An unlikely haven for lovers of nature in Hong Kong

At Sham Chung this afternoon

Blue sky, green countryside and clear water in Hong Kong!

 Photo of a friend photographing a lizard spotted

on our Sham Chung hike ;b

My heart sank when I walked out of my apartment this morning and saw how polluted the air looked -- about as bad as last Saturday, as a matter of fact.  Having arranged a couple of weeks to go hiking with two friends in the Sai Kung Peninsula, I pressed ahead with my journey to Sai Kung town.  

After meeting up with then though, we quickly agreed to change our hiking plans.  More specifically, we decided to save Tai Long Wan for a clearer day and venture instead on a largely inland route from Pak Sha O to Sham Chung that would offer up plenty of cool close-up sights as well as be less physically demanding.

Early on in the hike, I mentioned to my friends -- who had never been to this part of Hong Kong despite being long-time residents of this territory -- that I liked going along this route in warm weather as certain sections of it can seem like a veritable bug highway.  And while we didn't spot as many bugs out today as on other times that I've been this way, it's worth noting that it's supposedly to be currently the middle of winter in the Big Lychee!

Still, it's also true that today was an unseasonably hot day -- with maximum temperatures of 27.3 degrees Celsius having been registered in Pak Tam Chung this afternoon!  So I guess it shouldn't have been all that surprising that we did spot some butterflies, a couple of dragonflies and at least one long-tailed lizard as well as quite a few birds about the place!

Actually, the sight that I really was surprised to see today was beautiful blue skies over Sham Chung on a day when much of the rest of Hong Kong was enveloped in haze.  Coupled with the clear waters to be found in Sham Chung Wan, I felt like I was in a most unlikely haven in Hong Kong; one I sincerely hope will not be a case of Paradise lost -- be it as a result of greedy land owners, property developers or the government -- any time soon.

The seafood feast that was the best meal we had on Jeju!

The main dish we ordered at dinner 

at a Jeju City seafood restaurant :b

The second dish we ordered for that meal :)

A partial view of how our table for four ended up looking! :O

All too soon, it was time to say goodbye to Seongsan Illchulbong and the rest of eastern Jeju.  But before we bid farewell to the southern Korean island where we had had such a good time, my party of four first drove back to, and spent the evening and night in, Jeju City.
  

When scouting for restaurants to eat at near our hotel, I noticed a preponderance of Korean fried chicken and barbecue places.  I'm not sure if the rest of Jeju's provincial capital is like this but the sense I got from my neighborhood recce was that Jeju City felt more typically Korean -- at least in culinary terms -- than the rest of Jeju.  

While I have nothing against "regular" Korean food (and, in fact, am a big fan of it!) or, for that matter, the meat of land animals, my party nonetheless unanimously agreed that we'd like to have one more seafood dinner in Jeju before we bid farewell to the island and also different members of our quartet.  

So we ended up going to one of just two seafood restaurants I had seen on my neighborhood recce: an establishment which felt like a truly local family as well as thoroughly unpretentious place in that it came complete with a playpen to one side of the dining area for the restauranteur's children that one cheeky member of our quartet joked was where we could make "picks" the way some people like to do with seafood in restaurant aquariums! 

With two members of our party being non-Asians, we caused quite the stir when we first went into the restaurant.  But once we started ordering food and drinks (beer and soju as well as both cold and lukewarm water) in a manner that assured them we knew what we were doing, and especially after we started tucking into the food laid out in front of us with obvious relish and enthusiasm, everybody relaxed and things got really comfortable and super enjoyable.

At the end of it all, every member of my party decided that this was the best meal that we had in Jeju -- which is saying quite something since we had a lot of good meals and food over the course of our all too short time on the island!  Here's the thing: the main dishes we ordered (a seafood hotpot that came topped with large abalone that were still alive and moving(!), and a large grilled mackerel) were really delicious but what truly made the whole affair so outstanding was the banchan that we were served.  

In addition to the regular kimchi and vegetable banchan, we also were given a big bowl of soup/stew, a grilled fish dish that I initially mistook for the grilled fish we had ordered (to the point of whispering to the friend closest to me that we might have mistakenly ordered grilled saury rather than grilled mackerel) and a pickled/marinated crab dish that more than one of my party later said that we would have been happy to order and pay for if we had seen it on the menu! And, amazingly, after we devoured all the ganjang gejang laid out before us, the waitress came over to our table and asked us if we'd like a refill of that particular banchan -- to which we all told her "yes" most emphatically! 

One member of our party pronounced mid-meal that she would have been happy if served just that pickled/marinated crab dish and soju alone for dinner.  Another laughed and pronounced her a cheap date but I think we all were agreed that it was absolutely delicious.  Even now, when writing about it, my mouth is actually watering at the memory of this dish -- which is similar to a Teochew (aka Chiu Chow) marinated raw crab dish that I've had before and equally delectable to my mind!  And for the record: I thought those super fresh abalone were pretty good too! ;b 

Birds abound at Jeju's Seopjikoji!

Bird among the rocks at Seopjikoji ;b

 

Another bird spotted in the same area!

 

Cormorants on the Jeju coast

Back in the winter of 2013, I went on a World Wildlife Fund tour of the Mai Po Nature Reserve.  At one stop in the tour, our guide pointed to a bunch of rocks in an area where lots of birds had flocked and asked us if we knew why the tops of them were white.  When one person guessed that the white stuff on the rocks was bird shit, our tour guide signalled that the answer was indeed correct with a big laugh.

 

So when I went to Seopjikoji and saw that a number of the rocks in the area (including its landmark candlestick-shaped Sendolbawi) were white topped, I knew that this area would be one where birds abounded.  Still, it was quite the bonus to come across species that were more interesting looking than the ones I had caught sight of while visiting the Jongmo Shrine in Seoul some years back.   

 

Because of their size, the cormorants -- which look similar to ones I've seen in Hong Kong, as opposed to the great cormorants I saw in Inuyama, Japan, just a few months previously -- hanging about on the coast were easy enough to spot.  And a more brightly colored bird made itself easy to spot by posing atop a wooden post close to the path I was walking along!

Less easy to spot though was a small spotted bird that I initially mistook for a small rock!  That mistaken identity may sound unlikely but I think you'll be able to see how I made it when you look at the photo at the top of this blog post! :b

My first hike of 2019! :)

View to the north from the hiking trail

snaking up and down Siu Ma Shan

 

Looking down at the city from Sir Cecil's Ride

 

Three years ago, I spent New Year's Day away from the Big Lychee over in the Netherlands.  Then, in 2017 and again in 2018, I was in Hong Kong on New Year's Day and went hiking on the first day of the year.  But although I once again remained in Hong Kong at the start of this year, it wasn't until earlier today that I went off for my first hike of 2019. 

 

As a matter of fact, I had actually planned to go hiking yesterday, only for the day to see the worst air pollution in months.  Happily, conditions were noticeably better today -- indeed, I'd put much of today's gray visuals gray down to cloudy weather and fog -- and I was able not only able to go up into the hills of Hong Kong Island but enjoy being out among nature -- even while not being all that far away from civilization! -- for a few hours this afternoon.

 

In addition to the air pollution being significantly lower today than yesterday, the temperatures also were on the pleasant side: i.e., low enough to make it so that I wouldn't be sweating like crazy but high enough that I actually consigned my sweatshirt to my backpack for much of the hike.  And something else that made my first hike of this new year a pleasant one was my not encountering all that many people out on the trails today despite it being a Sunday rather than weekday!

 

In recent years, I've actually been disinclined to hike on Hong Kong Island on a Sunday because its trails, particularly those on the northern side of Victoria Peak and also along Dragon's Back, have become more crowded than I would like.  Happily, my decision to take a chance on the Braemar Hill and Siu Ma Shan sections of Tai Tam Country Park paid off, with even the path along Siu Ma Shan that's part of the Wilson Trail having few hikers out on it this afternoon.

 

All in all, today's hike got me realizing how much I really do love hiking in Hong Kong -- even on days when critter spottings are on the rare side! -- and also how it really isn't impossible at all to get away from the madding crowd in the Big Lychee.  So here's resolving to more venturing along Hong Kong's many kilometers worth of hiking trails this year! :)

Scenic sights at Seopjikoji (Photo-essay)

Years ago when two friends -- one of whom lives in Vermont, the other in Tokyo -- and I met up for an Okinawa rendez-vous, we visited spots that were listed in our English language guidebooks like the fantastic Churaumi Aquarium and expansive Ocean Expo Park but also places we only learnt about after arriving in Okinawa from local tourist brochures such as Okinawa Honto's Manzamo.  And on Jeju, we -- this time supplemented by my mother's presence -- did the same and once again found our visiting "strategy" paying dividends.  

In particular, all four of us really loved our time at Seopjikoji, a narrow peninsula located -- like the far more famous Seongsan Ilchulbong -- on the eastern side of Jeju and are so glad that we found the mention of it in the free guidebook given out by the Jeju Tourism Organization intriguing enough to check it out.  For while it was already really cool that we got to see the haenyeo swimming and diving about in the waters off Seopjikoji, we also then ended up spending a further couple of hours exploring the area that's also home to interesting rock formations, a lighthouse and locations which featured in Korean TV drama All In (which one of our party had viewed before we met up in Jeju)! 

Puppet Ponyo and another of those rock formations

(how come there are so many?!) that resembles a turtle/tortoise

 

View of the Seopjikoji landscape that includes two local landmarks: 

the lighthouse, and the rock formation known as Seondolbawi

 

I wouldn't want to go into the churning sea off Seopjikoji but 

the waters of the rock pools looked enticingly calm as well as clear

 

I think one has to be a bit off the rocker as well as daring

to decide that's a good place to go fishing!

 

View of the surrounding area from the elevated area

of land atop which the lighthouse is located

 

View of Seongsan Ilchulbong and Seongsan town from Seopjikoji

 

A building that I consider to be a blot on the Seopjikoji landscape

which, bizarrely to my mind, happens to house a Zippo Museum!

All told, I way preferred the views of the more 

natural elements of Seopjikoji's landscape

A by-the-numbers look at my 2018 movie viewing year

I viewed a number of movies starring my favorite actress 

in the whole wide world on a big screen in 2018! :)

I also viewed quite a few films at the Hong Kong 

International Film Festival last year :b

Three days ago, I brought my 2018 film viewing to a close after attending a screening of Yuen Wo Ping's Master Z: The Ip Man Legacy.  Today, I began my 2019 movie viewing account with a screening of Lee Chang Dong's Burning and already have got a ticket for my second film screening of the new year.  (For those who're wondering, it's for Alfonso Cuaron's Roma.)  

So I figure I had better go ahead this evening and take my now annual by-the-numbers look at my past movie viewing year; one which saw my love for movies get rekindled, as evidenced by an increase in the number of films I enjoyed viewing even more so than the increase in the number of films I viewed from the previous year (even while still not quite being at the level of the likes of 2016, 2015, 2014 (over the course of which I viewed 204 films for the first time!), 2013 (during which I viewed 211 feature films for the first time!!), 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007 and all the way back to 2006 even if one were to include repeat viewings I made, including of that perfect 10 of a film for me that is Hirokazu Kore-eda's Our Little Sister)...  

0 -- The number of 3D films I viewed last year (Remember when this was supposed to become the norm?!)

2 -- The total number of films from Malaysia (including co-productions) that I viewed last year

4 -- The number of movies starring Brigitte Lin Ching Hsia I viewed in 2018, all of them viewed on a big screen (For the record, they were Cloud of Romance, Peking Opera Blues, Swordsman II and Red Dust, and I had viewed all of them before -- in some cases, more than 50 times ;S)

4 too -- The number of animated feature films I viewed last year

6 -- The total number of films from the UK (including co-productions) that I viewed for the first time last year

7 -- The total number of feature films directed by a woman that I viewed last year (including three from Hong Kong; and this despite Ann Hui not having made a film in 2018!)

7 as well -- The number of movies I viewed on a plane last year

11-- The number of documentary features I viewed in 2018

16 -- The total number of films from Japan that I viewed for the first time in 2018

19 -- The number of 2018 Hong Kong movies I viewed in 2018

21 -- The total number of different territories whose films I viewed in 2018 (i.e., Afghanistan, Brazil, Canada, Congo, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, Ireland, Japan, Luxembourg, Mainland China, Malaysia, Palestine, Singapore, South Korea, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, UK and the USA) 

21 too -- The total number of films from the USA (including co-productions) that I viewed for the first time last year

22 -- The number of Hong Kong movies I viewed for the first time in 2018 

22 too -- The total number of films I viewed at last year's Hong Kong International Film Festival

29 -- The total number of films I viewed for the first time in 2018 that I'd rate as an 8.5 or above on the brns.com scale (with these being 12 Angry Men (USA, 1957), 89 (UK, 2017), 1987: When the Day Comes (South Korea, 2017), A Beautiful Moment (Hong Kong, 2018), A Story of Chikamatsu (Japan, 1954), A Family Tour (Hong Kong-Taiwan-Malaysia-Singapore, 2018), After Life (Japan, 1998), Aguirre, the Wrath of God (Germany, 1972), The Ballad of Narayama (Japan, 1958), Black Panther (USA, 2018), Bohemian Rhapsody (UK-USA, 2018), The Bold, the Corrupt and the Beautiful (Taiwan, 2017), The China Hustle (USA, 2017), Coco (USA, 2017), Crazy Rich Asians (USA, 2018), Distinction (Hong Kong, 2018), The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On (Japan, 1987), Fargo (USA, 1996), In the Heat of the Night (USA, 1967), Into the Fade (Germany, 2017), My Neighbors, The Yamadas (Japan, 1999), Paddington 2 (UK-France-USA, 2017), The Post (USA, 2017), Searching (USA, 2018), The Shape of Water (USA, 2017), Shoplifters (Japan, 2018), The Spy Gone North (South Korea, 2018), Still Human (Hong Kong, 2018), and Struggling (Mainland China, 1932))

53 -- The number of non-Hong Kong movies I viewed for the first time in 2018

67 -- The number of feature films I viewed for the first time on a big screen last year

75 -- The total number of feature films I viewed for the first time in 2018

1932 -- The original year of release of Struggling, the oldest non-Hong Kong film I viewed last year

1987 -- The original year of release of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad World!, the oldest Hong Kong film I viewed last year

Hotel Soul Good is good because it's got soul! (Film review)

No nightmare awaits at a screening of  

Hotel Soul Good -- I promise! ;)

 

Hotel Soul Good (Hong Kong, 2018)

- Yan Pak Wing, director and co-scriptwriter (with Yim Ka Yee, Lo Ka Yee and Lee Ho Tin)

- Starring: Chrissie Chau, Louis Cheung, Eric Kot, Maggie Siu, Richard Ng 

 

Before anything else: Yes, my first blog post of 2019 is a review of a film I viewed close to two months ago.  My main reason for doing this is because -- at least at the time of my writing this blog entry -- Hotel Soul Good has a terrible 3.9 out of 10 rating on the International Movie Database (IMDB) website that many film fans refer to when deciding whether to check out a cinematic work or not and I honestly reckon that's not fair on this offering that I must admit to having been inclined to give a miss myself until a good friend told me that it's quite the stealth gem.

Given a Hong Kong cinema release date around the time of the Chung Yeung Festival and also scheduled to still be in theaters over Halloween, Hotel Soul Good is largely set within the premises of a budget hotel whose staff members include a woman who sees ghosts, a spirit medium and three actual ghosts.  Rather than be a horror film though, this is a ghost movie with a heart and soul, whose makers appeared more inclined to tickle the funnybone and touch the heart than scare people witless. 

 

At the beginning of the movie, Hotel Soul Good's main character is an orphan girl turned succesful hotel executive whose hard-driving as well as -driven nature can make her seem like scarier to those around her than any supernatural being!  One fine day though, Katie (Chrissie Chau)'s life is turned upside down by her losing her job, boyfriend and consciousness in quick succession.  At least the last loss was only temporary.  The trouble though is that upon regaining consciousness, Katie discovers that her world is now populated with ghosts as well as fellow live beings, all of whom are equally visible and audible to her!

Fortunately for Katie, the ghosts in Hotel Soul Good turn out to be on the friendly and caring side.    Which is a good thing for her since three of them (played by Eric Kot, Maggie Siu and Richard Ng) attach themselves to her and actually treat her better than she had hitherto treated her fellow humans. For the first time in ages, Katie now has caring companions -- including John (Louis Cheung), a human the ghosts introduce her to -- who dispense important life lessons as well as help her to operate a small hotel that soon becomes a social media sensation thanks to ghostly presences having been detected there by guests!

 

One of a number of admirably local Hong Kong movies released in 2018, Hotel Soul Good can seem like a particular throwback to 1990s Hong Kong cinema in terms of it being unabashedly touchy feely and having few qualms about throwing together certain elements most associated with horror movies (ghosts! underworld guardians! Taoist rituals!) with comedic and dramatic ones. While some people might find these tendencies offputting, I reckon they contribute significantly to the film's charm.

 

Another strong point of Hotel Soul Good as far as I'm concerned is its cast.  None of its members may be A-listers but so many of them are familiar faces who it can seem like a bonus to spot in a supporting role; this not least because the likes of Susan Shaw Yum Yum and Helena Law Lan as well as Maggie Siu, Richard Ng and Eric Kot never seem to waste any of the screen time they are given and often are able to leave deep impressions with just a few minutes, lines or even just one knowing look.

 

My rating for the film: 8