SANYA
let me tell you a little tale of when i went to a wonderful place called sanya...
FRIDAY
it all began on a wet, rainy day here in nanlang. we headed off to the bus stop right after teaching to catch our bus that left the shiqi bus station at 1:30. we hauled our luggage onto the city bus for our 1 hr bus ride to the actual bus station. we nabbed some mcdonalds(of course) and waited a little bit with freda until our bus came.around 1:30 we waved goodbye to freda, hopped on our bus, and settled into our "home" for the next 18 hours! we thought we were well prepared for the bus ride...but little did we know what lay ahead of us.they give you assigned beds on your tickets, but we decided to be rebels and we chose 4 beds in the back. 3 on the bottom and on the top. we liked the back because it's a little more secluded and you can sprawl your legs out without the fear of someone stepping on your feet in the aisle.we brought cards, and that kept us occupied for a while. we played egyptian ratscrew(which i've never lost at), 007, b.s., and speed! i think card games are so great.. we had fun with that.
the bed in front of me was occupied by a mother and her child. oh goodness, i fell in love with this kid. he has got to be the cutest chinese kid i have ever seen in all the time i have spent in china. he became my best friend.. i shared food with him and we played a lot. i miss hiim so much and i didnt even know him...ah he was the best.
eventually we all fell asleep around 8-9ish hoping to stay asleep long enough to make the time go by faster. around 10:00 we stop for the drivers to get grub and they make everyone get off the bus.. we weren't too happy about that... we had finally fallen asleep then we had to get right back up and sit at a smelly restaurant! we stopped like 3 times in only a couple of hours. we just wanted to get on with the journey already!
after this last meal we finally get on the bus thinking that we were finally on our way to sanya. around midnight, they stop again, and make us all get off the bus. we notice this time that people are taking their bags and stuff with them.. so we follow what everyone else is doing of course! next thing you know we are being herded through a security checkpoint and then we are on a boat! it didn't cross my mind that we had to take a boat over to the island... not sure why. but this came as a surprise to me!
the boat ride was pretty awful and long... we slept on hard benches not really knowing how long it would take or where to go when it was over... kinda stressful!
{don't we all look so happy?}
{getting off of the boat}
it took 4.5 hours from the time we got off our bus to the time we got back onto our bus from the boat. mandy and i had taken sleeping pills right before(we didnt know about the whole bus to boat switch) and we were so groggy and drowsy... mandy moreso than me. it was pretty hilarious... i got a funny video of her falling asleep and bobbing her head every which way.
SATURDAY
we were so relieved to see our sleeper bus... never would have thought i would be so excited to get back to a old, dirty sleeper bead with a crusty blanket. but i was!!
i woke up around sunrise and was able to watch the sun rise over the horizon from my bed. it was beautiful... i could tell we were almost to sanya.
we finally arrived at the sanya bus station and almost immediately after i got off the bus the manager of our hostel, joe, greeted us! we had arranged previously for him to come get us from the bus station. joe has got to be one of the coolest chinese people i have met! he is way chill. i mean, he runs a hostel on an island, you gotta be a cool person to do that right? we called him a million times during vacation to translate, or get directions and one time i called him and i said "im so sorry i call you all the time joe!" and he just said, "it's okay, it's nice to hear your voice!" hahah. love that man!
{this is joe. i look so good here p.s.}
so he starts to take us to the "hostel" and we pull up to this apartment complex.. i was a little confused, but we went with it! he takes us up the elevator to an apartment, opens it up, and shows us the apt we will be staying at for the week! i guess i had signed us up for a deluxe apt?? it was just as much as the rooms in the hostel, but much bigger and it was nice. there was a living room, tv, kitchen, two rooms and a bathroom(with a western toilet!!) it was really nice... the only down side was that it wasn't in the heart of downtown. we had to take a 15 min bus ride to get to all the cool stuff. but we didnt mind!! it was kind of nice being apart from the business of the city.
we settled into our apartment and then we got right to it! we were ready to hit up the beach and play :) we went to one of the nicer beaches called Da Dong Hai. It was about a 15 min bus ride away. We got there and played! The weather was so perfect. We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day. The water wasn't as clean as usual because there was a typhoon the day before, but we didn't mind that!
After the beach we grabbed some grub, showered up, then went to bed!!! We were so pooped.
{going crazy on the bus ride home from the beach}
SUNDAY
I started the day reading some conference talks that I had brought, trying to make it feel like a sunday. I was sad to be missing conference, but at least i can read them online! very grateful for that.We went to a different beach called Ya Long Bay. It is one of the nicer beaches that you can go to. we LOVED this beach!!! it was so clean and the sand was perfect.... we were a little obsessed with it. we honestly just chilled. it was perfect. no stress, no pressure, no worries. we played in the water, sand, napped, got some ice cream, juuuust chilled. this whole time my goal was to get pretty sun burned...but i hadn't yet! it was the weirdest thing, because i didnt wear any sun screen! (sorry mom!) the other girls were getting burned though.... it was strange that i wasnt.
anyways, on our way back we got to downtown and we were about to get back on the bus to go to our apt when i saw this little alley way with some food... i suggested we go check it out! little did we know it would be one of the best discoveries of our whole trip!! it was some of the best street food that i have had! yum yum yuuum! we went there every day after we'd found it. and the best part was how cheap it was! we definitely have a weakness of going to mcdonalds when it is close, but we made up for it by how much we went to this little street food market! it was delicious. such a good find.
{delicious smoothies we bought every day...}
{wandering around downtown}
here are the burns and tans:
{bridget's poor legs...}
MONDAY
i woke up around 5 for some reason and could not go back to sleep.. there was a lot on my mind that was keeping my mind racing. i decided to go up on the roof and check out the view. it wasn't that cool unfortunately... but it was still a freeing feeling being up there. i spent some time writing lyrics and such then went back to my bed a little later to try and sleep.
everyone woke up a little early and we went and got mcdonalds for breakfast!!! it was sooo gooood. words can't explain...
we had been expecting it to be rainy for most of our time there, because that is what the weather said. we were grateful we had 2 days of complete sunshine before it got rainy! it was only a little overcast with some sprinkles here and there.we were already used to going to the beach... so we went again! This time we went to the beach that is only about 100 feet from our hostel. it isn't the greatest beach, but it was clean! Not too much sand, the tide was really high.
mandy and i still went swimming.. of course. we decided to be little dare devils and try to ride in on the waves! it was one of the funnest things of my life... i don't know what came over us, but we turned into these adrenaline seeking wave riders!!!!! haahaha. it was really funny... good thing no one was around us to hear how weird we sounded.
after the beach we grabbed some grub at a local restaurant, and it was indeed delicious. i am never really disappointed with chinese food... unless it is a chicken head or some mystery meat.
here are some random pictures from that day:
{giant snail we saw! the guard was telling us to eat it... gross.}
{oh man. i love them.}
{we were very satisfied with our beach wave hair that day.}
{black hole face.}
TUESDAY
this is when it really got rainy...we didn't really know what to do! felt a little hopeless.. we went to the "hostel hostel" that joe owns downtown to try and brainstorm with him what we should do. as we were sitting with him in the lobby i met a wonderful girl named diane! she is from paris. she is studying chinese at a university in guangzhou and was in sanya for vacation as well. she knew more about the area that we did, so i suggested that we all hang out together! she agreed and we decided we would try to go see this famous temple statue thing... to make a long story short, before we met diane there she got there first and said you have to pay a lot to get in to see the statue and we didnt think it was worth it, so half way there, we got off the bus and took the next one back!on the way back our bus broke down, YAY, we started walking the rest of the way back, then found these bike taxis to take us the rest of the way for 2 yuan. the driver who took mandy and i was the funniest person alive... i was DYING of laughter. and its been a while since i have had a good, hearty laugh! i have a video that i will hopefully be able to post later.
{this is a pic of him... what a gem}
we were a little bummed that our day wasn't going as we'd planned.. so we did the one thing that we know will always cheer us up... getting our hair washed!!!! we chose a random ghetto salon, and the guys that owned it were so sweet! we picked a good one. april fell in love with the guy who massaged her. i think we all did a little bit.. he kind of looked like a girl. and sounded like one too...what..
{we thought he looked like chris brown...hehe}
later that night we were finally able to meet up with diane(french girl) and her friend that came with her from her school, anthony. we met at the sanya night market then we went with them to a bar to hang out with some other people they knew. it was so much fun!! mandy and april got a bunch of mexican food, i played some foosball with a french guy and an english guy, and we just talked with people from around the world. the bar was hoppin with white people. i guess it was just the place to be! we hung out there all night then went home and passssed out.
{we lost the foosball game...sad day.}
{diane, april and anthony}
{he was one crazy french-canadian!}
{diane! she is from paris. sweetest girl ever.}
{fun timezzzz}
WEDNESDAY
we were praying for great weather for our last full day in sanya.... and we got it!!!!! wednesday was so beautiful. it was hot, sunny, and perfect. we went to da dong hai beach for the day. we had a lot of fun. i got burnt. success.
april and i were laying on our towels up on shore when all of a sudden i hear a man yelling far off in the distance. i dont think too much of it because there were a bajillion people at the beach. i keep hearing it periodically and it really starts to worry me. i look out towards to ocean and see a man in the water, pretty far out, and he was yelling. i said a little prayer and i knew this man was in danger. i ran towards the life guard post and started frantically pointing out to the water at the man. they understood and a minute later there were 4 life guards swimming out to the man. when they brought him to shore he looked unconscious. a little bit later he was coughing and throwing up. i was relieved he wasn't dead.... it really shook me. he was so weak.. you could see it. an ambulance came and took him away and that was that. it was a really eye opening experience. thinking of the different possibilities.. or if that had been me. it was scary. i was super happy that he was okay though!
we spent the day at the beach chilaxin as always..but this time i could feel myself getting burnt. i was so excited... it was just what i wanted! i wanted to buuuurn. i just wanted to be tan once in my life? haha. i don't know. sue me. after a couple hours i knew i had to get out of the sun because it was starting to be painful...on the bus ride home i knew i was in for some pain in the days that lay ahead... take a look at my tan/burn line! hehehe...diane recommended this italian restaurant for us to eat at. after we showered and got presentable, we headed to the restaurant. it was really nice.. i'd forgotten how to act in a restaurant! it was full of white people, and it smelled delicious. we ordered two pizzas and pasta. IT WAS THE BEST THING I HAVE EATEN IN SO LONG. it tasted like real food...real dough...real cheese...real everything. we were in heaven. sure it was more expensive that we were used to.. but it was worth it! street food is around 4-8 yuan and we spent 60 yuan each on this dinner...whoooops!
this whole night was pure pain for mandy and i. we were FRIED. every little movement was death to us... the pain is worth the tan though right? right. we barely slept that night... so sad.
{my makeup is too white for my face now...}
THURSDAYthursday it was time for us to leave. although we fell in love in sanya, we were ready to get back to the daily grind back home. our bus was supposed to leave at 1:30 but was delayed and didn't leave until 3:30. we chilled at mcdonalds, played some cards, ate some food. i think the chinese workers thought we were crazy.
it was finally time to get on our sleeper bus...and i think we were a little too excited to be on it than we should have. but for some reason the sleeper buses are our little homes for the short amount of time that we are there. we get to set up camp and relax somewhat in that little space..
this time we knew what to expect with the boat ride and all.. so it wasn't as miserable as the way there.
{april, you look insane.}
{everyone getting off the boat.}
we hopped on our sleeper bus after getting off the boat ready for the final journey that lay ahead... and to make an already long story short, we made it home safe and sound :)
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