Sanya, China

March 21st
Sanya China

Another day, another new port I’ve never knew existed. Sanya was a nice Chinese port that I was able to just go exploring around in for a while. The city is pretty busy and seems to be developing at a quick pace, but you still see so much influence from the city’s cultural background. I left the ship and walked into the city with nothing really in mind aside from just seeing as much as I could. After some time walking around on my own, I ended up running into my roommate and some other guys from the ship, who I then hung out with for a while longer. We spent a good portion of our time looking for a place to exchange our American dollars, but had absolutely no luck. It was odd how quickly everyone said “no” when we walked into banks with US currency. It was fun though, and I found it amusing hanging out with my Russian friend (also the musical director on the ship) when he’d walk into these places saying, “do you change the money” in a stereotypical Russian accent. We eventually gave up on that quest for another, to find a restaurant that would accept our money. The Russian, Misha, actually came across a place that had a Russian writing on the sign, so after a quick translation, we figured we could successfully dine there. So we did, and it really wasn’t anything special. They had a BBQ going where the waiters would come out every 5 minutes with a different BBQ item, be it beef or shrimp or pork, none of which was really all that great. We stayed about an hour, and it was nice for the atmosphere up on this 4th story balcony overlooking the city, and eventually headed out after a struggle with paying for the food with our US cash…big pain. So we left, my group headed back to the ship on a crew shuttle, and I decided to press on looking for other things to see. I made it through some interesting areas, some obviously less affluent, some maybe a little sketchy, and then ended up at the beach before making the trek back to the ship. And then that was about it for the day, so now I get ready for a sea day back to Hong Kong and the start of another cruise. Seeya!