Last week ruth and I went on vacation to the Hawaii of china, (or so its called), to the island of Hainan, off the southern coast of China. the first couple days were warm and sunny. we got sun burns right off the bat, but who cares! we were in the sun and we didnt have to wear coats! We ate tons of tropical fruit, i learned how to open coconuts and get out the meat. i polished my bargaining skills, by necessity since all the taxi drivers and fruit ladies tried to rip us off.
The first night when we got there we slept right in the sand and watched fireworks that people were setting off right on the other side of the beach in celebration of spring festival. here in china you can buy any size of fireworks legally so people were setting off the ones that we americans only see during the fourth of july. they were beautiful and loud, they kept going off nonstop at different points on the beach and sometimes right behind us until 3-4 in the morning (that part kept happening all week long). the second day we were there, we woke up with bug bites all over us and went swimming first thing. then spent most of the day finding tents to buy and food so that we could go to another bay. my favorite part of that day was eating my first coconut for breakfast. we made our way to a place called yalong bay, which is full of resorts. it was a beautiful place. isolated, and with plenty of wood to make a fire. great too since we knew that its legal to sleep on the beach so they would be no cops to bother us, unlike in america. the third day we sent all day in the sun. fourth day we took a 4 hour bus ride to a place that was north-east, colder and rainy. thats the day that I and our friends Rachelle and Jesse got the much dreaded travelers dierrea and i spent the day in bed.
Next day we made our way to Wuzishan, feeling a little weak, with only Mike and Ruth feeling %100. That was another 4 hour bus ride with numerous of our bus mates puking, one memorable one was a mother with her 10? year old son, taking turns puking into the same bag. Poor Rachelle (our canadian friend) was sitting right next to them. In Wuzishan we couldnt find the minority people that are subposly there, so you might think that this was a bad day, BUT you cant get ruth a nd i down, we just found and nice place to sit and eat a little rice and vegetables, all washed down with a beer. Thats where we had our next big excursion. We found a puppy, which we just had to have, especially when the owners asked Rachelle how she wanted the puppy cooked. That was too much for her, so now, needless to say we had to rescue it and now have a puppy.
The last couple days, Ruth and Mike took turns getting really sick, (everyone is feeling better now) we ate more fruit, watched more fireworks and chinese lanterns float into the sky.
It was hard to come back. our apartment was cold and it rained yesterday but today coming back and seeing everyone was nice. We have a community here that will be difficult to replace once we leave.