SO Hainan!!!!! Oh my it was SOOOO much fun! A much needed vaca J
So it started off with Shelby and Marissa coming to my house Friday night. The next day I went to school (we worked the Saturday before holiday), and as soon as I got home we hopped in a taxi and headed for the subway! The subway was taking too long, so we got off early and grabbed another taxi for the rest of the ride to the airport. We were able to get on our plane with no problems. Though let me tell you, it was the most uncomfortable plane I’ve ever been on….hahaha. The seats were all very skinny, very close together, had almost no leg room, and the seats were straight up and down and did not recline. Needless to say, it was uncomfortable. Haha. Oh but it was funny, at the beginning there was a Chinese person talking, and then an automated English translation, our favorite line was “if you are in the aisle during turbulence and are unable to get back to your seat, please hold the handle under the cubbies to fix yourself”. You just had to hear the voice, it was so funny. The end of the ride was great! The flight attendants do what they call “refreshers” after each flight. We caught a video; it was kind of priceless Hahaha.
When we arrived we stayed in a super cute hostel called
“Twinkle Star”. It was heaven! There were real mattresses on real beds with
real comforters and real PILLOWS! (not that I don’t LOVE my rice pillow…..). We got settled, went and got some yummy street
food, and then went to sleep!
The next day slept in :) Not gonna lie, it was the first
time I’d slept in in over a month, and
it was bliss! Haha. We had bought 2 loaves of bread and 3 pomegranates the day
before for our Sunday meals. We fasted breakfast and listened to some talks on
lds.org. Later we broke our fasts and ate a yummy coconut I had bought the
night before! We then planned out our week. We needed to go 4 hours south to
Sanya.
We decided to walk to a beach later. It wasn’t a pretty beach, and it
littered to the max with garbage, but we were happy to be out and about.
We
started to build the great wall of china in the sand and a group of Chinese college
students came over and asked to take pictures with us. So we did a couple
rounds of that, and then they started helping us with the sand wall!
It was so
much fun. There were also these darling kids nearby that we got to play with JThat night we had the
last of our bread and poms, and watched a Disney movie together before falling
asleep.
We awoke early the next day to head to the bus station. We
were able to finally communicate through broken Chinese (Go Marissa!) where we
needed to go, and this lady helped us get on a bus.
A four hour bus where we sat on that plastic/rubber,
grasslike/turflike rugs put over….well I’m not really sure what they were put
over. Let’s just say that the plane ride to Hainan was looking pretty fun. But
despite our soar butts, we made it to Sanya!!! The first night we stayed at the
Sombrero Inn Hostel. It was funny, because we were staying in dorm room, we had one other roommate we didn’t
know. When we came in we introduced ourselves. Her name was Erin and she was
there with some friends from the Air Force Academy. We talked for a bit about where
we’re from, and then she left. About 10 minutes later the door opens, and in
walks this man and he looks up at me (I was on a top bunk) and says “I’m from
Idaho!” I, somewhat shocked at how bold he was to burst into our room and
announce where he was from, choked back a laugh, and with the same enthusiasm
said, “well great! Me too!”
“And I’m Mormon!” Hahaha everything made sense now. “Well
come in!” we said. He came in and there
were about 5 people behind him. Apparently he was one of the friends of Erin! We
all talked introduced ourselves. His name is Shelby too!(....so we call him man
Shelby J).
Though one of the guys behind him came to introduce himself and he shook my
hand when he said his name…and then he didn’t let go for a little too long to be
comfortable…..hahaha anyways. Shelby reminisced about the church with us, and
then they headed out with a promise to meet up later (at least when the others
started drinking).
So we went to the beach!!!! So great! And it was so cool. So
I looked over and saw this man that looked like a cross between Santa and
Gandolf…and he was even in a speedo, so it really can’t get any better. Well I
pointed him out and of course Shelby needed a picture with him. What we thought
would be a funny picture with a random stranger, of course turned into a
missionary opportunity ;)
The man looked at Shelby while I was taking the picture and
said, “You’re LDS, aren’t you”. He said he could tell, so naturally we started
asking him what he knew. He was from Belgium and had been taught by the
missionaries himself for a little while. He had to leave, but we told him that
we loved our church, and he said he could tell. He said that we had more
figured out than the missionaries that taught him, and it was noticeable. He
was such a sweet man.
Then we headed back to the Hostel to enjoy some Mexican
food!!!! It was such a welcome changeup ;) Chinese food is amazing by the way.
Oh my heavens, I have fallen IN LOVE with vegetables! I never knew there could
be this many!!!! But we were craving Mexican J
Then we headed to the streets to do a little shopping and we stumbled upon my
favorite thing in China so far!!!! I have NO idea what it’s called, but it’s
amazing. So you take a fruit, any fruit –we started with mango, (later in the
week I chose banana and pineapple, and it’s to die for) and they juice it right
there. Then they mix a bit of coconut milk or sweetened condensed milk
(depending on the recipe) and pour it into a big metal dish. The dish is
frozen, and somehow freezes the fruit liquid very quickly (If you’ve ever been
to Sub Zero in Utah, it’s like that, but complete fresh fruit J ). You use a scraper
to scrape it along, (it actually reminded me of scrambled eggs….hahaha), and
then the pile it into a cup and it’s yours to devour! Oh my, it’s heaven.
Later we got cleaned up headed for bed. Stay tuned for more
stories!
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