The R & R That Wasn’t, Part 7 – Nantian Hot Springs

So, we continued on our way to our next, and last, planned destination, Nantian Hot Springs and Resort. It took us a while but we got there in the end.

The first thing of course was to get booked in. As usual, we had not booked in advance. It is hardly ever necessary here in Hainan. That could well be different during the Spring and Autumn Festivals though. Once again, ignore the displayed prices; they were far more than we actually paid. I had wanted a villa for the four of us but it seemed they were all out of action for some reason or other. Instead we ended up with ‘half a villa each’. Well, the two storey villas are divided into two rooms, one up and one down. The upper ones have a bath on the roof, very private too! The lower ones have a bath in the garden. Here are some pics of ours;

We did partake of the bath later on and although it never got full, we enjoyed it. The water was cool, perhaps the signs around are misplaced?

Getting around is easy, you just call reception and they send one of these

We took one off to the main building for our dinner. Nothing special, a normal Chinese evening meal I suppose, but the view was nice so we stayed for a few beers, that is until the girls had had enough of the mosquitoes!

These ducks appeared to be entered for the 100 metre the way they were moving. It was only when I looked behind them and saw #1 son chasing them and yelling ‘Beijing Duck’ that I fully understood!

After that it was back to the chalets were we decided to leap in the bath for a little rest and relaxation! Ah, bliss. . .

The next morning we walked to the Western Restaurant for breakfast. No need of a golf buggy, it is very close. The food was pretty good too!

After breakfast it was time to explore the reasons we had come.

As you can guess from the sign above, there is a lot to see! For future visits, we may well spend three nights so that we can get two full days in the water. Speaking of which, we started off in the swimming pool. Just like many pools in China, there are not enough sun loungers and in this case, many Russians as well as Chinese tourists. Once you have your loungers, someone always has to stay on guard!

More signs

And then a slightly worrying one, especially if you have children in tow. Of course, you could always give some to the mother-in-law!

Of course signs wouldn’t be the same without a little Chinglish now and then.

Now, my main reason for visiting was due to the fact that I’m a grumpy old man! We had read about the fishes that nibble away on your dead skin, and God know, I seem to have a lot. We took it in turns, always leaving someone to look after the loungers. There are many different fish pools, with three different sizes. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, the biggest one was closed for cleaning. We tried a few of the others.

It seemed that the fish took a liking to me, I usually had more than anyone else around me. In fact, at one time, they even decided to eat me!

Huan and I stuck to the swimming pool and the fish ponds. Chris and Amber did spend some time in the various hot springs. They enjoyed all the ones they tried. All in all this is a great tourist attraction, not overcrowded, at least during sunny periods! It seems well organised, there is plenty to do and the scenery is good. We will definitely go back

The album ‘Nantian Hot Springs’ can be found here –

https://photos.app.goo.gl/CJa7SFZEp2mVGkrR8

All too soon evening came and we had to leave. We took our visitors to a shopping mall so that they could have KFC before they left China. The one we chose, because it was near, was Haitang Bay International Shopping Complex.

A good time was had by all, that is, until we drove back to the hotel. Wifey and I had been to Haitang Wan before so knew our way around. Unfortunately, there were major road works in progress all around Haitang town so it took us quite a few detours, mostly unsigned! When we did eventually get out onto the correct road, we were stopped by the police. They were busy breathalysing everyone. Wow, what a farce that was. Communication breakdown between policeman and I, between Huan and the policeman and my son in the back seat thinking I was taking the mickey by not blowing correctly! The policeman didn’t seem to want my mouth to touch the analyser; he certainly stopped me holding it. In the end, probably because Huan got through to him, he gave up. I should add there was never anything to worry about; I gave up drinking and driving quite a few years ago!

And that was it, the end of the R & R that wasn’t, so called because by the following morning when we said our tearful goodbyes to our visitors, we were, and they probably were too, absolutely knackered. I think it took Huan and I a good week back in Wuzhishan before we were back to normal. As for Chris and Amber, they went off to Hong Kong for a couple of days before flying back to the UK where Chris had to get up early the next day and fly to Edinburg for a meeting. Amber was lucky, she had a few days more to sleep. I’ll be back with more mundane stories soon, don’t go away!

The R & R That Wasn’t, Part 6 – Baoting

I was going to include this in the next post but decided to put it here so that the ‘tags’ don’t bring up anything else besides Hainan and Baoting. Consequently this will be a very short post!

We visited Baoting on our way to our next planned destination mostly to show our visitors how things aren’t always done right. Don’t get me wrong, Baoting is quite a pleasant place, even beautiful in parts. There are also many activities available from here, cycling, hiking etc.

The disappointment comes from seeing this:

I have no idea what dynasty it is modelled on. It is not very well looked after at all. It does have the possibility to look absolutely beautiful!

Just imagine what could be done with it. Get rid of all the neon signs, dress up the shopkeepers and others in the right clothes from the dynasty concerned and you have a ready made, self enclosed, tourist attraction. Such a shame.

The R & R That Wasn’t, Part 5 – Shuimanxiang

April 12^th and up reasonable early again for a drive to Shuimanxiang. Supposedly from here you can take trips to Wuzhishan mountain but we have never seen any sign of any help for tourists at all. What tourist information signs there are, (see album) are tucked away out of sight. Definitely still worth a visit though. This is the view as you approach,

And now, here we all are at the bottom of the stairs. I seem to remember we tried to count them but I don’t know if we succeeded or if we just forgot. There’s a lot anyway, especially on a nice warm Hainan day.

And this is the view from somewhere between half way, and nearly all the way, otherwise known as a ‘rest stop’ for those who needed them!

It’s well worth the climb though and here we all are ‘on top of the world’!

At the top there is a Buddhist temple. It looks very attractive, in the old wooden Hainan style, even though I believe it’s made of bricks and steel.

You are welcome to go inside where you will find a huge hall with the golden Buddha at the end. There is a small tourism presence where you can buy incense sticks and other small knick-knacks. There is no pressure however.

Of course wildlife had to be found again but this time it was not #1 who found it but Amber. It actually bit her on her arm which swelled up quite a bit and was a little painful to boot.

Chris decided to try out his inner Ringo Starr, a little bit worrying really. If you managed to hit this gong successfully I’m sure it would reverberate all around the valleys. Still, there was no ‘hammer’ there so he couldn’t make too much noise.

So it was then off back down the steps, definitely easier going down than up. I hate steps anyway and would prefer a track. We went off the village at the bottom.We were busy looking for food when #1 decided he had found just the right place.

No the chickens were not for eating and neither was this!

They did manage to feed us though, lovely grub as it usually is in small towns and villages here in Hainan.

You can find more photos of Shuimanxiang here –

https://photos.app.goo.gl/2CXBRWAvqeC8JuZu9

And that was for our last day out in Wuzhishan, we headed home and stopped off at my favourite, maybe the only decent, coffee shop in town. It is perfectly located, slap bang between the Post Office, the Car Wash and the Police Station! It's also a place that I would love to own, if I had the money of course!

And here they all are, except me of course, waiting for their relaxing cups of coffee!! The coffee served here is Foshan coffee and personally, I love it. It is strong but not bitter.

So, it’s goodnight from me and goodnight from them, see you in a while.

The R & R That Wasn’t, Part 4 – Yanoda

Up early again on the 11^th April, much to the consternation of #1 son’s missus. She is not really a morning person, but we were off sightseeing yet again. Among the ideas I had given them before coming was Yanoda. This is a rainforest park, on the road between Wuzhishan and Sanya.

Lots more information can be found in the tourist brochure. It doesn’t take too long from where we live and so we arrived there about 10:30 AM.

When you arrive you will be met with a plethora of pricing options. My original plan had been to get us all VIP tickets. However, it seemed that the only advantage of those was that you rode in a golf cart to the ‘start’ instead of in a coach. All the ‘attractions’ are priced individually but we opted for the all-inclusive ticket which was cheaper, even if you didn’t want to visit them all.

So, off we went. Our first port of call was the lookout point. The views are amazing. Here’s a panorama to give you an idea.

On the way to our next port of call, the zipline, we stumbled across our photo opportunity with the birds. We hadn’t known about this and three of us were over the moon. Huan wasn’t so impressed, she’s not as keen on animals and birds as we are. My son, just like me, absolutely loved it. Here’s one of me with a couple of birds. Long time since I’ve had a ‘bird’ on each side of me!! The red one is actually drinking the sweat drops off my forehead. My only disappointment with this is that I had to stop so other people could have a go!

Onwards we went and sure enough, there was the zipline. There was a queue but it moved quickly enough. They ‘size you up’ to decide which line to put you on. I was put on the ‘heaviest’. Next they make sure you are strapped in, if you are wearing a camera, as my son was with his GoPro, they will try to make sure the view is not blocked. Finally they make sure that nothing is likely to drop off, cellphones, cameras etc and then they give you a push. This was me arriving at the other end. I enjoyed it although I would have preferred a little more speed! Make sure you look out for the cameramen otherwise you may not get your face in the piccie!

Once we were down it was time to follow the trail(s) again. We didn’t have much idea where we were going so just followed the crowd. We ended up at the ‘Kinship Gate’ a beautiful little spot. Lots of couples having photographs taken there. Again there were no problems with too many people though, we managed to get the photos we wanted.

It didn’t take long for #1 son to spot another ‘critter’. Sometimes I wish my eyes were a lot younger than the rest of me! This was another lizard. I’m amazed at the variety we see here in Hainan, more then I’ve ever seen anywhere else.

We carried on with our stroll and ended up near a lake, or man made water feature, you can never be sure in China. It was a lovely spot yet again, we could have spent ages there. There were even more parrots to have your photo taken with! Here’s one of Huan and I. We are not great selfie fans, and certainly have no ‘filters’ to make us prettier, but we do take the odd one now and again!

Lunch time was now upon us and so we headed for this:

I’m not actually sure what the health food was, but don’t be put off by the sign. We had ample choice and ample quantity, including chips! (French fries for you ‘simplified English’ speakers).

Onward and upward they say in the movies, but it was onward and downwards for us. One of the attractions we decided to give a miss today was climbing the waterfalls. Instead we went down watching (and teasing) those who were going up.

Somewhere along the way we had missed the parrot shows, which was no great loss. None of us are really fond of seeing animals being exploited too much. We also seemed to have missed some of the other things shown in the brochure. However, we didn’t actually get the brochure until we had finished our journey and then it appeared to be the last English one they had! We found ourselves at a buggy terminal, presumable one of many.

So we headed off back to the main entrance,

We had only spent about four hours inside. Better planning would mean you could spend a lot longer and enjoy what there is to see, and believe me there is a lot. An overnight stay may be the best way to make sure you get to see all. There is a hotel available and they also cater for campers. For us, definitely worth a return visit someday. Lots more photos are available in the Yanoda album here - https://photos.app.goo.gl/gtL99vErwC3uR8am7

Back to Wuzhishan it was for us then, a little lazing around and then out for dinner. This was the restaurant of choice.

There is a wide variety of food here so if you are bringing visitors who are not partial to Chinese food, or who just fancy a change it’s worth trying. Not too expensive either.

Next episode will follow shortly but I need to upload some photos first. See you soon!