Today I headed into Chinatown to look for another hotel to stay, but got distracted by a vegetarian restaurant.
Thousand Veggie Restaurant
Later, I checked out Four Seasons Organic Store in City Center Mall…
Green Juice!
I’m in a part of Central Singapore known as Little India….
Mustafa Centre
Someone made the following comment on the previous “Last Days in China” post: “Good luck on your trip home. I enjoyed following your travels.”
Home? Who says I’m going home? But for that matter, where is home? As I say in Living True To My Self, I’m a minimalist, vegan nomad. “I function with less, won’t eat any flesh, and my home’s where I rest.”
The story is simple: my China visa expired on March 7, so as is, um, advisable, one should leave when one’s stay has concluded. In the famous words of Felix Unger: “Never overstay your welcome, or you’ll never be welcome to stay over.” However, I do plan to return for more fun and excitement. In the famous words of Walt Goodridge, “There will always be a Jamaican in China!” (And the blog title will be the same wherever on the continent I roam…
Which brings me to, drum roll please….Jamaican in Singapore!
I’m in the area. It’s a quick flight, and Singapore, Bali, Indonesia, Malaysia have been on my list for quite some time. So, off we go!
My escape from China started with an early morning 5:30AM taxi ride to the Sanya train station. It takes about 30 minutes and costs 25RMB (on the meter) from the UFO Hotel.
I have to take the high speed train to Haikou since that’s the international airport on Hainan. Cost of train ticket: 88RMB. Length of ride: 1 hour 20 minutes.
Sunrise from Sanya.
Conveniently, the MeiLan station puts you in the basement of the Haikou airport. So a few escalators up and you’re there! In order to make the 20kg limit on checked-in luggage, I had to throw away a few items…final weight: 19.8kg.
Whew! That was tiring….After I took this photo of my plane departing, I had to run real fast to get back on it before takeoff. But the pilot was a real nice guy.
Hey! Is that the same little red car I spotted on Day 1 in China, Beijing??? Hey, are you following me?
I land in Singapore and change 300RMB to Singapore dollars (SGD) (Exchange rate: 1 RMB = 0.20SGD) so I ended up with about 60 Singapore Dollars for my taxi ride to my hostel.
My friend, Greta, had suggested Prince of Wales Hostel as a place to stay. This experience will be a bit different as I booked a bed in a dorm! The cost is 22SGD/night. That’s about 17US dollars per night. That’s about what I was paying for a single room on Hainan, so I didn’t want to go higher than that. That means I’ll be giving up my privacy and actually sharing living space with people!! Haven’t done that since….well, I’VE NEVER done that! Okay, that’s not true, when I was a homeless, entrepreneur upstart, I did “couch surf” with friends until I got on my feet!
In any event, Audrey shows me the accommodations, share the rules. (No outside food allowed on the premises; no food in the dorm. So I guess there’ll be no coffeepot cooking here.
First order of business after settling in: food! (I don’t eat airline food, and I typically don’t eat less than 24 hours before a plane flight) I checked Happycow.net and found a list of vegetarian restaurants. On the way to check out one on the list, I discovered this one, which was a bit more inviting. It was a bit before the evening shift, and the cooks were sleeping, but my new best friend (whom you’ll meet soon, was nice enough to get the cooks started a little earlier than usual. I simply had to wait about 20 minutes, and while I waited, I had some dessert.
Have you noticed how “flat” some of the photos appear? I’m wondering if that means the lens is sub-par and thus an indication that the camera in China might be a knock-off. What do you think the chances of that are?
Chloe, my new bestest friend, and first official Jamaican in Singapore photographer. She just started working at the restaurant a few days before.
The food
The fan
the finale
I should tell you that Singapore seems to be the most vegetarian friendly place I’ve ever been! There are huge vegetarian signs everywhere!!! I mean everywhere! There will be no shortage of places to indulge my proclivities.
Later in the evening, I met up with some couch surfers and we hung out on Arab Street in Little India until about 11:30pm! Great first day in Singapore! Stay tuned!
The last few days in Sanya, have been a bit hectic. I met a lot of nice people, finished a second book I’ll be announcing soon, found a great, reasonably-priced apartment (with a kitchen) for anytime I return to Sanya, and two days before I was scheduled to leave, my camera died, which meant I had to do something I hate doing: shopping. (I think I have evidence the camera I got is knock-off…stay tuned.) But before I tell you where I’m off to next, I’ll share some shots from The Last Days in China.
Met up with couchsurfer, Gemma at one of the hostels in the area!
Met a new friend at Wang Hao Supermarket and we hung out a few days later at the amusement park near the UFO hotel. Turns out the ladies are new Mary Kay reps in Sanya! I have a warm spot in my heart for Network Marketing companies, as the one I had joined many years ago helped free me from corporate confinement to live true to my self!
Hang on, ladies!
Afterwards, we had dinner and a great time!
Said a few goodbyes to the ladies at Wang Hao who had gotten in the habit of seeing me come to buy my raw cashews every day at the same time!
I met June at Wang Hao supermarket. She was right behind me on line and helped me out when I was having trouble asking for change for the bus. She ended up being a vital part of my gastric happiness in Sanya (think “sea salt,” but keep it a secret)….
June also helped me purchase the camera I now use to document my travels. Yes, this shot was staged with the camera I had just purchased.
The sales girl who took my money!
Hung out with June and friend at a cafe overlooking Sanya Bay!
Posed for the obligatory Jamaican in China photos
and again…and again….
Norway meets China. Harald, from Norway and Pan Hui, from China! Harald and Pan Hui helped me look for apartments…Harald, a dentist from a former life, is a great thinker and conversationalist..
Solved the world’s challenges with Harald…..(Next time, look at the camera, Harald!)
Had the greatest vegetarian meal in Sanya, courtesy of a dinner invitation from my friend from the beach, Norwegian artist (painter) Jan Erik, and author wife Feng Xian Lin. They’ve also co-authored, designed and published various books. You can check out Jan’s paintings at www.willgohs.info
One of the books Fenx Xian Lin authored is a Hunan cooking and culture book. So you know I was treated to some great food….my last night in Sanya…darn….Now, I’ll have to wait until I return to show up un-announced with my chopsticks in hand and nothing in my stomach!
Beijing transplant, Sandy and Romanian expat, Adrian…Can’t wait to hang a bit longer next time!
Eyes on Singapore…..Did he say, Singapore?????
In the previous installment of the Papaya Chronicles, I shared with you that the best price I was able to get for a papaya was about 5RMB, at the supermarket. Whenever I shop at independent vendors, I get the foreigner price. Seems they can always tell I’m not originally from China. I think my accent gives me away. In any event, last week, when I went shopping with Peggy and Fanny, they took me to an outdoor market and introduced me to their favorite papaya vendor. I selected my single papaya, he placed it on the scale, and announced the price 2RMB. I couldn’t help chuckling out loud. He laughed, too, likely because he knew foreigners don’t often get to hear those words, “Two RMB,” attached to anything in Sanya (or China) except perhaps a bus ride.
So, I asked them to tell him to remember my face (hee hee), so that when I returned, he would treat me like a regular ol’ Chinese customer since I planned to return. Then, “happy as a pig in papaya juice,” I took my new acquisition back home and enjoyed it.
Yesterday, I returned, found Mr. Fair Deal Perfect Papaya Man, he remembered me (good eye for faces), and sold me TWO papayas for 4RMB. So, I’m not exactly sure what the unit price is (my ability to palm and weigh in kg needs some work), what I do know is that this….
Costs me 2RMB, not 5, not 8, and not the 15 Mr. Papaya near Lost Hostel wanted me to pay.
So, here’s my traveler’s tip for you: when YOU come to Sanya, Hainan, and want a plump, perfect, plausibly-priced papaya, take the number 8, 16, 10, 2, 7 or 10 bus to the stop closest to original Wang Hao Supermarket #1, not the Wang Hao nearest to the bus station, but the one that’s now the new location of the original Wang Hao after the owner of the building they were renting from didn’t renew their lease, forcing them to move to the new location near the International Hotel, (got it?), and then walk through the mall, out the back, across the street, through an alley, past the covered area with the meat vendors, past the vegetable vendor ladies who may gawk at you if you’re Jamaican, step over the dog lazing in the exit, and into the open area where the fruit vendors are located, make your way through the crowd and find this man….
Mr. Fair Deal Perfect Papaya Man.
Say, Ni Hao in your best Putonghua, and then tell him that Walt, the Jamaican, sent you. Pay for your papaya, and enjoy!
The ebook edition is completed, but my writing energies are still being diverted towards completing the paperback edition of Living True to Your Self. However, I’ve been able to raise my standard of living here in Hainan:
I was able to locate sea salt here in Sanya. Now, that may not seem like earth-shattering news to you, but it is for me. I don’t eat table salt (check the ingredients of your favorite brand of supermarket-bought salt, and note the dextrose (sugar), aluminum (think “Alzheimer’s), and other unnecessary anti-caking and otherwise harmful ingredients. Sanya, being a coastal town should have natural sea salt readily available, right? You would think.
However, the authorities have convinced the people that consuming sea salt is bad and that it is most often contaminated. Whether true or not, it takes a bit of asking and searching to find it, as vendors are forbidden to sell it openly, and one has to ask (with the help of a Chinese person), the right questions, the right people, and, presumably not appear to be a government plant searching for violators.
I won’t reveal my methods, my contacts, or my supplier. I’ll just show you the hand-off.
Psssst. Hey, buddy, wanna buy some sea salt?
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So, the other morning, I’m running bare-chested on the beach in Dadonghai, and, for some reason, people are staring at me. I’m really not sure why. Was it my slim, svelt, sexy physique? Was it the fact that no one else does this strange jogging thing in China except a few crazy Americans rarely spotted this far from the mainland? Was it the fact that I’m Jamaican? Was it the fact that I was the only one half-naked at this time of day (There’s a nude section of the beach, but those guys don’t come out until after sunrise). Well, I can’t be sure, but at least a few Chinese tourists thought it warranted taking a photo to document and share the strange things that happen on Hainan.
After my jog, I approached one of the paparazzi, and mimed and signed and pidgin Putonghua’ed a request while handing him my email address. Seems I was successful in my communication, since I just got an email containing this!
The subject line was 沙滩慢跑, which translates to “beach jogging.” Thanks, stranger!
I’m presently at the UFO hotel in Dadonghai, Sanya, Hainan. It’s much more centrally-located, close to supermarkets, a small, but great beach and many visitors from Kazakhstan, from Russia and all over China. Note for travelers on the Jamaican in China tour of Hainan: If you take the #8 bus from the airport, get off the bus at Summer Mall (夏日百货 in Chinese; Dadonghai Square), then walk back down Yuya and you’ll see an 18-story building (next to City Hotel). the entrance to UFO is behind the 18-story building.
UFO
The young entrepreneur proprietors of UFO, a great, small hotel in the heart of activity in Sanya, Hainan.
In the lobby
On the day before my first day at UFO–while I was using their wi-fi, I met Fanny and Peggy from Changsha, college students on holiday who came to Hainan to see the ocean for the first time. Fanny (left) is studying English (to be a translator), and Peggy is studying Interior Design to perfect her artistic talents
The girls were nice enough to go shopping with me the next day to help me communicate and locate some items I’d been interested in getting. So, we met at 8:00am the next morning and headed out by bus to the Number One Market!
Trying to find soy milk
Coconuts
returning after a morning of shopping
As is the custom at many of the hostels, Peggy made her mark on history by adding a painting to the wall of the UFO hotel.
Outside the UFO!
The girls had to leave to catch a train to Haiku, and then a boat to their next destination. So we said our goodbyes at the bus stop across the street!
See you someday!
I made it through the high season! I’m checking into a new hotel on another side of Sanya (Dadong hai), and I now will have internet access! While I was in the High Season Heist Hotel, I didn’t have internet access, and that allowed me to focus on some writing. I’ll be making an announcement soon! Stay tuned!
Freedom. The final frontier. These are the voyages of the Jamaican in China. His life long mission: to explore new world views, to seek a strange new life in different civilizations. To boldly go where no Jamaican man has gone before!
Cue theme music:
Nomad’s Log. Day 6. The year of the Rabbit.
As I spend more time in China, I’ve noticed something strange happening. I’ve noticed that my writing syntax is changing. I wrote an email to a friend yesterday and wrote something like: “You were planning on giving up that hotmail account, yes? In another instance, I wrote something like, “This is what you wanted, no?”
As you may know, to form a question in Mandarin, you add the word “ma” to the end. “Ma” turns a statement into a question. For example, Nǐ de háizi means “your child.” When you add “ma” to the end, you get “Nǐ de háizi ma” which means “Your child, [question],” in other words “Is that your child?”
The English equivalent would be “You were planning on giving up that hotmail account, yes?“
Fascinating.
All the produce in China is priced per 500g. So, when you see a sign announcing 2.20RMB for a papaya, it actually means 2.20RMB/500g, or 4.40RMB/kg. Now, then, I’ve figured out why they do that–it’s to confuse the tourists! No, really. I can prove it.
Most tourists, say an American (or a Jamaican who used to live in New York), thinks in terms of pounds. 1kg is actually 2 lbs, so when I see 2.20RMB, I think it’s 2.20RMB per pound, but it’s not. That’s confusing enough, but here’s where the trick comes in. The street vendors who sell produce use an entirely different system of computing prices. It’s called “free market, mood-based opportunity capitalism.” In other words, they charge by the pound, gram, kilogram, weather, nationality of the purchaser, color of your shirt, or day of the week, it really could be anything, depending on mood of the seller.
In 2009, when I visited China for the first time, I walked into a shop in Shanghai–within about an hour of landing at the airport–to buy a small 250ml bottle of water and asked the price. Storekeeper told me 2RMB. Now I know enough to know it should be no more than 1RMB, or perhaps I was simply sensing intuitively that “the game” was on. I stepped out of the shop, called my translator in (at the time, I was traveling with Chun Yu Wang, author of Chicken Feathers and Garlic Skin,) and had her ask the price. She’s Chinese. Caught in the act, the owner shyly admitted to her it was 1.00RMB. We all laughed at his obvious, failed attempt to play and win the game.
On another day, in Wuxi, I walked into a store to get a bag of cashews (7.50 RMB) and a bag of dried fruit (12.00RMB) with prices plainly written on the items. The shop cashier/owner punched in the prices in a calculator (she didn’t use the scanner like she did the day before), turned the small screen toward me indicating that my bill was 30RMB. Ahem. Now, I may not speak Mandarin, lady, but I went to school to be a civil engineer. We covered basic addition. First day, even. Heck, I can even do that one in my head. I took the calculator, silently punched in the numbers myself, turned the small screen back toward her showing her I would be paying 19.50 RMB. She waved her hand in disdain, took the 20RMB bill, gave me my .50 RMB change–all this in a wordless exchange of calculator buttons, bills and screen displays.
You might have already read my tale of The Greedy Innkeeper In Xishuangbanna.
Here in Hainan, I went to buy some nesberries, (that’s what we call it in Jamaica) sapodilla in America. The street vendor put my three nesberries on the electronic scale, punched some mood-based numbers, and asked for 20RMB, I gave him 10RMB, he laughed. I took my fruit and walked out. Say it with me now, “Someone will pay it….it just won’t be me!”
Around the corner from the Lost Hostel here in Sanya, there’s a vendor selling fruit. Asking price for a small papaya? 20RMB. Now, I shop at the supermarket in the city centre, so I know that a small papaya costs about 5RMB. I laughed and walked away.
The next day, as I returned from shopping, I decided I wanted a mango. I knew about what it should cost from my supermarket shopping experience. So, I walked towards Mr. Papaya’s stand, and fortunately, at the same time, there was a Chinese woman also buying mangos. So, sensing my own opportunity, I pretended to browse a little longer, delaying my purchase, lingering for a bit to give the lady a chance to select her mangos and pay for them. Then, I watched the screen of the electronic scale carefully, and noted that Mr. Papaya punched in 17RMB/kg for her mangos. (A day or two before, he had entered 29 for my mangos.) So, now that he had her mangos on the scale and told her the price, I approached him at the scale.
He knew that I had seen the price per kilogram that he had punched in for her. I knew that HE knew that I saw the price per kilogram that he had punched in for her. So, perhaps to avoid embarrasment, he had no choice but to give me the mangos at the same price. I could be mistaken, but he didn’t seem happy, though. I paid 15RMB for my two mangos (about what I would pay at the supermarket). He gave me my fruits and said “goodbye,” (An unusual thing for him to say, actually. I’ve never had anyone tell me goodbye before. Guess he wanted me to say “goodbye,” too (in other words. leave!) before I discovered the Chinese prices for everything on his stand!
Would you buy a 20RMB papaya from this man? (Mr. Papaya)
I imagine that some people would have paid Mr. Papaya the 20RMB for various reasons:(1) to avoid a scene because they dislike confrontation, (2) Feeling ill-equipped to communicate effectively if there’s a language barrier, (3) It’s still cheap given the conversion rate to their native currency, and (4) perhaps other reasons I simply can’t relate to. However, there’s just something in me that won’t allow me to willingly pay for something when I know the price is being inflated simply out of what I perceive to be opportunism based on a stereotype of the unaware, easily-manipulated, easy-target foreigner.
It’s a way of business I’ve seen in many places–different prices for different customers. It’s done in the tourism business on Saipan. It’s done in Laos, and everyone who travels has likely experienced it to some degree. Business is about seizing the opportunity to get the most you can get at any and every given moment. The cost is variable and based not on any pre-determined intrinsic or objective value, but the ability and willingness (unwitting or otherwise) of the consumer to pay.
Now, maybe I’m being too forgiving, but I’ m not mad at the people who practice “opportunity marketing.” You know, In some ways, it’s no different from a hair stylist charging John Edwards $400 for a haircut. Yes, it’s a bit stressful for me, since I already hate shopping. But, I don’t want to impose an outsider’s standard of how business should be done. But, I’d like to hear what YOU think.
After he negotiated a good rate for my High Season Hainan Hotel room, my friend, Jian, emailed me the following:
“hey Walt,I read the news last night. People are complaining to the media that the whole tourist industry of Hainan is taking advantage of the Spring festival (Chinese New Year). The local Chinese government official commented: “This is normal.” (that is, no big deal. Don’t fuss.) Now you see why people say the Chinese capitalism is actually more real than the western one.
It occurs to me, as I enjoy my 5RMB supermarket-bought papaya here in Hainan, that my friend Jian is right!
Since I don’t have internet access in this new 100RMB/night hotel on Hainan, I get up every morning at 5:00AM, trek the 2 miles to the Lost Hostel and use their wi-fi. Have to do it early, since the speed of the internet connection slows down as more people wake up and get online. So, off I go today, whistling a happy tune, walking the empty morning streetlamp-lit streets of Hainan…..
Muslim morning prayer
Yep, just me and my thoughts….an occasional car…..a few chickens….a rat….
Wait a minute!
What’s that? Up in the road…..a head?
Yep, it’s a head all right…and a neck, a torso and a body!
See? I’m not the only one who’s prepared to sleep on the beach to make a point.
He looks European.
Here’s the video of me approaching him
Let’s hope he didn’t have a suitcase, backpack or laptop next to him when he went to sleep last night, ’cause this morning…….
I’m not the only one….
–Bonnie Raitt
