I got up in the middle of the night (well, 5.15 am anyway) to catch my 8am flight to Canton, where I had to get all my stuff and then check in again on a different airline to Sanya. They don’t have airline alliances here, which sometimes makes it a bit of a hassle to get from A to B. But anyway, I had ordered a taxi the night before, and by the time I came down to the reception (after being greeted by a cockroach that hid under my backpack – yuck!) the driver was there. When I told him where I wanted to go, he started to say “Guanmen”. I had no idea what that meant, it could have been anything from the Chinese word for airport to toll fees (I’ll come to that in a moment) to hills to whatever. He kept repeating the word throughout the entire journey. I figured it must mean “back road”, because that’s what he took. He wanted to save the highway toll fees so he drove through the back streets. And I really mean back streets, like dirt roads, unfinished highways and pedestrian walkways. It felt rather funny to be in the middle of nowhere at dawn in a very bumpy car. After what felt like forever we had arrived at the airport and he dropped me there, after saying “Guanmen” a final time. I entered the airport and found out what the word meant – “closed”. The airport hadn’t opened yet. It was 6.30 am and apart from me there were only a few other people there, but all the shops and –more importantly – airport counters where closed. I was getting a bit nervous, but then more and more people started coming and at 7 they finally opened everything. Turns out that this was the first flight of the day and as the airport is really small, they don’t need a long time to prepare everything. The flight was uneventful, as was my stopover in Canton. Then I arrived at Sanya and it was love at first sight. The sun was shining and everything was clean and the streets were lined with palm trees. The hostel was okay as well (though not as great as I thought is would be after the Lonely Planet was raving about it), especially the location – 5 Minutes to the beach. And you have to love that beach. (The pictures are on another journal entry) It’s been two years since I last swam in the sea and I really enjoyed it. This was what I needed after taking that bar exam – a few days to completely unwind und have nothing to do to but turn from my back to my stomach and back again.
|  | 
|
