April 6th Another nice long walk today, Huan’s choice was ‘countryside’ and we were out of the house before eight o’clock. Sometimes we can see the ‘old’ and the ‘new’, you’ve seen a few test cars in my Blog posts, they would be the ‘new’ and here’s a photo of the ‘old’. They still work and do the jobs they were meant for in rural areas.
Next up, something new, and different. We have watched this place being built and today as we passed we were invited in for a look around. There are three bedroom villas and a handful of one bedroom apartments, for long or short term rental. Short term prices are ¥600.00 per day for the apartments and ¥1,000.00 per day for the villas, all meals included.
It’s a beautiful place, but I’m not sure they will find it easy to get customers. If they offer packages including visits to local tourist spots they may succeed, I hope so, they deserve it for all the work they’ve done. There’s even a little pussycat in the garden.
Down the road ‘eagle eyes’ spotted a lizard, she was so happy, it’s the first one she’s seen this year. Her attempts at photographing it failed so she chose this one of mine to share with you. He is a handsome fellow isn’t he?
Onwards and upwards as they say so that’s what we did. Sometimes our memories fail us when it’s been a while, as they did today, and we ended up going along a route with no exit at the other end and had to turn back. The scenery was nice on the way though.
And this was our “zoom” view of Wuzhishan from 5.6kms when we realised we had to make our way back again to find the correct turn off.
Once back on the right track we found a village that we knew and where I could buy a much needed bottle of nice cold water. They had an election going on in the village meeting place, yes, China does have elections. They were electing a new village leader, I did ask the shopkeeper if I could stand but unfortunately I was disqualified!
What would a walk in the country be without Bob being ‘stupid’, well that’s what Huan thinks anyway. Perhaps Robin Hood would have been jealous of my natural hat.
Just to keep the chief veterinary officer happy, we also found a caterpillar today, one of those we are not supposed to touch. It did ‘rear up’ once but we missed that opportunity and Huan couldn’t get it to do it again.
No naps today, once we were fed, cleaned and watered it was off to the dentist’s again. The surgery was full, there isn’t exactly a waiting room, so we agreed that unfortunately, (hehehe), we would have to postpone until tomorrow!
My turn for cooking today, I decided on a variation of Philippine chicken adobo with added mushrooms, on a bed of Huan’s dark rice with some broccoli to provide the greens. I had it all nicely presented on the plates ready to take a photo for you and then forgot! Sorry! It wasn’t too good anyway; it was edible but my reducing the ingredients list downwards for the two of us went a little awry. If you fancy this recipe, or any others that I use, just let me know, they are all stored on my PC.
April 7th Huan was off to OAP school so I walked her there. I was under orders not to wear my boots and ‘advised’ not to walk too far because of my ‘red feet’. Why this happens I have no idea, my boots feel comfortable enough, it could be the socks I suppose.
More progress on the riverside market, they have now started dividing the sections and adding roller shutter doors. I wonder if our Saturday market will ever return, the farmers may baulk at paying increased rents for their spots.
Today’s walk was longer than Huan would have liked and I meandered a lot, stopping here and there to take some photos. Here’s a couple of snowbirds playing together. I did think about telling them that I had some songs on my phone but I doubt very much if the violinist would have known the tunes.
One of my meanders took me past a roadside temple so today I went up the steps for a closer look. There are quite a few Gods in this little altar alcove, I couldn’t even begin to try telling you who they all are and what they represent.
After a visit to the bapman my timing was perfect to meet Huan from school, mind you, that was only because she was early today. As usual, the bapman gave me an extra one, his wife wasn’t there! Twenty one baps for ¥20.00, what a bargain, well I think so anyway.
After lunch it was back to the dentist, who wasn’t there and neither were any other patients. I did try running away but Huan made me stay until he turned up. More medicine was applied in my empty tooth and I was told to come back in five days, again. Huan was gong to take another photo but the dentist had left his coat upstairs so she thought he would take it the wrong way if she did. I took a photo of the empty chair while we waited. I wonder if you can spot something that is very prevalent here in Asia but that I haven’t seen anywhere else. No? Parts of the chair are still covered with the protective plastic that was on when it was delivered. Here you even see windows with signs of the protective film still on years after installation.
After dinner, I realised that the cotton wool plug had fallen out of my tooth, maybe I will have to return well before the five days are up!
April 8th Plans are made, and plans are changed, today’s plan was a long walk, it ended up being a morning indoors. Huan slept very badly last night, visiting the bathroom more than once, didn’t feel like walking this morning so I stayed home to provide moral support. (PS I didn’t cook at all yesterday so not my fault!)
We did have a small walk after lunch, back to the dentist, where, just for a change, I had no fear at all! I knew all he had to do was make sure the ‘poison’ was back in the hole in my tooth. We were in and out in minutes. Tomorrow being Friday and thus four days after our Covid jabs we are allowed to eat fish again so I took Huan to the market. One live (for a short time) fish later we were soon on our way back home. The rain arrived within seconds of us being indoors, it looks very much like the rainy season has begun again.
Cooking dinner was down to me today but that was another plan thrown out of the window. To keep things nice and plain I used Huan’s left over sweet potatoes from lunchtime, steamed some cauliflower and fried some chicken breast, nothing added at all. Thankfully, the commander was more than pleased!
April 9th Our plans worked today, we were up early enough and the weather was good enough to head up the reservoir road. The first three and a half kilometres were warm, no breeze and not many clouds. The scenery was good though.
By the time we reached 4.8kms we began to feel some of that ‘oh so welcome’ mountain breeze. There were also a few more clouds making for good walking weather.
Before long we met a couple coming down, I commented on how fast they were walking. They were tourists and of course had to have their photo taken with me. I did try and get one with them and Huan but I failed.
Now I said we were heading up the reservoir road which was true, but today we didn’t plan on going all the way, instead we were going to head down towards the hotel on the other side of the valley. This was where we turned, you can see the reservoir, about another 800 metres of walking if I remember rightly; you can also see the steps. The best part of seeing those steps is knowing that from here onwards it’s downhill all the way!
There are a couple of resting places on the way down, or up as the case may be, but they seem to be in need of a little renovation. Here’s the first one.
This is the second one, for some reason it is known as “Victoria Look Out Point Scenic Spot”.
They are right in that it is a scenic spot but what the ‘look out’ part is for I don’t know.
And here’s the view looking back up from below.
We were heading to the hotel to check on the swimming pool, whether or not the prices had changed, whether or not an entrance fee was required just to get into the grounds in the first place and whether or not it was open. The first answer from the reception area was ‘no idea’, the second from the restaurant staff where we bought some much needed water was ‘tomorrow’ and the third answer from security at the gate was that no one is allowed into the grounds any more unless they are hotel residents. Of course, you can always come in the back way as we did today! Anyway, here’s the pool that I was hoping so much would be open again.
That’s enough snaps for one day I think. By the time we arrived home, tired and hungry, we had walked eleven and a half kilometres, up and down the hill. We don’t do too badly for a couple of pensioners do we? One of those pensioners, the male version, had to have a nap after lunch; the other couldn’t because she had a hulusi lesson this afternoon. Just like yesterday the heavens opened up late afternoon time, luckily Huan and Yu got a lift home so were spared a soaking.
April 10th Saturday came round again, much too fast, we both think that someone somewhere is messing around with time! Off to the riverside we went, no long walk needed today, and we thought we would check out the Saturday market again. To our surprise it was there and will be there every Saturday until the 5th July. What will happen after then we don’t know, the notice didn’t say. Were the traders using the roofed sections of the road today? For the most part, no, although some were using them for parking.
Although we didn’t buy anything today, prices here are pretty good. One vegetable on sale was ¥10.00 for eight, the Chinese name was 丝瓜 (Sīguā) but Huan was unsure how to cook it. When I got home I did a quick Google and found that it was a ‘loofah’. Now before you all start laughing and thinking of the bathroom, this is also from the internet “Loofah is an edible plant, so you can harvest young and eat them in the same manner you would a young zucchini or summer squash”. I even found a nice recipe for them, http://simplymommie.com/2010/01/luffa-with-egg-recipe.html Maybe we’ll buy one or two next week. Another thing we like, not only about this market but about living here in general, is the availability of fresh fruit; it’s nice to know that these pineapples and oranges were grown just outside the city.
As you may have noticed from the picture above, the market is not only food. In fact the gentleman in the ‘woody’ photo is there nearly every day and always likes us to stop and have a quick chat. He does have some interesting stuff, who knows; maybe one day we’ll even buy something from him. This next stall caught my eye; I don’t think I need to tell you why! However, it is not what you think; he is selling USB drives preloaded with stacks of Chinese music, traditional, martial, disco etc. I threatened Huan with me buying some martial and traditional next week.
What I won’t be buying next week is these. Neither of us had any idea what they were for, or even whether they could be cooked and eaten. The stallholder showed us by holding two in his hand and beating himself over his shoulders, they are used for massage!
We headed home fairly quickly as did a lot of the stallholders and other people, the rain was coming in. It fooled us didn’t it, after a few drops here and there it went away again. Still, we had walked five kilometres and we have another long one planned for tomorrow so I guess that was enough. Huan, still being a little exhausted after yesterday had an OAP nap, I was on cooking duty so had to stay awake and make today’s duck stew. This time, there was no precooking of the duck, no removal of the skin or the fat from the cooking, we both enjoyed it much more!
April 11th We were on the road by just after eight o’clock this morning, early enough to get a real long one in. Our first photo is on the main road heading towards Sanya, and no, we weren’t going to be walking that far. We were trying to work out just what this tree is, any ideas?
Just before we left Wuzhishan, we turned left and headed towards Nansheng village, not the one on this stone that Huan is standing by.
Before long we took a right turn and started our trek through the countryside. Almost immediately we found that our route had been tampered with. Someone had built a new access road to the highway. Coming from the right we knew we had to turn left somewhere but didn’t know where. Before long I realised that this was not our usual road.
Although not our usual route, the road was a very pleasant walk, quiet, hardly any traffic at all, just the occasional motorbike or car, and lots of bird and insect noise. We weren’t sure if the road would take us to Nansheng so Huan asked a young schoolgirl at the side of the road, her parents were in the fields, and she put our minds at ease. She also told Huan that the fruits growing all around us were lychees so Huan had to have a photo of ‘lychee mountain’.
Some of the fauna at the side of the road looked quite dangerous. There were flowers with lots of buzzing things in attendance and then there were these two, neither of which I fancied getting to know any better.
For the most part though the scenery was wonderful and as you can probably see from the photos the weather was just right for walking, a little overcast and a slight breeze now and then. The rain did try for a few seconds but then it gave up.
Lizards were aplenty but they all successfully avoided both my camera and Huan’s phone, I did capture these first two little beasties though and Huan got the third one.
Next a couple of panoramas for you, the first includes ‘pointy mountain’ which like many points of interest seems to keep crossing the road when you’re not looking, the second is rather a large fish pond with associated farm and village buildings.
Eventually we came upon our usual road which led us to the old army barracks which in turn led us to Nansheng village. It only took us four and half hours to get there but in our defence, it was a long walk and here’s the proof!
It’s a good job we didn’t have to go much further; my boots gave up the ghost at around the thirteen kilometre mark. I suppose they’ve done well, two years and hundreds of kilometres.
Being lunchtime we popped into one of the small restaurants for some noodles. I have to say, that despite them being ‘instant style’ they were some of the best we have tasted in a long time. Not only that, my free soup was excellent too and that can be a hit and miss affair in many small restaurants. Needless to say, we were ravenous and scoffed the lot in no time at all!
I was so pleased to see the electric bus arrive to take us home. Mind you, I doubt that Huan would have argued today, she was as tired as I was.
Once home, it was rest time for
me, but unfortunately not for Huan. She had decided she needed to visit the
dentist today, not the one she sent me to, but one that she knows is cheaper!
Luckily for me, Huan doesn’t need any moral support for visiting the dentist so
I was able to snatch a much needed OAP nap.
What a day, exhausting but in a very pleasant way, we need more walks like that. I only have one minor worry and it’s this, “Why do the crooks of my elbows make me look like I’m a drug addict?” It could be sweat related but I’m not so sure. Any advice from all you doctors out there?
April 12th Monday started off differently today, before going shopping we popped across to the island to watch a show being put on for the Sanyuesan Festival. (Sanyuesan refers to the 3rd day of the 3rd month in the Chinese Lunar Calendar, it is a traditional festival for many ethnic groups across
Shopping turned out to be different today as well, the car park was nearly empty and there was plenty of space to move around inside. Maybe more snowbirds have returned north than we thought. It certainly makes my shopping experience more amenable.
After lunch Huan was off to school again, alone again, so I walked her there and then continued meandering. I met one of my pooch friends and sat on a stool to say hello and immediately he put his paws on my knee and just sat there waiting for a bit of love. He’s never done that before. Huan told me it’s because his owners keep trying to give him to me!
I felt guilty about leaving him but I had to make sure I was in time to meet Huan to walk her home, even though she didn’t know I was going to do that. My walk had reached nine kilometres by the time I met her, almost ten when we arrived home. That makes seventy kilometres for me this week, I think I’d better slow down a bit!
And that was the end of my day, not Huan’s, she
was out playing the hulusi again this evening while I was trying not to nod
off. As always, if you want to know anymore about Hainan, or even
🐸
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