Friday, January 1st was again a holiday, giving us
three days to relax. My two companions
and I had decided while on Orchid Island that we’d go next to Xiaoliuqiu, the
last remaining outlying island that I’d not yet visited, and also the 2nd
smallest offshore township of Taiwan. (The smallest is the minuscule Wuqiu Township,
which forms part of Kinmen County but lies perilously isolated and close to
Mainland China.)
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| Go to Google Maps |
The name is simply rendered as Liuqiu Island in English. The difference lies in the origin of the
Mandarin name. For that, we have to turn
to Japan. The land of the rising sun, as
you might know, claims its southern extremity as the Ryukyu Islands, which
reach right down to roughly 110km off the coast of Yilan County in northeastern
Taiwan. (I’d sailed previously with a
couple of friends towards the southernmost / westernmost of these,
Yonaguni.) Ryukyu is rendered as 琉球 in
Japanese. These same two characters are
pronounced “liu qiu” in Mandarin. The tiny
piece of land to which we were headed today was named after this wispy Japanese
archipelago and distinguished from it by adding “Little” as a kind of
prefix. The name in English should
therefore be rendered as Little Ryukyu Island, but is named Liuqiu instead. On Google Maps, it’s given as Lambai Island,
which is believed to be a transcription of a name from one of Taiwan’s aboriginal
languages.
I had booked the accommodations and high speed rail tickets,
while Kasania took care of the bus to the port, the ferry to the island and the
scooters to get us around. It was an
early start again on January 1st, but not as early as when we had made our way
to Orchid Island. The “bus” that would
carry us to the port from Kaohsiung’s high speed rail station was, in fact, a
taxi. The distance today was shorter
than on the previous trip, and this ferry company had an arrangement with a
taxi operation. The ferry ride was much
less choppy than on our sail to Orchid Island.
We landed around midday, when we were met by the renter of
scooters. She whisked us to our waiting
vehicles and then led us to our accommodation.
We didn’t hang about for long before heading out in search of food. We made our way to a Thai restaurant, but this was packed and we determined to return for dinner. Instead, a few steps down the road, we took lunch at a Chinese place.
Satiated, it was time to explore and we rode slowly northeast back towards the port at which we’d arrived. We stopped for a while at Lingshan Temple, which was gorgeous and overlooked a picturesque view towards the main island, whence ferries were still carting travelers hither.
Kasania and Tonya wandered off in opposite directions while I stayed to photograph the temple. Then we continued along the coast, now bending southwest, and stopped at Flower Vase Rock Trail. Tonya and I took a seat in the shade while Kasania went down the steps for a wander.
Shortly after mounting our vehicles once more, we came upon a go-kart
track. Tonya unexpectedly rallied us to
go on in and have a race. I started
video recording on my phone, only to find later that the go-kart’s safety belt
covered the lens. Bugger!
After the race, we continued southeast, stopping to get shots. Kasania and I were both surprised by the sheer number of temples – it seemed there was one place of worship for every ten inhabitants. The views were much prettier than I’d imagined. I’d expected this island, lying as it does in the shallow Taiwan Strait, to be entirely flat. It wasn’t. There were no tall mountains, but the land did have gentle contours that made the scenery pop.
We came upon a guest house that was a nostalgic recreation of old Taiwan. It was photogenic, and if there is a next time, I might consider staying here.
We
stopped again at Sunset Pavilion at just the right time.
The main attraction on this island is the sea turtles. There are umpteen businesses that offer
opportunities to view these docile, intriguing creatures, but beware! –
touching a sea turtle comes with an extremely hefty fine, and since they are
fitted with sensors, there’s no way of denying it. Not that I’d want to touch them, nor indeed
did I really like the idea of getting into the water – I’ve become less and
less of a “beach and surf” lover as I’ve greyed. In fact, the added stress of having to avoid
accidental contact with the creatures made me less interested. Kasania, too, has never shown an interest in
water activities. Tonya, on the other
hand, loves everything to do with coastal holidays, the sun, the beach and the
waves. She was entirely consumed by the
desire to swim with the turtles.
However, leading up to this trip, the temperature plummeted to
below 10°C, and I’d heard reports from the island that it was windy, and
miserable to get into the water. I’d
warned Tonya about that, and had also suggested that we could come again. By the time we got here on January 1st,
the weather had improved. Both Kasania
and I remained uninterested in getting into the water, and to my utter
surprise, Tonya also seemed less perturbed about missing it. None of us approached a diving company to
book a snorkeling trip.
It was now time to head back to Good Thai. This, it turned out, was extremely popular. Oddly, the restaurant doesn’t take reservations, so if you want to eat there, you have to line up and wait. I thought we should arrive somewhat before their 5pm opening time in order to ensure a table. I was right; there were already people queuing outside, fortunately, not too many, and when the doors opened, we were among the first sitting. The food was fantastic! I haven’t been to Thailand for many years, but, if memory serves, what we ate here tasted entirely authentic. One of the dishes was flammably spicy, and this one I could not surmount, but the rest made me long to travel to Bangkok.
After this meal,
we called it a day, stopping only to get supplies before heading back to the
accommodation.
The next morning, Kasania and Tonya started more slowly than I,
and I went off to get breakfast on my own.
Only, the scooter wouldn’t start.
After several attempts, I asked the guesthouse to contact the scooter
shop, and she came with a replacement. Now
mobile, I took the vouchers we’d received at check-in and made my way to Hong
Mama Breakfast Shop. I knew immediately
I’d not be dining there. The queue
outside stretched for at least half an hour, and although I could not make out
all that was on offer, that which I did see was not even slightly
appealing. I rode on.
At last I took my breakfast at a 7-Eleven near the port. Then I rode aimlessly through the lanes and alleys. I came upon a set of buildings that drew me back to Barcelona’s Gaudi architecture from a few years ago. I cantered up to investigate.
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Next I headed back in the direction of our guesthouse,
stopping at a second port clearly aimed at commercial fishing. I snapped away until Kasania announced that she was ready,
and then we returned together to this very port.
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After she got her pictures, we rode on, stopping at Sunrise Pavilion to take in the view.
At this point, Tonya was ready, so I sent her
a location pin. Tonya gets lost on a
straight road; she didn’t find us, so we went off in search of her instead, and
together we returned to the “Gaudi” buildings.
Next, we took ourselves to the tourist information office to inquire
about getting a ride in a glass-bottomed boat to see the turtles from a dry
location. The trip was reasonably
priced; the turtles were unreasonably shy, though we did get to spot one or two
in the distance.
The rest of the day followed no structure.
we took in the sights as we motored around;
we stumbled upon Huashan Daitian Temple, beside which resided the Bremen Town Musicians;
we stopped to take some pictures at Guanyin Rock;
we swung by Lobster Cave.
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| Whereas on Kinmen and Matsu Islands I'd seen many bunkers during my 2018 visit, this was the only bunker I saw on Liuqiu Island. In the background is the main island of Taiwan. |
In the morning there was only enough time to get to the port, shop at the oddly duty-free shop, and board our vessel back. I arrived home with enough time to do my Sunday chores.
