Hainan on a shoestring

So what can one get for a $50, 5D4N tour package to Hainan? By the way, if you haven't read how I got this deal, you could do so by reading my previous post :)

DAY 1
Arrived Haikou at 11am. Tour guide was already waiting at the arrivals when we exited.
Transfered to Haikou XingYuan Hotspring Hotel. My verdict on our first hotel, well, its only worth a 3 star, not 4 star as advertised.

This is Miss K popping blueberries (brought from home) at the hotel, spot the old fashioned TV? After pressing all possible buttons,turning on all switches, we could not figure how to turn it on, finally hotel sent someone up to fix the TV for us.

For those who (like me) thought that I could get some good bargains from Haikou, you will be disappointed. Haikou is definitely not a shopping place. Fashion wise, its too "chinese" for me. Weather wise, it's scorching HOT in June. The shopping malls have very weak air-conditioning, some does not even have air-conditioning.

DAY 2
After breakfast at the hotel, we were brought to the Five Official's Temple.My chinese history is about nil, and my mandarin is about 49% (I don't dare to give myself a passing mark of 50%) so, I was enjoying the architecture of the place rather than the history behind it. Miss K refused to walk, so guess where she ended up in?

I have to say, the tour bus we had was very new, clean and comfortable. We had a really good ride throughout our 4 days in Hainan. Thumbs up for bus 90K60!

On our way to Qionghai from Haikou, we stopped for lunch at this very touristy restaurant with very "interesting" make-shift baby chair:

It was a upside down pail :) But it did its job alright.

The main attraction at Qionghai was BoAo. We were brought to the BoAo conference site (nothing much to see here), just a fountain that looks like this outside the building which lacks air-conditioning with pictures of some officials who attended the BoAo Forum Asia. *Yawns*

We then had to pay 180RMB to go on the Wanquan River 'Cruise'. Actually, it was only a 5 minutes boat ride from the BoAo conference site to the sandbar which separates the river and the sea, not really a cruise. The boat ride was hot and stuffy. This is the scene from the boat, nothing spectacular.

As we arrived at  the sandbar at 1pm, it was too hot for any activities. It must have been something like 37 degC then as we were sweating buckets! There were many tents dotted along the sandbar selling knickknacks and fruits.We decided to seek shelter from the sun and have some mangoes as we while away the allocated 1 hour at that sandbar. I have to say, best mangoes in Hainan! 3 mangoes of this size for 10RMB (~S$2). Miss K had one whole mango to herself!

After we finally got back onto the bus, the tour brought us to Xinglong's Health Tea house for some herbal foot soak and massage and of course the usual sales talk in between.

We checked into Xinglong Treasure Island Hotel for our second night in Hainan. This hotel, I rate 2 stars, a far cry from the promised 4-star standard. It was old and rather dirty....but it has interesting fruit trees in the compound. Look what we saw. Miss K was terrified of that huge jackfruit.

Dinner at the hotel's restaurant was the worse meal during our stay in Hainan. The saving grace would be the many food stalls parked along the road outside of the hotel. We took a sweaty walk along the stalls after dinner and went home with 3 large mangoes (3 for 10RMB).
Highlight of Day 2 - eating 6 huge, juicy & sweet mangoes in one day, which was great, as it helped the little one with this:

And yes, we brought her potty along!

DAY 3
Started off by visiting the famous Xinglong coffee factory. Suprising that they are famous for their coffee, but the coffee we tasted in Hainan so far tasted horribly weak and lacks the umph.

Next was Dadonghai Beach. We arrived at 11:30am, got the little one changed into her swimsuit, and guess what? She said "Mama, No sand", I asked her whether she wants to go to the sea, she replied "Don't want", asked her whether she wants to build some sand castles " Don't want", so she was glued onto me for the whole hour.

J and I had a taste of our first 'Hainan Beer', very light and refreshing on that hot and sticky day. It was only 5RMB for a 750ml bottle!
After lunch, our tour's next stop was Nanshan Buddhism Park. This park was an additional 150RMB.

The 'Special Seafood Dinner' cost us an aditional 160RMB (~$30).This dinner was supposed to be a classy affair with good quality lobster and other crustaceans, but it was totally disappointing! Should have opted for the Monkey Island instead (Seafood Dinner was to replace Monkey Island)

To those planning a trip to Hainan, food is definitely nowhere near gourmet. This is what our food looked like on day 1,...and day 2...and 3 and 4. Seriously lacks variety. But do note that we get 8 dishes and 1 soup. No course for complaint here since this is supposed to be a $50 all in package tour  *keeps on reminding self*

We arrived at Sanya Jingwei Seaview Hotel rather late at 8:30pm (we did not have a seaview room by the way!) I rate this hotel 3.5 stars. The beach just about 100m away from the hotel looks nice, but we did not have a chance to walk along that beach as we had to leave for Haikou early the next morning.

DAY 4
The 'Oh-So-Boring' Silk factory as our first stop. I would rather laze by Sanya Beach. It was enlightening to see the process of silk making though, but the merchandise sold was certainly a rip off.
Next was an equally waste-of-time visit to the knife shop. Some demonstration on how durable the knife is etc etc....was totally boring.
Lunch that day was supposed to be a 'treat' from the tour company. It was a coconut themed lunch, Hainan's specialty. I got overly coconutified!

Yalong Bay was our next pit stop. The little one was so tired, she was fast asleep when we arrived, so we decided to have coffee at the nearby hotel so she could sleep on this comfy sofa ( we were very coffee deprived too, as we were only served tea for breakfast).

Miss Sleepy Head after waking up from her nap.

We only had 2 hours at this beach and the little one slept for about an hour, got really moody and grumpy for the next hour, so that's where our beach escapade ended. Sigh.

On our way to the Li Village to see women covered in tattoos, it started to pour. Apparently, a typhoon is coming by the coast of Taiwain and possibly will affect Hainan. Miss K and I stayed on the bus while the rest brave the rain to visit the tattoo-ed women in the Li Village. J came back saying that the place was partially under renovation, so nothing much to see and do. It was pretty deserted.

The last leg back to the hotel at Haikou was a long bus ride up north. Our last night in Haikou was at the Bao Hua Harbour View Hotel. We got upgraded as the previous hotel we stayed was overbooked.
It was a nice end to our tour as the dinner was the best dinner in Hainan and the hotel was indeed a proper 4-star hotel.

DAY 5
Tiger Airways back to Singapore  at 11:30am. The most chaotic flight I've been on, untrained staff, impolite, and worse of all, bad manners!
There was this teenage boy who was sitting with us, had been waiting for his ordered food for more than an hour. As we were about 45 mins from our descend into Changi (this is a 3 hour flight) we suggested he press the call button to enquire about his food and the air-steward came 5 minutes later and muttered, "if you guys keep on pressing this button, no food will get served as it will slow us down"!  The food was served 15 minutes before descend into Changi.

I was also wondering why my seat on both legs of the flight could not recline at all! Was totally uncomfortable. I will avoid Tiger Airways for any travel further than Malaysia next time!

Our verdict? Well, for $50 per person on a full board 5D4N package tour, it was well worth it.
However, personally, this might be our very first and also last package tour holiday.