A round-up of the trip

Finally the last post for the trip!

phew...a relief to finally finish writing about my Holland trip. I actually finished writing all the entries on Thurs. Spent my whole day finding pictures and thinking of what to write. Don't think I will be updating for quite some time as I have to finish my assignment and have to write my cv for my summer job.

so here goes...

from Leeds to Holland, we used the bus which took us 20 hours to reach there! On the way, we sat in a ferry which was a torturous journey to me as I felt quite sea-sick.

during my first 6 days stay in Holland...

we spent it in Groningen, a rather small city up north of Amsterdam. For that whole six days, we drank instant cereal for breakfast, ate bread with cheese spread, lettuce and ham for lunch and dinner and an apple every day for fibre intake. We watched tv a lot. During that time, the world ice-skating competition was on so my sis and I had our eyes glued on the tv.

The hotel was a rather small hotel with only 62 rooms. I thought there wasn't any gym or swimming pool but it turned out there was *rub hands with glee*

So I swam and exercised a lot for the remaining days in the hotel. I've never felt so healthy ever since I came to UK.

I really missed swimming...the one thing which I couldn't do in Leeds

I've never used a gym before but fortunately the gym was vacant all the time so I could take my sweet time experimenting with all the equipments. Sadly the instructions on the equipment were all in Dutch

my mum also brought kuih momo all the way from M'sia for us to eat! yummy yummy

bought this fried fillet in the market. Oily.

After my mum finished her one-week course in Groningen, we went to Voorschoten to stay at a friend's house. Whoa, I really like the house man. So nice and the design is so unique and simple. I was kinda inspired to decorate my room like that..haha.

Hope to have a house like this next time

From Voorschoten, we went to

Den Haag (where the miniature village is)

Leiden (where we had to use a bus to Keukenhof Garden but we took the opportunity to visit the city)

Amsterdam

and Delft (where it's famous for it's ceramics)

Holland is very famous for its ceramics. The handpainted ones are more expensive

In Delft, we walked 1 hour plus to a ceramic factory for an only 15-minute guide around the factory. But we didn't go home empty-handed. Bought some cheap delftware back.

We left Voorschoten for Schiphol airport early in the morning as mum's flight was at 12. But our flight was at 8.45pm. We initially planned to visit the cheese farm and clog factory which was nearby Schiphol but was too lazy to move.

Used jet2 which was a cheap airline back. I was quite surprised that the plane left at 8.45pm without any delay and arrived at Leeds even before the scheduled time!

The flight only took 50 minutes.

*sweat*

and I took 20 hours to go from Leeds to Amsterdam!!! so geram. I thought all the airtickets were all gone when I checked the website before I booked the bus ticket but I didn't know that a few days later, there were cheap airtickets on sale. lol. Fortunately I only bought a one way bus ticket as my mum couldn't confirm the return date. Can't imagine sitting in that ferry again.

Goodbye Holland. Dunno whether I will ever return again or not. Many thanks to our gracious host aunty Patricia and uncle John for allowing us to stay at their cosy house and also providing us the useful maps which enabled us to move about in Holland.

Oh btw, the guide book which I brought along to Holland had really good maps. It can be borrowed at the central library in Leeds.

Now am back to Leeds=(

but...in another 10 weeks' time...it's summer holiday!!! yay

PS: after all those walking and reduced food intake in Holland, I realised that I've lost 1kg! haha..yay. Still need to lose 2 more kilos then I reach my target

Oh, these days so many people birthday coming. I know 3 people whose birthday fall on 2nd April and 2 people on 4th. Happy birthday to them!

Amsterdam

Body Exhibition:

I stumbled upon this exhibition while looking for information on Amsterdam in the internet.

the most expensive entrance fee among all the trips we had

outside Beurs van Berlage where the exhibition was held

I spent around 2 hours plus inside scrutinizing every part of the body. It was really good. Pity we weren't allowed to take any photos and there's not even a chance to secretly take a photo as there were many security guards around. They preserve the body really well and there was no smell as well as no iquid coming out from the body. I was rather impressed by the transverse section of the whole body like an MRI scan at the end of the exhibition. It was really an eye-opener for me and the only regret I had is that I didn't study my anatomy knowledge beforehand so that I could put it at greater use in the exhibition.

I came out from the exhibition first before my mum and my sis and bought myself a vlaamse frites. It was recommended in the Amsterdam book which I brought along but I think the fries don't taste any different from the ones we eat. But I learned that we could eat fries with mayonaise! Taste nice!

yummy...can't believe the amount of fat I'm eating

Then we had an early dinner at Hoi Tin at Amsterdam rather dodgy Chinatown. It was again recommended in the book but as that book was published in 2004, I doubt its accuracy. The place was rather stuffy and smoky.


we had duck rice for dinner

it cost 7.50 euros for that duck rice but the portion was huge

we went shopping in Chinatown and I found that the price of some goods here is cheaper than UK.

I've been to London's Chinatown, Manchester's chinatown..now Amsterdam's Chinatown

We walked along Red Light District and there were already a few prostitutes sitting behind the transparent glass windows so that men passing by could take a good look at them and decide whether they want to have sex with them or not. It was an eye-opener for me. Again, taking photo is prohibited. Besides prostitution homes, there were live sex show in some 'theatres' which cost 35 euros per entry. Whoaman. There were even pictures of nude women and men having sex in front of the theatres.

the entrance to RLD

A pic of a general view of RLD. See those buildings at each side of the canal with transparent windows? The prostitutes will either sit or stand in behind the windows and when a man is interested, he will negotiate the price and when the man agree to have sex, the prostitute will pull the curtain across. We went there quite early so business hasn't started much.

I couldn't find the sex museum when we first arrived at Amsterdam as I took the wrong address and I forgot that I actually put a picture of the map in my phone! lols. But we managed to find it in the end but din go in as Steph and mum said that all we see inside is just statues and porn art work.

So I just took a picture in front of the museum.


we went to a boat tour instead to substitute the visit to the sex musuem.

man...I dun understand a single word on the ticket

the boat we sat

I would say our boat captain which was also our boat tour guide was very good. He was very funny and kept cracking jokes. That's how I got the pictures of the various shapes and sizes and the leaning buildings on previous entry.

this is the smallest canal in Amsterdam and the captain told us that every morning people just swim from this canal to the other side to go to work

This is the smallest street in Amsterdam. 'Parking is free here!' said the captain

'Why drink and drive when you can smoke and fly?' the captain said. This is one of the coffeshops where people smoke weed and eat muffins with Hash peppered on it. Drugs taking is legal here.

I sat at the wrong place where my window couldn't be opened so when I took this picture, the reflection from inside the boat can be seen. sad case. Oh btw, it was 7.45pm at that time and the sky is still quite bright.

We went home after that. Nothing much in Amsterdam to see as most of the tourist attraction were closing and Amsterdam could be dangerous at night.

Tired after whole day of walking.

Miniature Village

Miniature Village

Miniature Village wasn't in our plan but we came across it unexpectedly when we were at a tourist information point and we saw a voucher which said 25% off for the entry fee to the miniature village.

Even it was quite a long walk to the miniature village (as we have to save on transport), it was worth it.

entrance fee after 25% discount. Fortunately we saw that voucher

where's Malaysia??

an overview of the miniature village

aiks, I dunno the name of this building

ditto

behind me is the De Valk flour mill which was used to ground corn to flour for 200 yrs

they even have MAS and SIA here!

some people would definitely think that I'm weird, sitting in the middle of the bridge

it also happened that there was a magic zoo exhibition going on in Madurodam. So we also visited it. The magic zoo (dunno why is it called magic) is an exhibition of ice sculptures. But pity the animals are sculpted using dry ice instead of the real ice. I would prefer to go to the ice hotel in Sweden where the hotel is built from snow.

The temperature in the zoo was maintained at -11 celcius and I thought the temperature was ok but it turned out I was wrong. When I got out from the zoo, my fingers were numb.

at the entrance of the zoo

in one of the igloos...i was starting to feel the cold

me sitting on a tortoise...haha

Keukenhof Garden

Keukenhof Garden:

the combination of the daycard and the bus trip there cost us 18 euros each. damn expensive

This website could give u all the basic information about the garden.

But from what I saw and experienced in the garden, let me sum it all up in words and pictures about the use of Keukenhof Garden

In Keukenhof Garden,

1. the main thing of course is to look at the flowers

there are orchids too!

2. but to some avid photographers, this is a nice place to take close-up of flowers

lol...taken without me noticing..and btw, I'm not an avid photographer

Tulips - the national flower of Holland

3. well, for some people who appreciate art, there are many artistic exhibits around the park



4. it's a good place to buy flowers too. They have many flowers seeds, bulbs and full-grown flowers for sale

5. It's a good place to propose for a marriage too! haha. I read the brochure that says that at least a marriage proposal was made everyday at the Brides Lane in Keukenhof.

picture source. I didn't take any photo of the Brides Lane as I didn't know about its existence only until after I returned home

6. You can also play chess in the garden

I still prefer the smaller version one

7. It's a good place for companies to do publicity too!

Ikea promoting their name in Keukenhof

Ikea and their cool waterbucket design

8. For people who have never seen a goat or donkey or ram before, you can see these animals in Keukenhof

mr donkey

the horns are intimidating! I don't dare go near

9. A good place to sleep and relax!

sleeping time! haha

the girl managed to get on top with the help of her father

10. and also a good place to meditate..haha!

Last but not least...

11. it's a good place for bloggers like me to put up some photos with their silly pose to entertain their readers..lol

dancing with the statue