D8: 博贺 → 沙扒

May 27, 2023

My first "Crimes Against Wallpaper" room of the Tour

Is it so much to ask that Housekeeping wait for an answer after knocking on the door to come in the room?

Particularly considering that they somehow managed not to even knock on the door until gone past 2pm the day before (and then to ask if I was intending on staying a second night), I figure that they can internalize things like "guests may be naked" and therefore don't appreciate suddenly open doors. My best guess is that the air conditioner makes enough noise that my intentionally having it off for the purposes of being able to do a comfortable temperature transition fooled them into thinking I'd already left.

Rewilding the coastline with newly planted mangroves

Looking down on Bohe Port from the bridge

Even with a day to rest away the bruises and let the scratches scab over, I'm not really in good riding condition but I don't like the room I'm in and I'm pretty sure I can get a better price, more comfortable bed, and access to a washing machine if I head to the little beach town I passed through last year when I was dragging my feet trying to find extra days' worth of places to go until Hainan came out of lockdown.

On account of it being a tourist trap beach town, I'm pretty sure the food is going to be more expensive than my options in Bohe, but it will also be more scenic and I'm reasonably sure that the trade-off will be worth it.

First dinner in Shapa is fried taro with shredded fried coconut

From the top of the bridge getting ready to head down, I'm reminded that I really really really need to learn to adjust disc brakes

I take a codeine before I start riding and that's probably why my not wearing my UV sleeves¹ doesn't bother my not-yet-tanned and now probably burned arms. The codeine, along with a day indoors spent being grumpy and uncomfortable, also takes the edge off of the generally quite dull "this is going to be a resort district" that isn't yet a resort district and which, therefore, is not only lacking in the residents to fill the apartment blocks that mostly aren't built yet but also lacking rural interestingness.

Because I correctly guessed last year that there ought to be a ferry running between Shapa and the Kenzi Peninsula, and successfully managed to take that ferry from the docks below the gas station in Shapa, I'm reasonably certain that I won't have to go out to the main road or the truck route and I gamble on this with a long ride down the peninsula to a collection of dock-like buildings that are about as unwelcoming to outsiders as you could ever imagine. Feeling awkward, I wake up a napping lady inside the one restaurant and am pointed at the sign with phone numbers for the ferry.

Not bad for 10y (well, 20 in my case, cause he had to come get me)

Said handwritten sign is slightly smaller than my hand and is not actually labeled "ferry service".

Once I call I have to bother the lady again cause I don't know how to describe where I am in local terms nor do I seem to share a language with the person on the other end.

But it's all good, and despite the best efforts of the ferry captain in "helping" me carry my bike up the wharf stairs as I'm unclipping panniers to make the task easier, neither my bike nor my bags get dropped in the ocean and I'm in Shapa Town looking for the very friendly and very cheap² guesthouse I stayed at last time.

They are oddly concerned around these parts with the idea that other non-local people are going to bury their dead and build graves on their land

I recently learned that some places will have a set meal option with enough meat and veg for one person. It has massively expanded my Tour diet.

¹ Couldn't find the clean ones

² Costing only 60y this time, I don't know what it was supposed to cost last time as they forgot to mark with the OTA that I had arrived and my room rate was 100% auto-refunded to me.

SpongeBob and Patrick on an invisible tricycle

Today's ride: 37 km (23 miles)
Total: 548 km (340 miles)

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