My First Trip 'Abroad' with KLM

Well, as Indonesian, by staying in Singapore, it's already considered abroad, ye? Hehehe. What I meant by 'abroad' is travelling further than South East Asia.

For a start, I'm actually writing this in Quality Hotel Marina, Vedbaek, Denmark. I am here for two days Train the Trainer Skills Course for Microsoft Dynamics. It is a free course, with fully paid travel expenses up to 2,000 USD by Microsoft, by invitation only. On a separate topic, I'll blog down how it all started in the first place.

After the two days I've planned to extend my stay in Europe for another week to visit Paris and Amsterdam. Why Paris? Well, it's arguably the most place people would love to visit when they go Europe, right? And why Amsterdam? Because the cheapest flight to Europe from Singapore, that I can find is by KLM

So for now, I'll start with my first two days of the trip.

The flight with KLM was alright. If you didn't fancy so much leg room in the plane, then you should be ok. I took off around 22:45, SG time. Along the 13 hrs flight, they served dinner, supper, breakfast, and numerous beverages serving. They started with a small pack of smoked almond with a glass of drink (orange juice). Then came dinner, mie goreng, with a very nice prawn salad (I don't like prawn btw, and I still say it's nice), followed by supper, which you can choose either ice cream or instant noodle. Breakfast served in the morning, omelette with hashbrown and sausage served with salad and fruits. In the middle, the flight attendant always busy serving drinks to all the passengers (no wonder they're paid a lot)

I sat alone in window seat of the 3 3 3 seating airplane (777-300 I think), until someone sat at the aisle seat. We introduce each other, his name was Peter, and he's a Hollander, just taken a time off from his study to visit his sister in Singapore, and were on his way back to Holland.

The in-flight entertainment was great, espescially when I expected none  of them. I watched Dennis P and an episode of The Simpsons. But most of the time, I tried to get some sleep, knowing the next day would be a long day ahead.

Posted by jonsan21 at 04:46 PM on June 7, 2007 in Personal, Travel. | leave a note

Schipol to Kastrup and Vedbaek

Hola,

I reached Schipol, Amsterdam around 5:45 am, Amsterdam time. I noticed that they have a smoking area in the airport, which is neither a room nor a corner. It's just in the middle of something, near probably a cafe or some sort. I guess people there is pretty much a smoker.

The travelator in Schipol is another thing. Everytime anybody nears the end of it, there's this sound, 'Mind your step', which I couldn't figure out what was it, until I tried very hard to hear it 

The wireless access is a pay service. And my handphone was dead, so I couldn't sms anyone home that I reached Schipol safely.

There're 2 sections in the airport, EU and non EU, which separated by the passport control. To travel to Copenhagen, I have to cross this passport control. They did a very, and I said very, thorough search of everybody in the passport control area.

The flight to Copenhagen took around 1 1/2 hour. They served snack (sandwich and drink) along the flight.

Once I reached Kastrup (Copenhagen Airport), I bought a train ticket to Vedbaek (120 DKK), where I'll be staying for the next three days. The train system is a little complicated. And the payment / ticketing system doesn't help at all. Basically, you have to know where you want to go, and 'stamp' / 'klip' accordingly, based on how many zone you'll travel. My ticket was a two zone ticket, so from Airport to Vedbaek, I have to klip four times (more than 6 zones). By the way, only after a few trips then I really know how this ticketing system works . The journey to Vedbaek took close to an hour.

From the Vedbaek train station, I walked my way to Quality Hotel Marina (5 mins). The hotel is a four star hotel, I got myself Microsoft rate (775 DKK / nite, incl. bfast). I saw a big thing at the ceiling of the room, which I thought was the aircon, I phone the recept, and asked how to switch it on, only to found out that they do not have air con in all the rooms. I suppose, it was a heater instead of aircon

I tried to charge my handphone, but it seemed that my converter for my charger didn't work !! Denmark power plug is the same like in Indonesia, two pins, round one, unlike in Singapore, three pins with squared shape.

I then took a shower, and off to Copenhagen City Center for a the first sightseeing of my Europe Trip.

Posted by jonsan21 at 05:09 PM on June 7, 2007 in Personal, Travel. | leave a note

Kobenhaven H

Copenhagen City was not as I imagined. It looks, rather old. My first impression was that Copenhagen is a bicycle town. You can see bicycles everywhere, on the road, or parked. Some were parked 'illegally', some were in designated places. There's one place near the train station that has 2 storey bicycle rack. Something new eh?

I took some photos of Tivoli garden, didn't go in, simply didn't want to waste money on that. I think Jakarta's Dufan is much, much bigger than Tivoli. I walk my way through the city square and the town hall. Continued walking through Stroget, long pedestrian walkways full of shophouses, comparable to Jakarta's Pasar Baru. However, you can find all the famous brand of anything there. From LV and Gucci to Swarovski and Nokia. Anything. A lot of souvenir shops as well.

I continued walking to Nyhavn, Denmark self procclaimed, one of the most photographed site in the world, only to find the place so so lah. It's a stretch of buidlings, with canal in the middle, and boats parked at each sides of the canal. You can take the canal cruise, but again, coming from 'cheapo' prepestive, I simply pass that.

I continued walking northeast, to visit the Little Mermaid. It is a statue on the shore. Few people were there to take photo with it. I asked a guy to take my picture with the mermaid. Again, it's just a statue, nothing special. But this one, I have been warned (Globetrotter's Copenhagen and Denmark Travel Guide), so there's not much expectation from me in the first place.

By this time, my left ankle started to feel bad, but instead of going back to Vedbaek to rest, I started my journey to find a converter for my handphone charger.

Posted by jonsan21 at 09:42 PM on June 10, 2007 in Personal, Travel. | 2 notes

Tre Stiksdase Med Jord

That is what the converter called in Danish.

I looked everywhere the Copenhagen City Center and I could not found it. Fona, the shop that sells electronic gadgets (like Singapore's best denki, I suppose) has the converter for the other way around.

I decided to hunt it down to airport, thinking that maybe other traveller from Singapore, may have had the same problem with me.

Unfortunately, the journey was rather in vain. The converter I was looking for was no where to be found even in Airport. Then I met this girl, one of the airport staff. She is quite pretty, from Asian heritage I suppose. But her willingness to help was the thing that struck me most. She was the one who translated the Danish word, and told me where can I get one (supermarket named Fotex or Bilka) Not only that, upon learning that I stayed in Vedbaek (where she lived too!) she offered to meet me in the next morning to pass this converter to me on her way to work. I politely thanked her and rejected her offer, knowing that it'd be too much of a trouble for her. Too bad I forgot to catch her name. If only all people around the world are like this girl, a good samaritan, maybe our world would've been a much better world to live in, don't ya think?

I learned that Bilka, one of the supermarket she mentioned is just one station away from airport. So I continued my hunt to Osterstrad. I found Bilka, but not the converter I was looking for. Yes, the plug was to convert 2 pins to three pins, but all round, not squared.

I knew that I'm just too tired to go anywhere else. I then headed back to Vedbaek.

I reached my hotel around 8pm Denmark time. When I asked the receptionist, they found a converter! Just like what I need, three pins, all squared.

I managed to fully charged my handphone, sent a few smses, and rest well for the next day, training at Microsoft.

PS: at the end, I found that actually my converter was not faulty at all. It's just not stable. I have to make sure it is all connected properly, then I can use it to convert my 3 pins to compatible with Denmark's 2 pins. What an adventure!!

Posted by jonsan21 at 10:17 PM on June 10, 2007 in Personal, Travel. | leave a note

Trainer Skills Course @ Microsoft

The next two days, I spent the day time at Microsoft Technology Center, located inside Microsoft Development Center Copenhagen (MDCC for short) at Vedbaek. The place just 5 minutes away by bus from my hotel. However the bus doesn't come so frequent (every 20 mins)

MDCC was not like I imagine. It is a complex of short flat buildings, instead of high floored futuristic offices. This was the origin of Navision (the company, Damgaard, which was bought by Microsoft)

The Microsoft staffs, some shares room between 2 to 3 of them. A few have their own room. All of them use big LCD monitor. I manage to take a few pictures at the Microsoft vicinity.

On the way there, I met MK (until now I still not very sure of his real name, which is quite complicated ), one of the participants. He came from Zimbabwe. I believed I met him before, at passport control, in Schipol, Amsterdam. But again, by then I have not known him.

We went to the receptionist, took our ID tag, and met two other participants, Wim and Tom, both from Belgium. Not long, the trainer (Kristi) came, introduce herself to us, and escort us to the place where we will spend the day and the next day together. As I predicted, she is not a Microsoft staff, rather she owns her own company, Dynamic Trainers, in Canada. I guess this is how Microsoft business model like.

There were 5 other participants, Christer from Sweden, Anh from Vietnam, Rafal from Poland, Antonio from Brazil and Ahmed from Egypt.

The two days course was fine. The class was lively, and not boring at all. Kristi was definetely the, erm, woman for the job. The environment was condusive, everyone was heavily participating and involved in the class. Espescially the presentation on the second day. Everyone done a fabulous job presenting and giving feedback. I personally liked Christer voice so much, his pronounciation and intonation. Well experience does count, although to me Ahmed may be the overall best presenter. Myself? I believe I still have a lot of room for improvement. Believe it or not, for most of the presentation time, I actually forgot that I have an audience ha ha ha..  Anyway, all in all, preparation does help. In the end I don't think I did too bad either .

Did I mention lunch provided? We ate the same food in the lunch area with Microsoft staff. The food didn't really go well with my taste, but then again, we're omnivores right?

After the training on the first day, I went back to hotel and met a few of them that stayed in the same hotel for dinner (Kristi, Christer, Ahmed, and MK) Antonio joined us a while later (he didn't stay at Quality Hotel Marina), while Anh stayed in Copenhagen, Tom and Wim stayed in Skodsborg.

After the training on the second day, we took a group picture together before separated. However, me and MK head to Copenhagen City to grab dinner and sightsee a little bit (since only both of us left in the Quality Marina Hotel). We took each other picture a few times at the town square, as well as along Stoget, before heading back. We took the wrong bus from Vedbaek train station, and ended up walking to our hotel .

I packed my stuff and rest, for the next day I had to catch the earliest train from Vedbaek (5am Denmark time) due to my morning flight (735am) to Paris.

Posted by jonsan21 at 10:42 PM on June 10, 2007 in Personal, Travel. | 2 notes

Sterling and Eden

I arrived at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, terminal 3, around 9.35 am (Paris time - no difference with Copenhagen, GMT +2) The flight took around 2 hours. The flight I took was by one of the budget airlines, sterling, although there were no hint of being a budget airlines, in terms of the professionalism of the stewardess (most of them are quite old I suppose ), except the fact that no refreshment was provided (you can buy if want to)

I didn't get a chance to walk around CDG much, went straight to the train station, took a metro map and bought a one way ticket to Paris (8+ € ) and a carnet of 10 metro tickets (10.9 € )

The RER (Paris train network that serve outside Paris as well) was quite fast (or maybe is not so far distance? hehe). I alighted at Gare du Nord to change Metro to my hotel (Eden hotel).

My room was very small, consists of one cupboard, one bed, one table, one chair and one bedside table. There were hardly room to move around. To my surprise, the small toilet doesn't have shower. In order to take one, I have to go down to the shared shower (there's only one, have to wait if someone's using it) and if I don't understand wrongly, it cost 4 € / shower.

Nevertheless, the hotel has free WiFi access in all their rooms, cool eh?

Well, I shouldn't complaint much, considering the room only cost me 41 €, almost a third I paid for the hotel in Vedbaek, Denmark. 

I settled down, and went out for my Paris day 1.

Posted by jonsan21 at 08:37 PM on June 11, 2007 in Personal, Travel. | leave a note

Paris day 1

I planned to take a cruise along the Seine river. But due to time constraint, I decided to skip this itinerary and headed straight to Notre Dame (Metro: Cite).

The famous cathedral located at the east of Ile de la Cite. A long queue of people was already there to enter the chapel. Inside, it was a huge chapel. Later on, I learned that most of the churches have similar design for the chapel, though the building outside and the interior may be different, depending on the time the church was build, etc, etc. The entrance to the chapel is free, although, to go to the treasury and the tower, you need to pay. I managed to note the West Rose window and the South Rose window.

Next to Notre Dame is the statue of Charlemagne, which commemorates the King of Franks. Behind Notre Dame there's Square Jean XXIII, at which I took a picture of the Notre Dame's Flying Buttresses.

I tried to find any markings of point zero, but to no avail. I found Crypte Archeologique which supposedly located next to it. This is the cheapest paid museum entry that I could find in Paris (1.6 € - youth < 26 years price) hosts remains of houses from 2000 years ago.

Another itinerary that I missed was St. Chapelle. Due to Eric Bear's discouragement, I felt a strong desire to skip this, once I saw that I have to pay 7 € just to go in. This means I also skipped the entry to Palais de Justice, since they're both adjacent to each other.

I took a few picture of the Conciergerie from the other side of Seine river (huge prison building, Marie Antoinette was held there, when waiting for her death sentence) and then I decided to make my way to La Defense.

The Grande Arche at La Defense (RER: La Defense), is really huge. Although at a glance it's seems like a normal squared building with a hole in the middle of it, but when you stand below it, you could feel the sense of grandeur. Took a few pictures though I didn't go up to the top. There's a shopping complex (Les Square Temps) with cinemas there, I went in to see see look look for a short while. The cinemas was playing Pirates of The Carribean, I noted because the 'Carribean' in French looks funny .

I wanted to walk along to Arc de Triomphe (it is aligned to the Grande Arche, i think about 1km walk), but my left ankle refused to cooperate. So I headed back to the hotel instead.

Posted by jonsan21 at 09:08 PM on June 11, 2007 in Personal, Travel. | leave a note

Paris day 2

One good thing about the Eden hotel, it is not located at the main road. At night, one can definetely sleep like a baby, well, at least I could . Not only that, it is near to the Metro (Pyrenesee and Jourdain) and there's a lot of bread shop around to buy breakfast (I have been eating croissant, croissant and croissant)

Louvre was my first destination (Metro: Palais Royal Musse du Louvre). I saw the inverted pyramid as well as the big glass pyramid, which is the main entrance to the museum. What can I say, this museum is really, really huge. I paid 8.5 € + another 5 € for the audio guide, and still felt money well spent (although not all items have commentary by the audio guide). Among the notable, famous collections are Mona Lisa (Denon wing) and Venus de Milo (Sully wing). I finally saw Mona Lisa with my own eyes and still not sure what's the fuzz about her smile (ha ha). The audio guide said that it is a picture of a woman, whose son just passed away. On contrast to the Feast at Canaa, which was hang at the other end of the hall (the biggest painting Louvre has), Mona Lisa looks very small, compare to the huge wall it was hung at, in the middle of Denon wing. 

I like the paintings section in Denon wing very much (large paintings collections), and played the audio guide for most of them. For most of the other paintings in Sully and Richeliu wings, I just glanced through them.

There's also a lot of sculptures collections, like Dying Slave by Michaelangelo and Mary Magdalene by Erhart.

I am not an artist, nor I am an art fan, but I really enjoyed the Louvre collection. All in all, I think I can proudly say that I've covered 2/3 of the museums, including the Louvre Medieval in Sully wing (though if you asked me anything, I may have forgotten already  )

Out from Louvre, I walked myself to Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, then along Jardin des Tuileries (a lot of people picnic-ing here) up to Place de la Concorde and turned left to take some picture of Pont Alexander, Assemble Nationale and a glimpse of Eiffel Tower.

My next stop was Musse d'Orsay. The building was originally a train station. For some reason, they charged reduced ticket price (5.5 € ) on that day, Yay! It is defintely much smaller than Louvre, but it is not a small museum either.

Frankly speaking, I don't understand the impressionist painter much. It seems like a rough sketch with colours. Nevertheless, I tried to look into every single one of it (this may be the cause that I actually dose off for 10 minutes on one of the seating area )

It was about 16:30pm (Paris time) when I exit d'Orsay. I walked along the Metro line to find Invalides. Took a picture of the Hotel Invalides from a far, went inside St. Louis des Invalides, and finally, the Dome church.

Continued my walk to Champ de Mars (a lot of people picnic-ing here too) and to the Eiffel Tower. I queued about an hour to get the ticket to the top of it (11.5 € for a visit to the top + 2 € to use the telescope while I am at the top ) and queued another half an hour at the second floor (from ground to first and second floor is the double decker lift, then from second to top floor, change another lift). I am not sure whether that was higher than the twin tower at Kuala Lumpur (there you can only go half the height) but surely, that was one of the moment in my life that I felt so small .

Posted by jonsan21 at 09:58 PM on June 11, 2007 in Personal, Travel. | 1 notes

Paris Day 3

I started the day 3 a little bit late, knowing that I've covered Invalides on the previous day.

Again, croissant for breakfast, with a big bottle of mineral water along.

My first stop was Pantheon (RER: Luxembourg). It is said that originally this building was constructed as a church, then changed as a pantheon where some France's great man buried inside the crypt, then changed again as a church by Napoleon, before made as a civic builing later on. From a far, the dome look similar to the Dome Church's one, only is not in bronze.

From there, I took a stroll along College de France and La Sorbonne, up to St. Severin, which is said to be one of the most beautiful churches in Paris (I'm afraid I failed to see why). The church looks rather old. After rounding it, I manage to find the entrance, which is not facing the main road, took a glimpse of the inside and move on towards Boulevard Saint Germain.

Boulevard Saint Germain hosted few of those celebrated cafes. I took pictures of Les Deux Magots, Cafe de Flore and Brasserie Lipp. Before that, I didn't forget to pay a visit to St. Germain Des Pres, another big church, which located alongside the Boulevard. It is said that Rene Descartes tomb lies beneath it.

The next stop was St. Sulpice. Another big church. Apparently, some construction / restoration work was in progress. I didn't manage to go in, though I took a nice picture at Place St. Sulpice (I think it is mentioned somewhere in Da Vince code, for what is worth)

I continued walking down to Palais du Luxembourg and Jardin du Luxembourg (a lot of people picnic-ing here - those people really free and got nothing to do, eh?). And there I was, back to where I started (RER: Luxembourg). Not bad for a tour planner, ya?

The rest of the day I spent visitting two of the remote places, Arc de Triomphe (which I missed in the first day due my ankle problem) and Sacre Coeur. Arc de Triomphe (Metro: Charles de Gaulle Etoile) is a monument built by Napoleon to celebrate his victory on the Battle of Austerlitz. It is now the customary starting point for victory celebrations and parades (I wonder whether the France team started their parade here or not when they took the 1998 World Cup)

In order to go to Sacre Coeur, you have to climb a massive amount of steps, no lift nor elevator, before a 5 minute walk from the Metro (Anvers). Upon reaching the entrance of Sacre Coeur, you can see most of Paris. The dome, with its peak, is the second highest point in Paris, after the Eiffel Tower. The Basilica's white wall makes it look very 'sanctified' (unlike the feeling when you see other churches - kinda old looking). Inside, like the churches I've visited, it has similar design, though the details may be different (not an architect nor an art master here). Sadly, photography was not allowed inside.

Things to note on the area, along the walk from the metro station to the Sacre Coeur, is that you can find a lot of small shops and people offering their goods. Also, a lot of suspicious people were below, just before the start of the stairs, going up to the Basilica. I just walked pass them as advised by my friends.

That sums up my third day in Paris.

Posted by jonsan21 at 08:45 PM on June 12, 2007 in Personal, Travel. | leave a note

Paris day 4

My last full day in Paris started later than the previous days. I only went out from hotel at about 9am (Paris time)

Chateau de Versailles was the destination. Using another ticket, bought on the previous day (2.7 € ), I travelled my way to Versailles. When trying to change from Metro to RER (at St. Michel station), I headed to minor problems. But after clarifying with a passer by, I finally understand how to read the chart on the station wall, and what train goes to Versailles (the train called 'Vick').

Alighting at the end of the RER (Versailles Rive Gauche), I walked my way to the Chateau (5 min walk). Next time you go to Versailles, make sure you bring thick clothing, the breezy air was very cold, you have been warned . The palace ticket covers most of the attraction (13.5 €, inclusive audio guide). There's 2 queues, one for the tickets and the other to enter the palace.

After purchasing the ticket (around 1/2 hour queue), I went in to the Dauphin's apartments (heir to the throne) However, the Mesdames apartments (Louis XV daughters) only opens on weekends. From there, I queue up with the second queue (around 20 min queue), to enter the palace.

The tour inside the palace started with the Chapel and Opera house. The Chapel is magnificent. Again, it is similar with those churches chapel's that I've visited, however, the royal feeling makes a total it seems in a different league. For some reason, I didn't manage to see the Opera house (I think it was close?) Nevertheless, I proceed on to the King's and Queen's apartments, in which I saw the King's and the queen's bedchamber, also the halls of mirrors) and lastly to the History of France galleries.

After that I took a walk along the gardens, only to find out that to reach the nearest edge of the Grand Canal ( will took 15 min walk (1 Km) and to reach the Grand Trianon (Marie Antoinette's priveate estate) will took 25 min walk (1.5 Km). By then it is almost 14:30 Paris time.

Afraid that I could not walk back, I decided to end my visit to this huge castle which testifies France's wonderful history of Monarchy. All in all, I think they have done a great job keeping the huge palace as much as it was, and did I mention the audio guide was very great? It has quite a detailed explanation for each of the rooms that can be visited.

Posted by jonsan21 at 09:49 PM on June 12, 2007 in Personal, Travel. | 1 notes

Paris day 5 - Charles de Gaulle to Schipol

On my 5th day in Paris, I had an even more relaxing morning. Knowing that my flight is not until 16:25 (Paris time), I took my time packing and checking out from Eden hotel.

After checking out, I headed to Galeries Lafayette and Printemps, to do some window shopping and see how they are look like.

Both shopping center are big department stores with a lot of designer brand, although I found that Lafayette is somehow much more crowded than Printemps. Lafayette is made of three buildings, where in the first one you can find all women's accessories and fashion. They call it, Lafayette main store. Louis Vuitton boutique is located in this building's ground floor.

 The second building, which is interlinked by an overhead bridge, just next to it, serves men's fashion and gourmet, although the main stores also has McDonald in its 4th storey. The third building, supposedly serves home and interior, but I didn't had a chance to visit it.

Printemps also has three buildings, each for men, women and home & interior needs. On top of one of the building, you can find a restaurant with a 'panoramic' view, although I am not too sure whether top of other buildings consider panoramic at all

By 14:30 I had reached Charles de Gaulle airport. It has three terminals. My flight was from terminal 2. CDG has two train stops, the first for terminal 1 and 3, and the second stop which I alighted for terminal 2 (the last stop). For some reason, the RER ithat I took was a direct train to CDG, it means, after the last stop in Paris (Gare du Nord), it doesn't stop at all, until the first stop at CDG. It only took less than 30 minutes from Gare du Nord I think (prior to that I had wasted about 30 minutes by jumping on to the wrong RER, lucky I have plenty of buffer time). One think about Paris, a lot of street busker everywhere. At metro intersection, RER station and even inside the RER. On my journey to CDG, there's this guy that played violin with trumpet at the same time!

The flight only took 1 hour and 20 minutes, and the air time was even shorter (only about 45 minutes I think) They only serves light snack (a pack of Doritos) and drinks (better than nothing)

I arrived at Schipol, at about 17:45 (Amsterdam time). Bought a ticket of one way journey to Amsterdam central, bought an 'I Amsterdam card" and dispatch myself to Amsterdam. One good thing about Schipol is that it is one of the huge, modern, international airport, that maintains single terminal approach. So there's no terminal 1, 2 or 3, just Schipol.

I reached Amsterdam Central, and took Tram no.1 to Abba hotel.

Posted by jonsan21 at 10:55 AM on June 16, 2007 in Personal, Travel. | leave a note

Abba Hotel and Amsterdam day 1

Abba is located in the Museum Quarter. It is a little bit far from the Amsterdam Central, but hey, Amsterdam is not too big in the first place. It is about 10 minutes tram ride.

Tram is very popular in Amsterdam. Unlike the Metro, which only has three stations inside Amsterdam (you can imagine Amsterdam size compare to Paris which has about at least 100 Metro stations), tram is the major important means of transportation, besides bicycle. Yes, bicycle. I tought I have seen a bicycle city in Copenhagen. But Amsterdam is definetely more than Copenhagen. I saw a double decker bicylce parking in Copenhagen, and I thought that was something, not until I saw a triple storey bicycle parking lots in Amsterdam.

The receoptionist is located at the second floor of the building. The first floor occupied by Albert Heijn (an NTUC equivalent in Singapore), which is great. The receptionist was friendly, showed my room, which is a single deluxe suit, small, but neat and clean with private toilet and shower, a TV with cable connection and more than 50 channel (mostly in dutch), but no internet connection. All in all, my only complaint to Abba hotel was the bed is too soft and bended (I think my back pain was caused by sleeping there). Breakfast, which is a standard bread with meat and cheese, cereal and milk, with coffee and tea was included in the room rates (55 € )

After settling down, I headed to the Red Light District, the much mentioned disctrict in Amsterdam, only to find that the district is just like a public swimming pool, without the swimming pool , a lot of girls with 'swimming attire', waiving and posing, but besides the canal in the middle of the two roads along the district, I can see no swimming pool . But hey, what do you expect? Another thing to mention is that along the whole road there's a lot of club offering 'Live shows' and I believe more than just 'shows', but then again, even in Indonesia, that is very common nowadays (hypothetically speaking, not talking from experience)

Oh yes, there's this hotel called 'Heart of Amsterdam' and it is located just at the heart of the Red Light District. This hotel was one of my consideration when choosing hotel, because of it's price, which luckily I didn't choose it. It is only suitable, if you really, really, like the Red Light District so much

Posted by jonsan21 at 11:14 AM on June 16, 2007 in Personal, Travel. | leave a note

Amsterdam day 2

The 'I Amsterdam' (IAC) card that I bought (43 € ), allows me a 48 hour of free public transport (Metro and Tram) and a 48 hour of free access to most of the well known museums (the 48 hour starts from the time of first use) A 24 hour of free public transport costs 6.8 €, or something like that, and a visit to a museum costs an average of 7 €, so if you're visitting Amsterdam, I strongly encouraged you to buy this card.

I started of by visitting Rijkmuseum - The Masterpiece (10 €, but free with IAC) It has two big rooms showing Dutch glorious golden ages (VOC time), weapons collection, ship miniature and such. If you remember Barbie doll house, this idea actually comes from those times, where European riches ladies, collects house miniature (like Barbie doll houses, but much bigger), altought I am not sure whether they also plays with dolls and the house . The second floor house paintings, mostly by Rembrandt. The master's masterpiece, The Night Watch, also displayed there.

Moving on, I headed to Van Gogh museum (also 10 €, but free with IAC), which hosted most of Van Gogh's works (paintings, letters, sketches). I like the way the museum approach to the painter's life. Not only displaying the painter's works, but also showing the in depth struggle that he must have faced as an artist who had not much recognition of his work, when he was alive. The temporary exhibition that was currently on going in the museum showed Max Beckmann's works, a German artist, who was forced to fled German and stayed in Amsterdam for about 10 years, during the Nazi period. A good quote from him that I remembered from the video shows, "If man loses his individuality, he is no more than a society of ants", referring to communism.

From there I went to Stedjelik museum, (9 €, free with IAC) a museum that displays contemporary art. I understand people says art is a multidimensional subject. I also understand that people says that art is a very subjective in nature and is not easily understood. But sadly said, I failed to see what's being displayed there as an 'art' . I don't think I want to go into any more details regarding the museum's collections, because then again, I've said previously that art is very subjective in nature, somehow, somewhat, I just failed to subjective link myself to the museum's collection

What I want to brag about here is more on the Museum's condition and location. Due to renovation works, the museum which suppose to be located next to Van Gogh museum, was relocated 'next' to Amsterdam Central station. Ok, first of all, it wasn't 'next' at all. It is about 15 minutes walk from the Amsterdal Central station. Not only that, not all the museums colllection was in display (consider the smaller space the had, I can understand that). Nevertheless, one still have to pay the full price, instead of getting any reduced price.

My last museum stop of the day was the Amsterdam Historich museum (7 €, free with IAC) Now this is what I called museum. The museum's organization was fabulous. One can really follows how Amsterdam growth from virtually nothing to an international, modern city. The only thing is that this museum may not be so disabled friendly.

Before heading back to Abba hotel, I drop a visit to Begijnhof. It is a complex of old houses, in the middle of nice and calm garden. With its chapel (English Reformed Church), it can be consider like a community by itself. It is located quite central in Amsterdam, but it maintained its nature and silentness, with its secluded entrance.

Posted by jonsan21 at 11:56 AM on June 16, 2007 in Personal, Travel. | leave a note

Amsterdam day 3 (Museum day)

I started the day by visitting Madam Tussaud's scenerama (19.95 €, 25% disc. with IAC). This was my first visit to any of Madame Tussaud's museum. It was a fun visit. They have a temporary attractions, with Pirates of the Carribean theme. Basically just to scare you around. I have my picture taken with Bon Jovi, and take a shot at other artist's statue.

The next visit was to De Nieuwe Kerk. Due to renovation work, the choir halls and Michel de Ruyter's tomb was closed (free with IAC).

Took a picture of the National Monument and the Koninjklik Paleis, then moved on to Bijbels Museum and Houseboat Museum (it's cool to know that how a small bout can house a family), before heading to Joods Historisch Museum (all free with IAC).

I also stopped by Museum Het Rembrandthuis, Museum Willet-Huythosen, and Van Loon (again, all free with IAC).

After that I took the Free Canal Cruise offered by Holland International, inclusive with the I Amsterdam Card.

I finished the day by visitting the Holland Casino (need to bring your passport), where I saw a man playing roulette with a-€1000 bet for every rolls. By then I had only about €100 :p .

Posted by jonsan21 at 12:26 PM on June 16, 2007 in Personal, Travel. | leave a note