day seven . 7 may

amsterdam, the netherlands

amsterdam was 2 hour train ride away from antwerp.

we visited the van gogh museum and anne frank museum (which were both REALLY good) and took a boat ride down the river.


travel in style, not!


check out the bicycles!


decadence.


one of the gazillion canals in amsterdam.



van gogh museum – not an art freak myself, the visit was still a very interesting one. true to what i heard prior to the visit, the paintings, placed in chronological order of the year they were painted, reflected van gogh’s life, and his state of mind at the different stages. what began as amateurish strokes soon gave way to more serious and heavy subject matter. however, it was when he lived with his close friend in france did he start to experiment with more light hearted and picturesque landscape paintings. towards the end of the line, you could tell that he was soon losing his mind, as the works got darker and more abstract.

having visited the anne frank museum in frankfurt, anne frank’s birthplace, coming to the one in amsterdam felt like coming to a full circle. from our visit to the one in germany, we know that despite being born there, her family fled to amsterdam, where he father, otto frank, was working at that point in time. they hid in the small shophouse above his office and their lives during that time was a living hell. they could not make any noise as that would arouse suspicion, and they lived in constant fear.

i think what makes her so real is not the fact that she suffered the most of that she was the most heroic of all the victims. instead, it is the fact that she gave a face to the millions of people who have suffered and died. she was a girl with hopes and dreams just like any girl her age, and through her words, she managed to convey the series of events that took place during that period in time, through her eyes. the pictures, letter and videos were all very engaging and emotional.

anyways, since we were in amsterdam, we couldn’t pass on the chance to take a river cruise around the city, since the place was basically made up of canals. i must say that the ride was kinda disappointing. maybe it was coz of the weather and the monotony of the commentator, but i was seriously struggling to stay awake.

bicycles is obviously the main mode of transport here in amsterdam

boat ride down the canals!

movenpick hotel

boat houses!

party on the canal

after the ride, we walked on abit more to explore the city. found the homomonument and dinner was a quick bite at a dingy eatery.

my childhood hero - miffy!

clogs

many clogs

of course, the highlight of the whole amsterdam trip has to be checking out the red light district at night. having heard so much about it, we couldn’t wait to see it for ourselves. walking along the streets adjacent to the red light district, we saw plenty of coffeeshops (where space cakes, grass, weed and all sort of legal drugs are sold) and convenience stores selling mushrooms and cannibis seeds. it was an eye opener for all of us, since it is impossible to see all this is singapore

amsterdam by night

drugs

more mushrooms

porn

outside a coffee shop

the red light district was packed with curious tourists just like us. it was however, against the law to take pictures along the streets. so in a nutshell, we saw scantily dressed prostitutes standing in window displays in the shops. basically, if a man was interested in what they saw, they would just go in and ask for that particular girl. two things struck me as different from what I have originally thought:

1) i thought the girls would be naked
2) i thought there would be an entire window of say, 20 girls, instead of a few, each standing in individual compartments

red light district

tourist packed

well, whatever it is, it was still an eye opener. it also got me and huifen into a debate over the whole issue of how the girls must be feeling. she feels that they must be feeling very awkward to be standing there and being the centre of everyone’s attention. following that argument, she thinks that none of these girls want to be where they are and doing what they do.

for me, i somewhat disagree coz i feel that some people are naturally exhibitionistic in nature and they might be ok with flaunting their bodies to strangers. of coz, i cannot say that it is the same for every girl there, but to some, maybe being in this trade is nothing more than just a monetary transaction to them for a service they render. hence, they might not feel the shame that the other girls would, since they do not deem the job degrading. i could be wrong, i dunno.

our hostel was a madhole with at least 16 beds in one room. the place had no female toilets so we had to shower in the guys toilet. it was pretty funny to see yinghao’s face when he walked in to the male toilet to see us standing in front of the sinks. well, at least he found some leftover weed in one of the lockers. he didn’t try them though.

that night, we hugged our laptops to sleep.

our hostel.