Singapore, May 27th 2013
While in China I had problems with internet and the great firewall thus the silence...
Other than that, it was a great two weeks with loved ones in a nice luxurious hermit hut in the middle of this huge tropical island called Hainan, in the south of China.
Only place in China with a visa on arrival policy which was perfect until the day I went to the Kuala Lumpur airport and found out that since flights to the island from other Chinese cities count as domestic and those from Kuala Lumpur to fore mentioned cities don't, then I had to pass immigration in those cities rather than Hainan. And with no visa that would be quite hard... so thanks to technology I quickly got a couple of new tickets: one to Singapore and a return ticket from there to my final destination. Thanks to Asian airlines being much cheaper than the ones I'm used to, this trick didn't cost me much.
I spent a lot of time on the island just relaxing at home with Shanyue. This included eating a lot of great food, swimming in the condo's pool in the evenings and working on my Chinese.
We visited a fair bit of the island's attractions, which to be fair cater very much to a Chinese audience and so could generally be a bit less touristy. These included a nice tropical botanical garden, several nice beaches, a volcano park, and a monkey-ridden park.
China doesn't stop to amaze me: every time I visit there are new things to discover - good, bad, or just interesting. Apart from new food and a fair bit of language, I saw the struggle between unrelenting development and a beautiful tropical island whose people generally don't seem to need much and probably wouldn't care for all this tourism, industrialization and cement. I saw people spending almost all their time lazily socializing along the roads and the busy markets while relentlessly chewing paan - an interesting thing to try in itself. I saw fresh food markets with food so fresh that is still jumping around and where nobody seems to pity the turtles, the rare giant crabs, the frogs crawling in their very limited quarters waiting for their ultimate end. I saw the attitude to the beach of a people that doesn't know how to swim and thus beaches are generally unreachable or have very limited and well-guarded areas for bathing; this incidentally helps a lot to preserve the wonderful coast and coral reefs from that same people that wouldn't know how not to hurt them.
Next stop Singapore, and for most of my readers a surprise.
Other than that, it was a great two weeks with loved ones in a nice luxurious hermit hut in the middle of this huge tropical island called Hainan, in the south of China.
Only place in China with a visa on arrival policy which was perfect until the day I went to the Kuala Lumpur airport and found out that since flights to the island from other Chinese cities count as domestic and those from Kuala Lumpur to fore mentioned cities don't, then I had to pass immigration in those cities rather than Hainan. And with no visa that would be quite hard... so thanks to technology I quickly got a couple of new tickets: one to Singapore and a return ticket from there to my final destination. Thanks to Asian airlines being much cheaper than the ones I'm used to, this trick didn't cost me much.
I spent a lot of time on the island just relaxing at home with Shanyue. This included eating a lot of great food, swimming in the condo's pool in the evenings and working on my Chinese.
We visited a fair bit of the island's attractions, which to be fair cater very much to a Chinese audience and so could generally be a bit less touristy. These included a nice tropical botanical garden, several nice beaches, a volcano park, and a monkey-ridden park.
China doesn't stop to amaze me: every time I visit there are new things to discover - good, bad, or just interesting. Apart from new food and a fair bit of language, I saw the struggle between unrelenting development and a beautiful tropical island whose people generally don't seem to need much and probably wouldn't care for all this tourism, industrialization and cement. I saw people spending almost all their time lazily socializing along the roads and the busy markets while relentlessly chewing paan - an interesting thing to try in itself. I saw fresh food markets with food so fresh that is still jumping around and where nobody seems to pity the turtles, the rare giant crabs, the frogs crawling in their very limited quarters waiting for their ultimate end. I saw the attitude to the beach of a people that doesn't know how to swim and thus beaches are generally unreachable or have very limited and well-guarded areas for bathing; this incidentally helps a lot to preserve the wonderful coast and coral reefs from that same people that wouldn't know how not to hurt them.
Next stop Singapore, and for most of my readers a surprise.
Singapore, 27 maggio 2013
In Cina ho avuto problemi di connessione e colla grande muraglia informatica quindi m'è stato difficile aggiornare…
A parte questo, ho passato due belle settimane con persone care in un piacevole e lussuoso eremo nel mezzo di questa enorme isola tropicale chiamata Hainan, nel sud della Cina.
L'unico posto in Cina con politica di visto all'arrivo che sembrava perfetta fino a quando non sono arrivato all'aeroporto di Kuala Lumpur e m'hanno spiegato che poiché i voli dall'isola alle altre città cinesi contano come domestici e quelli da Kuala Lumpur a quelle città no, avrei dovuto passare l'immigrazione cinese in quelle città e non in Hainan. E senza visto sarebbe stato un po' difficile… così grazie alla tecnologia prendo al volo un paio di biglietti aerei: uno per Singapore e uno andata e ritorno da lì alla mia destinazione. Grazie all'economicità delle compagnie aeree asiatiche rispetto a quelle a cui sono abituato, questo scherzo non m'è costato poi molto.
Ho speso molto del mio tempo sull'isola semplicemente rilassandomi a casa con Shanyue. Il che ha incluso mangiare fin troppo ottimo cibo, nuotare nella piscina condominiale e migliorare il mio cinese.
Abbiamo visitato diverse attrazioni turistiche dell'isola, che ad esser sinceri sono molto orientate verso il pubblico cinese e quindi in generale potrebbero essere un po' meno turistiche. Tra esse un bel giardino botanico tropicale, diverse belle spiagge, il parco intorno ad un vulcano, e un parco infestato di scimmie.
Cina non smette di meravigliarmi: ad ogni visita noto nuove cose - belle, meno belle, o semplicemente curiose. A parte nuovi piatti e la lingua, ho visto lo scontro tra lo sviluppo inarrestabile e la bellezza tropicale di un'isola alla cui gente in generale non sembra manchi molto e probabilmente non sarebbe interessata a tutto questo turismo, industrializzazione e cemento. Ho visto gente spendere la maggior parte del loro tempo socializzando pigramente lungo le strade e negli affollati mercati, masticando senza sosta noci di areca e foglie di betel (paan) -- un'esperienza interessante essa stessa. Ho visto mercati con cibo così fresco che salta ancora sui banchi e dove nessuno sembra impietosirsi per le tartarughe, i rari granchi giganti, le rane che si agitano debolmente nelle loro piccole gabbie aspettando la loro fine. Ho visto le spiagge di un popolo che non sa nuotare e quindi sono generalmente inaccessibili o con minuscole aree per la balneazione controllata a vista; questo incidentalmente aiuta molto a preservare le meravigliose coste e le barriere coralline da quello stesso popolo che non saprebbe come non danneggiarle.
Prossima tappa Singapore, e per la maggior parte dei lettori una sorpresa.
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