Van Gogh (Boo!!), Zaanse Schans (Good!), RLD (Best!!)

We got up early in the morning the next day.. having a heavy hangover from last nite's long walk.. haha.. took our breakfast provided with our Stayokay hostel stay..

We proceeded straight to Van Gogh Museum.. everyone is toking abt Van Gogh.. n i guess we just have to see it.. we bought the ticket at a discounted rate of 9.50 Euro from the Stayokay hostel counter.. it was just a 50 cent Euro discount..
but better than nothing..
our hostel reception


no drugs in the hostel.. a sticker on the hostel front door says..

took a tram there n as usual we didnt punch in our ticket.. haha another free ride.. hehe

took some pics along the way to the tram station



At Van Gogh Museum..

I would say this is the worst museum i have been to so far.. dont really noe how to appreciate such art n its so freaking expensive.. no picture taking as well.. ah crap.. ok lah.. knew more abt Van Gogh n his style of painting but not very useful info for me..

U even have to go thru a metal detector b4 entering the museum.. looks like they r worried some ppl might try to steal Van Gogh's painting..

One of the very famous painting by Van Gogh, the Sunflowers.. if i m not wrong.. a picture secretly taken by Dom..


Pictures taken from postcards showcasing Van Gogh's drawing at the souvenior shop downstairs..



i love Holland.. hahha basically entrances to the trains are all just punch-yer-ticket-yerself machines so for those who wanna cheat like us, we could use the trains for free.. when caught, just act blur.. haha.. usually they check at the exits of busy stations.. so must be clever n careful..

Sign indicating that there is a Metro station here..

Post Boxes in Amsterdam


After this, we proceeded straight to Zaanse Schans by train.. its a place with a traditional Dutch village setup with windmills n huts showcasing traditional Dutch products...
Upon arriving by train n on our short walk to Zaanse Schans (ZS), we came smelling a sweet choco smell.. turns out there is a very big cocoa factory over here..

Entrance to ZS

Houses in ZS.. most of these houses contain exhibittion of traditional Dutch products as well as shops for tourists to buy souveniors from..

Windmills!!.. haha i got crazy over windmills.. very nice..


Some of these windmills contain small stores where ppl could buy stuff from.. for example the windmill in the picture below sells mustard. u can also take a look at its interior in the next picture..


A Netherlands flag in ZS..


Cheese factory n store..
haha we went past a mini cheese factory which sells cheese among other many souveniors..

Another of Dutch specialities.. CHEESE!!.. with some of the pretty Dutch gers..


There r a lot of types of cheese available for sale.. as u can see from the different colored wrappings.. each color indicated one type of cheese.. too many liao n they r all so tasty... yummy..

ME fooling around at its mini factory..


Other souveniors available for sale in this shop..


There is this type of special spoon sold here for the handling of honey n other stuff.. note that the spoon is bent so that u can hang it on the cup as it will fit nicely by the edge.. thereby saving yerself from the need to clean up the mess from placing the honey coated spoon on the table...


Other houses in ZS also sells other type of souveniors...



i went in to this shop n took a look at its windmill model but unfortunately some part of the windmill fell off by itself n broke into half as it reach the floor.. i panicked n pretended nothing happened.. only to realise that the one of the employees is looking at me.. i pretended to look aroudn a bit.. haha one of the employees proceeded to take the damaged windmill back to the store n didnt bother me at all.. i just calmly n slowly walked out the store pretending nothing happened.. phew.. NOT my fault wat..

We went into one house which contains a clog factory.. another one of the Dutch specialities.. wooden clogs..


Close up of the clogs..

Me fooling around at the mini clog factory again.. DONT TOUCH the KNIFE.. haha



Wow this clog is as big as my face..

Ppl in clogs..


ppl used to skate around the frozen lake in winter with the wooden clogs..

the different stages of clog making..

Dom trying to spoil JL's picture..

ME in a big clog again..

duck tracks on the frozen lake...

There r many more of interesting Dutch items showcased in the rest of the houses..we explored almost all of them.. most interesting ones had to be both the clog n cheese factories.. the rest r mainly souvenior shops..
some more pics of this pictureque town, ZS b4 we leave..


a Dutch mailbox in this town..


large wind generators.. view from the train en route to Amsterdam..


Beware of pickpockets..

We decided to be obedient tourists n get our strippen card stamped since we have only one day left here in Amsterdam.. however the guy in the ticketing booth in the tram only stamped 2 strips for the 4 of us when he is supposed to stamp 4.. he gave us a wink n let us go.. haha cool..


We then proceeded to a supermarket to buy our dinner.. we bought some crossiants n bread n some other stuff.. we brought them all back to the hostel to heat them up.. n here is our 70 cent euro dinner.. cool..



After this dinner, we proceeded to see another thing that Amsterdam is famous for.. RED LIGHT DISTRICT (RLD)!!!.. yeah.. the tourist map of Amsterdam is so informative.. i was rather surprised when i finally realised that the streets indicated with red light bulbs means RED LIGHT DISTRICTS!!.. haha very cool.. i guess the Tourist Office is sick of ppl asking where the RLD r so they just indicated them on the map..

As we walked along the RLD.. its basically a main street on both sides of a canal.. there r a lot of tourists in the region.. Chinese, Japanese n others.. bouncers of Sex Cinema will come out n ask if u wanna see the "Pink Elephant" hhaa wat pink elephant.. hehe :P most of the prices of teh shows (live sex shows) costs an average of 30 euros inclusive of one free drink.. haha nah i didnt go in to see.. jsut heard those bouncers shouting the prices to passerbys..

then also we get to see woman scantily clad standing by large windows or glass doors.. haha now we noe wat the big windows' other purpose is... some r dressed in fluorescent bikinis which glow in the dark n reflects light so they appear to shine.. haha.. not very sure of their prices though..

an interested client will open the door, tok to the ger for a while most likely abt prices.. n if everything goes well, he goes in, curtains r closed n GETS down to Bizness... taking photogrpahs of the gers or the area is not very much encouraged.. usually the gers will shout at u when they spot yer camera pointing at them or just simply close their curtains.. jsut worried their pimps might come out n confisctae yer camera... pictures here r taken secretly by Dom.. haha so not very clear..
along the way to the RLD, we met some locals who joked that the RLD is abt the safest place in Amsterdam since this place is constantly patrolled by DUtch police.. funny!!..
There is a church located near some of these RLD.. what an irony..



Here r some shots of Amsterdam at nite.. we took it that nite while walking around..


One of the famous bridges in Amsterdam..



After a long walk back.. we went back to our hostel to chill out n rest.. n prepare to leave for Brussels tomolo morning..