ambtraveler

October Break- Day 3 & 4

Guangzhou, Guangdong & Sanya, Hainan

On the morning of Day 3, we got up early and headed to Yuexiu park for our last excursion in Guangzhou. We decided to take a ferry across the river since our river cruise the night before fell through. It was a quick ride for 50 jiao and got some great day shots of the city. Once we arrived to the park we had a few spots to visit. The first is the famous five goats statue, also a nickname for the city of guangzhou. Then we did a very quick visit to the Guangzhou museum. This stucture was once again beautiful and I got bombarded by Chinese girls for pictures. We got great views of the city from here as well. Then we quickly returned to our hostel and left for the train station. We had tickets for a 15 hour overnight train to Sanya. We got to the Guangzhou station and it was a flurry of activity. There is no sense of order and lines in China, anywhere you go. Just lots of pushing and shoving. Finally we boarded the train and arrived at our “cabin”. We had purchased hard sleepers which means 6 hard beds in one cabin. Four of us were in the same cabin and had two young chinese girls as the other two. We spent most of the afternoon playing games to pass the time. Lights out was at 10 so everyone tried to catch some shut eye. Around midnight or 1 am our train was ferried, which means pulled apart, part on a ferry, moved across the ocean channel, put back together and on our way again.

We arrived in Sanya at 6am on Day 4. We tried to get return train tickets right away but was turned away by the threat of an incoming typhoon. We left and took the city bus to our hostel, the Blue Sky. It was beautiful and a great place to stay. We got some breakfast and headed back for a quick cat nap. After everyone was more refreshed, we ate some mango. Geoff induldged himself in the juicy goodness and then we headed to the beach. It was quite overcast and the incoming typhoon clouds could be seen. It started to rain, so we left and went to get dinner. We decided on some hot pot, which was a lot of fun and a lot of food and very spicy. Everyonce was pretty exhausted from the travels and the rest of our group arrived later that evening as we were making traditional Hainan coconut pies. We met a group of Canadians staying at the hostel and booked a trip to the natural hot springs for the next day since the typhoon would be arriving and the beach deserted. We had beds with soft Ikea mattresses and all slept like babies.