Yen Pheng's Story Telling Garden: Hainan Island Part I

Woohoo! It's time for holiday!

Thursday, 9th Dec 2010

Woke up at 3.30 am to catch the 6.55 am's flight to Hainan Island with AirAsia. Actually, the main purpose for us to go there were to visit relatives there, because my grandparents came from Hainan Island. So, it planned out that the first 4 days we will go on tour and the last 4 days we will go back to our hometown in Wenchang.

We reached LCCT around 5.30 am. With all the luggages checked in, my family and I went into the waiting hall. Around 6.30 am, we were walking into the airplane in the rain. The plane were already crowded when we went in. By 7.10 am, we were still sitting in the plane and there was no signal indicating that the plane would take off soon. Hence, the worst part of flying "appeared":flight delayed. Duh. *It's very bored to be seated in an airplane which had not taken off* After about 1 hour waiting in the plane, the plane finally took off. It took about 4 hours before we reached Meilan Airport in Hainan Island.

The weather of the day was cool, just like the weather we have in Cameron Highlands. We were greeted by Sandy, a tour guide from NamHo travel agency and my cousin brother and Auntie Mai Choo who flew in from Singapore and reached on time around 11 am (we supposed to arrived 10 minutes later than them, but thanks to AirAsia, we were 1 hour late).

We checked into Hotel Haikou in the capital of Hainan Island, Haikou city. Had lunch in the hotel before we went walking around the area. As the malls were not too far from the hotel, we shopped without Sandy.

First day was a free day for us because the real tour had not started yet.

Pizza Hut

A mall's lift

View of the mall inside the see through lift

Mc Donald's Grilled Chicken Sandwich

Instead of apple pie, they have sweet taro pie

Carrefour

Friday, 10th Dec 2010-Xinglong

Charted van arrived at 7.30 am with a driver whom will fetch us for the next 3 days. We started our journey to XingLong after our breakfast. Today's weather at Haikou City is still windy and cool as well. Journey to XingLong took about 3 hours. But we stopped over some places of interests throughout the journey.

We did not went to Boao Asian Forum 博鳌亚洲会址, but we just peeped from outside. What to do? My mum does not interested in looking at building. I guess I have to wait til the next trip!

Hainan Tropical Wildlife and Botanical Garden 海南热带飞禽世界

Xinglong Coffee Factory

Next destination after coffee factory was Baoshu Hall 宝树堂, where Chinese medicine was introduced to us. We were given a foot massage too.

Baoshu Hall was the last destination of the day before we checked into Silver Lake Resort at Xinglong. Had our dinner at the resort before we went back to take shower (hot spring water only available after 6 pm) and had a few games of mahjong in the room.

Saturday, 11th Dec 2010-Sanya

The morning weather was a bit cold when we checked out from our room and went to the dining hall to have our breakfast.

The first stop was Dijia Crystal 帝佳水晶 where the PIC shared some information on crystals. Then, we moved into the shop where there were lots of crystals on rings, necklaces and bracelets are being sold.

The next stop was Nanshan. It's a place full of Buddhist temples and it was very crowded. The whole place are very big that we had to move around with a shuttle car. This place is famous for its Guan Yin statue near the exit. Besides the Guan Yin statue and temples, the dishes in the vegetarian shop inside Nanshan were very delicious too!

Nanshan Culture Center 南山文化苑

Guan Yin statue

After spending 3 hours at Nanshan, we headed to 南天门生态大观园 where there were lots of flora and some fauna. There are lots of plants-normal and abnormal plants, like a pumpkin with a giant size.

南天门生态大观园

After we had our dinner, we went to the shopping complex opposite our hotel. We bought quite a lot of stuff: instant noodles, bread, tit bits, and some fruits. Only when we went to cashier then we knew that we need to pay for a plastic bag! But we were not frustrated by that at all. There were 10 of us. So each of us took some stuff and went back to the hotel. I guessed local people might see us as a bunch of crazy tourists who went shopping for raw food in a mall. Who cares? We just wanted to taste the local food! =)

Sunday, 12th Dec 2010

The weather was a lil bit hot today, as we were now at the southern part of the Island. Today's schedule was not pack and the places of interest were not as crowded as Nanshan.