Overdone with the sun

I was rudely awoken dead on 8am by the phone to our room. It was A Ni telling Tan to get up as we were to go to the seaside early before it got too hot. Fair enough I suppose but I hadn't slept well and neither had Tan (who told A Ni a slight fib that she hadn't slept till 4am due to the noise). We got the kids up and washed and I thought we were ready once I'd packed some towels and sun cream. Then suddenly Tan asked why I hadn't put all my clothes away. But we're not going back till Sunday I told her. But whatever the truth in that, apparently we were checking out today too. I wasn't told that. And in fact she had to call A Xia to check this too, but apparently we were to check out, which somewhat complicated things, but 15 minutes later we were all ready, and left the hotel at 8.45am.

The beach was nice at 9.15. Not as warm as last night but manageable. We had a nice close place to park, and staked our place literally with a large hired umbrella and a table to shade us. I sprayed a load of factor 50 sun cream on both the kids and myself, and made up for last night's lack of sea water by spending a lot of time with them and A Xia's son, Su Liyi, in the sea. The water was actually almost warm and I would have gone belly-deep but it was so shallow we had to go out 100 yards just to get up to Xixi's midriff. We spent a good hour or so mucking about in the water before I realised I was hungry and hadn't had breakfast. So we went back to our table and ate the noodles that had been bought for everyone.

Although Tan also came out, looking very Halle Berry-like in her bikini and short hair, I spent the majority of time with the kids, mainly because I had to keep my eyes on Su Liyi, who I thought was four, but later found out is six. We grabbed a little lunch at 11.30 as I thought it was 1pm, and I was sort of surprised when we didn't leave. So we just went back after some more factor 50 and spent a load more time in the sea. Xixi was loving it and Leilei came out to the deeper water a bit too. At one stage a refreshing cloud came and deposited some heavy rain, together with some very cool wind leading us to put most of our bodies under water to keep warm.

Tan mid-jump o'er the wave

I caught a nice one - Xixi is swimming above Tan's feet

In the end we stayed at the beach till gone 3pm and I managed a couple of well-deserved bevs before we left. To add to the annoyance of having checked out this morning, I was told we had planned to get a hotel on this beach front for tonight so we could enjoy the sea tonight and tomorrow. "Planned" was the wrong word; there were no rooms available as it was the weekend and if only someone had told me of this "plan" a couple of days ago I would have happily arranged a booking. Like last year at Beihai we didn't just turn up, but BOOKED in advance. And that was four middle-aged silly blokes that should have known worse. So after refusing to take a shower at 10 kuai each even for the kids, we got into the cars and drove back to the same hotel we'd checked out of a few hours previously and checked back in. Grrr.

A well-deserved couple of cold ones after a day in the sea with kids

When there are no cucumbers melon will do

Everyone was tired, so retired to rooms, but Xixi and I couldn't sleep. Her because of excitement I suppose, and me as I was starting to feel the effect of my exposure to six hours almost non-stop of South China sun. When I realised Xixi wasn't sleeping too I told her to get up and we got some clothes on and went for a little walk. I didn't have a kuai on me so took my bank card and we set off in search of a bank. My shoulders and back were stinging though, so under the 5pm sun we had about 6' of shadow from some buildings while heading east. I asked Xixi which direction we should head in order to find a bank and she pointed left, which happened to be east, and I told her she was a good girl. Keeping east and north, we eventually happened upon a bank on the other side of a rather wide road. There was nothing for it, we held hands and braved the scorching sun and made it there a minute or so later. Then, a minute later again, we were 3000 kuai better off at least in terms of money in our pocket, and re-braved the journey back to shade.

Xixi really wanted to have a go at the exercise machines it a tiny park, so we stopped for a while during which I fell into conversation with an extended family after commenting on the handsome baby boy one grandmother was holding. After being told it was a girl (why don't they do the stereotypical pink?) I found out they were from Guangxi and had also come down for the weekend. After a few goodbyes we met a bloke bbqing a leg of lamb on the street and got talking to him too, as well as a few other people from his restaurant. After Xixi had been given a small bottle of Cola, we found our way back to the hotel via a small shop that sold me a cold beer and a carton of tea for 5 kuai and didn't mind us paying with a 100 kuai note.

Xixi couldn't quite reach this properly so I helped her do it campanologist-style

I called A Wu to ask what was happening about eating. I woke him up, but he said he'd be down in five minutes. 15 minutes after waiting in the foyer he still wasn't there so I called Tan to let her know we should be eating soon. She came down a couple of minutes later with Leilei but A Wu still wasn't there. A phone call later and he came down but with no plan to eat. This made Tan angry so she went upstairs saying they weren't eating till much later, and having bbq to boot. But apparently I was right. A Wu took us to a local place where we ordered some food. Then, half way through, he said he was going to pick up A Ni. He came back with A Ni and Huang Xiaoyun and we continued to eat. I was forcing myself with the beers though as was really not feeling well.

Then Tan called me to release her anger that A Wu had not picked her and A Xia's family up. As if it was my fault! I just didn't know what to say and as I was feeling crap I didn't argue. Why not ask A Wu why he didn't pick you up? Tan said sod it her and A Xia's lot were going out themselves to eat. When we finished a bit later we went back to the hotel. Strangely enough Tan and A Xia's lot had not even left the hotel as they said they would half an hour ago, and we all went in two cars to a bbq place that took an excruciatingly long time to find. By now I really needed to get home and rest. I did my best to show I was ill, which meant drinking my beer really slowly, and a couple of minutes after the food arrived took Leilei and Xixi to find a san lun che to take us back to the hotel as they were also already fed.

We'd just negotiated how to get to the hotel with a san lun che driver when A Dong caught us up to say he'd take us in his car. I apologised to the driver, and he seemed to understand, and we got back to the hotel five minutes later and I got the kids washed and brushed with the last of my energy. Tan returned before I fell asleep, and I realised after a few minutes I'd have to move to Leilei's bed again as there just wasn't enough room for two adults, even if one has children's size feet.