A Walk Round Amsterdam

We managed to join a group of young Westerners in a walking tour round Amsterdam on our second try. That was a day before we left for Paris. The guide was an American man who was lecturing in Holland. It seemed that the trip was not free after all. We were told quite subtly before the actual walking began that we could give tips. Though the amount was not really fixed, it was suggested that we gave at least five Euros each. I thought it was fair for throughout the walk, the guide took pain to explain and tell stories about the places which we passed. Walking around in Amsterdam was very pleasant. The winter there was not harsh and we did not suffer the discomfort of sweating and the sting of the tropical sun. Halfway through the walk, we stopped somewhere near the park where there was a big statue of Rembrandt, the famous artist and many, many other smaller statues of soldiers I think, keeping the midnight watch. We were to have lunch and poor me, just ate some biscuits which I had brought along all the way from Malaysia! We were supposed to meet again later but some people did not come back. The guide was thus fifteen Euros poorer!

Meeting Place...






Listening to the Guide...



Taking a break at the Midnight Watch...




Walking on....

Traveling Tip: Tip if you must.

A boat ride in Amsterdam's Canals

One morning, someone read in a brochure that there was a free walking tour round Amsterdam. Interested parties would have to wait outside the railway station at about nine in the morning. We went there the second day we were in Amsterdam but failed to meet up with the man who would take us for a walk. So, since there was a ticketing booth nearby, we had bought tickets to go for a boat ride in Amsterdam’s canals instead

Get your tickets from booth like this...






Taking a boat ride in the canals in Amsterdam offers a beautiful sight of old buildings...

Buildings along the canal...

Traveling Tip: Look for alternatives.

Goodbye, Amsterdam.

We left Amsterdam very early in the morning. The sky was still dark when we reached the bus terminal where we were to pick up a bus to Paris. The office had yet to open and as we waited, we sat on a concrete bench of a bus stop. It was awfully cold. I could feel the coldness seeping through my jeans to my buttock and when Aziz commented about the coldness in Malay, a lady who was waiting for a bus there started to speak to us. The lady looked like a Chinese but she spoke in the Indonesian language! I had come across Indonesians in Amsterdam before this and it appeared to me then that there were more Indonesian than Malaysian in Holland. The lady came from Java, having migrated to Holland which she said was a better place to eke out a living. Married to a fellow Indonesian, she had two children and while one had married an Indonesian, the other had a French partner. When she left, we waved goodbye to her and later, to Amsterdam too..


ByeBye, Amsterdam...






Traveling Tip: Enjoy the buildings!

Ladies of the night

All quiet by day....




Just watch those windows! You may just find what you are looking for!

FOREIGNERS including Myanmars, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Indonesians and Nepalese reportedly, swarmed the alley behind Jalan Petaling in Kuala Lumpur seeking the services of prostitutes. There is supposed to be a 200m-stretch of prostitute dens there although I had never seen it all the time I was in Kuala Lumpur. But who would notice? It is not like in Amsterdam where prostitution is legitimized. One just has to walk along the crowded streets in the Red Light Area in Amsterdam at night and be awed by the ladies of the night in their slimiest undergarments peering our from their glass window. If you still could not catch what I mean, then imagine you are window shopping in a shopping complex. Only now, you are walking in the streets and a plasma TV you are gawking at is the lady of the night! All right, if you still could not figure out what I mean, let’s take a look at this situation -a man in a room is looking at his fishes in an aquarium. Now, think of a big aquarium. You are one of the fish swimming by. The man is the lady of the night!

Opening up Amsterdam

Didn't see much of Brussels. When the bus we were in moved out of the city, I thought I was just lucky enough just to catch a glimpse of an Oriental Museum and then of course, the most astonishing building in the world, too - the 103-metre or 335-foot Atomium. The building was built for the 1958 Brussels World's Fair and in the 70s, I had seen it featured in a contest form for a soft drink. This strange monument represents a unit cell of an iron crystal magnified 165 billion times. The rest of the journey to Holland was rather unmemorable. It was dark when we reached Amsterdam and to make matter worse, it had started to pour. Strangely, perhaps due to some agreement between the two countries who were part of the European Union, we did not have to stop at the border to have our passports stamped. I would not have known that we had left Belgium if not for the sole windmill I saw in the distance. In Amsterdam, we had to lug our luggages in the rain and we had a hard time looking for our hotel. Neon lights lit the streets and I saw an adult shop. It was in the red light area we were staying in but we were more concerned with food and bed then. When we hit the street the next morning, it was really quiet. The rain had long stopped and the sky had cleared up. It was a cold, crispy and indeed a beautiful morning. We came to an old church and then as we walked on, Amsterdam seemed to open up. I felt like walking into a scene in an Aesop tale...









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Travel tip: Bring along an umbrella or a raincoat.