Day 23 -- Sanya, China

Got up early today in time to have breakfast before meeting our guide, Caddie (pronounced Katy), at 9:30am. We rode for about an hour and then took a cable car over a mountain/ hill to go to Nanwan Monkey Islet in Xincun. More than 2,000 wild Macaque monkeys live here. When we got off of the cable car, Caddie told us not to put our hands in our pockets or get anything out of our bags. She also said, “If a monkey jumps on your back or shoulders, don’t be frightened. They will move on if they don’t find anything.” I wasn’t really frightened of the monkeys, per se, but very uncomfortable. When we were walking around, she told me that ‘monkeys are very clever.’ I told her that is what bothers me.I know that they are smart, they are fighters, and they are not known for being nice. While there, we saw two gangs of monkeys clash. The dominant male from one group had apparently stolen a baby from another group. The two groups ran along either side of us, screaming, clawing at each other, and showing their BIG teeth. The dominant male also has two bodyguards that serve to protect him and are always close by. We also saw a comedy show with a few of the trained Macaques and a monkey prison where they lock up monkeys that attack or threaten people. There were two adult monkeys in there and one baby that had to go in because its mom was in there. We left Monkey Islet via a bus, then a ferry across the water. On the way back to Sanya, we passed through a tunnel. Everyone turns on their flashers (though not necessarily their headlights) the entire way through the tunnel. They also leave their turn signals on the entire time they are driving in the left lane. It doesn’t matter if they are just passing one car or ten, they still leave it on until they move back into the right lane. We had local Hainan food for lunch at a small restaurant. Being an island, of course it is usually seafood, so we had to specifically ask for a few non-seafood dishes. Lunch consisted of fish soup, a beef dish, a pork dish, sweet potato leaves, and pumpkin with sweet potatoes. So, basically I had sweet potatoes for lunch. I did try everything else, but pork and beef are to hard on my stomach and as for the fish soup, well, I have issues with eyes staring at me while I eat. It was pretty fishy tasting too, not like the good fresh fish we get back home. After lunch Caddie dropped us off downtown to walk around for an hour. We didn’t buy anything and thought the hour was a little much for what the town had to offer for visitors, but she was insistent that we needed time before our next stop. She went back to her office to do some work and had her husband picked us up at 3:30pm. We drove for about a half hour before arriving at the Nantian Hot Spring Resort. We got to spend 2 hours in open air pools. The pools vary in temperature, but most were 32° to 38° Celsius (90° to 100° Fahrenheit) or 39° to 43° C (102° to 109° F). There were some Chinese and a lot of Russians at the resort, so needless to say, there were a ton of Speedos. Also, apparently Russian women wear bikinis regardless of their age or size (yikes!). There was a ‘Coconut Milk Pool’ and a ‘Coffee Pool,’ both named for their color given by the minerals that are in them. We did go in the Coconut Milk one, but decided the Coffee one was just a little too funky for us. The hot springs were very relaxing. My bad knee felt great and my skin did too from all the minerals. I think I could do this every day... We got back to the hotel about 7:00pm and walked to the Holiday Inn down the road to see if they had something different for dinner. We ended up with Mexican, Italian, and American food, all very good. Also had a Filipino band performing during dinner. We walked back to the hotel about 9:00pm. I thought we were going to make it the whole way without a taxi honking at us. I was saying this to Daniel as we turned and made the step into the hotel driveway when one pulled up and honked. I should have known we couldn’t have a quiet walk back. Back to the room and crashed b 10:30pm.