Amsterdam

so we decided to squeeze as much as possible into the last 2 weeks.

and to Amsterdam we went.

this was the view from our hotel room at Movenpick Amsterdam. excellent hotel at very reasonable prices.

not the most convenient location tho, about 15mins walk to the city centre, but there's a free shuttle bus service provided by the hotel running every 30 minutes.

anyway, we stayed on the 14th floor, very nice view.

amsterdam has a lot of canals, as can be expected from a place about 4m below sea level.

canals are required to drain the water away so the whole country doesn't get flooded. which could be implemented in Singapore given the worsening flooding situation.

other than canals, Amsterdam has a lot of bicycles as well.
800,000 population, and 1.5million bicycles.

and a lot of trams too. i think trams are very cool. feels so old school.

1 thing that always pop into my mind. after hearing about all the history, with world wars, civil wars, independence wars of European countries, from the guides, what on earth do Singapore guides tell tourists in Singapore?

 the house nearest to the tower is where Anna Frank and family hid for 2 years before someone sold her out.

we also went on a red light district walking tour at night

and it was such an eye-opener.

prostitutes were just standing behind glass doors in their bikini or bras.
for me, the most shocking part is that some of them are really very pretty.

the portion with the giant neon light of a teddy bear is a live porno show.
on the left of the building, 4, 5 rooms with right neon lights are where the prostitutes are standing.

so after negotiating a price with the customer, the prostitute would open the door and let him in. there's a bed and a sink inside the room.

the tour included a talk by the Prostitutes Information Centre as well. very interesting stuff. the talk was conducted by a sex worker.

for example, the average price is €50 for basic intercourse,
and the average customer stays in there for a total of 6.5minutes, including taking off and putting on clothes.
i always imagined that it would take longer.


the next day we went on a tour to see wooden clogs, cheese and windmills which included this boat ride

the highlight was obviously the windmills

there aren't that many left. those remaining are kept for the sake of remembering the roots. like a museum.

think the guide said that there are only 8 remaining.

on the last day, there was this cruiseship leaving the port just beside where we stayed. so that was fun. i waved to those people as they were leaving. felt very titanic-y

oh, and we saw this tour that we should so have signed up for.

there's free flow beer on board. but you have the cycle for it. 8-10 people on board cycling in tandem. at every checkpoint, everyone on board will get to top up his glass with beer. =P how cool.

as usual, the whole set of photos can be found on my flickr account. please show some love if you like the photos!