Wednesday 18^th February 2015 – Day at Sea.

 

We’re now back to GMT+8.

 

We had planned to do the “galley tour” this morning but the queues were so long, we decided to leave it for a future leg.

 

15 teams from various sections of the ship’s company competed in this morning’s fancy dress pancake race. It was fun and lots of guests turned up to cheer on their favourite team – although the wind did seem to give the pancakes a life of their own!

 

In the afternoon, Nesta took over both our balcony chairs to make herself a “nest” to sunbathe out of the wind.

 

Yet another meeting with the Captain in the evening, when we were invited to a “world club” cocktail party. We spent our time chatting to Pippa, his PA, as we know who the power behind the throne is!

 

 

Thursday 19^th February 2015 – Sanya, China.

 

This is another port that the QM2 has never visited before. Over 2000 people were “tendered” to the shore-side immigration department. Even though we had been warned of long “lines” (American for queues!) it wasn’t as onerous as predicted.

 

Our trip wasn’t really as described. It was, after all, the Chinese New Year so our trip to the beach turned out to be “there’s the beach over there in between the masses of people” It is very strange that a nation of people, who don’t seem to sunbathe, go to the beach fully dressed on a holiday!

 

Our guide’s English was not good (although better than our Chinese) the on-coach microphone did not work properly and her mobile microphone she wore when off the coach was no better. This meant she didn’t come with us at the various stops – so we were at a bit of a loss as to what it was we were seeing…Other groups were getting local information etc. but we passed on what we gleaned by word of mouth. (Chinese whispers?)

 

After the beach we went to Luhuitou Park which is on a hill overlooking Sanya. There were lots of opportunities for taking photos but the highlight were the trips up and down the hill on “golf carts” (which wouldn’t meet EU Health and Safety measures) Why pay to go on a big dipper when we got this for free!

 

The final part of the tour was a visit to a pearl factory… Well, they opened the shop bit - but the museum and factory bit was closed because (yes, you’ve guessed it) it was a national holiday and all the workers had gone home to have New Year’s Day with their families.

 

We got back to the ship where we watched news reports of all the firework displays all over China. We, of course, sailed before any such display in Sanya! Overall it was a slightly disappointing day but, when you think about it, it is fabulous that we have been to China!!