Zaanse Schans & Volendam

10th April 2008

go holland muz see windmills n buy clogs rite?? *typical tourist* so after an exciting day at the city, the next thing wud b exploring the countryside.

it took us 35 mins of train ride from amsterdam city to arrive at zaanse schans.. don ask me how to pronounce.. i have no idea too!

when v get off the ferry, v saw this. n v went WOW! such clear reflection!





don u juz love countryside houses?


n yey, that's wat v r here for! windmill!

this 1's a mustard mill if i'm not mistaken.

once upon a time, there r thousands of traditional windmills here but now their job r taken over by very high-tech fugly-looking thin white windmills. hence there r only 10 gud o' windmills or so left, stretching along the lakeside to please tourist like me. *sigh* the world's changing ..at such a fast pace.

such beautiful scenery muz have ME in it.

issh leg kangkang!

luckily i have back up this time!

can u spot 2 smiley face in this pic? ngeh ngeh... so cute!

sawmill

we paid 2 euros to visit 'de kat'. the owner sayang his cat very much so he named his windmill after his cat. so it's called de kat, as in the cat. haha so lame...

need to climb lotsa narrow stairs to get here. n apparently, it has sth to do wif producing dyes.

at the balcony of the 'de kat'

overlooking this field. the view at the balcony is simply refreshing!

trust me, the windmill at the background is turning!! *excited* org bandar nvr see bfor.

wonder wat i do i mean by balcony? now see this.

can u spot the difference btw these 2 photos??? 1..

2..

3..

4..

5.. ok 5 secs gone. u reli need lao hua specs if u can't spot it.

answer: 1st pic taken by khoe, 2nd pic taken by pfong. get it rite? give urself an eye massage to reward ur gud eyesight.

well it worked like this. khoe had to wait for all of us to climb up to the balcony so that he can take the pic for us, then only he can pay 2 euros to come in n join us. but it's his idea anyway muahaha.


cheese factory.

in holland, they produce gouda cheese. which is these round round thingy.

haha! DUTCH LADY! say cheeeeeese=) but she's not milking cows. she's selling cheese made from cow's milk.

i absolutely love cheese! n i bought the original flavour! n i have another story to tell abt the cheese. n i'm not telling ya in this post. nyeh nyeh...

giant clogs! obviously v r now at the clog factory.

this guy demonstrate how to manufacture a pair of clogs.. wif canggih machine. n he finished up a pair in like 2 mins. wow.

n he's trying to tell us that clogs r very durable, n u r supposed to wear it wif a pair of thick wool socks. neh.. imagine wearing clogs to walk around kl, my gudness! not only it's soo damn hard n uncomforable, the kik kik kok kok sound alone is enuf to drive me mad.

ok... time to spend money. i bought 2 pairs of clogs in this shop. no, they r not cheap but i was in a clog collecting frenzy at that moment. after this holland trip, i end up having many pairs of clogs.. of all sizes.. from very big to very small.. tsk tsk waste money!! y din i have the foresight to save some euros so that i can buy more murano glass in italy!!

on the evening, v catch a bus from amsterdam city to a fishing village... volendam.

v had a nice seafood dinner in 1 of the cosy restaurnats here. i only said it's nice, bcos personally i don like fresh seafood to b battered n deep fried. damn sayang u know.

omg.. if only pulau ketam can look like this...

n that's it. i love countryside day!! those photos don reli do justice to the beauty of these places.. luckily i stil had those picturesque moments in my mind=)

I AMsterdam

9th April 2008

after almoz 4 hrs of train ride from brussels, I AMsterdam!!! yeh!!!
prostitution.. LEGAL! marijuana.. LEGAL!
netherland... a paradise for many. n is by far the moz liberal country that i've been to.
where u get weed from COFFEEshop n a cuppa coffee from KOFFIEshop. cool heh!

i know wat's in ur mind? did i go in to those COFFEEshop rite? haha i wud.. if i'm alone. well ed had warned me not to.. cos he tot i'm not emotionally stable for that. but i was wif 5 gud n clean companions hehe.. so no peer influence. n mom can stil b proud of me.

now wat's the best way to get around amsterdam city??

BICYCLE, of course!! pls make sure that u reli know how to ride a bike.. life's at stake hey!


ignore that ugly pouch. rent a bike from mac bike for abt 7 euros. weee... this is the 1st time i ride on a bike since... erm.. standard 4.
23-10=13.
ahh.. 13 yrs!! i doubted whether this acquired skill is stil anywhere in my limbic system.

needless to say, i was riding like a chicken. scared of crowd, scared of slowing down. sth's amissed. the bikers either showed us angry faces, funny faces, rude gestures or honking away, like wat's wrong wif asians huh??

apala tu khoe. he led us to riding on a opposite direction at a jln sehala. oii all bike lanes r jln sehala!! so to get it rite, v need to cross the road. it's red light for bike n sumhow every1 crossed except for me n shan.

it's a super super busy road!! v have cars, trams, pedestrians, bikes from every possible direction. waited for it to turn green. shan managed to cross bfor the tram came, bfor i prepared myself. so i told myself to cross once the tram passed. n yes, MY TURN!! juz when i pedalled across, OH-MY-GOD!! the cars were coming from another direction!! n they r vroooming closerrrr!! they r honking me like mad!!

ahhhh!!! i don wan to die at amsterdam!!!
ahhhh!!! i don wan to get injured!!!
gao meng ahhhh!!!

*fight n flight situation.. adrenaline pumping to the max** i pedalled wif ALL MY MIGHT like org gila n sped across the road.

phew! I'M SAFE!!!
they saw me frantically pedalling wif all my might n their heart skip a beat too. muahaha... v had a great laugh after that.


ok enuf of drama... here r the pics v took while v cycled around.

everywhere there r bicycles! every street there's a canal...

ain't it beautiful?



the houses have cute designs. houses r narrow bcos land is scarse. they have small doors. so every house has a hook at the top to hoist their furniture n let it get in thru the window. n sum houses r very senget.. bcos of the weight of those hoisted stuff n the pilings r swept by undergound water. oh.. interesting! i nvr know until the cosmos tour guide said that during the europe trip wif parents.

boo.. i don have a nice pic on this bridge.

at Vondelpark

finally a group photo wif every member in it



gee... my favourite place. I AMsterdam. defly a place to camwhore.

it started wif khoe. where he held the words wif both hands. n dunno y... every1 follows suit.

see.. 4 of them! i know it's a stupid pose. but unfortunately i was influenced too. oii evil khoe!

n there i go, kanasai! so UGLY!

n sadly, this is the only pic i took..wth.

except for pfong

so darren n i felt like kacau-ing her bcos of her lack of team spirit.

n yeh! another group photo! i love this 1 alot alot alot.

daren clinging on the a, me popping out from the a, shan between a n m, pfong n koon in the arches of m, n khoe lying on the platform... mengada-ly.


D for Damn!

M for mamma me-ah.

squeezing myself between t n e. so i form another word. TIE. hehe.

issh told ya i need wider lens.

cramming on a bicycle in front of Rijksmusuem.


Anne Frank House. BORING! don go. waste money.

it's basically the house where Anne Frank hid during the Nazi persecution. she's a jewish, she wrote a diary. n now the house is converted into a musuem. that's it. if u wan to know abt this part of history, better go germany la kan.

see, i took a nice pic for them.

bloody hell, see how they take for me instead.

bumping into nice church A

happily bumping into nice church B

Dam Square

yep there's madame tussaud in amsterdam. not only london.


v ended the day by feasting our eyes at red light district. giggling away seeing those porno stuff n asking darren wat r the uses of those sex toys. *jakun gals*

they have all kinds of prostitutes, posing themselves in bikinis behind transparent glass doors. got tall n short fat n skinny pretty n ugly old n young wild n tame, juz choose according to ur taste. n u'll c hamsap lou walking up n down. no wonder there r less sexual criminals in netherland. msia shud seriously consider abt this approach.

n it's reli funny to walk around these kinda places wif the vey pious khoe, he looked so shy n uneasy muahaha. well if not for him, we'd have watched a live sex show!

omg v r so evil! n ham sap.

KANASAI!

laporkan diri kepada kementerian kesihatan negeri JOHOR.. 3 november..

Souvenirs from Brussels

back in june, mom n dad came to scotland to attend my convo. mom packed all the souvenirs i bought in a handcarry. n she had to sacrifice shopping during the europe tour so she cud take this OVERstuffed handcarry home to relieve the weight of MY luggage. aww=)

after waving gudbye to us at heathrow, mom went thru the security check at the departure hall. unfortunately the handcarry failed the scan. mom was like... huh? impossible leh! i knew abt the 100ml rules. i had packed those containing liquid in my check-in luggage.. how can anything go wrong?

n the officers took the hand carry for a THOROUGH search.*totally freak my mom out* *her effort in packing the hand carry went down the drain* **NOOOOO!**

they ransack every corner, unwrap every paper to check out wat dangerous stuff my mom was carrying so that she can threaten the air stewardess to upgrade her to 1st class and.. AND take home wif her more mas blankets muahaha. well u may not understand this joke until u go to my house n find not 1 but 2 mas blankets n ask for urself how the heck did the 2 mas blankets end up in my house?! yeh si lai power!!

back to the story, the officer found this.

hi i'm manneken pis! i know where u r looking...

curious to know y does it look so strange over there heh? tsk tsk.. pervert!

here's another angle.

u r rite... i'm a bottle opener cum corkscrew! 2-in-1.. ain't i a wonderful creation?

n look at me sideways, ain't i SHARP?

ahhh... ya ya ya... u r SOO SHARP!!

so obviously there's a sharp object in my hand carry! sharp enuf for my mom to poke the air stewardess' butt until she bleed n make her obey my mom's request. hence the need for scanning n the tight security.

gah! how cud i carelessly forget abt this?

poor mom.. she din know abt this boy. cos i had wrapped it nicely wif sponge n newspapers.

that totally corkSCREWed my mom's mood. bcos she had spent the nite bfor packing very systematically, neatly n optimising every possible space.

the officer insisted it's his job to repack but my mom insisted that he can't pack it the way she'd packed it n she wans to pack it by her own... i dunno how she settled it but she muz b grumbling in her mind...

ah gal~ ah! y din u tell me earlier? c la c la everytime do things so careless 1... c la c la u caused such a big mess again. nx time ah~ u muz b more careful u know... muz rmb u know... now small matter... nx day big matter how?! i ask u how?! haiyo cannot forever lidat 1 la. muz change ur attitude la~~

ahhhh... gosh! i was glad i was not there keke. hmm but she's got her point. stop being so clumsy lin-sama!

oh wait. i missed the important part. well given such situation, v had to say byebye to manneken pis n he had to r.without.p in the bin. BUT the officer is such a nice guy, i think he's a leng chai, he told my mom it's cute n if any1's out there to pass it to.

AND thanx to pfong who craved for coffee suddenly n took sum time to buy a cuppa costa coffee... v were stil at the airport while dad called me. so the manneken pis was safely passed to my hand. thanx pfong, u saved my manneken pis.... TWICE! ah u deserve this... MUAKKS!

*********************

this is the box containing 400g of leonidas chocolates, nicely tied wif leonidas ribbon.

so lovely rite?

so tempting rite?

since ed din follow us to this brussels-amsterdam trip... i told him i wud share the whole box of chocs wif him but v need to space out, bcos it's too sinful to have them all in 1 go.

everytime he came to my place he wud grab that box of choc n ask.. can v? wif a mengada face. how cud u resist those chocs rite? so v wud each take 1 pc.. take a bite n savour it to our heart's content. mmMMMM~~~!!! every lil piece is a pleasant surprise=) u dunno wat flavour u'll get. n u dunno wat filling wil BURST into ur mouth n MELT onto ur palate when u take that 1st bite.

sumtimes v were so conviced that the other got the tastier 1 so v wud forcefully snatch a bite bfor it's too late. but if i chose 1 which is so-so to my liking, i'll volunteerily gave him the remainder half.. keke. very gan leh. wat to do... only bought 1 box... so precious!! n v finished it in like 3 days. wahh such discipline!

i've seen leonidas in other countries but they sell at much higher price. isshh! see i'm a person wif no foresight! i shud've bought more than 1 box in belgium! well i stumbed upon leonidas at mvalley last month so if 1 day i have the urge to savour those chocolates again, i don need to go to belgium. but the price shud b omg-ly expensive... so, have to work hard!

now y am i employed but stil not working???

Brussels... for mussels!

yeh it rhymes!


tot i'd blog chronologically on my trips. the last 1 was romantic paree... omg that's soo last yr!! the following trip was inverness but i'm more interested to blog abt brussels-amsterdam!!

i luv this trip bcos it's after handing in my research project. i luv it bcos it's short n less tiring. i luv it bcos it's amsterdam!! but i'm gonna talk abt brussels 1st, cos v were there for a day due to our direct flight from glasgow. oh i luv direct flights.

8th april 2008:

once v get out of the underground, 6 of us turn round n round n round to look for a COCA COLA NEON LIGHT as a guide to walk to our hostel, as told by hostelworld. tho it claimed to b HUGE enuf to catch our sight easily, v stil cudn't find that damn thing. so it's down to street names, common sense n luck. yes v found the hostel.

well actually, this is the 1st building v saw in brussels after getting out of the underground. damn zha dou rite? issh!






so there's the coca cola neon light. halo! common sense pls! how to c that damn thing so HIGH up there when u r few metres away from the building??!! nobody wil have the habit of tilting their head to an impossible angle everytime they get off an underground ok! arrghh...
stupid direction guide = precious time wasted.





when any gal thinks abt belgium, she'll think abt belgian chocolates. wat's a trip to belgium w/o tasting n shopping for those finest sho-ko-lah rite? wee~ i'm not sure abt those theories regarding flavonoids, but chocs do make me feel gud, n feel fatter.
and.. the darker the better!


at leonidas... pfong n i were so fascinated by this leng chai who tie beautiful ribbons on each box of chocs like a robot... such precision n speed! *drooling* both at the chocs n the leng chai=)





choco-licious belgian waffle on the street... omg!! look at my greedy face!! my eyes totally lit up n that grin... so membencikan tsk tsk.


nx 4 photos r buildings that surround the grand place or the market square.



guild houses

i love this part of the square the most.





king's house


the gothic town hall.. aikks camera lens not wide enuf=(



there r way too many squares in europe until u cudn't rmb which is which bcos they tend to look the same ughh. this square is by far 1 of those MEMORABLE ones, it's beautiful=)




strolling around... v found this oh-so tempting CHOC FOUNTAIN!! ahh 6 of us got so excited so v took turns in pairs to camwhore wif it.. outside the shop.. like kindergarten kids.. wth.



khoe is the tallest in our batch but he's definitely a kid at heart. n i have to NG many times juz to get my tongue sticking out at this lengh.. as if it's licking the choc. that's a tiring feat.


v had to drag our tired feet to walk down several streets bcos there's stil a muz see tourist attraction that we've yet to see. when v finally found it... v were like... harh! wat?! so small only ah?! how can it b soo famous? ya ya this is our impression of manneken pis - a SMALL fountain wif the statue of a LITTLE boy... PEEING.

n if u r 'not so lucky', u'll see him dressed up in various costumes. v were 'lucky' that day to see him naked.



manneken pis is EVERYWHERE in the souvenir shops.. from postcards to fridge magnet to corkscrew... we've seen it, took pic wif it, bought the postcard AND the fridge magnet AND the corkscrew (omg y am i so touristy?!), but stil don understand y the the hell izzit so famous...




hah now this is the town hall again. managed to capture the highest point of the tower n my gempal face tgt=) thanx to shan who had to squat hoho.





cool graffiti.. kong king vs lion king... rawwwrrrr!



bump into this eerie church on our way to hunt mussels for dinner.



after walking few streets to compare prices (even when our stomach n feet cudn't tahan any longer n on the brink of fainting, we, the cheapskate msian students alwiz alwiz have the strong WILLPOWER do this! haiyo.. i tell u! ) v found the rite places for dinner yeh!



n they even had this big screen showing liverpool vs chelsea i guess. woohoo go liverpool! cheh like i care. i only wan mussels! v ordered 5kg of mussels in 4 kind of flavours if i'm not mistaken. n v 4 housemates ate so fast n so furious while darren n khoe had their eyes glued on tv. great isn't it? if not for that match... v gals wudn't have eaten so many mussels keke.



mussel-licious! soo big n fresh that they make those served at glasgow's mussel inn look like premature babies...





chocolates n mussels... so this our trip in brussels... short but sweet=)


coming up: amsterdam!!

will there b rainbow after the rain? i don think so. not this time.