Lazybob, Chefbob, Badbob, Chauffeurbob, Ambobob, Boredbob

May 19^th A lazy day was on the cards today, it seems that not only did the doctor recommend shorter and slower walks yesterday, he also said I should have my foot raised as much as possible. I decided that today we would follow that advice and sat with my foot on a pouffe or an ottoman or a stool, whichever you prefer.

Mind you, I didn’t stay recumbent all day, I had promised Huan I would cook today. The dish of choice was a Philippine one, ‘Chicken Arroz Caldo’, I suppose it’s a bit like a Chinese rice soup dish. Now I’m not a big fan of rice soups, rice puddings yes, but that’s something completely different. Anyway, Huan does like her rice soups hence the reason for cooking it. I must say I was quite impressed and may even consider trying rice soup when we go out again. Here’s what my version looked like.

While we were scoffing our nosh I received a text message, ignored it of course, nothing is that important. After dinner was all finished we checked it, it was from the traffic police. My first port of call was my dashcam videos, unfortunately I can’t argue this time. Can you see why?

May 20^th Well, doctor’s orders went out of the window today! Due to yesterday’s text message a visit to the Traffic Police was called for and rather than take the car, we walked. It’s actually not far, only about two and a half kilometres but, that’s still double what the doctor ordered. Mind you, we did walk slowly. On the way we passed some guys cleaning up one of the feeder streams that comes down from the reservoir area, looks like a long time since they’ve done it.

A little further up we saw the small dredger that they had previously been using in the main river so they obviously needed sand from this stream too. It was quite interesting to see how they made room for the small dredger. Have you ever had to roll back your living room carpets? Well, try rolling this one back!

Anyway, how did we get on at the local car cop shop? If you hadn’t guessed from the dashcam photo above, I went straight on instead of turning left. I realised at the time that I had ‘broken the law’ but couldn’t do much about it. I received a fine of ¥100.00 and two points on my licence. Most of my life I have avoided traffic fines, now I’ve had six, (and one warning), since we’ve been in Hainan! The fines don’t worry me as much as the points do though. The only good thing is that all my points are cleared every August and I’ve never yet reached the dreaded twelve point mark. So far this year, I only have the two I was awarded today.

I spent the rest of the day uploading a lot of my videos for the last year or so that were not made with the Nikon Keymission camera. I decided it was time to make sure both playlists were reasonably up to date. You can find all my playlists by following the link at the side of this blog to my YouTube channel.

May 21^st The first port of call this morning was the maintenance company office, time to pay the electric bill. They have a very smart office just near the back gate of our compound.

After that a walk was on the cards, the doctor’s orders were exceeded again today but not by much. We took a walk to the town square and sat under the trees, me with a cold coffee and a fag of course. Where we sat is just about one and a half kilometres from home and coming back through the town added another one and a half. I’m sure, that with the break in the middle, the doctor would forgive me. My foot is slowly going down and much less painful now. Did we take any photos on the way? Just these two flowers, hope that’s good enough for you.

May 22^nd Today I was chauffeur Bob, taking Huan and one other person to court. Remember the never ending saga of our gas? Well, they had another court hearing today. Huan managed to take a picture or two before the hearing started, not so good, but they do show you the court.

I believe that’s the court recorder in the centre and the opposition lawyer on the right. I was impressed by all the IT hardware which Huan tells me is provided by the court. I presume both parties can see what the recorder enters. Not so impressive of course was the outcome, nothing has changed. The details are complex but in my view, we have one major failing on our side. I mentioned the opposition lawyer, well, we don’t have one. That would cost too much money!

Having had a break from the house I cancelled any walk today and just put my foot up again. Mind you, I had once again volunteered to cook for her ladyship. I don’t know about you but I really enjoy cooking, I suppose it is more enjoyable when you don’t have to do it all the time. Today’s offering was chilli con carne, well almost, it was one the “a la Bob” versions. The rice was a mixture of glutinous white rice and brown rice mixed together which made it almost impossible to shape for presentation. Still, you can see enough to get the idea.

May 23^rd We followed orders slightly better this morning and didn’t get to three kilometres. That was how I’d planned it, a walk to the lottery shop, duck into the market and then straight back home. On our way out, and back, we noticed an upsurge of work in the river area. There were men in red overalls all over the place, standing on the old dam, operating excavators, working on the new bridges and even, after months of waiting, moving a large waste water pipe off the river bed and up to the road where hopefully it will be buried and do the job it’s designed for, direct the storm run off into the river.

No sooner had we reached our gate than Yu’s husband came running up in a bit of a panic. It seemed that an old gent, about eighty, had injured his head while cleaning a shared balcony. He had scraped a flap of skin off and, because it was his head, he was bleeding a fair bit. “Could I be the ambulance and take him to the hospital?” was the question. Well, I could hardly say no could I? You can just about make him out in this screenshot from the dashcam.

We dropped them off and haven’t heard anything else so we’re assuming the old man is fine. He had been carrying the flap of skin that had come off in the hope that they would be able to stitch it back on. I told Huan that they would probably just dress the wound and wait for his skin to grow back of its own accord.

Anyway, why did we go to the market on a Saturday? Huan had decided she wanted another of my stews again today, ostensibly to use up this week’s vegetables. I believe her! We bought half a ready cooked duck and this is what we ended up with. It would appear that even half a duck is a bit much, the breast is with the soup in the bowls, the remainder is on the plate, and we will be eating more of the same tomorrow. PS Spot the baps.

May 24^th / May 25^th Boring end to the week I’m afraid. My foot is still not back to normal so no walks for two days and only shopping today. I’ve been filling up the time by binge watching “The Saint”, in black and white! I’d forgotten how I used to be such a big fan of Roger Moore and how his Volvo P1800 was probably the first car I ever fell in love with. I still remember sitting with my parents and siblings watching when I was a young teenager, good times.

I guess I’m not so young anymore, but, we’re still making memories and still, for the most part having a good time. Perhaps we’ll have to drive out somewhere in the next couple of weeks while my foot heals, we’ll see how it goes. Bye for now.

Snakes Alive! OAP Licence. Caterpillars. Grounded!

May 12^th Back to normal, almost, except shopping on Tuesday instead of Monday. First of all though, a trip to the police station was called for. As well as having to deal with the immigration police we are also obliged to register with our own area police station. Having a new visa means they must be given a copy. Never let anyone tell you that computers save paper!

The afternoon saw us doing our three mile TV walk which is definitely getting a little easier to do and slightly easier to follow. For the first time in a long time, Huan was out this evening, her dama dancing sessions have started again. She invited me to walk her down in the lift and then I could go for a walk alone. I respectfully declined! It seems it’s a good job I refused Huan’s kind offer, she was back within five minutes and the heavens opened just after she got in.

May 13th More chores planned for today. Now that I have my passport back I can go and get my driving licence changed. You may remember back in February when I was seventy I tried to do it then but due to Covid-19 restrictions I couldn’t. Sods law strikes again and I failed again this morning. We waited for what seemed a long time in the queue only to get to the front and be told I need to have photos. No problem, there’s a machine in the traffic police office that takes photos, just like the one in the visa office. However, it’s not ‘exactly’ the same. This machine requires a Hukou card number and will not accept a foreign passport number. Home we went.

Since we were doing chores today I didn’t have the camera with me, only the phone. We spotted a snake slithering alongside us and took a video. With the camera I would have been able to look through the viewfinder and zoom in a little. I couldn’t see the screen very well on my phone, bright sunny day, so I couldn’t really get close enough. (PS Possibly a slowworm a.k.a. a legless lizard and not a snake.)

Lady luck shined on us for a short while, we found some identical photos of the right size for my driving licence so back we went. The policeman dealing with us must have been fairly new as he had no real idea of what changes when the driver reaches seventy. He went off, more than once, to check with the bosses in the back room. Finally he came back and said I would have to go for a medical first. We grabbed a ride with a motorbike taxi who took us to the preferred hospital and asked him to wait for us. Once inside we quickly came to realise that it wasn’t a medical but an eye test. Where were my driving glasses? Why, in the car of course, outside our building. Our taxi bike was still waiting so off home we went to get the glasses and the car, so we could drive back to the police station. Thankfully everything went well this time and I now have my new licence, C1F instead of C1E. This means I am limited to mopeds, or bikes less than 50cc but I can still drive all kinds of cars, even superfast hypercars, if I could afford them!

Our chores still weren’t finished; we set off then to the post office to find out what had happened to my proof of life letter. There was no good news there; it seems that some shipments may not move for weeks at a time. Since May 2^nd the tracking details have not changed and the post office has the same details – “Depart Guangzhou and send to Nuneaton (via transit)”. I don’t have to panic yet but a phone call to the State Pension Offices may be required shortly. What a day, we were both very happy to get home at the end of it!

May 14^th The CMO said I still have to be on light duties and excused boots. On this occasion I had to agree with her. On Monday, while we were in Haikou, I managed to injure my foot, all my own fault of course. We were in an underground car park and I was focused on the elevators to take us up to the shops, so focused that I managed to kick the underneath of one of those wheel blocks. It hurt! I didn’t take a photo then but it looks like this.

Huan did try and get me to go for an X-Ray as my foot is painful and a little swollen. As far as I’m concerned there’s not a great deal they can do so I refused. Sometimes I can be ever so brave when dealing with SWMBO!

So we had a nice walk around the river and today I remembered the camera. Consequently, we have some wildlife photos for you, the first being a beautiful yellow flower. A question for you, do ants eat pollen?

Next up is a caterpillar. Huan was very taken with this one because it was making holes in the leaves. In fact there were more than one of them but this is the best photo.

The next photo took some getting, at least the first one did, I was the wrong side of the hedge and trying not to move the hedge too much or to fall into it. The second one was taken at the other side of the hedge. I tried to get even closer but it scooted away too quickly for me.

Since I’m on ‘light duties’ and Huan has no morning singing classes or evening dancing sessions we’ve decided to go back to our two walks a day routine. At least that makes it easier to get my ten kilometres a day in. We may just stick to one walk on our TV Walk days though!

May 15^th A lazy morning for me, Huan was cooking dumplings while I was watching another episode of Midsomer Murders. I did have to do a little work though; I had to take her photo alongside a calendar for her ‘proof-of-life’ to send to Dalian where her pension is controlled from. Speaking of ‘proof-of-life’, mine has now actually reached the UK. It only took two weeks and now it is with HM Customs.

We did our TV Walk in the afternoon, added it to our fitness tracker of course, and then went for a real walk this evening. We popped across to the middle of the river to see how the new park is coming on. The forecast opening date is the end of the year but I don’t see it happening myself. Maybe, just maybe, it could be ready for Chinese New Year. Anyway, here’s Huan hanging on a lamppost watching all the boys go by, (only me actually).

I did try and take an enormous panorama to show you what it’s like, but I failed. Still, you can get the general idea from this one, which is a horizontal half of what it should have been.

And finally, we haven’t had a selfie for a while have we so here’s one of them. However, this one is not taken with our phones but with the camera. That means you can zoom in and count my pores, if you really want to that is!

May 16^th My left foot was quite swollen and painful today, a little worrying. Both my feet do swell if I don’t get enough walking in; usually the left more than the right, but today it hurts. As well as the usual swelling I can feel a lump above the bones. However, it doesn’t feel any worse when I walk so we decided it was OK to go out and we stuck to the riverside again today. Would you believe it, another snake crossed our path. We’re fairly sure this is not a slowworm and also fairly sure it is one of the poisonous variety. At least Huan wasn’t trying to touch it today, or suggesting we take it home, although she was telling me to get closer!

Not only were snakes repeated today but caterpillars were too. This one was almost stood on, purposely, by a local shopkeeper, rescued by Huan and put under a tree. It then left there and wandered off into the road so Huan rescued it again and put it into the hedge on the other side of the road. Hopefully it will be OK there. I think you’ve seen a photo of one like this before but not in this position. Whenever we tried to pick it up with a leaf its body spun round, very quickly.

So, I’m doing the evening write up with my feet in a bowl of ice cold water. This evening’s walk did help a little with the normal swelling but the injury swelling and the pain is still there. Hopefully no doctor’s visit will be required in the next day or two. Anyway, we walked down by the river, away from the town this evening, quite pleasant. The water level is quite low so were able to find a way to cross to the other side without too much trouble. We met some goats and had to make a video of course. The best bit of the walk though, for me, was at the beginning. Could this be our new natural infinity pool?

May 17^th The usual stroll around the river was taken in the morning, going round the other way so that we could be early enough to buy some baps. Luck was on our side today, ten baps are now safely ensconced in the freezer! Not much in the way of photos but there was this lovely writing on a refrigerated van.

And, having seen a legless snake, a ‘real’ snake and a couple of caterpillars let’s move over to the human side of things and have a one wheeled wonder. On our riverside walks we often see other people walking, obviously, we see people on bicycles, although not many, and we’ve even seen a couple of older gents on roller blades. However, this is the first time we’ve ever seen a unicyclist! That’s one thing I haven’t tried, how about you?

May 18^th This morning the CMO said I should go to the hospital and see the ‘real’ MO. For once I didn’t argue with her as my left foot was swollen and very tender this morning. Having paid our consultancy fee we then had to join the queue which wasn’t too bad, there were only fourteen people ahead of me. I went and sat across the road with a cold coffee and a fag!

Arriving back in I found that there were still twelve ahead of me and this is what the queues looked like. The first photo shows people waiting for their turn to see the doctor and the second shows the queue for paying for whatever comes next.

Once we got to see the doctor he prodded a little, noticed my ‘ouch’ and sent us off to the X-Ray department. There were what seemed to be hundreds of people waiting there but luckily, most were in the queue for CT Scans and there were only two before me. Chinese hospitals can give the impression of absolute chaos but in general they work very well. Once I was in the room and being ‘prepared’ Huan took a few photos but the quality is terrible, very pixellated, so they won’t be shared here. Before too long my results were ready and back to the doctor we went. He had the results displayed on his computer and told us there was nothing out of the ordinary. (I wasn’t so sure but a Google search when we got home assured me he was right!) The bad news is that he has ‘grounded’ me! I am allowed to walk but not too fast and no more than two kilometres in one day. As for our TV Walks, they are definitely not allowed due to the fact that there is some interval training in there. When I suggested that this enforced idleness would be for a week, he said it would be more like a month! Huan asked if I should soak my feet in iced water and he told us that would have been a good thing in the first two days but not today, a week later. Instead, he suggested soaking them in hot, or warm water. I was almost reminded of my army doctors when I was a young apprentice “Take two aspirins and soak your feet in salty water.”

Back to routine and, because it’s Monday, shopping. Being a bit late though we had to have lunch first, 肉夹馍, (ròujiāmó) was our choice for today. As were waiting, a little bit of what I think is Chinglish caught my eye, what do you think it is supposed to be? I think it’s supposed to say ‘white pepper’ as that is what is inside the jar.

And so another week comes to a close, I’m not really looking forward to the next week or two, or three or four, but I guess I need to try and follow the doctors’ orders (both of them)! Mind you, once I’m out of the door, I’m sure I can wangle a few hundred metres more here and there but I will definitely follow their orders speed wise! See you next time!

Diplopoda, Nymphs, Thief on the Run, Zygoptera, Bureaucracy

May 5th Today’s plan was a longish walk, up to one of the many fish farms. As it is a public holiday we thought the roads would be truck free. We were wrong and when we reached this signpost for two villages changed our minds. You can see the cement works in the background. Trucks were coming from behind full of sand and from in front full of what looked like ground stone, probably from the tunnel being bored through the mountain for the highway.

Turning right here would take us over the small mountain and back towards home, with no trucks to bother us, so off we went. I was a little worried because Huan was wearing a skirt but, trooper that she is, she got through.

Before too long we were on the track again heading towards our ‘water stop’ village. This little creature was going the same way, what a weird looking one he is. Huan thought he looked like a ‘wheel’, but didn’t forget to warn me ‘not to touch’! Should you be interested, the lighter coloured segments are at the back, and according to Google, it’s a millipede.

This is one of my favourite walks, at least until we hit the tarmac roads again. No man made sounds encroach from anywhere and at the time of day we were passing through, the sun was not directly overhead. On the extreme right the new highway is visible but nobody was working there today, so nature ruled supreme.

So, how long was our ‘long’ walk? Fourteen kilometres. I think that’s good enough for a couple of pensioners, don’t you. By the time we got home, after a bottle and a half of water each, I didn’t fancy a ‘real’ lunch so suggested to Huan that we could have milkshakes. Now Huan thinks my milkshakes are much better than the ones we get outside so she readily agreed. To be honest, they are nothing special, today’s was made with vanilla ice cream with chocolate streaks in it, one banana, one bottle of Nescafe ‘Smoovlatte’ topped up with milk and then whizzed in our little Braun machine. We deserved it!

May 6^th Went to bed last night with strange red blotches on my feet. They weren’t itchy, they weren’t raised, they weren’t painful and I could still feel my feet. Dr. Google was of no help at all so I, (or should I say the Royal ‘we’) decided to adopt a policy of ‘wait and see’. Let’s hope it’s the right one!

Because of the strange red marks and because we were due for a TV walk this afternoon we stuck to a stroll around the river this morning. To our surprise a lot of the snowbirds were still in residence, I guess many could be from Harbin and can’t go home yet. Anyway, there were groups of musicians all over the shop and here’s one we haven’t seen before. Not only do they have a violinist and an accordionist, they also have a guitarist with a very special guitar, a ‘silent’ one. If you want to learn more just Google Yamaha Silent Guitars.

Remember the insects we saw in the early stages of metamorphosis, well we passed by for another look and found the empty carcasses, (the nymphs), the adults had obviously flown away. I was quite surprised by how ‘complete’ the nymphs left on the trees were.

Our walking speed was once again phenomenal this morning, about four kilometres in fifteen minutes. You can see why by checking this screenshot of my fitness app, the start and end points of this walk should be in the same place, just about central on the map. For some reason the start is way off to the left and then it took over four kilometres to 'sync' again. This is a relatively new problem but it seems to be happening more frequently. Questions. Is it the network? Could it be the satellites? Or do I need a new phone? Answers in the comments or on a postcard please.

May 7^th The CMO, otherwise known as SWMBO, ordered me to be “excused boots” today, there’s a good old army term for you. She decided that my foot problem was related to either my boots or my socks so today was a ‘sandal’ day. We still got a fairly long walk in, nearly nine and a half kilometres and today, Endomondo gave us what seemed to be a fairly accurate data. For a change we walked down to the river and had a closer look, a place we never normally walk.

There were some beautiful flowers down there. Huan did try to get one or two to take home but she would have had to walk into the water. Here’s the flowers in question and Huan appearing to be running away with her second choice!

It was a very pleasant walk today, once back on the path the sun was hot, but we had a breeze to keep us a little cooler. For a change we came home via the back gate of our apartment complex where we had seen them repairing the access control when we went out. Before, we used a small plastic disk which operated a proximity sensor and opened the gate. This is what they have replaced it with. I don’t know if they have thought about what you should do with this type of access control when someone moves out. In theory, the code should be changed and all residents then informed of the new code. I don’t see that happening at all. I’m fairly sure that you can also spot the deliberate error in the installation!

May 8^th Sandals again today, by order, so just a ramble through the town, stopping off here and there for a chat with some of my four legged friends. I also forgot the Fuji, so today’s photos are only concerned with engineering marvels. Around here, instead of the western style pick-ups, there are a lot of little three wheeled ones, with a flatbed back and a motorcycle front. In this particular case, the driver obviously didn’t like handlebars and converted his machine to one with a steering wheel. Note the liberal use of lubricating grease.

The second is the marvel of modern technology, the mobile phone. Not content with this week’s earlier inaccuracies, according to our phone, walked eighteen kilometres today in just an hour and a quarter. One day good, one day bad, I wonder why? I really don’t want to buy a new phone just yet, perhaps later in the year I’ll be ready for one. In the meantime, I guess I’ll have to keep deleting the incredibly inaccurate workouts and manually enter more correct versions.

May 9^th Our house was inhabited by two aliens this morning, two fat lazy lumps of lard who couldn’t be bothered to go out, even for a slow walk. Still, it gave me a chance to add a YouTube link to Blogger as well as a Google translation tool. Now anybody can read it in any language.

We weren’t lazy in the afternoon though and we kept our promise to do the three mile TV walk. Our programme is three times a week which seems to be working out well enough. Mind you, the temperature outside today, as we were exercising ourselves as best we could, was 35ºC. An hour later the computer said it was 39ºC. Whatever it was, we were really feeling it and one of us, namely me, was virtually melting away. Spot where I was working out!

May 10^th Happy Huan today, I agreed to the mountain scenic walk, and, I was allowed to wear my boots and socks! Both the routes we used to take to approach the road up the mountain have been closed off so went exploring, through the farmer’s fields. These aren’t real farms of course, they are just like allotments which local Chinese will use as much as they can before the land is further closed off for construction. Crops grow very easily here in Hainan and also very quickly so it’s quite a lucrative side business for many people.

Anyway, behind us we saw a woman coming down from the road near the residential compound that we can’t go through anymore. Working on the assumption that if she could come down we could go up off we went. It was a short climb up to the road but quite steep and with me trying to hold the camera too it was almost a hands and knees climb. I should have taken a photo so you can see just how intrepid we explorers can be at times but I got distracted. Trying to keep my balance and focus at the same time I took this next photo instead. Now Huan and I have always thought about these creatures being baby dragonflies but a quick Google search tonight tells me we have almost definitely been wrong. They are from the same scientific family, (Odonata), the suborder is ‘Zygoptera’ but you may know then as ‘Damselflies’. So that you can see it a little clearer I have had to use the soft focus tool in Picasa.

Lastly, for today, Endomondo and my phone played very well together! Checking the satellite route when we got home we can see that it’s very accurate today, no errors of any consequence at all. Our walk was over ten kilometres and less than eleven as I had expected, in fact it was 10.63 km in 2h:57m:49s and used up 984 calories. I put no faith in the calorie count at all though; it seems to be based purely on distance. The bad news is that I have red blotches on my feet again so either the boots or the socks are giving me problems.

May 11^th Needle time again which meant another trip to Haikou. It was also the day to pick up my visa and we had planned on staying overnight. I was really looking forward to it! Arriving over the bridge onto Haidian Dao, the island where the hospital is, the first thing we noticed is that Haikou is definitely back to normal, and very busy. Apart from the cars in this dashcam screenshot, check out the number of two wheeled vehicles waiting on every corner!

The hospital was also back to its usual hustle and bustle too but we were early enough not to be too far back in any of the queues we had to join. Apart from having my monthly needle I also had to have my quarterly PSA tests today so double worrying for me. Those who know me will know that I really can’t stand needles! Anyway, we were soon done and then off to the police office that deals with visas. That was my first and biggest disappointment of the day, they had issued me with a visa, but only for eight months. To explain, I am on a spousal visa, being married to Huan of course. Now for Huan to be able to ‘sponsor’ me here in Hainan she needs a local ‘Hukou card’ which she has had since 2015 and which she renews every year. In the past my visa was not ‘tied’ to her local card, my first visa was for sixteen months and my second was for three years. We had been informed that three years would not be possible this time, only one or two. I was hoping for two of course but would have been happy with one, I was definitely not expecting only eight months. This means that both my visa and Huan’s local Hukou expire on the same day. Can you predict the problems next January when I have to renew again?

PS to the above. Huan’s son works in Shanghai, his Hukou is issued from Dalian so he also has to have a locally issued one. This allows him to continue paying his pension contributions, his health insurance etc and he can go to hospital, if necessary, in the same way that he would in Dalian. Huan however, gets no benefits for having a local card at all because she is retired. Her pension is paid by Dalian and should she have any health problems she would need to pay the full whack here and then go off up to Dalian with all the receipts to try and claim a refund. “Why the difference?” you may ask. Well Huan’s son pays tax in Shanghai, and Huan, being retired, does not pay tax in Hainan.

Anyway, I got my visa. Off we scooted muttering to each other in the car, and went back onto Haidian Dao to our normal hotel. They weren’t very keen on having us at all, they said the floor we usually stay in was under refurbishment and that if we stayed in any of the other two floors, we would be continually disturbed by the noise. We found another hotel, a little more expensive, but with a decent size car park and a western style breakfast which we would have to pay extra for. After all the formalities had been gone through, my passport with visa, Huan’s Hukou card and my bank card, the receptionist then asked for our health checks on our phones. Well, according to the news, these checks are no longer necessary so Huan had removed her app. She could have reinstalled it, but the hotel wanted us both to have the check and as you know, it can’t be installed on my phone. So that was it then, no stay in a hotel this time, another disappointment.

At least when we got back to the hospital to pick up my blood test results, there wasn’t any bad news there. Everything seems within the limits; even my TSTII is low enough to put me in the female category!

More good news on the shopping front, we found the spices I need and as usual we bought the necessities like cheese. This time we were lucky enough to find some ciabatta, all I have to do now is work out what to eat it with.

Driving back to Wuzhishan was much better than last month, I wasn’t falling asleep at the wheel! We were also graced with a rainbow for quite a large part of the journey and when we stopped, we both took photos of it. Here, for your perusal, is Huan’s.

Not only did we see the rainbow but we ate some very tasty grilled Taiwan sausages, Huan managed to get the chef to show her the packet, photos were taken, we’ll search them out either on our next visit to Haikou, or on Taobao. So, a day that started out good, then turned into one of disappointments, finally ended on a good note!