The Hawaii of China - NOT

Greetings to you all and welcome to the new version of the blog.  We have finally learned how to blog in China - not an easy process and one that requires some getting around what they call the Great Firewall of China - lots of blocked information and sites. 

We are settled into our  new surroundings and well into the school year routine.  So it was with great anticipation that we set out on our first full week of vacation - It was the National holiday and all of China is on the move.   We got airline tickets (no easy feat) and booked a timeshare trade at Hainan Island.  The Hawaii of China.  We read our guidebooks, we planned beach time, we dusted off our diving licenses and bought super strength sunscreen as we have lost all color here in the gray of Chengdu.  

We arrived at the airport and there was a balmy wind (gale) blowing as we stepped off the plane and onto the bus for the 20 minute ride to the terminal - they do seem to park at the next town and drive you into the airport here.  We collected our luggage and met the man with our names on the sign (first class travel for us this holiday!)  Then we waited, and waited and finally tried to get a taxi to no avail.  An hour later the family with 4 screaming kids from the plane came tooling up with a mountain of luggage.  We took off for the hotel van and proceeded to re-enact scenes from the 3 stooges while trying to get all the luggage and people into a vehicle designed for 5. 

Never mind, we made the resort - wind blowing, palms swaying - we are on vacation!

After a lunch and beer which we had to hold firmly so as not to lose it to the wind, we headed to town.  BIG mistake - that would prove to be the only day it didn't rain for 7 DAYS.....


The resort was like many things here - great in theory, a nice if crumbling facade and no depth.  There were 3 buildings, one occupied.  As the storm got worse, pieces of the other buildings would fly by our window.  There was a good gym, we spent many an hour there, a decent BBQ buffet (we ate more hotel meals than we ever have in our lives) and we learned a new card game. 

This was the "rest of the resort" - all the bars were closed or "broken".  There were no books to read (we came dangerously low on reading material) and as you can see the facilities were not quite up to the 5 star rating:

To be fair it was one of the worst storms to hit the island, by the end there were 1000s evacuated and we really didn't think we would make the airport. 

We tried to leave early but couldn't get on a flight out - everyone else beat us to it - the last two nights were like being in the hotel in the "Shining" - it was us and a staff of 50 Chinese... kind of creepy. 
But it wasn't like we were heading out to the beach

We were ever so happy to get back to Chengdu - that didn't last long - but the moral of the story is do more research on those time share trades and don't believe the advertising. 
  Until next time!   Marilu and Simon