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Published: November 4th 2009
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Water buffalo
with some houses in the background After a long hiatus, here is the continuation of my vacation...
My full day in Bo'ao, I decided to go biking. Being able to bike is one of the things I miss the most in Shenzhen (I didn't really bike in Philly either, but I missed it there, too), but the traffic is really out of control. Things seemed slightly better in Bo'ao, and the innkeeper had a few suggestions of interesting places to go. I didn't really have a sense of how fast I normally bike, or what the distances would be, nor did I have a particularly good map, but she helped me figure out a route and I set out.
I took the main road out of town, which was busy but not overwhelming, and I started remembering how nice it is to get around by bicycle. The first part of my trip was a turnoff from that main road, off into some small villages. I saw a lot of houses with various livestock (lots of water buffalo), and local people on the side of the road collecting palm fronds or other plant things. At first we just stared at each other, but then I realized
A resting water buffalo
He is resting in a graveyard that smiling often elicited huge grins in response, so I started doing that. There was a really cool bit where the road, a narrow paved path really, cut across a large rice field, and there were also some really interesting Hainan graveyards; the graves are mounds of dirt with a stone on top.
When I got back to the main road, I headed in the other direction, on a slightly larger road that had some picturesque turnoffs. It was not all that interesting, but it was nice to be speeding along with the wind in my hair. Then I got back to the sort of main tourist area of Bo'ao, and took a turnoff to see a statue of Ao, who is a deity, someone's turtle/lion/something son, and caused a lot of trouble, being subdued by his mother. (Bo'ao means Ao subdued). Next I biked across two large rivers and took a turnoff to the Moon Committee Village (its official English name). That was my favorite part of the trip--there were some nice downhills that I could speed along, and good vistas of the river, fields, hills, and lots of old/interesting houses. Unfortunately I don't have that many pictures--there
More of the graveyard
Each mound is a grave, and there is a plaque in front of each one. were a lot of people around, and also I got very into the rhythm of biking.
Once I got back onto the main road again, I was pretty tired and hot. I stopped at a gas station and had something of a conversation with the attendants, though basically I was only able to tell them I was American, we couldn't really communicate more than that. The main tourist site of Bo'ao, a large temple complex, was closed, so I snapped a few pictures from the outside and then biked back to the inn (after taking a nap in some VERY prickly grass).
I took a nap and went for a swim, and then the innkeeper invited me and another guest, Raymond, to go to a beach barbecue. She knows some expats who are in Bo'ao designing/ building a golf course (they come over for her breakfasts), and they were having a party on a secluded beach right by the course. I am always excited to meet more expats in China (much more than I was in France--I think there's something about being such an outsider, particularly physically, that gives me much more reason to want to bond with
Ao subdued
Sorry the picture isn't better, the computer wouldn't let me rotate the good one. other outsiders), and I had yet to go to a nice beach. By the time we got there, it was too cold and dark to do any actual swimming, but the beach was really pretty (and relatively garbage free). There was not much in the way of vegetarian food, but there was enough, and a variety of sauces, so I made due. The meat options were pretty impressive--chicken and beef skewers, meatballs, and these dried seafood (squid?) things that people put on the grill and sort of puffed up like balloons. I got in a really interesting conversation with one guy about golf courses and conservation, about how he thinks golf will have to seriously change it's perspective on land and landscaping if it wants to survive in the 21st century. I know next to nothing about golf, other than I think of it along with shopping malls and McMansions in terms of how it uses resources and land, and also the really interesting article I read in
The New Yorker about a golf course in Scotland. In any case, he believes golf evolved so that people feel like they need to conquer nature in order to play a good
A house
One of the more interesting ones in the Moon Committee Village game of golf, but he thinks people should start seeing how they can use the landscape and native vegetation and make a good course, not just rip it out and start over.
You can be sure I slept well last night. The next morning I enjoyed the last of my delicious inn breakfasts, and then I headed further south to Sanya for my last three nights, which is where I will pick it up next time.
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