abaek5

Aug 176 min read

Xiaoliuqiu - An Island of Many Names...and Turtles!

It's been a while since the last update (and we've got a few drafts in the backlog), but this recent vacation was too cool not to share!

After a few weeks back in the States for home leave (more on that another time), we decided to head back south to the island of Xiaoliuqiu. First things first. How in the world do you pronounce this?

Xiao liu qiu

"shee-ow" "lee-o" "chee-o"

Or if that doesn't roll off your tongue, you can also go with: Lambai Island, Lamay, Little Okinawa (same characters as Okinawa, and also tropical), Liuqiu Township, Liuqiu Island, Ryukyu, Little Ryukyu, Golden Island, or simply, XLQ. It's known by many names, but should just be called Turtle Heaven.

Xiaoliuqiu is a tiny coral island 13 km (8 mi) off the west coast of Taiwan, and the only way to get there is by taking a high speed ferry from Kaohshiung.

Welcome to Xiaoliuqiu!

(Flower) Vase Rock. Kid for scale

The entire island is 6.8 sq km (2.4 sq mi) so it takes all of 20 minutes to drive around the whole thing. You can't bring cars onto the island, but you can rent scooters as soon as you arrive, which is all you need to get around - plenty of power, easy to park anywhere, and, let's be honest, a ton of fun to drive and ride! Second to snorkeling, our favorite thing to do was hop on the scooters and just go somewhere. Nothing is ever far, and there's never any traffic.

Island cruising

There is only one thing to do in Xiaoliuqiu: enjoy the water! Snorkeling, scuba, SUP, kayaks - if you can do it in the water, you do it here. Except jet skis. Because this is a coral island, it's not a typical beach that has sand that extends out and drops off. Going out into the water here typically means you're walking on flat coral formations quite a ways out before dropping off into deeper water - since coral is both hard as rock and a living creature, jet ski's just don't work here. Snorkeling was by far our favorite thing to do. The water is crystal clear, we have a family set of full-face snorkel masks that we vigorously trained in the pool for, and the water is incredibly warm and full of tropical sea life... we did an early morning and afternoon session just about every day!

Family photo time...OK...just stay here...stop floating...where are you going...hey look how clear the water is!

At last count, there were over 800 individual sea turtles across 5 of the 7 known species that call the waters around Xiaoliuqiu home. We met at least 10 of them! We batted a perfect 1.000 in sea turtle sightings - literally every time we went snorkeling, we saw turtles. Put your face in the water? Bam, turtle. They come right into the shallow waters around the beaches and reefs to feed on the algae and other plants that grow on the coral. They're not afraid of humans (good or bad, TBD) and will happily munch away while you lose your mind 18 inches away. Honestly, the hardest part is avoiding contact - there are big fines for touching turtles, which led Jack to musing out loud, "Yeah but what would happen if the turtle swam into you and touched you instead of you touching the turtle?" It was a valid question, since the waves often moved us in very close proximity to each other! (Disclaimer: no turtle contact was made during this trip)

Our favorite spot was Beauty Beach, where we saw a family of 4 turtles on a few different occasions. In our head canon it was Big Daddy, Mom, teenager, and a little baby! These were roles solely based on their sizes relative to each other, the fact that they were together, and our own wild imaginations.

Just casually hanging out with sea turtles!

It's one thing to see generic underwater sea turtle footage on auto-play at Best Buy in the TV section. Sure, it's beautiful, but you know the contrast and brightness are turned all the way up so it never feels real. There is something very real though, about putting your face in the water and then seeing an enormous sea turtle appear from the distance and swim right up to you and look you in the eye. Their eyes are gentle and have soul, much like looking an elephant in the eye the first time made me feel. After you yell in excitement, thrash around looking for someone to tell, and settle back in, it's peaceful to just relax the tension in your body, watch the turtle feed, and move naturally with the turtle and waves. Oh yeah, and this whole time, there are all kinds of tropical fish darting around, sea urchins waiting to stab you, and bright coral peeking out. It's like swimming in a tropical aquarium!

AND THEN.

I went scuba diving for the first time. Scuba diving has been a bucket list item for me and the combination of Taiwan affordability, beautiful crystal clear water, and amazing sea life finally gave me the opportunity to stay underwater. Kelley took the kids souvenir shopping long enough to let me go dive by myself. After roughly 6 whole minutes of "training" in hand signals, I squeezed (SQUEEZED) into a wetsuit and we rode a few minutes over to our entry point. After being rolled awkwardly onto my back much like, well, a turtle, we got out to deeper water, turned right side up, hit the down button...

And here we are!

The urge was strong, but I did not hug the turtle

I found Nemo! It only took a few minutes, we didn't need an entire movie.

But seriously! Look at this! It's real!

When we weren't swimming with turtles, we spent our time scooting around the island checking out the scenery and local food. Being an island, seafood is obviously very popular. There are so many fish that live around here, but tuna is the star of the show in these parts. One year, they accounted for 14% of the global tuna market! Being in vacation mode, we did lots of snacking and local treats. With recent growth in tourism, there have been a number of spots with familiar flavors introduced to the island, alongside local favorites. We found great wood fired pizza, smashburgers (from an ex-Seattle area chef!), and handmade ice cream treats of all sorts!

And the biggest ice cream sandwiches, ever!

Because the island is so small, it's possible to have a sunrise and a sunset pavilion, as you guessed it, one on each side! Even on a somewhat cloudy day, sunset pavilion did not disappoint!

This is a place called "Wonderland of Deer". Deer - check. Concrete prison yard - check. Wonderland - TBD. Not pictured: The distinct feeling that the deer are going to shank you if you take your eye off of them

There are so many stray and loose animals on the island! Here are some gas station dogs and a family of cats that lived at our hotel (dad, mom, baby, bottom to top). We were lucky to emerge with no additional pets in the Baek family!

Believe it or not, it was not all sunshine and rainbows (though we did see both!). SOMETIMES, you had to wait for the sunset before ice cream. Brutal.

Tourism continues to explode in popularity, with B&B's opening as fast as they can build them. These are potential candidates to check out for our next trip!

3 Vacation Questions, feat The Baek Bees

How would you describe Xiaoliuqiu?

Ava: I would describe it as a nice sea island with a lot of good places and culture.

Jack: A mini paradise!

Kelley: It has a very Jimmy Buffet vibe

What was your favorite thing on this trip?

Ava: My favorite thing was swimming with sea turtles and riding on scooters

Jack: Seeing the sea turtles

Kelley: I liked the slow pace of island life

Are turtles made of magic?

Ava: Probably. Maybe. I actually don't know.

Jack: They look like they are.