Hainan Island 2014 - Sandbelt Trails Golf Course, Mission Hills, Haikou - April 2014

This was our first game of golf at Mission Hills, Haikou and it was good to be able to catch up with my friend Judy who is the Caddie Master at Mission Hills.  Judy was my Caddie at Mission Hills on the mainland of China many years back and we have stayed in touch ever since.  This was our second visit to Haikou and this time thankfully we got better weather and got all of our golf games played.

Judy organised for us to play the Sandbelt trails Golf Course at Mission Hills - It has an Australian Theme described as Sandbelt meets lava rock landscape.

We had a good day there enjoying the course with many golf balls disappearing into the lava rock landscape.
It was a challenging course but a great experience to play.

After golf we had a pre-dinner presentation and then Judy took us all out for an authentic Chinese Dinner in Haikou.

Hainan Island 2014 - Blackstone Golf Course, Mission Hills, Haikou - April 2014

 We were all looking forward to playing the Blackstone Golf Course at Mission Hills as it is one of their best courses.  My friend Judy is the Caddie Master at Mission Hills, Haikou and she kindly organised for us to play this course.

Blackstone is a difficult course to play but what an experience.  The blackstone was Lava Rock and there was tonnes of it around the fairways waiting to trap our balls.  It was a very interesting course and in one part there was the remains of an ancient village.  We lost a lot of balls that day but it was fun.

After golf we had a presentation at dinner where Duncan & Rosalie received a couple of T-Shirts for their good efforts that day. We also tested out the cocktails which were very nice.

Hainan Island 2014 - Haikou to Sanya via the Fast Train - April 2014

We travelled from Haikou to Sanya via the Fast Train.  This was an ideal way for us to travel as our golf clubs and luggage were transferred via bus so we could travel light.

The train was very comfortable and smooth.  It was hard to tell that we were travelling at high speed as the train did not rock at all.  We stopped at seven small stations during the journey so we had a good chance to see the countryside as we travelled through.

When we left the big city of Haikou we travelled through a lot of farmland and small villages.  Sanya itself is a big city with a lot of high rise with more and more resorts going up all the time.  Sanya is hotter than Haikou and we experienced temperatures in the 30's with high humidity that is to be expected from a tropical area which is aligned approximately with Cairns.

The train generally travelled at about 195 klms per hour but reached up to 198 klms per hour at times. It was much better than when we travelled 3-4 hours by bus along a bumpy highway and worth the extra money for the experience.