I’ve been pretty ill for the last few days so I admit to not having seen a lot of Sanya or Hainan. My trip from Shanghai was a real chore. I was feeling sick, dripping cold sweat dragging my luggage across Shanghai to the airport. The one thing I wanted to do was catch the Maglev train which at 431km/h is the fastest train in the world. I managed that and got to the airport on time but was feeling really ill.

Fastest train in the world

Fastest train in the world

The flight to Sanya went without incident but with blocked sinuses, ears that wouldnt equalise and cold sweats it wasnt fun. Arriving in Sanya was a right pain. I had booked a serviced apartment but no one knew where it was even though I had the address. Unfortunately there wasn’t a phone number for them so I couldnt even get a cab driver to call them… and remember this is all in Mandarin – a language that I certainly dont speak.

After about an hour of phaffing around, including having one cab driver who said he knew where to go and then pulled up 500 metres out of the airport indicating that he had no idea where he was going but that it was going to cost me 40 Yuan to get there and subsequently getting out of the cab and dragging my bags back to the airport, I was totally fed up. Oh… did I mention that it was 11pm at night as well?

Eventually I managed to find someone who was able to get on the internet and find a phone number for the apartments. She called them and I was able to get a cab that could take me there. By this stage I was sick, tired and totally short tempered.

The last few days I have been trying to get rid of this bug but right now I feel like a walking infection. I’ve been able to find 2 chemists, neither of which sell anything but chinese medicines. Each time I feel like I am getting a little better, I begin to feel worse. The most I have seen of Sanya is a couple of chemists and the beach. Dont suspect that I am going to see much more of it than that either.

Tomorrow is my last full day here and I am off to Hong Kong on Thursday for 8 days. I’m meeting some friends there and will at least be able to get some real medicine because this chinese stuff is doing absolutely nothing for me. I dont know what bug I have picked up but it has knocked me for six that’s for sure.

Hopefully next time you hear from me I will be a little less whingey and back to full health.