20 to 22 nov 2007, amsterdam

thankfully, he wakes up the next day. ;p

our first try on a joint cigarette of 0.4 grams of hash in a coffeeshop. cost about 3.40 euros one stick and sk got really high after that. that feeling remained even after several hours of sitting in the shop. the beautiful shop keeper tried to 'revive' him by making him drink a glass of cold water with 4 packs of sugar added in it, an energy drink and a mars bar chocolate. it was a pleasant experience after all... :p

beautiful tulips

all kinds of tulip seeds

market

Van Gogh - the famous painter who cut off his left ear' lobe during some sort of seizure in 1888

end of the mp3 audio tour

a chinese temple in a short chinatown alley

the red light district - can you see some women in the glass window? they rent their own 'display' window and offer themselves for sex, starting from about 50 euros / 15 minutes. we walked a few rounds here in the day and night.

the Bull Dog - a famous coffee shop chain in amsterdam

we took a free mp3 audio tour from the hostel which will give us a brief orientation of amsterdam and also to the famous coffee shop and red light district. here (dam square) is where we begin...

reggae

this cat couldnt be bothered with us when we tried to wake her up in the souvenir shop

if you click on this picture, you will see thousands of bicycles parked at the foot of this building, just next to the central train station.

madame tussaud

like the scandinavia countries, bicycles are widely used as a means of public transport in amsterdam. bicycle thefts are very common and bikers usually spend a good amount of money on their bicycle locks.

Febo (pronounced as feibo) - a great food wall, that's typical Dutch where you can get food from the wall. snacks like burgers, Dutch Croquet and Cheese Soufflé, are waiting there in little see through boxes which you can open after inserting some coins.

left berlin by bus at 7.30pm and arrived in amsterdam at 5.30am. after an hour's walk, we arrived at the hostel. there was no reception so we rang the bell. a man woke up and was quite unpleasant when he answered the door. he said that we had arrived too early and told us to leave our bags and come back at 10am.
it was dark and cold in the open so i suggested to sk to walk with me to the nearby marriot hotel, just to sit at a warm heated place. while seated, i made myself a cup of hot cappucino (free for hotel guests i think) and ate some of my own bread (which we always carry around). saw some singapore airlines crew checking in at the hotel... good welfare man.
when sun rose a little, we decided to walk to another hostel (flying pigs) to check it out. the people there gave us a warm welcome. although price was a few euros more (29 euros for 2 persons including breakfast) than the other hostel, we agreed the offer as they allowed us to chek in immediately. so... we quickly walked our way back to the hostel, picked up our bags and left. when asked why we were leaving, i had to lie that we were tired and needed a place to sleep now but in fact... it was that unpleasantness that put me off a little... :p
flying pigs... definitely a good hostel to stay in.