AMP Treatise

After more than three grueling months studying flowcharts, multiple regression models, and a Harrah's Casino marketing case, it was decided by five of us that what we needed was a vacation. But when to go on vacation? Who has the time and we'd all be leaving shortly for our respective homes for winter break. Luckily, the CEIBS administration fortuitously provided the students with a pre-finals study week. Perfect! We pretty much knew that we wouldn't be studying the first weekend after the last class and on Monday & Tuesday we can study on the beach, right? Library, beach, same thing. A travel agent set us up on a trip to China's Hawaii and its premier beach resort area, Hainan Island. Below are some photos of the trip.

More photos are here.
And the powerpoint we made that was sent to our MBA class is here (right click and save as to download, ~2MB).

The Mangrove Tree Resort and the first hotel we stayed at. This is a bit away from Sanya. Sanya is the southernmost city in China and at the south top of Hainan Island. This is on Yalong Bay which is an exclusive resort area for the islands best hotels and each with its own private beach. The entire hotel was brilliantly designed. Essentially, the whole place is open to the air. The you can see and hear the ocean from reception, the lounge, the hallways to the rooms, and most other places. Really fantastic. Apparently, its a Chinese owned hotel, designed in the US and Japan. And the prices, at least from inside China were fantastic. RMB3000, or about US$375, got us a roundtrip direct flight to Hainan, plus two nights at the Mangrove and two nights at the Resort Intime in Sanya.

Night time view from our balcony.

Over the reflecting pond towards the beach...

Mangrove Tree, another view...

Lunch at the hotel's thai restaurant and our xiaopengyou (little friend).

Jealous yet???

Mangrove Tree beach. Water was clear and warm (at least once you got it). What was great was the beach was not at all crowded, a departure from most beaches I've been to.

Our wondeful balcony shower at the Mangrove Tree on Yalong Bay.

A Caribbean style beach side bar next to our first hotel.

Our favorite post-drinking food is never too far away no matter where you are in China. However, this meat stick man was dressed in chef's whites and took his seasonings very seriously.

I become known as The Guru for being dressed in a hotel robe and slippers for pretty much the entire trip. Here I am with a convert to The Guru lifestyle. I was made famous as the Guru to the rest of CEIBS after Ditan made a powerpoint presentation titled "Where is the library" which I will post a link to later.

A nighttime photo from our second hotel.

Dinner on Sunday night at one of the seemingly thousands of seafood restaurants in Sanya. What happens is you order the dishes you want, then you go over to this wall of tanks of fish, eels, shellfish, clams, you name it. There you can pick out exactly which ones you want to eat, then they take you behind the tanks and weigh everything and make sure you're satisfied. Then before my female companion had a chance to turn around they immediately started killing the fish with a stick! I don't think I've ever seen anyone more horrified.

Fireworks where a nightly activity. Nothing extravagant but for me, fireworks never get old. Taking a picture was, however, very frustrating. You hear two go off, only to run and grab the camera and then they'd stop after 3 of them. Then they'd let off about 20 but I never went to get the camera because I assumed they'd stop after 3. Finally, we figured out that if we yelled our approval after they shot them off, they would provide us with more. Problem solved.

Daytime view from our second hotel, Resort Intime (not the flashiest of names) which was populated, we think, entirely by Russians. The way to the beach was one of the most confusing endeavors we have ever undertaken and it was truly bizarre how diffult they made it to get to. At 3am Ditan and I went swimming but in our slightly inebriated state and with the others watchin from the balcony, it took us three different circles around the pool to finally get there.

Wandering around on Monday night looking for something to do other than drink, we stumbled upon more Chinglish. It took us about thirty minutes to finally figure out what it said. Being MBA students, we were forced to hold a group meeting, formulate a plan for attacking the problem, then delegating duties to appropriate team members. This all resulted in a powerpoint presentation, which is how things usually end up at business school.

On Monday night, after being extremely tired of doing nothing but laying on the beach, eating, and going out at night, there was dissent among the group about whether to even go out at all. But, this being our last night in Sanya, the motivated heads triumphed. At the bar, our mood was not what it had been previously. This all changed with these "hats."

Ditan and The Guru once again providing the comic relief for the trip. With that face, I think Ditan was a model in the past life.

We quickly found other uses for our new found playthings. These hats were fantastic. Entertaining, useful, and multi-functional! Although, I'm not quite sure what function they're serving here.

Ditan xiansheng (Mr. Carpet in Chinese) reminding us once again why we gave him this name.

I think I was dancing (or attempting to) at this point.

Last day of class today and I’m off to Hainan Island in the South of China for a little holiday until Tuesday. Next week we have a free study week and after that, five days of exams, one for each day. So next week, I *should* have some time to provide a class wrap-up, post some more photos, observations on China, etc. Until then, I will attempt to make you jealous by providing you with links about Hainan (AKA China's Hawaii).

Smart Travel Asia
The Guardian
Times Online