Jailbreak 6: SanYa Summer 2020

Mine was the last on the right. 

Bath on a balcony

After climbing a mountain, taking on the world largest aquarium and everything in between, I felt it was time for some relaxing beach time. Where else but SanYa in Hainan, the "Hawaii of China" apparently. I wouldn't have gone that far but I can see how they got there. 

Anyway, I stayed in two different places. The first, SanYa Bay, I decided to stay in the landmark Pheonix Island which had both good and bad aspects. It was the poshest hotel I have ever seen, note the bath on the balcony with the seaview. The bed was so wide I had to roll over three times to turn off all of the lights. Despite the posh room, fancy bath and the beautiful pool, there was nothing else on the island. It was a 15 minute walk to the mainland to get some food. There was a little golf car shuttle thing but it wasn't a long enough walk to justify waiting for nearly twice as long as the walk takes. 

I stayed for a blissful three days before I moved to the more famous of the beach areas YaLong Bay, about a 40 minute drive from SanYa Bay. 

Sanya as a whole was hit badly by the virus, not in terms of cases but as it is a completely tourist dependent area. YaLong Bay is a long coastal road that is just resort after resort. I was lucky in that I chose a place within walking distance to a "commercial area" so I wasn't dependent on the hotel restaurant, especially lucky as it was closed for half my time there. 

It wasn't a huge area but it had a nice selection of different types of food, mostly based around seafood.
My resort was huge and pretty much deserted. My first night there I was told there were only ten rooms, out of several hundred, being used. As a result, the staff were bored and very very attentive and chatty. I had the larger of the pools to myself, the rest were in the kids pool a little way away. My grand plan was to ride out the hottest part of the day in the pool and investigate/ explore later in the evening. Originally I planned to stay in Sanya for only 5 days in total, I changed this almost as soon as I got there to nearly ten. Six just in my last place! As every where has been struggling in the post virus tourist slump, I found my very nice hotels at amazing discount rates. There is no way I would have been able to stay there for as long as I did on any other occasion.

All in all, a truly stunning and accommodating place. Loved it, and will be more than willing to go back in the future.