Haikou 2

This monkey, Spanky, lived in a cage in the hostel courtyard. According to the label, he was orphaned when his mother was eaten at a restaurant. He was raised for the same fate, but fortunately a kind person rescued him. He has to be kept in captivity because he wouldn't survive in the wild. He looked morose, but he's alive and that's something. Humans can be horrid.

I decided to visit the old town where the markets and old shops are. I walked across the channel separating Haidian (海甸),  the island which is part of Haikou, from mainland and reached the old city markets. This was an empty shopping street due to exclusion barriers but it was a rare treat not to have to be on the alert against electric scooters.

I walked around the block, taking pictures, but had to look to find the entrances to the market lanes.

There were the usual dry and wet goods. Hainanese was spoken everywhere.

I found a food court where meals were paid with stored value card. There I had Wenchang Chicken. It was more or less what I expected. There was too much skin. I had a sticky rice dumpling with the chicken since it wasn't accompanied with broth flavoured rice as Hainanese Chicken from South East Asia would.

I had a look at the Haikou electronics centre. Electronics means in this case, mobile phones in the front of the ground floor and computers, mostly laptops, inside and on other floors. Interestingly prices were actually not that good compared with Australia.


Then another long walk to Carrefour where I did some shopping, then had a Chocolate "Cindy" at Maccas. Probaby due to 新地 (new earth) coming from Cantonese where it sounds like sundae.

In the evening I walked around the block looking for restaurant, found that a recommended one was actually inside a hotel with a long driveway. I would look out of place in that kind of place. Instead I went to the hawker strip and had lotus leaf rice, then an ice concoction which I couldn't finish so took remainder back to hostel. I talked to a German couple who had studied Classical Chinese before coming to China and told them about the food court in case they wanted to try Wenchang Chicken.

Haikou 1

Time to leave. I filled up at breakfast, then checked out. The sun had started to come out so I had another stroll around the beach esplanade, which was only half complete. There were constructions noises all the time I was there and buildings in various stages of completion.

The reception said that the bus left from the junction near the hotel, it's very handy to the town that way, and only minutes after I arrived, a bus came along. Public transport services are frequent in Hainan as there are people constantly on the move.


I was too late for the same service that I arrived on. It would have been a nice symmetry, to stay exactly 48 hours in Qionghai/Boao. I helped a man with a vending machine. He tried to feed all the notes at once. No doubt unused to automation. But he had a mobile. I guess a mobile is intuitive and there are lots of people to take cues from. 

Almost an hour later I arrived in Haikou (海口) East (Rail) Station. Haikou simply means, unimaginatively, seaport. Following the instructions provided by the hostel, I caught the right bus and ended almost at the Haikou Banana hostel's doorstep. It's a little bit messy, not as neat as Sanya Backpackers.

I got my laundry done and then went to Evergreen Park for an evening stroll. It's nice to get away from traffic, especially those dastardly scooters that can come at you from the wrong direction, since they don't respect traffic rules. They seem to be mostly electric now which makes them silent until you hear a warning beep. Streets in Chinese cities are a cacophony of honks and beeps since vehicles make turns or stop by the wayside whenever it suits them, and other traffic flows around the stopped vehicle, making noise to warn that they are coming through.

Here are some flowers from the park.

I liked the stripes on these.

Kite flying appears to be popular here.

There are exercise machines for the locals.

Haikou is a port but it faces the mainland. The coast around here is a bit muddy and there are mangroves and of course mosquitoes.


Two princesses: As I was having dinner in a restaurant serving soy milk but also meals, two mothers came in with their little girls. The one with a ponytail had just finished a dance class to judge from her leotard. She was doing her stretches on the sofa, to the annoyance of her mother, who was trying to get her to eat. The one with the pigtails was at the next table and talking animatedly with her mother, and also not very concerned with eating. I'm sure that little girls are cute as long as you are not the exasperated parent.