Today was luxury day

I accompanied my boss to her new resort at the other end of the bay (because the Kempinski where they had been staying was apparently booked out for the next days). The Place is called Mandarin Oriental Sanya, if you want to bother and google their website. It's impressive - not only the website - but the actual place. We were greeted with flower garlands aloha-style and then had to take an elevator down to the lobby. The hole thing is built into a hill side. While they were checking in, we were served fresh juice and the kid got a balloon to play with. In their room was a personally addressed welcome card from the Manager (named Gerd Knaust :P), a welcome tea set and fruit. The room itself of course luxury but with a slight notch of understatement. Very functional but cozy with lots of wood, not overloaded with kitschy decoration. As usual in Chinese upper-class hotels: open bathroom. Not even a glass window. There is a blind you can lower, but really the bathtub is just free standing in the room. Oh, the Kempinski has one cool thing - bathtubs on your balcony :) Ok, the Kempinski has more than that one cool thing, also the food there is pretty good, the freshly squeezed juice unbeatable and they have nice pools and a private beach. I have to cross a little street to get to my beach, but there are people selling fresh coconut on the street, in which they drill a hole and put a straw in it for you to drink the juice.

Coming back to this really fancy place - the most amazing service ever I got when I was having a little drink (Pina Colada to complete the cliche with the beach and palm trees) at one of their countless seaside bars (you just sit down in a beach chair, which are all stocked with towels, and a waiter will come take your drink order). With sunset the mosquitoes came out and I apparently started scratching myself and fending them off, because a second later the water brought me a little mosquito repellent spray - compliments of the house. He also started carrying out candles for me when it got too dark to read. And that place is so huge, we constantly got lost, but there is always someone who does not only point you in your direction, but rather accompanies you all the way. And they all speak flawless English. And of course you can always call a buggy to drive you were you want to go.

sanya_mandarin

I have to say though, I am quite happy in my hotel, which is about a third the price of theirs and I'd still say it's not cheap, but I have an awesome big room with sea view. And I find my hotel cozier than the Kempinski and Mandarin Oriental which are very geometrical and have the same orange-stone-wood color scheme. Mine is white and round (the lobby is round and open up to the roof 4 floors above and the rooms are laid out in three wings, sort of star-shaped. From the lobby you get into a bar/cafe half a floor down and another half floor down is a little pool connecting the two outdoor pools, it feels like the water is flowing through the lobby. But the best thing - I think - is that it's full of Chinese and not Russians (the biggest foreign community here) or other westerners. Why? Because the Chinese are not beach and pool people, so I have these places almost all to myself :) And of course I get to practise my Chinese! Frankly, I don't know where all the people that I see at breakfast vanish to later in the day. When I went for a swim I had the pool all to myself and there were only three kids in the other pool. The food seems rather mediocre, but Kempinski is just down the road and I can always go there to eat - apart from a Chinese restaurant they also have a "Paulaner Brauhaus" and a restaurant called "Kranzler's". Thank Goodness they resisted the urge to decorate the whole hotel in Bavarian blue-white and the waiters are wearing Chinese style clothes, not Dirndl and Lederhosen. Phew, close call!

sanya_kempisnki

We tried to get out of our resorts a little today and wanted to go to the "Nanshan Buddhist Cultural Tourist Zone," but after we had already gotten in a cab we learned that it costs 150RMB to get in there, so we turned around. I still find it weird that one has to pay just to look at their 181m tall Buddha Statue (which is out at sea) and I will make another attempt to get there when I rent a bike tomorrow. It's quite a hilly track over 15km though, I'm not sure I will make it all the way.

One of the most stunning moments - apart from roast Wenchang chicken, which is raised on a diet of rice and peanuts and is really succulent - was to see stars. I don't know how long it's been. There is never a clear sky in Nanjing. That alone could be a reason to stay here. The pleasant 27 degrees everyday don't hurt either. Next time pictures of my hotel. And btw, I did not photoshop the people out of the picture at the very top. It is really that empty at the beach. And not always so cloudy. Don't let anyone tell you there is no blue sky in China! I have proof to the contrary!