Take me to the Ocean

A hint to our vacations destination..........

Man. Just looking at pictures makes me miss it so much already. We went off in an 18 hour sleeper bus ride to SANYA. The Hawaii of China. And oh was it blissful like the rumors of Hawaii. There is alooooot of writing I could do about this trip... but Im gonna try my hardest to keep it as simple as possible. Theres a lot of pictures, so maybe the storytellin will be told through them. And speaking of pictures.. before you oooh and aww at the beauties of the photographs, I must give credit and thanks to not one but TWO roommates that are photographers! So duh I steal most of their pictures. Thankyou so much April and Annalisa for sharing your talent :)

Its so hard to pick out of the thousands.. (literally) .. of pictures we have, because they all have so much memory and story behind them. So I tried to pick as few as possible that sum up my week. And then a lot of memories I am keeping to myself. Partly because I promised roommates I wouldnt share the stories/pictures anywhere online pahahahha.

MmmMkay.

We had low expectations going to Sanya, knowing it is Typhoon season and hearing the weather was going to be stormy the whole time. But still, Friday we got on our sleeper bus with 18 hours ahead of us...

we stocked up on snacks, books, card games, and of course sleeping pills.

{We learned Im incredibly bad at 007. Look how many cards I have!?}

Ahh and this is where the regretting of sleeping pills took place. For some reason, we didnt think about the fact that we were going to an ISLAND. Where a bus would not be able to drive straight to. So at midnight, we were told to get off the bus, then like a cow herd put on a boat. Not speaking Chinese, AND on sleeping pills made us suuuuperrr confused white girls. wow.... that boat ride was a blur. Dont we look happy and in control of the situation?

After the 4 hour boat ride we finally were able to snuggle back into our bus. Ive never been so happy to get back into a dirty stinky bed.

Stepping off of our sleeper bus we were greeted by our Hostel owner, JOE. He was pretty awesome. I mean, he runs a hostel on an island, you gotta be pretty chill to do that right? We called him a million times during our vacation to translate, or get directions.

Heres Joe

Annalisa didnt realize when she booked our Hostel that she actually booked a "delux apartment"... this was so confusing at first... being taken to an apartment from the hostel, but we were really grateful for it because it was so clean and new, and we had our own private bathroom with a WESTERN TOILET! Which you dont get at a regular hostel.

We got right to exploring. Found a fun market, then went to Da Dong Hai beach. It was everything I wanted. Such a beautiful day.

{Lady selling real pearls}

I think one of the most fun parts about the whole vacation was playing in the waves. Annalisa and I were the only ones brave enough to go out to where the under tide really get ya. This is seriously exhausting though, so wed rotate in playing and getting eatin by the ocean, to taking naps on the beach. Could life be better than that?

We also spent almost half of a day collecting seashells. There were SO many, Im guessing from the typhoon they had the day before we got there washing everything up.

{Aprils seashell art}

For some reason, everywhere we go theres Chinese people giggling at us, and wanting to take pictures of us and with us

{Sanya coconut}

This is ONE of the hundreds of weird pictures we took on a bus ride one day. We were laughing alot making funny faces.. pretty entertained... little did we know we were entertaining the whole bus as well. We realized soon that everyone was watching us, and laughing. Didnt stop us though

Still make me laugh when I look through them

Ah, if I lived in Sanya I think this guy would be my friend. Atleast just for giggling sake. He was me and Annalisas bike taxi driver one night, and made us laugh so hard. I mean really reeealllyy hard my abs were hurting

More chilling by the beach... day after day :)

Ok... so at the beginning of our trip we found this alley that was full of amazing street food. street food is the best, maybe because its so cheap. But also...I really think its delicious. We went back everyday. Sometimes multiple times in a day. Our favorite was this fruit drink.

It prety much was the taste of Sanya

The day before we left was one of the not good weather days. It was kinda a downer... not being able to go scuba diving, to the sanya chinese temple, or the beach. So what did we do? Got our hair washed :):) It ended much better than it started by going out with some people from our hostel. We went to the must see street market where I bought too many pairs of shoes, then to the "Dolphin Sports Bar". This was apparently where all the white people gathered from around the world. Its also where April and I got over excited about Mexican food and spent more money on food than I think we ever have. :) It was so worth it though.

{Dan from England and Antony from Quebec)

Our last day... ahhhh our last day. SUNSHINE. Our prayers were answered, and we got to spend our last day doing what we love most. Being in the sun and playing in the water. It was the most sunny day we had there... which is why Annalisa and I got crispy crisp burnt.

{Shes not tryiing to look like a Geisha.. thats how white her makeup was before she got sunburned. bahhahhaha}

In only took us about an hour after arriving in Sanya for our little American eyes to spot out a big restaurant that said " CASA MIA". We decided from the beginning that this would be our last night dinner. And boy it was the most delicious Italian food my taste buds have ever met.

And Im so burnt

This whole night was pure pain for Anna and I. we were FRIED. every little movement was death to us.. the pain is worth the fun though right? we barely slept that night...so sad.

We got back home and still had the weekend to relax before we had to go back to teaching. It was a good weekend watching General Conference for our church all weekend, and attending to our sunburns :) Its funny in America, its desired to be tan. Here in China they have cream to make their faces white, and carry umbrellas around so the sun doesnt get them. So when we got back to school today we got a lot of pitty looks from the teachers because we look like we got some color! hahah little do they know... we like it!

Im happy to say, we now are looking more tan than red.