeries here are strange. Most of the baked goods come wrapped in plastic and taste a bit different. You can still find something good though.
The plan for today was to meet up with two others and go to Nantian Hot Springs, arranged by our hostel.
Originally, it was just going to be the two of us, but the more people that went, the cheaper the overall price would be for the taxi ride there and admission. It takes about 50 minutes to get there from our hostel, so anything to cheapen the price....
The two people the joined us:
John, a Canadian in his mid 60's. His daughter is currently teaching in north of Sanya in Haikou with her husband, so John came to visit and spent a few days down here in Sanya. His daughter has been teaching abroad for several years now.
Raphaella, an Italian in her 70's-80's also joined us. She had quite the life story, but it was hard to understand her with her accent and
John
Our new friend John, from Canada. He's retired and living the life. style of speaking, which was random, fast, and very blunt. She's been all over the world and could speak many languages. She also knew what she wanted and wasn't afraid to say it. She asked us how we like the beaches in Sanya, and when we told her we thought they were beautiful, she quickly pointed out how we were wrong and that these beaches were unacceptable. I guess she has earned the right, and us 20 year olds should just keep our mouths shut.
We got to the hot springs around 11am, and right away Raphaella took control. Staci and I would have planned only to stay there until 2pm or so. Raphaella, on the other hand wouldn't leave any earlier than 5pm. This is the problem when traveling in groups, especially when not everyone is on the same page. Cant complain though, after all, we were in a tropical hot spring!
John, on the other hand loved to talk. He too had many stories and opinions to share. Unlike Raphaella, he was more of a tender soul who loved life. Unfortunately, his wife could not make the trip as she has serious health problems.
One
Coconut Milk
Fresh from the source. of our first dips was in the fish treatment pool. All I can say is this: it was bizarre, and I kind of liked it. The pool was warm, but not too warm, and filled with tons of smaller sized fish that ate at your skin, hopefully taking off some dead skin. Many spas offer this treatment for you to rest your feet in a bowl with the fish. Here, you got your whole body in. At first, it was a bit nasty, as we kept noticing the fish poop we were also hanging out with. Eventually, we let our guards down, accepted the poop-water and let the fish do their thing.
I had to close off entrance to my "special parts" as the fish were all to eager to go everywhere they could. I didn't count, but I would say at any given time there was about 50-100 fish on me eating away. Some of the bigger fish had bigger bites, so it would hurt a bit.
Staci couldn't help but squealing her higher pitch laugh-like sound.
I wish we had our camera. The camera was locked away in the locker room as we weren't sure
Coffee Hot Spring
Here, Staci and Raphaella enjoy bathing in hot coffee water. how to carry it around all day. Eventually, we got it when we were finished and took as many pictures as we could. Unfortunately, no fish feasting on our flesh pictures.
The rest of the day was spent following Raphaella's instructions as to which hot spring tub to take a dip in. A few of them were scorching hot, so we only lasted a few minutes. Staci found the ice cold bath and to everyone's surprise, she had no intense reaction and plopped right in. All the others were screaming and painfully reacting to the cold.
We found a swimming pool and swam around a bit. It was beautiful. Many of the Chinese we came across did not swim well and relied heavily on floatation devices. I relied on my heavy buoyant mass to keep me afloat.
I was pretty much done with the springs, and decided for one last adventure with the fish. I jumped in and let them eat away. This time I forgot to close off my trunks so when I stood back up to leave a few fish had found a comfy home, so it took a few shakes to get them out. I'm pretty sure I made a few Russians laugh.
Yes, Russians. Hainan Island, and especially Sanya, is a destination for many Russians to travel to. Instead of Chinese and English writings on signs or menus, primarily you will see Chinese and Russian. The various vendors around town will also come up to sell you stuff speaking Russian if you are not Chinese.
Anyway, back to the springs. I was winding down, so I got the camera and strolled around the beautiful grounds, following the others. We stopped for some beverages at the Coconut Springs, where you could take a dip in coconut milk hot springs. We also bought a coconut to drink out of. Wasn't too tasty, but still fun to have.
Besides coconut, there were a herbal tea bath and coffee bath. Staci was in heaven. She now can say she bathed herself in coffee. Too bad it wasn't a granita bath.
Staci, John, and I had been getting quite hungry, but Raphaella thought it was a silly idea to eat now if we wanted to eat dinner later. Obviously she doesn't know us. We like to eat. It wasn't worth arguing with her and if we really wanted something we could have gone to the snack shop.
As it got closer to 5pm, it was finally suitable for Raphaella to be done, so we all hit the showers, dried off and waited for our cab that we had called for an hour before. John had recommended a good pizza place nearby our hostel, which sounded great to us....except for...yes...you guessed it...Raphaella. What a stinker. We didn't even invite her, but since we were all a group that day....
She finally caved in by saying, "Well, I guess since it is your last night here, I will eat the pizza place".
The cab ride back was a complete sensory overload for me.
At one point, the driver was blasting techno music, that song "mariah hee mariah ha", and Raphaella was singing it. John was bouncing his head along as well. John then got a phone call and the cab driver didn't turn down the volume, so he began to have his conversation by yelling. Then the cab driver rolled down his window and hawked loogies out for the next 5 minutes. This was all happening at once. I could hardly handle myself.
We got back and were ready for food, but not before waiting on Raphaella. Don't get me wrong, we loved her, but she was frustrating to travel with. We got to the pizza parlor and I went right to a comfy chair and table inside. Before sitting, Raphaella commented that she would refuse to eat here if we sat inside. She had to be outside.
We go outside, and sit down, and then promptly have to get back up again as the table was not good enough. We moved two tables down. Ordering was another adventure, but luckily Staci and I were able to decide for ourselves. John wanted to share as well, but Raphaella had other things in mind. Unfortunately John didn't understand what was going on so the next hour was pretty confusing trying to speak to the Chinese servers all the changes in orders.
We survived dinner and somehow managed to lose Raphaella who wanted to shop for pearl necklaces. Staci and I just wanted to get some fresh fruit smoothy ice cream things (chao bing) and go back to our hostel. We managed to get what we wanted and spent the rest of the night meeting some more people at our hostel. We met some other younger Americans that we'll try to stay in touch with here.
Overall, a fun day, even with all it's frustrations.
The next morning, saw us waking up at 5am to catch our flight back to Shenzhen.
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Elyse
non-member comment
LOL
I was cracking up laughing at Martin's experience of the fish swimming up his shorts. TOO FUNNY!!! I only got to stick my feet into the fish tank so I could only imagine having your whole body in with the fish.