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Live the adventures of Dan Walker's travels through reading his travel journal. The travel journals are listed below in descending order of date. To search the travel journals, use the keyword search at the bottom of the page.

Journal Entry:

Friday, May 31, 2013 14:42:02

Philippines 2013: 11 - Manila, Philippines to Sanya, China

Friday, May 24, 2013

On Wednesday we had a comfortable flight to Guangzhou, but had to walk about a kilometer to the domestic terminal to reach our flight to Sanya. Entry into China was quick and easy, with no lineup, a friendly, smiling lady immigration officer and a "nothing to declare lane" to bypass customs.

We arrived in Sanya on time at 11:30 PM and were picked up by a prearranged hotel car for the half hour drive on excellent roads to Pullman Hotel in Yalong Bay. Check in was mercifully quick - we were tired.

Thursday morning we awoke to thunder, pouring rain and black skies, which fit in well with my mood, as it appears that there is no way to get to the Paracel Islands in spite of a written assurance that all was confirmed by Chinese travel agent Daniel Mo of Top China Travel.

The dreary day was used to sleep late, catch up on email and do other chores. Internet here is good, but restricted. Marilynn cannot connect to Facebook, and U-tube videos won't play. We found the hotel food and drink to be grossly overpriced and not great, but a French girl working with the hotel told us about a plaza with restaurants and shops about 20 minutes away. There we drank good Hainan beer and tried the specialty at various eateries. Marilynn even found some shirts at decent prices.

The hotel pool is the most amazing I've ever seen. It runs alongside a slow moving muddy river that separates rooms from the lobby, bar and restaurants for over 100 meters (yards). The first floor units have individual waterways leading to the rooms. The upper level of the pool meanders through high Egyptian looking temples with huge statues pouring water from around the pool. There are various Jacuzzi areas along the length of the pool, and the upper level flows down a long tiled slope to slide to the lower level.

Today dawned bright and sunny, so we took the shuttle that runs every few minutes to the hotel's private beach, only a couple of minutes away. It has golden sand descending steeply into the ocean. A red no swimming flag was flying due to large waves, but it looked good for body surfing so we went in anyhow. The water is a lot cooler than the Philippines, but still comfortable. Lunch was at the hotel beach bar, then a swim in the hotel pool and a short walk down the road to a Chinese restaurant for dinner.

Saturday, May 25, 2013

We packed up, took a couple of photos and caught a taxi to the China Southern office in Sanya. Employees spoke little English, but by calling up our flight on the computer we were able to indicate we wanted to fly to Tokyo from Guangzhou rather than back to Manila. They were clear that changing the route would require purchasing new tickets with no credit for existing ones, so I'll try All Nippon Airways to see if they will fly us from Guangzhou instead of Manila .

Next stop was La Costa Beach Resort, where we had to wait for a lot of people to check out before we could check in as we were early. They have a superb Chinese restaurant where we had lunch before crossing the street to the beach for a swim, in spite of more red flags flying. The ocean here is so warm it is not even refreshing - an amazing change in temperature over a short distance. We then tried the hotel circular swimming pool where beer could be purchased in the island in the centre. Dinner was at the same restaurant, then a walk around outside the hotel and along the beach.

Sunday, May 26, 2013

The morning saw a trip to a department store by taxi, but international credit cards are not accepted other than in hotels, and banks aren't open Sunday to change money so Marilynn was thwarted.

I twice tried Travelocity to change our ANA plane ticket to start the Manila>Tokyo portion in Guangzhou, but the call centre in Manila has to contact the US office of the airline, which is closed when it is day here. When I called late at night a call centre in India was told by ANA that the originating airport cannot be changed without cancelling the whole ticket and buying another - no refund. This would cost over two thousand dollars, so we are stranded!

There are few people on the beach during the day due to the heat - even cement in the shade is too hot to walk on with bare feet, but shortly before sunset the beach comes alive. Restaurants on the sand serve live seafood taken from stacks of glass tanks, women with baskets sell fruit, ATV quads drive around, jet skis brave the waves, helicopters take people for rides and hundreds of people swim, eat and drink. We selected crab, shrimp and clams with a bottle of Chinese wine for dinner - good but pricey.

This is the first time I've seen any number of drunk Chinese and in spite of more restrictions on smoking it still seems almost everyone smokes. We have yet to see another Caucasian in the area, or anyone who speaks English, since leaving Yalong Bay. There is a Russian enclave between Yalong Bay and the city, but we didn't go there. There is almost no security here - a noticeable change from the Philippines.