vampire beach.

this is the off season at hainan, or so the guide book says. it is just the beginning of the rainy season, like it is for all of south east asia. last year, we were in thailand, malaysia, indonesia, and singapore for monsoon and really didn't notice much of a difference. the beaches here, though, have been deserted. all day, it is like we have a private beach. there are a few other tourits, but we are really spread out and all of them are russian. interestingly, this must be a huge place for russians on vacation. there is more russian in the town than english (menus, signs, etc.). it is good we can speak a little chinese.

the beaches have been enormously pleasant and relaxing. there is a lot of trash, but there are people cleaning it up all day as it washes ashore. this is the terrible result of china's wanton littering. i am swimming and covered in bits of plastic wrapping. lying in the sun, styrofoam blows across the beach and sticks to me. there are plastic baskets and shoes and pieces of discarded clothing washing up on shore. all day the big hotels send workers to the beach to sweep up, but they don't get the garbage out of the water.

last night, duff and i decided to take an evening walk on the beach. we had come in from the beach around 3:00 to cool down and get out of the sun. the day before we had food poisoning (which i have now had on beaches in two countries!) and didn't want to overdo it. we brought our instruments to the beach and lazed away the afternoon playing fiddle and bodhran, at which duff has made amazing progress. at sunset we headed back down to the beach. there were thousands of people there! all chinese. we'd barely seen 10 other chinese people on the beach up until now, and now the water was thick with them. if this is off season, i can't even imagine how crowded the beach must be during the peak. people were loving the waves, and swimming in their underwear, which apparently is okay here. kids up to 10 year old needed no suits at all. everyone had blow up innertubes to hang on. chinese people don't really learn to swim. amy can, and it is a really big deal for her. we always joke she should put it on her resume. the big hotels had huge spotlights on the breakers illuminating the beach.

white skin is highly prized here. girls and boys use skin whitening products (which make them break out terribly), and if it is sunny, no woman goes anywhere without and umbrella to protect her from the sun. they are shocked that we don't use them. last year, when i returned from spring festival in thailand, proud of my tan, the students and amy, scandalized, exclaimed that i had become "so black!" no wonder the beaches are deserted during the day and packed at night.