Today marks the 90th year of Chinese Communist Party. You wouldn't be able to tell, though, here at Sunny Sanya International Youth Hostel. Nothing here is different, apart from replacing the usual soundtrack of Death Cab, Feist, and other unoffensive (though smartly chosen, to my sensibilities) American pop with a couple of songs applauding the CCP and socialism; shehui zhuyi hao, shehui zhuyi hao! or socialism is good, socialism is good! exclaims one operatic track which apparently also received a rock remix which got play time later on in the evening. Soon enough, though, Nina Simone was back on the mic.
Life in Sanya has been good so far. Our hostel is clean and the staff is friendly, and the atmosphere at the hostel as well as the rest of the city is quite pleasant. The hostel sports a comfy common room, equipped with speaker system, full bar, several couches, and a pool table. In the several days we've been here, Eunice and I have already taken advantage of all our hostel has to offer. I am unfortunately burdened at the moment by a slight cold, most likely contracted from too many quick temperature changes: the average temperature here gets me sweating in seconds, while buses, restaurants, and our bedroom are all treated with frigid air-con. I expect, though, that it will pass soon.
The hostel's main proprietor, Ina (25/F/Beijing) has been treating me with Chinese medicine as well as giving me dietary tips in order to beat the cold (no fruit or cold water). Ina seems like she spends 24 hours a day tending to the hostel, though she has assured us she goes home at some point each night. Her boyfriend of 3 years, Jason (25/M/also from Beijing), is co-manager and takes the night shift, normally getting in around 6 and tending bar and drinking with guests for the rest of the night. Jason and Ina studied in Singapore together, and afterwards they decided to stay and Jason took up a bar-tending job at a 5-star hotel and Ina worked in accounting elsewhere, though they were both unsatisfied with the lack of personal contact their jobs afforded them, so they planned on opening a bar in Beijing when they returned. In the end, after receiving a helpful business tip from a former teacher that the hostel business in China was booming, they decided to open Sunny Sanya instead, which is certainly more compatible with their hopes to pass their business onto their children in the future.
Apart from one Russian man, the hostel has been surprisingly devoid of foreign vacationers. I should mention that Russian travelers are so prevalent in Sanya that Cyrillic is ubiquitous around the city, on storefronts, billboards, and so on. Eunice and I have inquired about the popularity of Sanya among Russians, but have not gotten a convincing answer. Some investigation will be done in the near future. So, since day 1, we've done quite a lot of mingling with the Chinese guests here... well, we haven't had too many conversations here that weren't assisted by alcohol and the exchange of drinking games. Dice, number, and card games - it seems we've already run the gamut of game-types, though it hasn't even been a week. Drinking has been instrumental, though, in getting to know other guests, and even though it brings us closer to breaking our daily budget, Eunice and I wouldn't have had nearly this much fun or interaction without it. Not only is it an easy way to break the ice, but it's a great way to get the Chinese folk practicing the little English they know, and Eunice practicing the little Mandarin she knows. Eunice's numbers wouldn't be half as good as they are if it weren't for playing "21" Chinese-style. Without drinking, we also wouldn't have gotten to see the elusive Auntie come around and sing Mao-era classics and play some Party praising songs on her harmonica (of which I had video, but due to a recent pick-pocket incident I will be unable to share with the world... perhaps the biggest tragedy of losing my iPhone).
So despite some of the more unfortunate events that have occurred (sickness, loss of my electronic Swiss Army knife), I can't say life in Sanya has slipped into the red. Hardly - the city has a lot to offer, and it seems Eunice and I have barely started to scratch off the aluminum strip hiding the winning lottery numbers. And that's what makes it hard to turn down Ina's offer to live at her hostel for the next month, free of charge, in exchange for teaching the staff English. It is difficult for me to postpone existing plans for new ones, but it's also very tough for me to give up free room and board a mere two minutes walk from the beach. All I know for certain is that I should cherish the fact that this is the most difficult question I have to answer at the moment.
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