Yanoda~~

Pudong Airport’s Domestic Terminal is extremely long, and quite a hike. During late hours, it is quite desolate . I suppose this counts as my first hike on my Hainan trip; not illustrious, but fairly peaceful. The plane flight was nondescript. The attendants were much younger than the average American flight attendant, but definitely caked on the makeup. I had downloaded a few Ipad applications for the first time; a PDF reader, Sonic CD, and a Photoshop equivalent. Turns out I can get motion sickness on an airplane from Sonic-ing too fast…

Dinner was at a small hole-in-the-wall that seemed less touristy and more native, as it was an impromptu stop. Compared to Shanghai, everyone seemed much more relaxed. All ages of men had the “whatever happens, happens” look, and all ages of women really didn’t look like they cared about any minor problem that might come. The noodles were some sort of special noodles, and they were quite tasty. I’m not sure if I’ll ever grow tired of noodles. I’m also glad that my spice tolerance has gone up ever since high school, since the peppers were quite tasty.

The hotel we ended up at was not particularly high end, but was very comfortable and had good services. An artificial lagoon was located in the back; there were these large inflatable hamster wheels that guests could use to cavort around the top, although I never tried. The front had a private beach, and the terrace on the top had a good view of the mountains behind a vine trellis. I stayed with my laboratory co-worker in a room; it was nice and air conditioned compared to outside, which was incredibly hot and humid even at night.

The first night, five coworkers and I decided to get a look at the surroundings. We ended up walking to a shopping center around fifteen minutes away, along a road lined with palm trees, hotels, and the occasional construction. The shopping center was extravagant, with faux-old bridges and a multilevel outdoor complex. We ended up buying some Tsingtao beer and drinking it on the way back. It got warm quite fast; not the best I’ve had. We met up with the other people and I got introduced to those from Hong Kong, Beijing, and Canton, with a total of around twenty-five people. I stayed up until twelve just listening to people talk.

The next day, we piled into our tour bus and got a brief history of Hainan from our tour guide (in Chinese, of course). As my Chinese still isn’t good enough to pick out specialized vocabulary, I have to admit I mostly zoned out. We all got out together to visit a tourist area with a group of temples (There was a disabled man and a woman both selling the same trinket not five meters from each other; in the name of marketing, I wonder who sold more?). The first area contained a grove of trees planted by famous people (bodhi trees? The trees Buddha sat under in the story). The other temples seemed relatively new. Overall, the area seemed a bit too… new and manicured for my taste. Lunch was vegetarian, and unrelated, not very good.

The scenery was quite nice, though. It was next to the sea, and the foliage was definitely biome-specific. Hanging vines, flowers (the male flower: no pistil), palm trees. The highlight, though, was a huge three-faced statue of Guanyin, which lorded over the coastline. I was the only one who ended up taking a walk along this particular coast, although only for a while. The rest of the time, I tagged along with everyone else. We eventually visited this large statue (very lord-of-the-rings-looking), and walked right up to the base.

Afterwards, we went to the Chinese version of the end of the word (tian ya hai jiao), which was a motley collection of recent statures and huge, old smooth rocks dotting the coast. Some of the rocks had words carved into them by famous people. The scenery was quite nice, and walking in the surf was quite nice. However, there was an unfortunate amount of people, which made peace/photos a bit harder to pull off. They happened regardless, and it was fun to see old people do young-style photos, such as the ever infamous all-jumping-in-air photos.

Dinner was nondescript, but afterwards we ended up heading to the hotel’s private beach. My boss and I were the only ones that ended up going into the surf. At this point, I tried swimming farther, but the hotel employee on duty was very adamant about blowing his whistle whenever I’d get past my shoulder. We ended up just wave-diving for a while while the other coworkers relaxed on the beach.

The second full day occurred mostly in the Hainan jungle. Teambuilding exercises consisted of a treck up a mountain inside a creek, with rope-swing, tire bridge, rolling logs, nets, and suspended tunnels as obstacles. Nearly everyone was wet at the end from falling into the creak at some point; I would have gotten out unscathed if not for getting thoroughly drenched at the end of a tunnel by my coworkers. At the end, we had to climb up a waterfall with handholds and rope embedded in the rock behind it. Very unique, and quite fun, if not a bit non-integrated into the jungle atmosphere.

I forgot to bring a change of clothes, and the humid air was not making things better. Regardless, I still decided to go hiking with my coworkers after lunch. The jungle really looked like a stereotypical jungle, with large curling vines, exotic fruits hanging everywhere, and gnarled tree roots (along with the excessive humidity). It was quite a nice experience; there were even tiny red crabs halfway up a tree in a knothole. In the middle, we stopped at some random tea house area trying to sell us tea. It’s been a while since I had ku ding tea, and I still enjoy it. I didn’t buy anything though, unfortunately. There was also a shrine with lots of people-placed wooden charms hanging off trees, bridges, and trellises that acted as wind chimes; made me really want to get one for my apartment.

Sunset came again, and I headed to the hotel beach again. This time, more people joined in the surf, including both bosses, which was pretty cool. The hotel guy eventually got tired of blowing his whistle whenever I got too far, and just told me to move about ten metrs off the hotel’s private beach into another’s area, so that they don’t get in trouble if I kill myself. I promptly get faceslammed/winded trying to ride a particularly large wave and am disoriented for the rest of the time.

The atmosphere was quite nice though. If I’m nowhere near the sea and I think about it rationally, it’s kind of disgusting, as even with the power of dilution you’re exposing yourself to many different nasties. But when I’m near the sea, I can’t exactly not enjoy myself. The water on this beach was warm and clear, and the sand was fairly fine. The twilight only made everything else look more surreal and peaceful, and eventually you could see the Milky Way above. Since it was a private beach, there weren’t many people at all. Really my type of environment, hehe.

Afterwards was swimming in the hotel pool, which was not nearly as nice, but had a basketball hoop. My coworkers are pretty enthusiastic about the sport, but I could hold my own, sadly enough. Well, I guess that’s a good thing.

The third full day was spent on a smaller island off the coast of Hainan. Here, our group split; some stayed at the beach, while others climbed to the top of the local mountain. Naturally, I stayed at the beach. Some of the women had an impromptu photoshoot, and there was some  burying-in-the-sand going on, but mostly I swum or helped those who can’t swim maneuver their inner tube. This particularl beach had nicer water than the private beach, but the sand was rough and there were many more people. The primary fauna was jellyfish. In a flash of brilliance, I decided that swimming through a flock of jellyfish would be a positively magical experience… not my greatest idea. At least their stings only itched.

Lunch was noodles and wax apples, which I grew quite fond of. Wax apples and dragonfruit are two things that others don’t seem to like, but I really enjoy, partly because they aren’t overwhelmingly sweet; they are more refreshing. After lunch, we walked around (lots of free-range chickens) and ended up cleaning up at the manmade pool.

Dinner was in the mall we visited on the first day, and it was more a feast than the previous ones, to celebrate the department where my coworkers come from. There was lots of barbecue, coconut drinks, and these columns of beer (meter tall, cooled by a smaller ice column within). It was quite cool. We ended up making supermarket runs for more beer to pour into these columns. Afterwards was KTV; my coworkers are really crazy when it comes to this, especially the ones from Hong Kong. Singing on stacks of furniture, wanton drinking of beer, ect. Much different atmosphere than the karaoke I’ve been to in the states. They made me sing Uptown Girl and Hotel California, even though they had a pretty good selection of English songs. I am not very good at singing. Regardless, because I didn’t know/understand most of the Chinese songs, I ended up just lying there on the couch, college party style. Not terribly interesting, but in my defense, I did drink a lot of beer (which is tolerable now, but still not my drink of choice). This lasted until about 12 AM.

The last day was not particularly productive. It was really the only day I didn’t take a swimming opportunity, because I didn’t want to not be able to change afterwards. We took a taxi to the city, and ate some pretty good ethnic cuisine. Afterwards, we went to a fruit market which was ridiculously cheap (2 RMB for a mango… although I later found out they weren’t … exactly high quality). I bought 5 and acquired some dragonfruit to bring home. Afterwards I bought some coconut candy, pepper sauce, tea, and coconut powder, all being local specialties which I didn’t want to buy in a tourist trap. I inteded for them as gifts, but now that I look at them they look kind of lame.

My last meal was KFC at the airport, and then we headed back. We waited in the ridiculously long taxie queue line, and when I finally slept, it was two.