Monet, Renoir and Dimsum

I just came back from a wonderful albeit brief trip to Hong Kong to visit the temples and, yes, to have some Dimsum and shopping. For temple photos & story, please visit http://mymeditation.blogspot.com

As a good internet buff, I checked out with HK Tourism Board's web site before I went and found that the island is hosting as many as 50 Impressionism Painting of the Grandmasters from France!

It could not be sweeter that my hotel, Kowloon Hotel, happens to be 10 minutes' walk from HK Museum of Arts where the paintings were displayed! What a coincidence!

So, one afternoon after temple visit and a little shopping, we took our stuff back to the hotel and decided to change wha we were wearing to look a little bit more "cultured" and drop by the museum. The line into the museum itself was not long altough there are steady stream of people coming but the line to get the automatic audio tour is as slow as a snail!

The show itself was so-so although I was excited to see the paintings real close with no glass cover. I like to study people's signature (just for fun), you see, so I had a ball looking at those grand master's signature on the canvas. What I like about the show is the exhibit they set up like a movie set or theatre set. You can literally walk through that period in France and I thtink the details behind it is cool.

Here are the picture of my visit to the museum and to JW Mariott for a Dimsum lunch. I'll be back to rattle on about it later. Enjoy the photos!

The pic is a replica (the real one is in another room and you can't take picture of it!) of Edgar Degas's The Dance Class. Does it look like I'm standing in the picture? hee hee hee



Me standing in front of a scene from Paris. It looks like the cool and chic Bastille area to me. Although the site of France's revolution, Bastille's streets are now lined up with uber-chic shops, pubs and bars targeted the eclectic youth in the late 90s. Jean-Paul Gautier was the first big-name designer to open his shop there but soon was followed by many. Hence, during my latest vist to Paris in 2001, I found that Bastille has lost a little bit of its exclusive charm. It is still a great place to cruise at night, though, with lots of young indie college students doing bar-hopping and people watching. Bastille is also known for its international flavors. Many cuisine, including exotic ones like Moroccan, can be found there.

OK, if it's not Bastille, it could be the riverfront area where Musee d'Orsay where these paintings belong to is situated!





In front of a self-portrait by....I think it's Paul Cezanne...?





Me in front the Hong Kong Museum of Art


A computer buff like me was delighted to see this touch-screen interactive media introducing the show. Full of history. I love it! :)



Dim Sum at JW Mariott Hotel in Pacific Place. If you plan to go there, take MTR subway and get out at Admiralty exit F. The entrance to the hotel via subway is very easy through Pacific Place shopping mall. Heh-heh. All you have to do is takng an elevator. Dim Sum lunch here is so popular it's advisable to book your table first. How good is it? Well, it's ok. But I'm not going to fly to HK just to eat it! :-P



Caught red-handed! :-p



Me studying the replica of Manet's The Fifer. The real one in the next room is much bigger! :-D



I personally like this idea of dedicating the harbor-view area of the museum's second floor to be kids' play area. Papers, crayons, color pencils, even water color (I think) were distributed free and the kids have fun in drawing their own impression of the Victoria Harbor. In this picture I couldn't resist posing in the frame provided by the show's organizer. Do I look like an "Impressionist"? hee hee hee (no pun intended.)



Appreciating Woman, Torso in the Sun by Pierre-Augustte Renoir. The story behind this painting is very interesting. I didn't quite catch all the detatils on the audio tour but it sounds like the artist were able to see this nude woman posing under the sun in his back garden as a corpse! The color he use on her body is intended to emulate the color of a decomposing corpse! Eewww!






Me having fun posing as an Impressionist painter.... Don't look very convincing, do I? :-P



On a bustling Nathan Road. This are is called Park Lane and there are many young people's brand around. There is also cute shop selling teddy bears and other stuffed animals! Anyway, not very far from this corner, there is a Japanese department store in the basement of a building opposite Ocean Terminal (I think) department store. It's called, "Muji." I enjoyed looking at the stationeries and edible goodies there. There is also a decent, clean food court in the basement sellng set meal or one-dish specialty from both Chinese and Japanese cuisine. The price is very reasonable, as with other "basement" department stores around the world.