Sanya, China - March 4

Located in the southernmost tip of Hainan Province, Sanya features a tropical monsoon climate with a long coastline. This city has certain advantages of nature and culture to develop tourism. Sanya is also known as “the South Gate of China” that surely plays an important role in transportation and economic development.

We skipped breakfast and ate the granola bars that we didn’t need yesterday for lunch. The hotel had no hot water. Warm to cool at best. We checked out of the hotel and walked outside to meet our guide Caddie. Some Asian guy smiled really big at me, but I kept walking. Then, he appears with a phone in his hand and hands it to me. It was Caddie on the phone saying she would be there in a few minutes. He could not speak English nor was he holding a sign with my name on it. I don’t expect the drivers to speak English, but a sign would have been helpful. Or Caddie being there like she said she would.

The guy was to be our driver for the day. Caddie told him to wait for her while she parked her car, but he misunderstood. So, he takes off with us and we are almost at the cruise terminal when Caddie calls to see what happened to him. 

He waits for her and after several phone calls later she somehow catches up with us. He wasn’t able to get into the cruise terminal parking lot, so we got out and walked. She said she would wait for us to collect the other 4 people from the ship outside the gate. We originally had 12 of us here, but Princess said we wouldn’t need a Chinese Visa IF we took one of their tours. So, the other 3 couples canceled as it is a hassle and a lot of extra cost to get a visa if not needed. One couple already had one, one had already sent off the paperwork and we needed one anyway to do the overland on mainland China. So, the 6 of did the tour of Sanya.

 the sign for the hotel

 view from the street of the neighborhood under renovation

 driving to the port

the cruise terminal

We were thrilled to see the Pacific Princess from our hotel so we knew it had arrived. However, they would not let us back on the ship. We had hoped to drop our bags and maybe get a bite to eat, but they said we couldn’t board until around 10:00 or 11:00. No worries, we would just take our bags with us. So, we waited for the ship to be cleared by immigration. There was a Chinese Dragon performance on the pier. Then, we heard the ship’s PA with Captain JP speaking. He was not happy with immigration, as they had had issues with getting in that morning due to a ship in the way and islands that were not on the current map for navigation. Once they got that worked out, immigration was late as well. They were running an hour late. So, instead of getting a 7:00 arrive time it became 8:00.

 topiary boat across from the terminal

 the Chinese Dragons did a show on the pier

 sunrise from the cruise terminal 

 the cruise terminal

From the port building we could see Joe & Perla and Bob & Phyllis waiting to disembark. Our tour wasn’t supposed to start until 8:00 anyway, so the extra 15 minutes was not a big deal. We asked them if the Captain moved the all aboard time any later since they arrived late. The said it hadn’t changed.

So, we find Caddie and wait for the driver to bring the car around. The driver spoke no English, but Caddie speaks English very well. (later, it became clear her organization skills were quite lacking)

Off we go to our first destination which was to catch the culture show at the Li and Miao Minority Village. Li and Miao are two major minorities living on Hainan Island. Many representative cultural themes related to Li and Miao minorities were put together in this village to give people an understanding of their life style. Li and Miao Minority Village is a theme park in a superb tropical mountain setting. Hainan’s ethnic culture and traditions gives the village its unique attractiveness.

 topiary boat

 the bridge linking Phoenix island to Sanya

 views from the van window

On the way, she stopped at a local family’s house where they were selling coconuts that they prepared for us with a straw to drink the milk. They were very sweet and didn’t taste like any we had tried in the past. We enjoyed them.

 Bob in the background

 Greg, Perla, Caddie, Joe, Bob, Phyllis

 their house

Caddie talked a little bit about the history of Sanya and about the people and the growth of the Island, but mostly she didn’t talk.

We arrived at the Minority Village and Caddie stood in line to get our tickets for us. Then, we waited for a tram to take us to the performance. Somehow, we bypassed the line and got right on a tram. I think they needed certain amounts of people to fill the tram and our 6 filled it. On the way Caddie explained that they weren’t professional performers, just the older Minority people and the young people that wanted to preserve and show their culture for the tourists and their young people as well so they don’t forget their roots.

 in the parking lot

 arrival at the Culture Center

 entering the theater

We were ushered to the back row seats, which turned out to be really good since we could stand and take pictures without being in anyone’s way. If we had been in the middle of the pack it would have been harder to see and take pictures. We weren’t expecting much of it after Caddie said they weren’t professional. WOW, were we wrong. The opening act was a huge cast and just an amazing performance of starting fire and everyone lighting their torches and then there were a few fire breathers. (we got amazing photos of it) It went through many of the different Minority groups with beautiful costumes and dances that portrayed their lives. There were Water Buffalo, goats and geese that were part of the show. It was 45 minutes with a big finale of the people doing the dance with the bamboo sticks like skipping rope only stepping between the poles and it’s quite intricate. Our day was off to a good start! We didn’t have time to walk around and see the individual villages as this culture park could have been a full day in its’ self. The next stop could have been a full day as well, and we knew in advance we would just get the highlights of each. (plus, it was a short day here with all aboard at 3:30.) On the way out Caddie bought some sweet pinapple that we all shared. We walked past numerous stalls of fresh fruits and a few were selling souvenirs. A couple of us bought some cute wallets with beautiful Chinese designs on them.

 they demonstrate making fire

 they all get fire

 they breathe fire

 weaving holding the material with their feet

 they demonstrate gathering water and planting food

 the food is gathered

 goats

 geese

 making grain

 the finale was the reed dance

There also were stalls where they were cooking food that smelled and looked wonderful. I wished we had grabbed something to eat there, but she said lunch was Chinese food at the Buddhism Park we were going to next.

 walking back to the van

Here is where our day started to fall apart. We had an hour drive to get to the next stop which was the Nanshan Buddhism Park. Nanshan Temple, one of the most famous attractions in NanShan Culture Tourism Zone. The temple’s name derived from a famous Buddhist expression. Literally:” Good fortune is vast as the East See; Longevity is great as Nanshan”. In the Nanshan scenic area, we saw the magnificent Kwanyin Statue with three faces facing inland and out to the sea. This majestic 108-m statue is considered as the forth tallest statue in the world. 

We arrived there at 12:30 and I said, ”we are going to eat first right?” She answers “right”. The place was HUGE. It was a very long walk just to get from the parking lot to the entrance. Then, it would have been an hour to get us out to the Big Buddha. There were free shuttles, but she thought we should rent a private one for just our group. It cost extra, but we all agreed if it saved time and we could see more that was good. She kept saying we should get the one that is good all day. We only had about 1 to 2 hours tops there and we were to eat lunch in that same time frame. So, she agreed just renting one for an hour made the most sense. We wasted a fair amount of time doing that. Instead of having lunch we went straight to the Big Buddha and it’s so tall you can’t see her from the cart. We had to ask to get out to take photos. We had no time to go inside of it. So, I think we are finally heading to lunch. We drove around a saw a few more of the sites and then she said she’d go in and order and we could tour while they prepared the food. Sounded like a good plan. She comes back out and says it’s too busy and we should come back later and eat the buffet. LATER?

 entering the park

 cute train to take tourists around the huge park

 she has 3 faces

 where we should have had lunch....

So, we tour a bit more. We got out in one place and she insisted we go inside this one. We had no time to do it, but she insisted. Everyone else went back to the cart and refused to go in. Phyllis had already put her booties on over her shoes so we could walk inside. So, I put mine on and tried to quickly walk through. 

Then, the guide says now we can go to lunch. We all said we have to leave in half an hour, we don’t have time. So, she suggested we could stop at her favorite place near the port and she would call and have the food ready for us when we got there. We agreed this was a good idea. She then takes us to another spot where we could see the Big Buddha from a distance as she sits out over the water. It was a beautiful view. She kept trying to add things on and we said we HAVE to get back to the ship on time.

Then as we are walking out of the park, she says to walk ahead slowly as she needed to go back and get a receipt for the electric cart. I did some fast “power shopping” for my token magnet and Christmas ornament. (Julie, I see you smiling at that one) Finally, Caddie shows back up and we try to find the van. She takes us to the wrong part of the parking lot and we have to walk all the way back to another section to find the van.

She still wanted to stop and have lunch. It was past 2:00 at that time and we said we don’t have time, plus it’s too late to eat since we have dinner at 5:15. I told her for future reference, it would have made sense for us to pick up food at the previous place as there was a lot of variety there and since we had a one hour drive we could have eaten in the car to save time. She should have had the cart already rented to make the most of our day. Greg and I are starving as we had a small granola bar for breakfast. I had had no water all day. There was water in the van, that she never offered us. On the drive back to the port, I asked if we could have some. She had bought some bananas and I chowed down a couple of those. 

She said we could pick up food here and eat it in the car on the way to the port and we all said, it was too late to eat and we didn’t have time to spare. We had less than an hour to get back on time and she said it was a 40 minute drive. However, 40 minutes later we weren’t that close yet. Then, we hit a point where she said 10 more minutes. I looked at my watch and I though 3:05, good we will be back on time. 20 minutes went by and we had only 5 minutes if we made it in the time she said. Finally, we made it to the pier and we were 5 minutes late. (still had to get through security though) All private tour guides that work with shore excursions off a cruise ship are usually very good at managing your time, showing you the most with the least amount of waiting around and always getting you back to your ship on time. That’s why we do them. Caddie  must be quite inexperienced and I think she is the owner and trying to get a business off the ground. She has some work to do.

We are normally big tippers, but Greg purposely only tipped the driver. (he did his best to get us back in time and was very pleasant) Caddie, had no time management skills what so ever. It made for a stressful day. We enjoyed the sites we saw, but we could have maximized our time better. We didn’t need the coconut water stop and lunch could have been eaten in the car and in general it could have been better organized. Compared to the professionalism of China Highlights, Sunny Sanya http://www.sunnysanya.com  was a dog and pony show. With China Highlights we always had an English speaking guide with us. The drivers didn’t speak English, but they didn’t need to, since the guide was always there for us. The hotel she chose was awful and she said all her clients prefer that one. The list of complaints were long for this day. I told everyone, I hope this is the worst tour of the trip because I don’t want a repeat of that kind of service. I thank our tour mates for being great sports and going with the flow of the day. (or lack of flow as the case may be)

So, the other four got right on the ship through immigration since they had their immigration cards with them. Since we were off the ship we did not have them. So, immigration took a long time with us and it took several officers to get us OK’d. The group didn’t want to leave us, but we said to hurry and get on the ship, we’d be OK. After we finally get past immigration and our bags are x-rayed we are running to the ship and we see the dance instructors sitting out there using the free WIFI on the pier. We wonder why they aren’t on the ship. 

Well, as soon as we got on Bob & Phyllis were standing there waiting for us and said the Captain did change the all aboard to 1 hour later, but it wasn’t announced until after they were off the ship. Nice job Princess….NOT! 

Anyway, at least we weren’t late. Our friend Janie emailed me that we had an extra hour, but I didn’t carry my phone. Greg brought his instead. Ah well, it was nice of her to think of us.

 some last photos from the ship

 these buildings light up very pretty at night

We went upstairs to get some ice cream to tide us over until dinner. We quickly dressed and went to dinner. Everyone exchanged stories of their time in Hong Kong and our time in mainland China as well as Sanya. 

The show tonight was Wolfgang Riebe with Magic and Comedy. We skipped the game show to unpack and start going through photos.

I had not had an opportunity to check emails until we got back on the ship that night. I saw the email from Janie and another one from a dear friend of my Dad’s telling me that Dad has had a heart attack and was in Mercy Hospital in Des Moines. I quickly answered him and forwarded the email to my son Scott and told him to get ahold of Dad ASAP. Since we are a day ahead of them in the States, finding time to talk on the phone is difficult.

Now, for 2 sea days before Singapore to get organized.