Hong Kong Day 3: the Andy Warhol 15 Minutes Eternal exhibit!!!!!

I was so excited to wake up on this third day in HK.  The Hong Kong Museum of Art was a block away from the hotel and we went there first thing in the morning.

"In the future, everybody will be world-famous for 15 minutes." You have correctly predicted the future, Mr. Warhol.

We weren't allowed to take photos in the exhibit area, of course, but I wish for you to go see this exhibit. It was a very extensive exhibit, with pieces from his childhood til the year of his death in '87. I obviously left the building with my jaws unhinged and my mind blown away.  Needless to say, this was so inspiring.

 

The escalator the led the way up to the exhibit entrance was dressed in hot pink.

 The 15 Minutes Eternal Exhibit will run til March 31, 2013 at the Hong Kong Museum of Art, 10 Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong. For more information, click here.

As sunny as the photos seem, it was actually freezing! It's nice that we found a quaint little coffee shop along the museum compound. The place is called SimplyLife.

Coffee was average, nothing special to be honest, but I was so glad to be indoors that day.  There were very minimal vegetarian options in their menu (just your basic salad and soup).

SimplyLife Bakery Cafe is located at Shop L2-30, Festival Walk.  They have other branches listed here.

After this, we walked a little to the K-11 Art Mall, which I think is one of the tallest buildings in Kowloon. I am in love with the concept of this mall and I certainly wish we had something like this here in Manila.  They bring pop art to the people! Boutiques are curated well, their shopping selection is superb. On the ground floor, just before you step in the mall is this installation--a flying pig!

A number of restaurants in the mall didn't have too much vegetarian options yet again, and by this time I was yearning for un-Asian flavors, so we decided to have pizza and pasta from a restaurant whose name I forget about, sorry. I guess this sort of says something about that restaurant, if I forget what it's called, or maybe about my appetite because this is all I got:

Oh and this, from the map I was carrying around...zoom in on the photo if you're curious.

Hong Kong Day 2, still: St. Francis Yard and the other hidden awesome communities

Along St. Francis Yard, beside the Monocle Shops are a couple of interesting (and pricey) boutiques:

You can find this at the K-11 Art Mall too though!

Vintage stuff, reminiscent of Cubao X days of yore.

Perpendicular to St. Francis Yard are a couple of stores I haven't really heard of and wouldn'tve found if I weren't so curious! There weren't enough signs (which is part of the charm of the area, I suppose) that lead to the shops and it was a quiet, quiet residential looking neighborhood. I'm assuming it's called The Fat 23 Community--if it isn't (and please correct me if I'm wrong) let's just called it Sau Wa Fong. :)

Lots of leather goods and I was very interested in the industrial lightbulbs. Yes, they sold very hipster lightbulbs.

Freezing my ass off.

Here they had china and some furniture.

As you can see, they had minimal signs and I'm sorry, I failed to get the store names but this one over here is pretty awesome. They had tons of vintage stuff and tons of new stuff mostly from Japan.

Tomorrow, I'll post about one of the favorite things I got to witness in Hong Kong: the Andy Warhol exhibit! Woohoo! See you, W.

HK Day 2 Part Deux: so many shops, so little money.

Now where were we. Ahh, still in the Central District in Hong Kong.

 

As we continued to walk around, we got ourselves acquainted with quite a few interesting shops.  This one is called Eleven After Eleven.  They sold mostly menswear but I enjoyed the shop nonetheless.

 

A skincare brand for men whose packaging I adore.

Eleven After Eleven is located at No. 12A Elgin St., Central,  Hong Kong.

I love these Art Nouveau-inspired posters that lined most of the walls in the area.  I think these were invites to a New Year's Party.

At this point we were walking around Hollywood Road, checking out the art galleries.  There was even a man who did his thing out in the street.

I commend you, kuya.

Very near where he was standing was where we found solace and heat, and much needed rest for our very tired feet.

The place is called the Blue Butcher. I'm reading their site now as I blog and apparently the place is loaded with good reviews. I certainly liked the vibe of the place but they didn't serve food til 6pm, I believe, and we were there in the afternoon.  I was in an alcohol-drinking mood nonetheless, because my nose, my fingertips, my toes were freezing. And also because their big sign said they had eggnog. I love eggnog! Especially with alcohol.

Check out the lights! The whole set up of the place! I like it a lot.

 

Vintage tiles.

I got the spiced rum eggnog. I was a bit disappointed they served it really cold, I would have wanted it hot. But it was heavy with rum, just the way I like it.

The Blue Butcher Bar and Restaurant is at 108 Hollywood Road, Central District, Hong Kong.  If you want to check out their menu, they have downloadable editions in their website.

A little ways down the road, perpendicular to Hollywood Road is Cat Street where you will find all these awesome antique trinkets.  They have Mao memorabilia to vintage water bottles to opium pipes to vintage porn photos. 

The vagina/penis ring! Haha.

Then we hopped on to another MTR to find our way toward the Wan Chai/Star Street Area, where the hip and beautiful shops were, as if those we were in weren't already cute enough. I liked walking around though, even if my feet were killing me.  Walking around leads me to seeing stuff like these:

 And then eventually, after much more walking and exploration of side streets, we see this:

The hipster version of Healthy Options.

The wall that faced it was lovely.  And it led us to yet another beautiful store. W.D.S.G. Art and Craft Department is a beautiful, very beautiful boutique located in No. 9 St. Francis Street, Wan Chai, Hong Kong. Everything in the shop seems to be crafted to perfection.  The main entrance leads you down to the basement, where all the marvelous things were--hand crafted jeans, restored vintage furniture, even skincare.  At some point they told me that taking photos weren't allowed but I've already taken enough to show you.

Turns out, the Monocle Shop was just right around the corner.  This was the shop we were originally looking for.  I've always loved Monocle's aesthetic and well, wouldn't it be cool to just work there? The building where the shop is doubles as the office/headquarters of the magazine. Fun!

The Monocle Shop is located at Shop 1, U/G, Bo Fung Mansion, 1-4 St. Francis Yard, Wan Chai.

This whole area lead us to more shops! Each little street opened up to other hidden spots.  I'll show them to you in my next post! Hope this one was helpful to you, though! Let me know, ok! :) Love, W.