We touched down about 6.25am Holland time, that’s about 12.25pm Singapore time… it makes me feel like I have stopped time for 6 hours! A 4 hours plane ride from Singapore to Hong Kong, a 1 hours plus wait in the transit playing monopoly deal and risked missing our next flight from Hong Kong to Amsterdam, a freaking 10 hours flight!
The landing at Amsterdam can be described as like a fairy tale! The plane flew through the marsh mellow clouds and landed, cushioned on the soft clouds! The mist was so heavy when we landed, we thought they were ordinary clouds in the sky and was expecting at least some glimpse of the land of Europe! And as the plane cleared the thick white cloud into a thinner mist, VIOLA! It’s the runway already!
I watched Bai Fa Mo Nv, True Legend and Confucious, three movies on the flights! =P
The hostel was hard to find, but it’s a nice place =) totally satisfied! 5 of us sharing one small simple room with one toilet. Kuan said we won’t get such luxury at the rest of the hostels though. One in particular has 8 beds so we might have to share the room with 3 others.
The city of Amsterdam’s like my dream. Little shop houses everywhere with beautiful vibrant colored flowers planted at the doorstops of every little home... that’s for the majority of the homes there. Sounds good already? Now hear the country side! A view of the lake from every homes, a little garden for you to plant little lovelies. People lazing around by the river in the marigolds, dandelions and tulips, some reading a book, some fishing, some old folks cuddling on the bench and some… just lazing around =D At the back of some houses there are great patches of grassland, where you’ll have black beauties to white stallions, cows and oxen, bunnies and sheep. We even spotted two beautiful raindeers kept as pets! There is also this cheese farm and shoes making factory. The cheese are sooo good, I’m sure I can have them every day without getting nauseous! I’ve got two smoked cheese for home and Shawn’s home! It’s the kind of life I’ve always dreamt of, the lake, the house, the horses… just build a swing for me and its perfect! The amazing thing is Amsterdam used to be a drain swamp many many years back into the history. Now, 30% of it is reclaimed land and everything, including the country side, is man made!
I am seriously considering moving to Amsterdam if I can find a job here or after retirement. The only problem is, I am probably allergic or something to the flowers there, I got pricked/ poisoned/ allergic reaction from the plants when I attempted to lie in the flower bed. Irritated me for more than half the day! We visited the countryside via bicycle. It was a 4 hours terrifying experience for me coz I was never good on the bike. The first thing I did when I moved off with the bike was to crash into a (thankfully) stationary car! The guide went “Seesh! And this is just the beginning!” I had exactly the same sentiments. I couldn’t really enjoy the ride coz most of the time I am worrying about controlling my bike! But the breeze and weather was perfect. The sun was bright (but not scorching at all!) and I am glad I had my new instantly glamorous sunglasses too! My butt and head started hurting 3 hours into the bumpy ride and I think I probably killed more brain cells and gained more pimples stressing out on the bike than sitting for exams!
In fact, I seriously ALMOST DIED FOUR TIMES today. Basically coz I wasn’t familiar nor alert about the traffic in Amsterdam! I almost got knocked down by cars two times, a cart once and a bicycle! I was totally accidently prone today too, dropped things on my own foot, scalded by leg etc…..
Lunch was great. Farlala - Its vegetarian with some fried vega stuffs in pita bread, topped with free flow salad! It’s so cool I ate lots of carrots and other greens =D Its tasty coz I was famished =P
We took another tour around the… er hmm… red light district. There was nothing much really, just that the amount of respect the people here give to prostitution as a legal job is amazing. The girls here are backed by a very very strong union and they are considered to be holding a normal job. They are even taxed at a rate of 22% by the government! They have this number which is connected to all the girls mobile and they even have the panic button in the room where they do their business! When the lights along the streets turn red, it means that the red light district is busy, come back another day. They are really THIS organized!
There is a church and a kindergarten in the red light district too and everyone treats such vice( as seen in Singapore) as something very normal and nothing surprising at all, simply coz they have lived and grew up here from hundreds of year already! Girls even go to church to meet rich guys and then go somewhere else to do their stuffs. It’s pretty sad actually, coz it feels like even the holy walls are penetrable.
It’s pretty tiring coz many of have jet lag. We really walked around a lot and cycled a total of 20km too. WQ and Andy even fell asleep without bathing! EEK! I’ve gotta plug in coz two of us here snores. Going to sleep now! Chao Chaox!!
No comments:
Post a Comment