Beach Weekend
Topic of the day: A gorgeous noneventful weekend in paradise
As it turns out, my company was nice enough to send its entire China staff on a weekend outing to beautiful Sanya, Hainan Island. Engulfed by the South China Sea, the island is one of the southernmost points in China (even more south than Hong Kong). The island's original inhabitants was the Li minority group (an off shoot of the Hmong people), then later inhabited by the Muslim Hui minority and then Han Chinese. It is also China's largest island.
A 4 hour plane ride took us to this gem of an island, where we were promptly shuttled to our hotel, the Holiday Inn in Yalong Bay, the most beautiful stretch of beach in Sanya. Now, I don't usually take very many resort vacations. In fact, the only resort vacation I took before this trip was the 7 day cruise during junior year of university (Digs and Drake, don't even start!). While most of the time, I think of resort vacations as too over-priced over-rated, and just plain boring, I totally loved this resort vacation!! I accomplished absolutely nothing the whole long weekend that I was there - took almost next to no pictures, only ventured off hotel grounds once (to go to a company organized dinner), and remained either poolside or beachside all weekend long. While I don't plan on taking many resort vacations (especially with my own money!), this was such a fabulous weekend.
I was basically doing what you see people do in brochures and resort pamphlets - drinking coconuts in the pool bar, swimming in crystal blue/green water, soaking up the sun, etc. For a weekend, things basically don't get any better than this.
On Saturday night, the company also organized a great BBQ, possibly the best I've ever had (or at least the one with the most gourmet variety!) - there were oysters, chicken, lamb, crabs, shrimps, clams, fish, antipasto, salad, dessert, the whole nine yards - wonderful!
Leaving Sanya proved to be very hard - who can leave a place where the sand is that white and the water that blue?? *sigh* There just goes another spot on my list of places I've got to revisit again... :)
As it turns out, my company was nice enough to send its entire China staff on a weekend outing to beautiful Sanya, Hainan Island. Engulfed by the South China Sea, the island is one of the southernmost points in China (even more south than Hong Kong). The island's original inhabitants was the Li minority group (an off shoot of the Hmong people), then later inhabited by the Muslim Hui minority and then Han Chinese. It is also China's largest island.
A 4 hour plane ride took us to this gem of an island, where we were promptly shuttled to our hotel, the Holiday Inn in Yalong Bay, the most beautiful stretch of beach in Sanya. Now, I don't usually take very many resort vacations. In fact, the only resort vacation I took before this trip was the 7 day cruise during junior year of university (Digs and Drake, don't even start!). While most of the time, I think of resort vacations as too over-priced over-rated, and just plain boring, I totally loved this resort vacation!! I accomplished absolutely nothing the whole long weekend that I was there - took almost next to no pictures, only ventured off hotel grounds once (to go to a company organized dinner), and remained either poolside or beachside all weekend long. While I don't plan on taking many resort vacations (especially with my own money!), this was such a fabulous weekend.
I was basically doing what you see people do in brochures and resort pamphlets - drinking coconuts in the pool bar, swimming in crystal blue/green water, soaking up the sun, etc. For a weekend, things basically don't get any better than this.
On Saturday night, the company also organized a great BBQ, possibly the best I've ever had (or at least the one with the most gourmet variety!) - there were oysters, chicken, lamb, crabs, shrimps, clams, fish, antipasto, salad, dessert, the whole nine yards - wonderful!
Leaving Sanya proved to be very hard - who can leave a place where the sand is that white and the water that blue?? *sigh* There just goes another spot on my list of places I've got to revisit again... :)
