Travelling To China

The flight to Shenzhen, which is near Hong Kong, was pretty crappy. Of course, we took a really cheap Internet airline; the kind where they don't serve food or drinks, and the only way to get drinking water is buying a bottle of spring water - $1US for a half litre!

This wouldn't be a big problem, except that thanks to all the bullshit "anti-terror" security, one can't take any liquids onto the aeroplane. So we can't bring our own drinking water, and in Bangkok, there's no where to fill our bottles with potable water after the security check, like there is in most places. Crap.

We survived anyway, and were again sailed through customs and Chinese immigration in a wheelchair, thanks to my trusty sprained ankle.

We landed just after midnight, and Purple set about finding us the best way to get to Hainan Island. We thought we'd take a shuttle bus into town and then find a place to sleep, and then take the train, but Purple found out (amazingly, since no one spoke English) that there was a flight direct to Haikou, the capital of Hainan, leaving in 1/2 hour and if we ran, we could still catch it.

So, we ran.

Well, Purple ran, I limped, and Littletree whined and grumbled, all the way from International arrivals in terminal B to domestic departures in terminal A, with a worker from the airline hurrying us along all the way.

We made it! 2am saw us arriving in Haikou and on a shuttle bus into town. Thankfully a friendly guy on the bus spoke a little English, so we asked him if he knew where we could get a cheap hotel. He took us to the hotel he was staying at - a 'cheap' place; marble floors in the expansive lobby, complete with fountain and fish pond, brass fittings, and a suite with AC, TV, hot shower, western bathroom, breakfast included. Amazingly enough, all this cost 128 Yuan - about $17US. Much more than we are used to paying in Thailand, but a good deal.

After sleeping for a long time, we took a taxi to the Rainbow House in Sanya, which turned out to be a kind of guest house on the beach. They had dorm rooms, kitchen, mountain bikes, kayaks, climbing wall, internet, even a little aeroplane!

We just missed a crew going up to the gathering, and ended up relaxing for three days in the Rainbow House, playing on the beach and exploring.

Here's the Welcome Home Aeroplane:

The sea was really beautiful; clear water full of coral and tropical fish. Heres a massive Jellyfish in the sea - it was about 1.5 Metre circumference!

 Sunset over Sanya bay:

A Storm coming in: In the end, we got a ride up the mountain to the gathering with some other rainbow crew. I'll post about the gathering tomorrow...