Sunny Sanya, Hainan, China

We just got back from a 5 day vacation to a wonderful place in Hainan, China – a town called Sanya. This place is touted as China’s “Hawaii” and it’s close. There are definitely some things they could improve on, as far as tourism and stuff, but overall, we had a great time – of course, staying at a five star resort with it’s own private beach probably helped that quite a bit! We stayed at the Marriot and it was gorgeous. Beautiful pools, beach, rooms, gardens, restaurants, etc. We really enjoyed the time and even had some relaxing moments with Ryken asleep in the stroller and the girls playing in the sand. We were unsure how the trip was going to go – as we had a few problems to start with.

I booked the trip through a Chinese travel agency located in Sanya and was asked to bring cash with us to pay for it – now, for those that aren’t familiar with the Chinese RMB (money) system – the largest denomination bill they make is 100 RMB (worth about 12 US dollars) – so we had to pay for a trip using all RMB – that’s a large amount of cash to be carrying around. We decided to wait and get the cash when we got to Sanya so we wouldn’t be carrying around that much money. We also had no tickets, no authorization, no paperwork, basically, just the travel agent info, and the flight numbers we were booked on. When we arrived at the airport and went to check in, we didn’t have e-tickets and didn’t have paper tickets, so we couldn’t check in. UH-OH. We got a hold of the travel agent who quickly fixed the situation, but it was a bit hairy and we weren’t sure what was going on! We did make our flight and Ryken and I even had a whole row to ourselves to stretch out and relax. When we got to Sanya, Anthony tried to get money out of an ATM and it didn’t work with our China account or our international card – oops. Luckily, the travel agency was very accommodating and allowed us to come up with other ways of making payments (eventually we did manage to get money using the ATM at the hotel). So we didn’t end up actually paying for our trip until the very end. Seems like an unusual way to do business as a travel agency. For those who may want the info – we used Caddie at www.sunnysanya.com – we highly recommend her as she was helpful and accommodating for us.

Ryken was very cranky – for a few days before the trip, he’d been sick – he had hand, foot and mouth virus – which causes high fever, painful spots in the mouth, vomiting and spots on the rest of his body. Although he was doing better, no fever, he was still quite fussy. Turns out he was also getting teeth in as his first tooth broke through the first night of vacation. He was much happier after that and slept well in the crib provided by the hotel. He’s got two teeth now. He had fun, enjoyed the pool and the stroller quite a bit. He managed to get a bit too much sun in the first day of being outside – even with sunblock and being kept in the shade for all but about 10 minutes. He didn’t get to enjoy the sand or waves much, due to me being afraid of getting him really sunburned or him eating too much sand, since all he does is put his hands in his mouth.

The girls LOVE, LOVE, LOVE hotels and vacations. They both slept wonderfully sharing a bed and we had no problems getting them to sleep every night. Guess all that running around in the sand and water helps tire them both out. Ashley seems to prefer the beach and sand and waves to play in while Liz prefers the pool. Ashley would be playing at the beach and Liz would go every 5 minutes and wash the sand off her body in the showers they have at the beach. That was her favorite part – not playing in the sand, but washing it off herself.

Unfortunately, the trip ended badly, as our plane was delayed from noon until 6 pm, first due to “mechanical problems” and then due to “weather” – we don’t really think there was bad weather. We had to wait around this itty bitty stinky airport for 6 hours with three kids and then take a 3.75 hour flight back home. Not fun. I heard that the government stipulates that individuals get their money back for flights that are delayed more than 3 hours for mechanical problems – hence the reason it was changed to “weather” – so people wouldn’t get reimbursed.

All in all, we had a great trip and enjoyed some relaxing times. We are now ready for school to start!!!!