Off to the beach

Living on this island (and being near to the islet of Gu Lang) has excited Alex because there are beaches! Quite comfortable in the water, she isn't as yet aware of the power of the ocean and needs a close eye as she is liable to quickly get out of her level of ability. Sebastien is also a fan of the water - and knows absolutely no fear.

One weekend we ventured to Gu Lang Yu to visit the beach - along with tens of thousands of others. We specifically went to play on the beach and were woefully underprepared for the eventual dip in the ocean. First Sebastien was content to share his sand toys with any chinese child who came along - and was photographed by many a passing person (as always, for a larger photo image click on the photo and it will open up into a separate window). Meanwhile, Alex and Daddy were checking out the edge of the water whilst Mummy was sitting in the shade near Sebastien. Pretty soon, though he realised that there was water nearby. Note that both children are still fully clothed. We had drawn a small crowd of curious chinese (Xiamen and Gulangyu in particular are mainland chinese tourist magnets) who were wondering what the laowai were doing.Pretty soon Mummy has a moment of clarity - it must have coincided with the rush of a wave - and both pairs of shorts came off - uh oh, forgot the swimming nappy/diaper. But that meant only one thing - more crowds. These crazy laowai children that went in the water (that square of bouys marks the swimming area) - must check this out. Pretty soon cameras (and camera phones) were being whipped out from everywhere. Most people don't bother to ask permission to take photos.Then Mummy gave in and resigned herself to two bedraggled children if shirts were not removed. Um, excuse me please - anyone seen two laowai kids last seen paddling in the water wearing next to nothing? Yes I know that is crazy but I swear that's what they're doing...somewhere in there. (Check out that pair of split pants on the edge of the photo!)
Mummy was having a pseudo english conversation with a mainland chinese tourist about Australia in english whilst Daddy battled to make sure both children were adequately supervised - not sure how many of the chinese would have been equipped to help him out if there had been a problem...

By now though we had inspired some other chinese children to, if not remove their shorts, to at least roll them up and paddle. Ahh, this is what going to the beach is all about!
We were rather amused by the trio of "cool" chinese kids with their wild hair colours and styles. In turn they were rather amused by our kids.
Then Mummy checked her watch and decided that was enough time in the sun and it was time to dry off (the clothes had been laid out on the backpack to try to dry before being put back on) and head back home. Alex was impressed to have an icecream cup to share with Sebastien - chocolate of course - whilst Mummy joined the queue to purchase return tokens for the ferry.

We intend to check out more beaches around Xiamen - some of them seem cleaner than others with a fair amount of building refuse (marble tiles and half bricks) being embedded in the sand. We're on the lookout for an english (or able to be google translated) site that tells us the cleanliness of the beaches here.