See Ya Sanya - Say Hello Shanghai

Our last day has finally arrived and we are heading back to Shanghai late this afternoon. It will be good to be home, but we have all had such a fun time. I highly recommend a relaxing beach holiday to everyone. We will certainly have to do something similar again. The problem is there are always too many choices of places to visit and people to see, that we rarely go to the same place twice. We thoroughly enjoyed Sanya and who knows maybe, we will come back for a long weekend sometime.

Our morning was spent packing, which is always quicker going home than leaving for vacation. I guess we all just throw everything in any old how. I don’t care how creased or mixed up it is going home. We had someone collect our luggage and store it in the lobby since we had a couple of hours to kill. Checking out started out easy, until the call was made to our room to check our mini-bar purchases. Now, I want to say we did not use the mini-bar, the problem was with a green bowl – I thought this was the decorative ceramic dish that I had stored under the sink to save it from being smashed during our stay. But my explanation was met with blank looks. What they were trying to tell us was the towel was green… Well, yes it was Rich has cleaned Hansen with it, after eating his Pea ice cream. Well, the pea would not come out, so we had to pay for it. After spending a small fortune with them over the past week, I was a little upset they would make us pay for a towel that they had yet to try even washing. Please has no one heard of bleach? After spending way too much time on such a small detail, I was pissed, so told them if I was paying for it, I wanted to take it home. One of the girls and I headed upstairs to investigate the missing bowl and the green towel. On arriving at the room, I immediately showed them the bowl, and was amazed to find out that the towel was actually a wash cloth. Please??!! Okay, well I was still taking it. Cady uses wash cloths as a blankie, so she would be happy. At this point the maid counts the washcloths and informs me that another one was missing – there were supposed to be six and even with the pea green one, we had a total of five. ‘Did I know where it was?’, No, did they know when it was lost? We have been here over a week, changed rooms, etc, etc. How the heck do I know? I figured Cady must have sneaked it in her bag (which was not downstairs) thinking it was her blankie. Off we headed for the lobby. I checked Aimee and Cady’s bags, but nothing there. Told Rich, just pay for a 2nd one, I want to get on with the rest of my life. I had spent way too much time running around the hotel looking for a couple of $2 wash cloths. 30rmb later, we were cleared to leave- our debts paid. No doubt there will be a note on our record should we ever return- wash cloth stealers! Rest assured, I will be counting the wash cloths on entry and exit next time - lol











We decided to take a stroll down to the highlight of Yalong Bay, the Shell Museum. It wasn’t much of a highlight and we were glad we had not made a huge effort to see it. I can honestly say we were done on 15mins. It was that small, we spend probably 30mins in the gift shop, while Aimee chose her last minute memory items – shells of course! We spent less time in the shell museum, than we had searching for the wash cloths.







After sweating around the museum, we went for a repeat performance at Coffee World and all ordered the exact same food as we had yesterday. Our driver collected us from the town center and took us back to the hotel to collect our luggage and headed for the airport.





Check in was pretty easy, except for when the check in lady handed Richard the boarding passes, without taking our luggage. When Rich questioned her, she said ‘No, luggage!’ ‘Um, yes, actually we have a lot of luggage; we are the Choi family…’ ‘No, no luggage!’ At which point, Richard loaded a bag on the scale and repeated “Yes, luggage!’ She quickly checked her reference guide taped to her desk and said ‘No premium luggage!’ ‘What..?’ ‘We don’t have premium luggage, just regular luggage.’ Apparently, the penny dropped and she allowed us to check our bags. Phew, that was a relief. Off we went on our way to catch the flight. Of course, in true vacation style, the moment we got to the gate, they announced a delay. Thankfully, it was only 35mins this time. Apart from an obnoxious woman with a baby who jumped the line and almost crushed little Cady as we tried to exit the terminal for the bus to the plane. The flight was without further incident.













As the plane started the descent into Shanghai, we could hear a baby crying and then screaming. This progressively got worse and appeared to get louder as we made our final descent. I was quite surprised when the baby and the mama rushed passed us ignoring the flight staff and the ‘remain seated’ signs to go who knows where. She sat in one of the jump seats upfront as the flight staff tried to placate the now hysterical child. This was not working, so she headed back to her seat again only moments before we landed. If this had been the West, she probably would have been arrested for ignoring safety warnings. I however was not surprised to realize that she was the same woman that had knocked Cady flying in her hurry to push in line at the terminal. Apparently, the rules applied to everyone other than her. I gave her plenty of space as she rushed back down the plane to get off before anyone else. As for the baby, I think she was in pain due to the air pressure and her mother’s crazy behavior just added to her panic.

It was good to be back in Shanghai and seeing Xiao He (our fabulous driver) waiting for us was a sight to behold. It is good to be home, vacation are hard work – lol.