April 1st Not long after posting the blog last night Huan started getting lots of messages on her WeChat group for our place in Wuzhishan. Just our luck, we are here in Haikou, stranded in the hospital, and they had the first ever dragon boat races on the river. There was also a sound and light show on our little island and all sorts of other events to celebrate 三月三, Sān yuè sān festival. This translates to March 3rd but it is not really that. It is in fact the third day of the third month in the traditional Chinese calendar and is celebrated by the Li and Miao minorities. Never mind, it should be even better next year.
As for us, well the weather has worsened, no walkies this morning. I did have fun though, an early visit from the nurse to extract my life force for white cell testing. Don’t worry, my eyes are closed so that I can’t see the needle!
We sat in our beds all morning until Huan went and bought some corn on the cob for us. After the afternoon spell in the machine, I got changed and then we sat in the car for a while just to run the engine. No driving, that would lose our parking space unless we stayed out late. So, your second photo of this week is me again, reading a book for a few minutes.
Once Donald had been exercised enough, we took a walk to the shopping centre on the main street. We needed exercise too, and some fresh air. We found a new way out of the holiday camp, one where it seems the inpatient transporters go to die.
Our only scenery photo of the day was this one, you can see that the skies are grey. With a little luck, and according to the forecast, the weather should only improve from now on. Also, we found that we have three days off this weekend so more photo-ops should present themselves.
Fancy a new car? Perhaps I should say truck, I know I like it. Huan would like to be a passenger in it but she wouldn’t want to drive it, it’s very big! It’s a RAM TRX Mammoth.
After visiting the shopping centre and refusing to part with twenty quid for four Gillette Mach 3 razor blades it was time to find a restaurant.
And here is our grub for today, mine first.
Finally for today, football. Now I have absolutely no interest in it at all but I seem to remember that someone in my rather large family supports this team.
April 2nd Just after the doctor’s rounds this morning, which Huan had to record, she had a call from Yú. She and Zhào dé were asking how I’m doing in hospital. Huan decided that she would record her response before sending it.
Our weather had improved today although it was still a long sleeves and jacket day. That meant we could venture out in the morning again and have lunch while we were at it.
After that we had a wander through the more residential parts of Hǎidiàn Island.
Apologies for three collages already but there is a reason. The next weekend will be a ‘long one’, so no treatments on Friday, Saturday or Sunday. The staff will be on holiday for 清明节, Qīngmíng jié, more details here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qingming_Festival. Not all of today’s photos are collages though, here’s some scenery for you.
We follow that with a difficult to capture butterfly and a difficult to capture bird.
And then we have Huan’s photo of me taking a photo of a lizard, followed by the chap himself, and then Huan trying to get me touch him.
We were then very lucky, at the side of the road, finding this beautiful subject.
I found two more a little further on, hiding in the trees.
And then right outside our building in the hospital, Huan found a lizard. She thought he was a dirty one, I thought he was just camouflaging himself well.
No worries with the treatment, I always think it is over too quickly. Huan says that I am in longer than I think I am. Out of curiosity I do wonder how and why they plan the quantity and strength of the treatments. Trust the doctors, all will be well. That’s what I always tell Huan.
After uploading all the photos, editing them, and writing this post, it was time to go out again. Huan had decided that we would eat almost next door to the hotel we usually stay in when we visit Haikou. It’s not what I would have chosen for dinner but it did the job.
April 3rd Happy Thursday all, last treatment of the week coming up today. First of all though, after Dr. Jiáng had been to see me, it was off to ENT again. My ear must have been in a terrible state to require all this cleaning and medication. I have to go back again on Monday. Once I was sent on my way it was walkies for us again. We followed the river that we have followed a few times and decided to see if we could go further. Unfortunately, when we came to this view, there were no paths down either side.
We thought we might be able to follow the river’s route by going through a housing complex. It had some nice villas, but also some bad ones. The area is awaiting redevelopment. The scenery was still good though.
Huan was doing her best to find me birds, most of which I could not capture. I saw the third one here while she was trying to point out a different one further away. I was lucky.
You can blame the rest of today’s photos on me. I rather liked this old thing in someone’s doorway, it was an empty villa. Arriving home we had to identify and translate of course. It was a 貔貅, Píxiū - Mythical wild animal / brave troops. Doing an image search with Google turned up the following AI result. “The image shows a bronze Pixiu statue. Pixiu are mythical creatures in Chinese culture that are often depicted with a lion-like body, dragon-like head, and sometimes wings. They are considered auspicious symbols of wealth and good fortune. The statue is green and gold in colour and appears to be old, possibly an antique. It is standing on a stone surface in front of a brick wall. The statue's mouth is open, and its tongue is sticking out. It has horns, pointed ears, and a long tail. The body is adorned with intricate patterns, and the overall appearance suggests a creature of strength and majesty.” I couldn’t have said it better!
We were running out of time to follow the river so we headed back towards the hospital. We have shown you various lunches that Huan has been buying in front of the hospital but we have not shown you the food stalls. Consider that omission now rectified.
There are more stalls but I was dodging traffic so I skipped them. Today we had a home-made lunch, two pieces of steamed bread, one each, with two boiled eggs each as well. Back in the room, using my trusty knife, we cut the bread and made sandwiches with the eggs, olive leaf and pickled gherkins. It made a nice change.
After my few minutes in the machine and a nice cup of coffee it was time to decide on dinner. While we were contemplating, I took a couple of photos of the bathroom and tried to join them. Huan is busy in there a lot!
We then set off walking with no particular destination in mind. Haidian Island has a lot of villa complexes which we quite enjoy wandering through. Today we ended up right in front of the old Carrefour shop and in front of this restaurant.
Dinner was taken before shopping, not that we needed much, just snacks and cotton wool. This was dinner, Huan’s on top.
That was the end of our day, our vacation within a vacation starts tomorrow!
April 4th As I write this, I am more than a little bit tired, we ended up walking eleven kilometres today. It was interrupted by two bus rides though. Mind you, tomorrow I think I will take Donald for some exercise, I could do with a day off. Our plan failed right at the beginning when we found that buses have been diverted from the main street until July. That resulted in the first unplanned walk until we found one that would take us off Haidian Island. Getting off the bus the first thing I saw was “Detective Conan”, don’t ask me, I don’t know. PS I had to take this photo with my phone, I couldn’t go back far enough with the camera.
We didn’t really know where we were although we did recognise some things. This plane was one of them. Do you like the little alien on its tail? We thought you might like to know some technical details, bear in mind it is a very old aircraft. Picture translation by WeChat, it seems to be getting better at doing what it does.
“What’s that old building up there?” asked the commander. That meant I would have to climb the stairs which I was not really looking forward to at all. My left leg and my rear left bum have been giving me a lot of aggro since yesterday. Still, I didn’t want to disappoint Madame, so off we went, passing the ‘stone’ on the way. 玉沙廟, Yù shā Miào, Jade Emperor Temple
Inside I took a lot of photos, but if I put them all here with a little screed for each one, I will be here all night. Instead, they are in a massive collage. You can always ask in the comments if you want to see something individually.
Back outside the modern was contrasting with the ancient. The electricity lines were turning through 90º and a short distance away returning to their original route by a water tower.
Down the road we found this, how could I say no.
It was right next door to ‘Top United’ shopping centre.
It took us a while to realise it but this is where another Carrefour used to be. It seems that there are now only four branches left in China. All in all though, we think this site has improved, there are certainly more food outlets now. We found three to suit us.
Looking over the whole complex and the car park we could see quite a lot of changes, most of them for the better. It is certainly busier than before.
We had a walk all the way round, on every floor, it was thriving, not too many closed shops. Being a holiday there were also quite a lot of families out for the day. This is one where the girls wanted to practice their English, they were pretty good at it too!
Huan then found an archery place, I didn’t want to try it and she refused.
We also found two or three escape rooms; I wonder what they are like here? Before we left the shopping centre I had to take this photo.
Huan was happy that I managed to snap a very small birdie.
And I was happy to get a little bit of scenery in before we found a bus stop to take us ‘home’.
When we got back to the hospital it was straight to bed for me, I was completely exhausted. Much to Huan’s chagrin I also refused dinner this evening, I just didn’t feel like it. On the plus side I did manage to complete today’s post before bedtime. However, on the negative side, I found that somehow, (it must have been me), all the photos in this week’s temporary folder have been named with today’s date. Much work to sort it all out resulting in a later bedtime. Not to worry, we are on holiday within the hospital holiday at the moment so nothing much tomorrow.
April 5th Having walked so far yesterday, and as promised, we took Donald out for a change. Our first stop was the beach, lots of work going on to make it more tourist friendly.
This is not a swimming area but it’s a view that says something to me.
The beach area is not bad, although there is still visible typhoon damage. It will probably look good once all the restoration and improvements have been completed.
We didn’t stay there too long and continued our exploration along the new dual carriageway heading east. We saw a sign for a well known bay so turned off, we needed lunch anyway. This is 林梧村, Lín wú cūn - Linwu Village.
After doing a complete circuit of the village, we were soon back at a burger shop, right in front of Donald. Should you visit this village, the burger shop also has tea, with ice if needed.
In the shop there were three children and a month old worried kitten. I picked it up and gave it a little love and then someone asked if they could have it back. With a little lecture about being gentle and taking care, I concurred.
Lunch was fine, although not ‘as per the pictures in the menu’.
Soon we were back on our way, along the coastal highway. Seeing signs for another tourist spot, we headed for it. A few kilometres further on we did a U-turn and tried again. Sometimes tourist signs in Hainan can be a little confusing. It all adds to the fun. Finding the correct turn off we took it and ended up here.
Huan went inside the temple.
I stayed outside to learn about where we were.
We didn’t have time to see everything mentioned in the blurb but we thought that we should really visit the tower. First, we had to go up!
The higher we went the mistier it got.
Soon we were at the base, having a rest before tackling the stairs.
And then it was through the door, have a look around and up the very narrow stairs.
Ancient Chinese were obviously not very fat. You have to turn sideways as you ascend. The walls were covered in condensation from the mist so for us it was not very comfortable. If you are ‘bigger’ than me, don’t try it, you’ll get yourself wedged in! Eventually we reached the top. Unfortunately, today’s weather precluded seeing any of the views. If you go, make sure it is a sunny day, you will be impressed.
After a short break it was time to make our way back down, mush easier said than done, for me anyway. Huan is slimmer so she even managed to take photos.
It was nice to be on solid ground again. Should you visit? Absolutely, just check the weather, your waistline and don’t bring small children.
Huan even agreed to have her photo taken!
On our way up we saw that some people had driven their cars up to a much closer car park so I thought it would be a good idea to down the way they had come up. First though, we had to get to the car park area they used. To do that, we took the stairs with a panorama on the way.
And here is Madame on the stairs. She actually asked for the second photo to be taken.
Going down was a lot easier than going up but, there is always a but, it was much further. I was ever so glad to find the last photo. My army friends will understand!
If you want to visit, and find the nearest car park, look for this turn off.
Back where Donald was waiting Huan found a lizard, high up on a branch. I didn’t expect any great results but at least I got it!
We took a roundabout drive back towards the hospital, via the large RT Supermarket. No photos from there at all, all we have now is our dinner. Mine is sans rice.
The evening was taken up with photo uploading, sorting and editing.
April 6th British weather returned this morning, it feels like we are somewhere up in the north west, rainy and miserable. Still, that gave me plenty of time to do yesterdays ‘words’ as we call them. Huan found things to do as well!
After lunch and a nap for Huan, it was time to go out for some much needed fresh air, exercise and of course, food. On the way we passed an ancient creature and one of its modern descendants. I think taking photographs of dinosaurs would have been much easier!
Then we had a chat with this snowbird and his pooches. Here I was pointing at the dogs and he was telling me their names. The white one was “Lucky”, the brown one was Oolong Tea but in Chinese – “乌龙茶, Wūlóngchá”. I suggested to him that the big white one was his and the little brown one was his wife’s. Blow me down if I wasn’t only right.
At the old Carrefour market, hence to be known as Fu Lian Shun Supermarket, we decided not to do any shopping and for a change to eat at the sushi restaurant.
There is a conveyor belt if you don’t fancy ordering anything. The plates are colour coded with price details shown just in front of each place setting.
We ate quite a few dishes from there but Huan also ordered from the menu. Unfortunately, as is almost the norm these days, the menu is an app on your phone, not half as easy as reading a ‘real’ one. Huan ended up with soup and an egg dish and I ended up with what seemed to be a kid’s meal. I have to point out that many other adults had chosen exactly the same as me!
April 7th I had another visit to ENT this morning, the doctor thinks I am nearly finished! He wants to see me again on Thursday, lucky me. Speaking of luck, we had been approved to visit the university grounds today, maybe we would spot some egrets.
As it happened, we saw some of those pesky birds immediately.
And then it was on to the boardwalk we went, not for too long though.
We did see a Common Moorhen in amongst the trees, but we got a better shot later on. Instead we will show you one of a few Black Collared Starlings that we saw.
More ‘white birds’, then a bridge and then even more white birds. If you look closely though you might spot what Google thinks may be grey herons. I’m not so sure.
How about a nice bit of architecture, some that you may not think look like carbuncles. The first is a clock tower building under renovation, the second one, the blue one in the middle, is our lovely hospital. Mind you, we are in another building on the same grounds.
Let’s see a few more birds, a Crested Myna and some more of those whiteys from Blighty.
Now we have some more Common Moorhens and what the internet says is a Chinese Pond Heron. He had his eye on me too!
Today’s photos are too many to include all here, some pruning was necessary. However, we don’t get to see enough of Huan so she is still here!
We left the university by a different gate, that led us to what we think is the accommodation area for staff and teachers. There we found more birds, another Black Collared Starling and what could be a Madagascar Hoopoe (or a Eurasian one).
After another walk to do some shopping, we returned to the hospital. I got Huan to take some photos while I tried to skip. That was not a good idea!
In the afternoon I had my usual ‘zapping’. Evening time had us out for a very short walk to the local greasy spoon where we bought this. We had a fish each and shared the vegetables. The salty egg is mine along with the smaller rice. Sometimes simple is good.
Sitrep on the treatments. I have now had eleven spells in the machine. Is it working? I have no idea. I do have a numb left bum which turns to feeling like a Chinese burn if I get up the wrong way. Twenty two more treatments are left, hopefully some improvement will be seen.
Tune in next week for more news from the Chinese location of “Only When I Laugh” when we will regale you with more of our exploits. Until then, stay safe!
