Day 21 -- Sanya, China

Daniel and I slept in until 10:00am and Mom and Dad until 11:30am. We are really enjoying this vacation stuff. We finally decided to crawl out of bed and head downstairs to eat lunch. Afterwards, we took a walk down to the beach. The beach is nice, but a bit crowded here in Yalong Bay. There were WAY too many Chinese guys in Speedos. Just not something I like to see. We decided to take a “underwater sightseeing” trip on a boat. We paid one place, took our tickets to another, continued further and got big, chunky, uncomfortable life jackets, then waited on the dock for about 10 or 15 minutes before we boarded a ferry boat. The ferry took us across to another boat near a small island. We boarded the other boat and this was where we got to see fish, anemones, and various other sea life. It wasn’t exactly a glass-bottom boat though. It said ‘semi-submersible’ on the wall as we boarded. We went downstairs to a narrow area where seats lined the sides and there were many thick windows to peer out. It was reasonably interesting, but not uber-impressive. Most of the fish were small and the few larger ones we saw were not at all interested in the boat and food like the small ones were. Back to the beach where we got some ice cream and walked on the sand for a while. It was pretty warm and I knew that much more time out there without sunscreen would turn Daniel into a lobster, so we walked back to the hotel. Got back and napped for a while. I forget how draining the heat can be sometimes. After the nap, we looked online and figured out what tours, etc. we wanted to do while we are here. We were thinking about doing some of the tour stuff tomorrow, but the guide we contacted said that we should wait another day as it is the 15th day of the New Year. She didn’t explain much beyond that except that it is an important day. We finally headed down for dinner in the hotel again about 9:00pm. Finished up by 9:30pm and decided to take a walk. We went over to the Cactus Resort Hotel, which is located behind our hotel and checked out the pool and the ‘dancing’ fountain (coordinated with music and lights). My friend Steve told me that the pool here is the largest in China. I would believe it. I tried to get a decent picture, but there was no good vantage point without going into the hotel and finding a way up to the top floor balcony. We did check out the hotel a bit and all agreed that it would be a good place to stay when we come back again. We walked the loop back to our hotel. We figured it would be get to get out for a nice quiet walk after eating a big meal. The walk itself was good, but it wasn’t quiet by any means. The taxi drivers here are different from anywhere else I’ve been in China. Some places you just wave for a taxi and it will stop; some places you wave and they keep driving by you; some places you have to practically fight people for the taxi. Here, however, there are a plethora of taxis on the road and they very much want your business. They think that no one wants to walk (even just crossing the road to get to the beach or back to the hotel). If the taxi driver sees you walking, expect a honk of the horn and they will typically slow down until you acknowledge them and explicitly say for them to move on. It doesn’t matter that you just told the cab in front of them that you didn’t want a ride, they’ll still honk and slow down. It’s quite obnoxious and still manages to startle me when they honk right on my heels. Daniel has decided to get an air horn the next time he is here so he can honk back. Seriously, do they think that we are incapable of waving down one of the 30 taxis we see while on a short walk if we do want a ride? After the semi-relaxing yet noisy walk back to the hotel, we watched some DVDs again until falling asleep.