Sunday, July 24, 2005
To continue from the previous roundup, the next place we went was Amsterdam.
Amsterdam is a special place in this world where prostitution and drugs are commonplace, and very legal. I find it funny how the people and government of Amsterdam can actually accept and legalise prostitution and drugs to the extent that they actually seem quite proud it. Souvenirs commonly depict porn or grass, you have sex museums, cannabis museums, and whatever museums to do with sex and drugs.
I mean...even their national monument is a phallic-like obelisk.
And once we walked out of our hostel, abt 50 metres later, we found...
I deliberately resized the picture to smaller than usual, in case the under-aged readers are able to see the details in the background. Also, in case I am guilty of putting up pornography. Ha. And as you can tell, Gary really loves those stuff...
Well, we definitely did not do drugs, and we didn't even drink in Amsterdam. Its funny that we were in Amsterdam, where most people go to party, that we just didn't do what Amsterdam is all about. We did take a walk one night through the red-light district where all the "fish tanks" were. The area is actually quite organised and the girls seem to be segregated along different streets based on age, ethnicity, looks etc. For example, we would walk along one street where all the gals are fairly hot, then turn around the block and we're looking at older women. Or we check out the asian chicks and then suddenly the next street are the big gals. Best of all, you can bargain. Heh. Also, as I walked along the streets, some guy will come up to me and ask if I want cocaine. Naturally, I declined. But he was nice, he walked with me and talked a little, and he even knew how to speak some Mandarin (not just the standard "ni hao").
There wasn't much that we did in Amsterdam actually. On the day we arrived, we dumped our bags in the hostel and took the train out to the countryside. We went to this town called Zaandam, where we could find the windmills. There is also Keukenhof, which hosts the world's largest garden of flowers. Too bad we missed the flower season by a couple of weeks. The place only opens during the flower season between March and May. Nevertheless, Zaandam also has its charms. An old, quaint town with windmills by the river and farms. Definitely better than Amsterdam itself I feel.
So basically, this is what Zaandam is all about...
The windmills in the background...
Then we went to this small farmhouse that makes cheese...and I took the opportunity to take a photo with 2 Dutch milkmaids. Hot milkmaids.
And played with the farm animals...I tried feeding the ducks some of my milkshake...
Cute little duck seemed to love it...and wanted more..
But somehow, they seemed more interested in Huijing. The birds, the ducks, the whatever, all kept flocking to her. And Huijing was rather terrified of them, so she stayed on the bench...
Then, when the ducks were distracted, she would run across to the bench on the other side to take cover, but somehow, the ducks and birds just followed her there and stood below the bench, watching her, stalking her...
Soon, the ducks got a little more bold and tried flying close to her, possibly trying to kiss her...
That's when Huijing panicked...
She stood on the bench and refused to come down...
Gary and I decided we finally know why she always gets the animals during mahjong... because she has a natural ability to attact animals, alive ...or tiled.
After watching Huijing being chased by farm animals, we went by the river, lay down beside it, and slept. Shiok. Refreshing.
So anyway, that was it with the countryside, and it was back to the city. The next day, we set out to see the main touristy stuff in Amsterdam. First up, the sex museum. Its like a museum of porn, but in a rather academic kind of way. There are pictures depicting all kinds of human fantasies, and they try to explain what and why these "ideas"/"acts" come about. Then there's this section where they have a collection of porn photographs dating all the way back to the early 1900s or earlier I think. Like a history of porn. Kaoz. Then they're also those crappy stuff like sexual ornaments and stuff. I was quite surprised the girls didn't feel grossed out la. Cos some of the stuff really quite gross la. Like 47cm "Long Dong Silver" I mentioned before.
Just an example of the crap they had inside...
Long Dong Mong, at your service...
Then there was this special chair. When you sit on it, and lean back against the back rest, this thing under the chair starts poking ur ass area from beneath the seat cover. Then we decided to play a prank on the gals. We told Huijing to take a picture with us at the seat (which just looks like an ordinary seat in a resting area), then we made her sit on the "special" one while we sat beside her, then Gary and I put our arms around her back and pushed the back rest. Well what happened next was...
Huijing: "OH MY GOD!"
And she jumped out of the seat. Then she decided to have another go at it. (I wonder why). With her happy meal box in her hand. She looked kinda happy.
Next target was Jiawei. But she already suspected something was amiss so the mission failed. She tried figuring out what was wrong with the chair, looking up, down, left, right, above, under etc...so in the end we told her the secret. Then she decided to give it a go. And somehow, there was no "oh my god" unlike HJ, but she jus sat there thinking, and smiling, and she really did sit there for a while. Ha.
So anyway, that's that. Then, we went around Amsterdam on bicycles. Most of the pple there travel with their bikes. There are special lanes catered just for bikes. Well, HJ somehow always seems to be in the thick of the action. She's not really a good cyclist and somewhere along the way, she buanged, and broke her fall with her chin. Poor girl. Heh.
We went to the Heineken brewery. Walked through the place for a history of the beer and stuff. And also had the beer too, all included in the trip.
I think the nicest part of the whole Heineken Experience was the Heineken bar.
Nice decor with the lighting and the Heineken bottles behind the bar... I think its similar to the one that was in the advertisement.
Then, we also had a picnic lunch in the park, Vondelpark, biggest park in the city if I am not wrong. We kinda got accustomed to slacking around in parks and any patch of grass we see. Somehow, just didn't feel like walking and seeing and walking and seeing, prefering to take it slow.
This is just one of the many 5 main canals that runs across the city of Amsterdam...
This is the typical street around the area too...
So basically, that's it for me in Amsterdam. 2 days. Half of it spent in Zaandam, and the rest in the city just selectively browsing through the sights. Unless you're there for some hardcore stuff, I guess 2 days is sufficient.
And then we hopped on board a train to Berlin to meet Alex...
And on board the train we played Texas Hold'em! An American who stayed in our room taught us the game which is "really big in the US". And, I found that it is the only game I can actually win money from HJ. Ha.
Ok..that's all for now....
