Day 147 – Edge of the Sky, End of the Earth.

We met Marvin and our guide, Jack at 8:40 this morning for the bus ride to the Tian Ya Hai Jiao Park.  The interpretation is: Edge of the Sky, End of the Earth.  There is a legend about the rock formations in the ocean there, kind of a Romeo and Juliet story.  They were lovers that were trying to run away from their families so they could be together and when they got to these rocks, they couldn’t go any further, so they jumped in the ocean and drowned.  A sad way to be.  The Chinese call it a romantic story.  There is another reason it is called, “Edge of the Sky, End of the Earth,” and that is because an ancient Emperor of China came to Hainan Island and saw it was the end of the earth (a Christopher Columbus moment).  They have made a park here and people love to come here for the romantic story.

 

Edge of the Sky, End of the Earth.  Most of the time Sanya has blue, blue skies, unfortunately, it decided to be gray and hazy while we were here...  sign.  

Rocks on the beach.

Does it look like a tropical paradise?  Are you jealous?

This is the rock where supposedly the lovers ended their lives.

David and I walked along the beach to reach the rocks and then we walked the path back to where we met the rest of our group.  We stopped to have a fresh coconut cut for us and they put two straws in it and drank it on the way back.  The coconut had a LOT of juice in it!

 

David drinking from our coconut.  It was okay, but we had to try it.

I just get a kick out of some of the signs.

I;m not sure if the intent here is humor or just a strange interpretation...

We were driven to the restaurant where we had planned to have lunch and then after lunch, we walked across the street to go to the cleanest of the three beaches in Sanya, the one where most people like to swim.  They have boat rides and pontoon bikes and little tanks with fish in them that nibble the dead skin off of your feet.  Most of us were pretty tired by the time we had looked at the beach for a half hour, so we caught a bus back to the hotel and had a rest.

 

These pontoon bikes would have been fun, but the wind was pretty strong and we wanted to go back for a rest.

I wondered how long this lady had been standing there to have her feet so completely buried in the sand at the beach.

We met the Pace’s, Schauerhamer’s and Clarke’s and went back to the Dolphin Restaurant where we had dinner last night.  They have great food and it tastes just like home.  Most of us are in the mood for a taste of home in the food we eat, so we are enjoying it.  They were happy to put tables together for us, and then when 10 more BYU teachers showed up (because we have been bragging on the place) they put more tables together for us.  We kind of overwhelmed the place, but it was good!

 

Dinner at the Dolphin.

After dinner, we rode the bus back to the stop by the Sanya River and walked along the east side, over the wavy pedestrian bridge and then back up to the little bazaar that is close to the hotel.  One of the other BYU teachers had told us about a place to get some great ice cream (it is a little hard to find good ice cream here in China), so we went looking for it.  We were just about to give up when one of us spots a place that looked like it might be.  It was!  We all enjoyed it very much. 

Because we leave so early in the morning and we have a short flight to Shenzhen in the morning, we thought it would be a good idea to get some breakfast to eat at the airport.  Not sure what we will get on the plane.