This was a wonderful three full days and an evening of exploring with sister Carol and her husband Ian. Added break from blogging and posting because the Chinese have Google blocked/ firewalled along with other social media sites - our blog resides with Google.
We visited interesting sites, including a pair of hill peaks with a figure-8 of boardwalk high above a tree canopy (Phoenix Park), and an evening visit to a tourist beach area that reminded us of a romantic visit to Hawaii and walking in the evening on a beach with music wafting from starlit hotels.
To access the tree canopy, we took a gondola, and then walked for blissful hours in the descending sun. Sanya is a tourist destination for both Chinese and Russian tourists and a part-year escape for Chinese "snowbirds", and bridal parties. The elders in Sanya are equally occupied with their own well-being and care for their grand-children, some of whom are in Sanya with their grand-parents, while their parents work elsewhere. Yolanda enjoyed the moments when she looked up from smiling at a child to see a beaming grand-mother or grand-father. We saw wedding couples and their photographers at many of the beautiful sites we visited.
On quite a number of occasions, Bob and Carol had a lovely time connecting about birds of the area and documented some interesting types that we had not seen before. We went for several walks to spot birds, including to Bai Lu Park island. This site was also a hang-out for elders in singing groups and for exercise and photography.
We have not been to Florida, but we were told by Carol and Ian that there is a similar cultural milieu there. Many times we felt like we were in Hawaii, and in particular on our final evening in Sanya when we went to Yalong Bay and dipped our feet in the South China Sea, Eastern Pacific while pop music drifted out from the nearby bandstand and we experienced the evening culture of music and mixing on the beach. We missed seeing niece Christine's commissioned butterfly mural, and envision one day being able to do so. We found the people of Sanya to be quick to smile and very helpful. We'd certainly come back to Sanya if we are ever in the area again! It is a great destination.
Our journey home included a stop in Hong Kong (which was extra long due to the previous flight being about 2hrs late) and another stop in Vancouver . We arrived home about 26 hours after leaving our Sanya hotel and went to sleep in our favourite bed on the planet!
