I was fortunate enough to vacation at Xiao Liuqiu, Taiwan for the past 2 days. My lab was going to collect some data on the coral there, and the professor decided that it would be an excellent chance for us to tag along and explore the island while assisting with their research.
We arrived bright and early yesterday morning, after a 1 hour ride by car to the harbour and another 30 minutes by boat. Here’s the harbour:
Xiao Liuqiu is a small island located just off the coast of Kaohsiung, and it’s a popular tourist attraction. It only takes about 20 minutes to travel around the island on an electric scooters (yes, they rent electric scooters here! I got to drive one for the very first time), so it’s a very small island.
We went to this restaurant for lunch. Weiwei recommended it as he had been to Xiao Liuqiu on multiple occasions, and thought this place served the best food. I ordered a tuna with rice. Yum~
After lunch we went out to sea by boat. Those who knew how to dive helped with the coral research, while the rest of us snorkeled around nearby. Unfortunately I do not have an underwater camera, so I wasn’t able to capture some brilliant photos of the beautiful reefs.
For dinner, the professor treated all of us to a seafood dinner. Shrimp, tuna sashimi.. and preserved sweetened mango. That was the highlight of the meal for me since I had never had mango prepared that way before. It was really good! Sweet, with a hint of sour, since the mango was picked before it ripened.
That evening we planned to visit the intertidal zone, but was kicked off the beach as it was the time of year when sea turtles went on land to lay eggs. We ended up going to ‘beauty cave’ (美人洞) to look for land crabs instead:
I saw a shooting star and firefly that night as well! It was fun to travel around the island in the darkness, feeling the wind on my face and listening to the waves crashing onto the shore.
The next day we tried to do a tour around the island but only got through half of it; we were pressed for time and it was just too hot! It was still beautiful nonetheless.
Good times!
One week left as an intern at NMMBA… I’m really going to miss it here.
Simple Affairs 