Sleep was delightful at the Hameida hotel last night.  The staff were also quite nice and let me put the bike in the room which certainly helped a lot.  Although it's reasonably safe to lock the bike outside, if in doubt I'll bring it in.  For most places on my travels, certainly China, that means folding the bike and bringing it inside the bag.  This time I asked first and the staff were like sure, just bring it into the room.  

The town of Lingshui itself had a quiet and orderly feel to it, there was even a Starbucks where I was able to catch up on work stuff.  The next day I enjoyed some traditional Chinese style breakfast then took off the earliest yet.  11am!  I'm a late starter and it's rare I'll get going before noon.  

But the calm and orderly nature of the riding broke down into sheer chaos the minute the road passed the city boundary entering Sanya.  While the city proper was still another 25km away, at this point there was a mess of vendors on the highway selling fruit, vegetables, supplies, and just about anything else you can think of.  I'm sure it was illegal and enforced in Lingshui just before going over this line.  So the contrast was totally bizarre.  It got me thinking that maybe Sanya is like the wild west where there are no rules.

This all seemed to be the case but with an unpleasant twist:  the city was not friendly towards bicycles at all.  It was as if they hated us.  Traffic congestion started getting horrific once entering the final stretch and certainly veey close to Houhai village.  This village is basically an enclosed area that has only one way in or out.  It is slam packed.  But a huge positive with the bike is when encountering hyper-congested areas such as this you don't have to worry about the time, nor the parking.  You just roll in.

There was a chance to meet up with two other cycle tourists who were doing separate tours of Hainan and our routes all converged on this place at the same time.  We had a blast chilling on the beach drinking beers and then later going for burgers and hitting up some of the clubs.

The best part about cycle touring is that you can eat whatever you want and still not surpass the calories that you burned on the bike.