Freeloading is Fun

Dan and I got to Sanya 2 days ago after a 4.5 hour bus ride from Linggao county where we WWOOFed at Guo and Niu's farm. Sanya is the southern city in Hainan where many Chinese tourists and foreigners come for the beautiful beaches. So far, I can definitely see the appeal.

I never thought I'd be grateful for the existence of Conrad Hilton, the creator of the Hilton hotel chain, but here I am in Sanya, Hainan feeling incredibly thankful for his ambition and appreciation for luxury so thanks Mr. Hilton! Much thanks.

Yesterday Dan and I went to Yulong Bay and used the private beach belonging to the Hilton hotel at the suggestion of one of the hostel owners: sweet, eager Ina. Sanya Sunshine International Youth Hostel is owned by a Chinese couple, Ina and Jason, originally from Beijing. She claimed that Yulong was her favorite beach out of Dadonghai Bay and Sanya Bay because it's frequented by less people, and hence a lot cleaner. I liked the sound of this, but didn't really think what it would mean to "go through the Hilton", which is how she stated it. It would take us 30-40 minutes to get there on bus, and midway en route we stopped by Dadonghai and grabbed a Western lunch of burgers and french fries. The food was much needed after a night of Chinese drinking games (difficult when your ability to count in Chinese is that of a 5 year old's) and a lot of free beers with the guests, workers, and owners of the hostel. Jason, Ina's boyfriend, apparently is a renowned bartender (although I'm sure her praise was a little biased), which proved to be true after making us the most delectable cocktails I've ever tasted: Manhattans, Singapore Slings, whiskey sours, and this apple chili cucumber concoction. We ended the night strumming on my uke and their guitar and enjoying the company of the workers at the hostel, including the cleaning lady who showed up later after having danced at a live show in a park. Let me just say I've seen the cleaning lady do everything from drinking, singing a song of praise to Chairman Mao, videotaping Dan and me, to hanging out with every guest here. Everything but cleaning the hostel (although it is, strangely enough, very clean). She's kind of crazy, but good crazy, and I like it. Everyone was forced to sing at Jason's demand, and boy, do Dan and I have terrible voices. They sure didn't seem impressed. We were put on the spot and so I made up a song about farting and pooping (very mature, I know, but I was feeling silly at the moment) hoping they didn't know enough English to figure out what I was singing about. Later Dan and I realized we should've just sung the theme song of the Fresh Prince of Bellair, one of the few songs we know all the lyrics too. Maybe another night.

Anyway, back to that Western lunch in Dadonghai. I knew after the first bite of our lunch and tasting that delicious melted cheese and crunchy fries that that day was going to be a good, good day. I was sure right. We hopped back onto a bus that would take us to Yalong Bay, which turned out to be a secluded area with a lot of high-end resorts. The driver let us off near the Hilton at our request. We walked down a deserted road with trees lining the sidewalks and freshly cut grass past the Marriott until we reached the Hilton: Sanya Resort and Spa.

DAMN. As soon as we entered the premises we were surrounded by a lush green landscape with flowers and trees of every kind. The entire place smelled like money. We walked up the driveway into a gleaming marble lobby and were pointed in the direction of the beach. Just like that. No questions. No suspicion. For all the workers at the Hilton knew, we were coming back from a day in town. The upkeep of this place was ridiculous, nothing was out of place, everything was manicured and immaculate. We walked down the path past 5 pools with turquoise water and beautiful shrubbery, a volleyball court in a sand lot, a water bar, cabanas with Chinese kids on their iPads, and down to the glorious beach. The water was 3 shades of blue, each shade different as the water got farther away from the shore, but all were a beautiful hue of clear blue. To the right and left of us were grassy mountains and few skyscrapers were to be seen. The shore was dotted with reclining beach chairs and umbrellas, lifeguards, chubby Russians, and Chinese families. Dan and I used as many of the free Hilton facilities as we could: we borrowed a volleyball using a fake room number, raced each other in the pool, saw who could hold their breath longer underwater in the pool, played a quick 1-on-1 game of volleyball on their sand court, used their plush sea-green towels, bodysurfed in their exclusive part of the beach, laid out and ate fresh lychee poolside on their reclining chairs, and rinsed off in their outdoor showers. Economists would call us “freeloaders”, but we were just taking advantage of what was there. I think Conrad Hilton wouldn't mind too much, and plus I'm fairly certain he's doing quite well anyway without the expense of two others, heh heh. But economists also claim there is no such thing as a free lunch, and we definitely paid the price. At around 8 o'clock we decided to head back to our hostel, so we asked the concierge where the bus stop was (the bus driver before had just dropped us off where we asked, it wasn't a real stop) and to our dismay he told us that the particular bus we wanted had already stopped running. Mistake number 1. The second mistake came when we got into one of the taxis that was waiting outside the Hilton, which for some reason had a flat rate of 35 RMB, which is around $6. This flat rate is absurdly high for a Chinese taxi, usually it's around 5 RMB, but it must've cost more because it was on retainer for the hotel, and consequently assumes everyone who gets into these taxis is loaded. GAH. We got dropped off halfway, which cost us $14 (insanely high), and took the bus the rest of the way. Despite this small annoyance Dan and I had a great first full day thanks to Ina's suggestion and Conrad Hilton. We'll definitely be going back there again.