On holiday

I wrote yesterday for quite a long time and for some reason it was erased and not saved... Blah...

Today was quite a similar day as yesterday. Yesterday we went straight to the Holiday Beach, we were sunbathing, swimming, eating. Today I wanted to visit some other place, 5 star holiday resort. I got advice how to get there - take a shuttle bus on one certain parking lot behinf Pizza Hut. Fine, there I was waiting and no bus ever came. Nobody knew anything nor could speak English. I didn't have the place name in characters cause the receptionist couldn't write it in Chinese.

Instead I visited People's Park which was the kind of park they always describe on guide books. Not too many people and the people who were there had their own 'tasks' . There was dancing, open air Beijing opera, taij, martial arts, guitarr playing, story tellers and last but not least violin players and singers. The last was my favorite and I really took my time to listen to them. I sat in a Chinese hut where these old men were making friends with me, in Chinese. They were quite cute and funny, laughing very much.

Later I headed to the Holiday Beach where I met Tiina and Suvi. There were some waves today and we were 'riding' them. We enjoyed very much. And Chinese watching curiously, cause not even one Chinese girl was doing something like that on the beach (going 'wild') - for them it must have been a weird sight.

On the beach I have had one of my tastiest meal so far. Yesterday I had fried rice and a whole fried fish. Today I ate twice, fried rice, fried squid and fried spring onion + fried squid again and fried fish. Every time the meal cost me less than 2 euro. The best is that I have not even had any problems with the stomach even though I am not always so careful or precise with the hygiene.

Yesterday happened something funny when coming back to hostel. I stopped buying some fruit from a lady. Wanted to buy a slice of melon. I was guessing it would cost me 1 yuan = 10 cents. She showed me 5 with her fingers. I couldn't believe her, I thought it was some kind of laowai (=foreigner) price. I asked the price for pineapple, the same. Okay, I thought, let's check what the girl next to me pays. The girl gave 20 y - she got back 10y, 5y and ones... What? And suddenly she gives me one pineapple. I was stunned, embarassed, I thanked her quickly and walked away. Only later I realized the price was 5 jiao, half a yuan. Stupid me.... So today we could already buy our own fruit knowing how much to pay. For 2 yuan we bought one melon cut into peaces and also a pineapple cut into halves. Buying fresh fruit that really tastes heavenly good is one thing I like here in the southern China :-) Before we came to Haikou I thought I/we would visit some sights or see some other parts of this island. Now I know better: it is quite nice just not to do anything after being travelling so intens for the last weeks. Only sun, beach and sea here. We still have Macao and Hong Kong left. Five weeks already in China, one week to go - we have still plenty to do and see! Erika