seven hundred and ninety seven...

 Yep, that’s the number of photos I took over my holiday. Which was, please don’t forget, a mere nine days. WOW. I am incredible.

Let’s talk about Hainan today. I was told this little island located south of China was like the hidden hawaii of Asia. Of course I was skeptical. C’mon, it’s China we’re talking about. 

I stepped off the plane expecting to be scammed, ripped off and taken advantage of for being a foolish foreigner. If they did, I didn’t know. It was a pleasant surprise for sure.

DAY ONE…

It was hot. Humid. Terribly hot and the airport had multi-coloured flags waving at the scorching sun. Everyone walked around with matching hawaii shirts AND shorts. Not just men, but girls, women, ladies, boys, EVERYONE. There was no air-conditioning in the airport. I felt like I was in Thailand. The people were very dark-skinned and spoke in a different dialect. Was I even in China? 

We see a sign “Airport Bus” and ask the guy behind the desk. He’s busy playing games on his cellphone and he pauses for a minute to inform me that the buses don’t go that direction. Crap, I’d thought…we’re probably living in a horrible hotel that’s really far away. That’s why its so cheap. Then a man walks up and tells us he’s a taxi driver and can take us to our hotel for 6 bucks. Okay, sure. We follow him.

We see a line of taxis and walk towards it. No, the man motions us to walk past them. He beeps at a car and helps us put the luggage in. Okay… it doesn’t look like a taxi. I feel scammed. I feel scared and want to say no, but he’s holding my bags. What if he gets angry or kidnaps us? I look at Tommy, and he looks at me… and we get in.

On the way to our hotel, he tells us that our hotel is horrible and not worth the money. Oops.

We arrive.

The entrance is grand. It looks like a resort. It’s not bad. No, definitely not bad.

We check in and we are told that we have to pay additional tax fees on top of our nightly charge. They speak really fast and I got confused. The girl at the reception looks like she’s 15 years old and she keeps pushing numbers into a calculator but she’s doing it too fast and I don’t quite understand. Anyways, it came up to be around $11 a night. Sounds good to me. 

We get our keys. 

We walk towards our rooms.

I open the door. Wow, it’s pretty big. There’s a patio that walks into the pool. There’s even an upstairs loft. I walk up and discover there are two separate rooms. Huh? 

Confused, I go back to the reception and tell them. I ask if Tommy can move in so we can pay one less. No, they say. They talk and explain and say many things and I don’t understand. 

Oh well… It’s cheap. And I get two bedrooms. Whatever.

I’m going to swim…..