More Haikou

So yesterday while we were having lunch before leaving for the airport, one of the guys was telling us when he went down to the 3rd floor of the hotel for a foot massage; he was offered more. ;-) Apparently, Haikou is kinda like a "lawless" land. Anything goes; specially if you are foreigner. You are being targeted. The "massage therapist" was wearing very skimpy clothing. High heels, very low cut sleeveless shirt and a very short short. He couldn't get a foot massage for his sore feet from running during the day; but he was offered more "services" in his room. When another athlete, a female one, went to get a massage for her hips, well, she wasn't really getting any service. Some other single male athletes were getting calls in the middle of the night by some one asking if "service" was needed. Seemed the hotel staff was paid for room number and potential targets. This explained a lot as I notice a "massage" ad in the room but with a very suggestive post. This is China? Ummm... Maybe Hainan is just too far away from the Central gov't.

Everywhere I went were massive buildings one after another; some were two-story condo with very modern designs. There was even a condo development with name like "Beverley Hills". Go figure. Some buildings were just show-offs for big companies like Petrol China; a huge monstrosity resembling a 1800 French summer palace. That was on Bin Hai Ave. along the shore leading to the Sheraton and our hotel. O yeah, there was another huge gov't building being built, day and night. And no energy conservation at all. It was 930pm when we drove by and all lights were turned on on every floor and every room!!!! A quick estimation about 12 to 15 floors with 1/2 a block in width. I saw one worker in the building. Talk about florescent central.

Haikou, once you get setting in; is not a really nice relaxing place to visit; just grandstanding to show off more than anything else. People did not care about street directions at times when driving or crossing the road; we almost had an head-on with this huge truck coming at us on the wrong side of the road. Then, taxi just stopped in the middle of the road and did U-turns or turned left from the most right lane. The driving made Shanghai looked orderly.