Bad Surf Day, Bad Dinner, Lazy Day, Good Dinner

August 22^nd Breakfast, (cereal and milk at home), was OK today and that’s about the best part of our day. Our plan was to go to Ri Yue Wan today, check out the Shaka Surf club and maybe have a swim, followed by a trip up the mountain to see the waterfall and have a plunge in the pool.

First off, the rain started on the way there and didn’t stop until we were nearly home in the evening. We went from the Sanya direction and missed the Shaka Surf Club completely, the sign is too small. Once we found it and realised that swimming was not on for today we ordered some drinks while we perused the menu, two piña coladas, one water and one iced coffee. The lady serving us told us that cocktails were off the menu because the person who mixes them was off duty. Replacement drinks were ordered, Chris’s came quickly, a bottle of beer, I poured Huan’s, a cup of hot water. Amber’s gin and tonic followed on shortly. My iced coffee got lost somewhere along the way and I changed my order for a cola.

Then we ordered our food, which took an inordinately long time to arrive and then only one came, Chris’s burger. He had ordered a ‘fried chicken burger’, the staff told him they had no buns and asked if he would be OK with bread. He agreed. His burger arrived and it was beef! Next up came Huan’s salad which, apart from being very late, was pretty good. Third, after another long delay was Amber’s, which was completely wrong. She had ordered a sausage and mushroom pizza which turned up with only chicken sausage, none of the promised salami, and even worse, no tomato base on the pizza. Amber was going to order a new one but at this time, we learnt that the cook had gone to his hometown for a couple of days and whoever was in the kitchen was struggling. They were having to feed the ‘workers’ before they fed us, this I presume would be the workers who had been surfing when we arrived and came into the club after us! Eventually mine arrived, a fry-up breakfast, again chicken sausages and no butter on the toast. From ordering our food to receiving the final dish took nearly two hours!

We had heard such good reports about this place and to say we were disappointed would be a gross understatement. Hopefully it was just a bad day and future visits may not have the same problems.

Ri Yue Wan is certainly a lovely place to visit and there are other places for food and drink so I would say you should still visit. There is a great little hotel, with a swimming pool, just across the road. It’s called Forrest Inn and is not too expensive if you fancy staying the night. As mentioned it was raining today but this panorama still gives you an idea.

Once we left the surf bar, we went off to find the waterfall which is only a few kilometres away. Unfortunately, once we found it, it was not really possible to get to it. A retaining wall had been built for the road making the initial access point lower than it used to be. On a dry day this would be no problem but on a wet, rainy day it looked a bit too treacherous to risk trying to clamber down.

So it was then back to Wuzhishan where we relented and took up our tenant’s suggestion of eating in her restaurant. This meal didn’t go as planned either, but in retrospect, it could have been our fault. We were ordering dishes to share and I think the restaurant does mostly hot pot. Consequently, our food was coming out in stages for the second time today! Had we realised they only did hot pot, we would have ordered accordingly and had a much better experience.

What a day, I think we were all glad to get home.

August 23^rd Another lazy day for all although Chris and I did go for a little (6km) walk. We spotted one of the Li Minority frames by the river which had been taken over by vegetation, while still keeping the impression of the figure intact.

It seems like even the weather is not happy that our guests will be leaving tomorrow, Chris took a few pictures of the mountains being sad.

In the evening Chris and Amber treated us to a meal at CoffePrinz again and I’m happy to say that I got my dinner this time! In fact it was a wonderful meal as can be seen by this photo. Just look at that Thai seafood curry!

Lazy Days, Hainan Ethnic Culture Museum, Anniversary

August 15^th Sad day, time to leave the hotel and make our way back to Wuzhishan. Huan and I took some photos of the ‘Tea House’ as we were up early before our first ‘item on the agenda’ which was to make the most of our last buffet breakfast. Needless to say, we all did it justice! After that, we took our last dip in the pool beside our rooms before packing up and moving out. Once back in the evening we took our guests to our normal ‘choose food’ place, I think they enjoyed it.

August 16^th All of us slept a little later than usual, one more than everyone else! It was a very busy day for me consolidating all the photos from my camera and phone, Christopher’s camera, phone and GoPro and then editing like mad. A lot of dashcam uploading was required as well, that may be finished in a day or two. We hadn’t planned anything touristy for today so that our guests could rest a little, it’s a good job too as it poured down with rain for half the day. In the evening, it was time for a visit to our local KMC. Yes, you did read that right; it’s our local KFC copy.

KMC went well enough although I do wish they wouldn’t foist soft drinks on you. On the way home, we passed one of the shops where we often talk to the man and his birds. Today he took them out of the cage to feed them.

Not only that, but he let me hold them while they were having their nosh too, I loved it.

August 17^th The weather caught us out again today. We decided to go swimming up the mountain at the ‘21’ Hotel’ but the nearer we got the harder it rained. Giving up on our endeavour I decided to visit the bank but on the way passed the museum. That had been closed when our guests were last here so we popped in to check. It was open!

You can see a lot more photos, taken on a previous visit, by following this link:-

https://photos.app.goo.gl/uS4cUQmKrsVMwgUP7

While I then went to the bank, Huan took Chris and Amber to visit the ‘new wet market’. They got back to the car before me because the ‘new’ market tenants all appeared to have moved back to the refurbished ‘old’ market. Topping up the fuel tank was the next job so we drove all through the town even showing Chris our ‘Lady of the Lake’. When we reached the fuel station there was a long line so I retraced our route all the way back to the first one. All pans were then abandoned for the day, except for this evening’s, so it was home for lunch.

Today was Chris and Amber’s wedding anniversary so we treated them to dinner at our only western style (sort of) restaurant, “Coffee Prinz”. The prices have come down and the quality is still good although you do have to be careful what you order. Chris’s sizzling steak was great, Amber’s fried noodles not so good, Huan’s ‘soup noodles’ were fine. “What about yours?” I hear you ask. Well, there was a mix-up with my order which was first blamed on other people booking their tables in advance and hence getting their “Seven Powder Chicken” before me, and secondly blamed on new staff in the back who cooked mine and then sent it to someone else. I ended up cancelling my order, eating some of Chris and Amber’s leftovers and then having a lovely “Banana Boat” dessert.

At least we all enjoyed the evening, I wonder if the two bottles of “Great Wall Cabernet” had anything to do with that?

August 18^th Today’s plan was a repeat of yesterday’s but one of our guests was feeling a little delicate so we all had a lazy day instead. We did go out in the evening to one of our local Muslim restaurants where the ladies both had “ròu jiā mó”, the men had lamb and beef and we all shared two plates of fried rice. It was ‘lubbly jubbly’ as they say.

Chris and Amber wanted to try ‘stone walking’ again so went down to the town square and obliged their whims. Huan joined them but my ‘soft feet’ had a rest. No photos were taken but a few videos were, here’s a screen shot from one of them.