Amsterdam!

Wow!! What a trip! 1.5Gb of photos and videos! Totally maxed out! So many things to tell!! Warning: get ur popcorn and coke. This will take a while!

Amsterdam. City of vice? Sex & drugs. Legalised prostitution and Marijuana. But really nice people. And such rich religious history!!

Day 0:
My buddy Siong Yang and I decided to take a flight earlier than the rest of the Singapore Alliance to reach Amsterdam 1 day earlier. But our flight was at 7am!. We had to leave DTU on a 1.55am!!! bus in the blistering cold. Rushing around kinda felt like an episode of The Amazing Race. Cept that this time round, you get all the harsh elements - snow, wind, plus Siong Yang's jokes.

When the urge came while waiting at the bus stop, and with the icy wind blowing, Siong Yang gave new meaning to the phrase balls shrink

We actually had a mini-adventure on the way. We took the NS 75 night service bus to Kovenhavn H (Copenhagen Central) to take the Metro (train) to Copehagen Airport. But what a shock! The station doors were locked! Our flight was in 3 hrs. And the train was to depart in 3 mins!!!

It was then that we met Nicholaj. What a great guy! He quickly led us to our platform (at the far side of the station) and explained to us the station was closed for cleaning. We missed our train by a mere 1 minute. But luckily there was another train. And hey, we got to talk to Nicholaj for over an hour while waiting for the next train. Such a friendly, funny and humble guy. Good luck with your photography career, Nicholaj!

We finally checked into the airport and promptly dozed off on the seats with a small table as our leg rest. We were really stoned, for when we awoke, the table had become someone else's coffee table 5m away. As we marvelled at the local talent, we boarded the flight for amsterdam. It took only 1hr and 15min. Far too little time for a comfortable snooze!

We took the budget airline Sterling. This is the ticket. It only cost about S$200 for a round trip Amsterdam and back.

Welcome to Amsterdam's Schipol Airport!! This is a nice restaurant inside. Waiter, can I have a bottle of wine? Yeah, the third one from the right on the highest shelf?

And yep, what better way to spend your money than to gamble it all at the airport before you reach the city! Welcome to Holland!

Day 1:
Upon reaching Schipol Airport, we quickly found the train station within the airport. First things first, we had to check-in to our accomodation. We took the train from the Schipol Airport station to Amsterdam Central station. And the hostel is just 15mins walking distance away.

Inside the train. At the bottom right of the train ticket you can see it costs 3.60 Euros (about S$7). Not your average MRT ride. Amsterdam Central is only 3 stations and 20mins from the airport.

And that's the train we took. Nice and spacious. The cabins are separated into first class and second class. Dun worry, you can still take first class even if ur CAP is below first class. Ok, that's not funny.

Amsterdam Central. The grand and ancient architecture hides the the modern shops and technology inside. Think CityLink inside Novena Church in Singapore.

First few sights of Amsterdam on route to our hostel!

We booked Shelter City. It's as its signage says. It's a Christian hostel, but the interesting thing is, it's in the middle of the red light district. That's just one of the ironic things about Amsterdam. More on those later.

The hostel had a homely, Christian feeling about it. There were several Christian posters and designs around the hostel. In fact, they even had Christian meetings and bible discussions that everyone is welcome to join.

The cafe of the hostel is always packed with an international crowd during breakfast. Breakfast is from 830am to 10am daily. You can choose from so many kinds of "set meals" - coffee or tea or juice and 4 slices of toast and cheese with either 1) ham or 2) a hard boiled egg or 3) extra jam. But they all suck.

Our beds. Believe it or not, this is the top of the range in our hostel. A 4-bed dorm. Others have to share a 16-bed dorm with others. Space wise is pretty much the same cos the 16-bed dorms are larger. But more people = more snoring and more unusual smells.

After checking in, we realised we just missed the breakfast hour. But no matter, it's a good chance to explore. So we went out to hunt for food.

After looking high and low for a good bargain for breakfast, we conclude that there is no such thing as a bargain. So we settle for this Arabian Kebab shop which is the cheapest we could find. 4 Euros (S$8) will fetch you a kebab. Think the volume of a measly cheeseburger. And the big Arab guy serves you on plates with kiddy drawings. Nice concept!

After breakfast, we continued exploring the Amsterdam. Here are some sights along the way:

Amsterdam is connected by an intricate network of dams and rivers. The rivers flow across the land mass. To get from my hostel to the nearest MacDonald's would probably need me to cross 3 bridges.
The National Monument marks the centre of the City Square. It is a towering structure over 5 stories high. It seems Christian-themed and is actually to commorate the loss of Dutch soldiers' lives during World War 2.

The signature dish of Amsterdam: Marijuana.This is just a store front of some fake Cannabis (Marijuana is from Cannabis flowers). But you can easily get them from the nearest Coffeeshop. That's just the place to satisfy all your drug needs. More on that later on.

One of many souvenir shops. So many colourful clogs hanging from the ceiling.

A nice storefront with cute Dutch milkmaid dolls and Dutch porcelein. Didnt see any real milkmaids during my stay tho. Darn!

This one is interesting. Inside one of the toilets is a dispensing machine for chewable toothbrushes. Open the ball and start chewing your way out of plaque. Just remember not to swallow!

So many things to see! I could have gone on and on. But Siong Yang was not getting his average of 10 hrs of sleep a day from the morning's flight. So we decided to head back to rest. Along the way, I bought a nice Dorling Kinderly book on Amsterdam's Top 10s. It was a really good buy - not only did it list the 10s of everything, it even explained the history behind. My personal tour guide!

We woke up later to head back to Schipol Airport to pick up the rest of the Singapore Alliance. Siong Yang and I were acting like lao jiaos as we told everyone about all the sights from earlier. We planned to show them the Red Light District which was on the way back. But 1 wrong turn along the way meant that we were walking along the back alleys instead. Come on, it's not good to know the way along these parts too well! But after they had checked in, they managed to see interesting things. More on that below.

Day 2:
As a big group, we took Daren's recommendatoin to do a bike tour around the city. Mike's Bike Tour. What a nice rhyming name. I like it already!

We had to meet the at the Rijksmuseum which is arguably the most popular museum in Amsterdam. It houses Rembrandt's Night Watch work among other great works of art. And if you've never heard of the Night Watch, don't worry. Neither have I.

Our guide for the day was Steven. A nice chap who could rattle on about Amsterdam's history without pausing for breath. There were about 20 of us for the tour and when we cycled, we formed a long line.

There were times when the pace was too fast and we lost the front. But AD, the other guide would always herd the rest back. We must have cycled like 20 km that day! I must specially salute Grace who although not a good cyclist, managed to keep up with theg guys. Great job Grace!!

A scenic stop for pictures along the way.

No trip to Holland would be complete without a picture of a windmill! The Dutch have a saying: the wind always blows against you. No wonder they can get so much energy out of their windmills.

Here's a group photo of the cycling tour group for the day! The statue behind is of Rembrandt who was inspired by the windmill in the background when he painted. Today, he simply find the tops of our heads interesting.

And a stop at a farm where we are shown how hard cheese really is and its relation to clogs. Apparently, the clogs are to protect feet from the rock hard preserved cheese when they fall on your feet. geezz! But at the end of the trip, I had a conclusion - farm girls are very cute and pretty!

Hey, check out my clog collection!!

And there's AD from the bike tour. Also my fav rocker pal! It's amazing how intellectual, friendly and gentle he is! Rock on man!!

After the tour, we headed for the cheapest place in town for a bite. You guessed it. He who rules the world. MacDonalds.

For the night, some were curious to visit a notorious place in town: The Sex Museum. Yep, a whole museum dediated to that sacred subject. Due to the family nature of this blog, I'll have to refrain from posting most of the pictures. What else can I say? It was really educational.

Venus, Goddess of Love greets you at the entrance. The entrance fee is 2.5 Euros (S$5), which is pretty cheap since a burger meal already costs 5 Euros.

The first floor of the museum and facing the entrance. And did I mention there were 4 whole floors to the museum?
All sorts of funny things in this room. From the biggest to the longest to the weirdest. You get the picture.

But enough about that already. I was really excited that night. Cos Abel and I were going to watch an improv performance!!! Everyone knows I'm crazy about Whose Line Is It Anyway and improv comedy. For the uninformed, improv comedy stands for improvisational comedy, in which the performers make up really funny stuff off the cuff! Everyone should watch it for a good whacky laugh! And I finally got a chance to experience that live!!
After the Bike Tour, our end point was the Boom Chicago. It was a local pub with a theatre behind. And Whose Line fanatics Abel and I discovered that there were live improv shows that night! The 18.50 Euro ticket price was worth every penny! It's a dream come true!

Here's the ticket we bought. Doors open at 2215 and it was free seating, so you can be sure we would be there early to get good seats!

The back of the ticket. blah blah blah... But we found an interesting pamphlet too. Apparently they conduct improv classes! To teach you how to do stand up improv comedy. And there were 4 levels! wow!

Inside the theatre. It wasn't really a theatre but a large room filled with tables and a stage. Alcohol was served in the house! But nope, you had to pay for it.

The show was fantastic!! The humour was live and wicked! The team composed of 4 master improvs from England and America. The performance was a mix of prepared comedy and improv material. Similar to Whose Line, the performers play different games and get themes for their games based on suggestions from the live audience - that included Abel and me! The games played were different from those played on Whose Line, but they all gave the performers a good chance to show their skill.

One of the games was called Shift Left, in which the 4 performers are linked to another person based on a theme and situation from the audience. This forms 4 pairs. The pairs need to make up the scene along the way and after awhile, shift left is called and they rotate, and it's the other pair's turn to make up their scene.

But I think the funniest of all was a piece of prepared material. It was part of Entertainment News and a female celebrity reporter was interviewing Nico, the charismatic member of the boy band Connect 5. Nico was crazy! In his words to his screaming legions of female fans, "I take your cheers, and I kiss them, and put them on my heart because I love you! *smuck* Right there!! yeeeaaah!" Here's a video clip of the action. Watch it!! It's crazy stuff man!

Abel and I had such a great time! Maybe we'll just sign up for the improv classes afterall. haha~ Along the way out, we managed to grab hold of one of the performers for a quick photo. He was super!

Day 3:
Day 3 was the last day for Siong Yang and I. We were to leave first thing the next morning and I was determined to make full use of the remaining time. I was very eager to visit the ancient churches and Christian museums and decided to go there first thing in the morning. So I told the others that I would not be joining them for the Vincent Van Gogh museum. (Yep, the great artist Van Gogh is also from Amsterdam!)

However, I only found out later that the Christian museum would only open at 1pm. And the rest were uncontactable already (cos we stayed at different hostels). Oh well, guess I'll just try my luck to meet up with the rest at the Van Gogh Museum in the morning and then go see the churches later.

Along the way, I met this adorable little girl and her family. Man, should have taken more shots!
I also passed by The Marijuana Muesum. Where they tell you everything from how to grow it to how to smoke it. In fact, I also saw the Marijuana Growing Guide Book in a bookshop somewhere.

As mentioned, this is one of many coffeeshops. Inside, you can easily buy any type of "light drugs". And all of them have funny names. I think a packet of Marijuana is called Love Potion.

And no drug addict will be complete without drug accessories. From plastic toys to smoking pipes. This is from a storefront display.

And I finally reached The Vincent Van Gogh Museum. Only to see a long queue. I think I must have waited at least 30mins.

I was thinking of the best way to link up with the rest when I realised Song Ning had brought his auto-roaming mobile phone with him. But I only had my Denmark SIM card. So I decided to ask some people around me in the queue if I could borrow their phone. A very kind lady very willing lent me hers and refused compensation from me even after her credit went flat! wow~ the Dutch are nice!

And I found out that the rest were still inside! yay~ I've linked up!

Here's the ticket. it costs 12.50 Euros to view the Van Gogh permanent collection.
The first level of the museum. These are some international posters that were inspired from Van Gogh's work.
And probably one of Van Gogh's more known works. Bedroom in Arles. I would have snapped more photos, but the burly guard came over and warned me not to take photos. so, oh well...

Van Gogh's life was pretty tragic. He never got recognition when he was alive and later on got a strange illness people think is epilepsy. He got depressed and shot himself in the chest. He died 3 days later with his brother, Theo at his side and not knowing his art would be recognised the world over later on.
The museum has 4 stories and a very nice architecture.

After Van Gogh, some of us decided to visit the Heineken Brewery which was just down the road. I wanted to go to see the churches and just got a few shots of the outside. I was later told the Heineken Experience was quite good, better than Carlsberg Brewery back in Copenhagen.

And that's the main entrance to the Heineken Experience!

Inside the tram on my way to the churches. The transport system is special. You can buy a ticket and travel where ever you want within the next 1 hour. Inclusive of tram rides and bus rides.

I walked the rest of the distance to the Oude Kerk (Old Church). It's older than the Newk Kerk (New Church) which is in the City Square. The Oude Kerk dates back to the 1600s and is really grand. The camera angle above does not do justice to it!

I had visited The Newk Kerk on the first day. It had an exhibition about Indonesia and I wasnt keen on forking out money to see stuff about my Singapore neighbour. But I still managed to get a photo of this grand stained glass window. It's amazing!

But back to the Oude Kerk and here's the funny thing: The Oude Kerk sits in the middle of the Red Light District! A stone's throw away on the same road, you can see a Coffeeshop and special windows (that are where the girls work).

The entrance fee was 5 Euros (Student rate) and the first thing I was asked was: Japanese pamphlet? English please. Here're the English pamphlet that identifies the parts of the church and explains its background. The Oude Kerk was a Catholic church but was converted into a Protestant church during the Reformation. Now, it is simply a museum hall. I wonder if it'll be in service again.

The chruch has many nice stained glass windows. They were so large that I had to kneel down in order to snap their entire length! And ok, so I love stained glass paintings!

This is the inside of the church. There is a huge majestic organ with intricate detail. It really dwarfs the person sitting down below it.

The next thing was slightly disappointing. I wanted to visit the Museum Amsterlkring. It is sometimes called The Lord in the Attic. During the Reformation days, Catholicism was banned, but masses were still carried out in secret. The museum now houses one such secret church during the time.

However, when I reached, the museum was just closing and I couldn't go up. What a pity! But no matter, I bought the guidebook of the museum for 9 Euros. It has nice photos of the interior.

Don't be deceived by the exterior of this house! Inside is a secret church! With a grand organ and pretty decent seating capacity!

At night, I linked up again with some of my friends. We decided to treat ourselves to something special: Chinese Cuisine!!!
On the way to the Chinese Restaurant, we passed by a shop that sold you tiao!!! Hey, we havent eaten Chinese food since we arrived in Denmark months ago!

And this is where we dined. Actually, there are quite a few Chinese restaurants around town.
What a sumptous spread! Ma Po Tou Fu, Gu Lu Rou, Cha Shao, You Cai! It was so delicious! We hadn't eaten such Chinese food in ages! We gobbled everything down! Here's Siong Yang, Yuanheng and Lin Chang.
And here's me and Yuanshuo, who's acting like a pig. Oink!

And after dinner, we decided to go explore the Red Light District again. Afterall, our hostels were in the Red Light District. Right.

Here are some shots of the red light district. It's actually forbidden to take photos of the district. There have been stories of people who were beat up cos of it. I'm risking life and limb here!


There are literally rows of of such windows. Some along the main canal and others in the back alley. The girls are skimpily dressed and do their best to attract the opposite sex. When occupied, the curtains are drawn.

I'm told that it is relatively safe for the girls as there is a secret emergency button within the room and within 1 minute of it being pressed, a cop will knock down the door.

But it's pretty terrible. A whole street of vice. Windows, peep shows, banana shows, DVD shops, sex toy shops. The whole thing. And this is a space muffin. It has some M inside. Some of us tried it. In fact, some of us smoked M. They got totally wasted the next day.

Day 4:
It was back to Copenhagen for Siong Yang and I. Yuan Shuo and Yuanheng also had lessons on Monday and were on the same flight as us. In the wee hours of morning, we hurried one last time through the Red Light District that was on the way to Amsterdam Central.

Amsterdam. City of vice. But a real experience.