May 31, 2018
Hotel: Sheraton Four Points; Sanya, China
This morning was gorgeous clear blue skies. I had a walk around the grounds of the hotel which was stunning. Huge pool with 'romantic' island table for two. I continued walking down to the beach which had a huge 'no swimming' sign. But it looked amazing with sand and clear blue water that was smooth as a mirror this morning.
I continued my walk around the grounds before heading to the restaurant for breakfast. One of the best buffets I had seen in awhile with a great selection of dim sum, croissants, western breakfast and 4 kinds of congee. All the other guests are Chinese families and I'm the only westerner. As I'm eating breakfast the Swiss manager comes by and chats with me to make sure everything is going OK. Yeah I like this place...
After breakfast I went for another swim in my room then went down to the beach and splashed around in the water awhile, no swimming sign be damned. Water was the perfect temperature and the beach wasn't busy at all. I splashed around for about 45 minutes. Yeah, I like this place...
I'd only booked the one night here as I planned to head into Sanya city this evening and had a booking at the Four Points. I was regetting that decision! I'd asked for a late checkout at 2pm at least. The hotel had a mango high tea with pastries and sandwiches which was delicious. Yeah, I like this place.
All too soon though it was time to leave. The hotel has a shuttle to the airport that stops at several other hotels. After seeing the Sheraton and Westin I was doubly glad I had booked the Royal Begonia. Once I arrived at the airport, I booked a ticket on the airport bus to shuttle to the Four Points. I didn't realize it ran every hour though and had just missed the last one, so had a 40 minute wait before we left. The bus ran right past the Four Points though so that was convenient.
At checkin, they gave me an upgrade to the 27th floor and two drink passes for the lounge! Great view out over the beach below and I could even see the southernmost point in China. I went up to the lounge for a bit until I went out for dinner.
I had read of the live seafood markets in Sanya, you go and pick your own seafood and they cook it right for you. I caught a taxi down to the night market area but it took a few minutes to find the right street. I was wandering along looking at the different things available (clams, abalone, lobster, etc) and a tout came up and took my order. I chose a lobster, scallops and abalone.
I sat down in the restaurant to eat. While I'm waiting the power goes out! It stayed off for awhile and eventually see people coming out of the kitchen with food and going across the street, where there the lights were still on. They finally come back with my cooked order while I sit there eating lobster in the dark!
Taxi back to the hotel and went back up to the lounge for a great view out over the city skyline. There were some buildings with animated LED lights that were displaying shifting images.
