chaaaaange places

Woke up pretty late and decided to stay on in this hotel rather than going all around town to find a new one. Went downstairs with half an hour before checkout and after hunting for the woman for 20 minutes, (the hotel staff don't seem to live here and so its basically deserted the whole time). We asked to stay, the woman smiling said no, why I asked? really you are full? apparently so! So we had to pack all our stuff again (luckily we never really unpacked!) and with some hasty phone googling we found a place across town, further from the beach but nearer to town, and perhaps a en-suite bathroom! luxury of luxuries! 

We carted our big bags to the new place and after walking past it a few times found that it was only the fifth floor of an apartment block, we had to go into the apartment block with the residents and then come out on the 5th floor into the Raintree Youth Hostel, a double room with an en-suite for £15 all in, sounds good! 

We moved in and then went out to take a look around our new surroundings, but not before checking out the balcony down the whole side of the building! Very cool! Took a few nice pictures and a panorama or two before heading into town.

We wandered around and found a tasty coffee shop for a caffine fix, (no starbucks in Hainan yet!) and did a bit more shopping before heading down to the beach and chilling out.

We also got the bus to our old hostel and from there tried to find the only surf shop in Hainan! after an hour or so of wandering around the beach we gave up and sat on the beach front and had a beer or two to settle our nerves! 

After that headed back and mentioned in passing that we wanted to go surfing, the guy behind the desk promised to make some calls (at 9pm) he came back a few minutes later with a number to call. I called and spoke to a guy who knew a guy who ran a surf shop on a beach on the east side of the island, apparently this is where the surf is this time of year! One problem, no bus goes there, and no trains, so its a taxi job, a £25 taxi! 

This guy instead offered to ask his friends friend who was going there on business early tomorrow to take us for £15, but probably not with a lift back... we decided to take it and so he told us to be downstairs at 8am for our lift!

We had a ride now wanted some surf lessons so called another friend of this guy who was at the closing ceremony of the Hainan International Surf Competetion, on the beach that we were going to! We missed it by a day! He sounds pretty drunk but promised it we arrived for around 10 he would give us a lesson and lend us some boards... so we took it!