Hainanese on Hainan Island Day 1

May 1 2008, waking up at 8.30am, I was feeling damn tired from the KTV session that ended a few hours ago. I managed to drive my family and I to the airport, and after checking in at the Budget Terminal, we stoned for 2 hours. "This is going to be a boring trip," I thought. Then the flight was delayed. Bloody hell.

Smoking kills.

On the plane. Multi-coloured fields outside, it was quite an amazing sight.

After not moving for 3+ hours, we're finally at 海口机场。 Time to stretch my legs. Damn budget planes don't have any leg space. And the air stewardesses... It was a torturous flight to say the least.

On the way to the hotel. Gloomy sky.


After 1 1/2 hours drive, we're finally at the hotel. Went to check what promotion the Lobby Cafe had, and this is what i saw:

Bitter gourd + Apple + Milk = errr....

We had a couple of hours to rest before having dinner, so I decided to take a walk around the area. Went to a supermarket, and bought the most expensive junk food available, and some interesting ones. Total spent was SGD$7+. lulz. Walked around a little more, and it was time to go back for dinner.

My dad's friend's brother-in-law was nice enough to ferry us around in his minibus, and took us to a nearby restaurant for dinner. Had a big culture shock: People smoking in air-con rooms, spitting bones and shells on the floor, animals weaving between diners' legs, and flies everywhere. The place smelled of chicken though, which smelled pretty good.

Bowls and plates sterilised before being vacuum packed. More hygenic than Singapore.

Our "driver" ordering food while my dad listens attentively. And a bottle of Absolut Mango on the table. There's no corkage charge in Hainan Island, which was a good thing.

The sauce we dip our chicken into, which is a mixture of chicken stock, garlic, ginger, fried onions, spring onions and some type of nuts. Very similar to the chicken rice chilli in Singapore, except they give you the base, then you add the amount of chilli you want. I filled my bowl to the brim with chilli.

The legendary 文昌鸡。Very different from what we have in Singapore, the meat and even the skin is really tough, but it was really good.

A shot before going back to the hotel in the cold rainy night. Something interesting to note is that most of the respectable restaurants in the area had the word “昌” as part of the name.

On the way back to the hotel, we saw a fruit stall. And that's my sis trying to grab my attention.

洋梅。Tastes... weird. There's no flesh just skin, a little juice and the rest of it is the seed. I bought 一斤，which was around 500g, I think, and regretted buying so much after having just one.

We arrived back at the hotel at ~9pm. Decided to explore the place a little. Found this at the pantry, just beside the sachets of coffee and tea:
WTF?

Chinese condoms.


errr... 印度神油。 Fine print says "Scented massage oil that improves sex drive." hmm.

Male sanitary lotion. I never knew men had vulvas.

Ok, enough of the naughty stuff. Time for the junk food I bought.
This tastes really good, except that each piece was the size of a big toe.

Jay Chou potato chips. Tastes like crap.

~1.30am. Ok time to shower and sleep.