Trip to Amsterdam, Paris, and Helsinki

My first stop is Amsterdam. The plan was to fly to Amsterdam, stay for two nights, take the Thaly's train to Paris and stay for three nights. After that, I had planned to take the Thaly's train to Cologne to visit an old friend for one night. Then I was going to take the train again to go back to Amsterdam, stay for one night before flying to Helsinki. I would then stay in Helsinki for 3 nights before taking the Silja line to go to Stockholm. In the end, because of some unforeseen circumstances, I skipped Cologne and Stockholm, stayed for an additional night in Helsinki and Paris.

Overall, it's a great trip! However, Amsterdam turned out to be a bad start. It was early in the morning at around 6am that we landed. It was foggy and it was raining. I could hardly see anything out of the window and suddenly we had already landed. I complained about the weather and the KLM air stewardess makes a gesture that said "Well, welcome to Amsterdam, what do you expect?" This was the first time I flew with KLM. I like them because their fare was the cheapest. Their service attitude is at times adequate and at times very tactless. On my return flight from Amsterdam, they were serving some chocolate bars and pretzel things after the meal. An old woman took two, the air stewardess didn't hesitate one second in telling her off, "Ma'am, I am sorry, you can only take one." How much does a tiny bag of pretzel cost? Perhaps she got it right afterall, when you fly cheap, one bag of pretzel contributes significantly to the marginal cost! And I noticed their uniforms. They are functional and that's it. Somehow it reminded me of that picture on the label of the Dutch lady's milk. In any case, I started to understand why my friend E always got very excited with Singapore Airline. Well, not SIA in general but you know what I mean in reference to what I just said. But I will fly with KLM again because I am cost conscious - a euphemism for being cheap.

Enough digression. Back to Amsterdam where it all started. The rain went on for two days straight until I left for Paris. It was quite depressing really. All the sunny pictures posted here were taken later, after my return from Paris. The pictures were too depressing to be shown. Now I understand why my friend J was always so happy and cheerful in his email when he exclaimed that the sun was out. In singapore or Malaysia, I am generally happier when the sun is not out, esp when I don't need to travel in the rain and just stay in my office.

People in the tourist service industry in Amsterdam -- like the train counters and the tourist info place -- were quite unfriendly and sarcastic. I suspect that it has got to do with being asked the same questions every day. But the most unpleasant experience in Amsterdam was my encounter with some fake police on my first day near the Rijksmuseum. Long story I won't recount. Suffice to say it's unpleasant, esp when I was lost and exhausted from my long flight. Luckily as far as I can tell, I didn't lose anything as I suggested to them that we went to a police station and they left me quickly. It happened so fast when I was so lost that even in retrospect I wasn't quite sure about what happened. In any case, I found that whenever I let my guard down I generally ran into problems. I have to be constantly on my guard. Never chat with strangers if they approached you first. But this of course presents a dilemma. If everybody applies this rule, there will be no contact between strangers. But I guess it is necessary as in any big city swarming with tourists, there almost always exists an industry that lives off the dumb tourists. And as my friend J said quite simply, I dressed like a f****** tourist, with the fleece jacket, the camera, and the backpack, except that I didn't wear the track pant. Note to self: improve my fashion sense before the fashion police gets me.

Note: since I posted this, a number of people have asked me about my "run in with the law." So I have recounted the story and put it in a footnote (*) at the end of this page. Enjoy!

One might think that Amsterdam is exceedingly seedy and filthy. Afterall, this is a place that legalizes prostitution, tolerates alternative lifestyles, and allows smoking of marijuana in the coffeeshops. But the place is surprisingly clean. It's comparable to Singapore. The same goes for Paris. Except for some graffitti, I find it to be very clean. Well, except the occasional dog shits which turns out to be less than I have imagined. I was up early one sunday and saw saw this green car cleaning the dog shits on the street. Perhaps I didn't see the real Paris and Amsterdam, or perhaps there are more than one means to an end?

As far as food is concerned, I don't remember much except that I had a sandwich with J in a funky place. The sandwich was called "full moon." Hmm.. I also had this thing with herring and pickles wrapped in the buns, called broodje I think. It doesn't taste bad. I could eat it. It could even taste alright in the hot summer. But the raw herring has a very strange texture, it feels almost like chewing on cotton. I had more encounter with herring in Finland at the conference. I never had the chance to carry out the authenticity experiment to the "famous" dutch pea soup though; to stick a spoon into the soup and see if it falls down slowly.

Sometime ago I read this book called "Cultural Shock: Holland" or something sounds like that. I read that the traditional dutch will generally not close the curtains on the windows. The idea is that of costly signalling. If you open the curtains on the windows, you signal to people that you are a hardworking housewife and you have kept your house sparklingly clean. So the curtains are open because you are not afraid of close inspection. On the other hand, if you keep the curtains closed, then you signal to people that you are lazy and your house is probably not clean. As I said, it's costly signalling. It's costly because by keeping the curtains opened, you sacrifice on some privacy. It's merely signalling because I suspect nobody will necessarily go up to inspect how clean your house is. Anyway, I mentioned this to a dutch conference participant P from Rotterdam. He told me that there is no such thing and he kept his curtains closed! There are three possibilities. I will leave it to your imagination. P, if you are reading this, I am just kidding about one of the possibilities.

I saw no windmills and no tulips in Amsterdam. But I did see tulips in Helsinki. Weird, huh? I also saw no windmills in Amsterdam though I already knew that before I went.

The Centraal station on a sunny day, taken when I came back to Amsterdam from Paris to fly to Helsinki.

Well, what do you know? A canal in Amsterdam. What a surprise!

The royal palace, very modest from what I have seen in Paris. Apparently a queen ran back to Paris because she thought that the palace was not fit for a queen, not least because of the stench from the canals. But you shouldn't trust me on this. Do your own homework.

The Van Gogh museum. I liked it here. Saw many famous paintings known through the postcards. One curious thing I find with the museums in Amsterdam and Paris is that they always have some sort of lockers to store your bags. You need to put in some coins before you can use it. But the coins are always returned to you when you retrieve your bags later. You can argue that you were never charged for the service, which is interesting. But of course, you can argue that the service has already been included in the admission ticket. I seem to remember that the Louvre is free for the unemployed. I don't think you will have the mood to go to the museum if you are unemployed in Singapore.

Looking out from the Van Gogh musuem. You see the Rijksmuseum in the middle left. All the museums are close to each other in the museum quarter.

The whole town seems to be out in the cafes on a sunny afternoon. This is how I would like to remember Amsterdam. But the dutch smoke way too much, even indoor. The cafes indoor feel like a gas chamber to me. Too much second hand smoke and it could kill too. These cafes are located at Leidseplein. It is at least as lively as Rembrandtplein. A bit further from here is the Museum quarter. If I remember correctly, tram number 2 and 5 take you here.

My hotel for the first two nights is right at Prinsengracht, next to tram line no 4 that goes through Utrechtsestraat. It's nice and quiet. Not as crazy as Rembrandtplein, where I stayed when I came back from Paris. This place on Prinsengracht is more like a Bed and Breakfast place for honeymooners really. The room is surprisingly big. It comes with very typical narrow staircase. Shown above is Prinsengracht taken on the day I checked out of my hotel and prepared to leave for the Centraal station to go to Paris. I couldn't open the front door with my key on first trial and had to ring up the owner. The owner said that for some unknown reasons, Asians typically have more problems opening his door with the key. I felt sorry that I reinforced that stereotype.

The hotel I stayed at when I came back from Paris, it is right at the Rembrandtplein

My hotel at after I came back from Paris. This hotel is right at the Rembrandt square. It's very clean (even the shared bathroom and toilet are really clean) but it is really noisy that night. I didn't get any sleep. Some people started honking their horns a few times in the night, at around 1am, 3am, and 5am. Once started, others joined in. It's unbearable. I don't know if it has anything to do with the religious holiday that fell on May 29 (which makes it a unique event) or people werejust stoned and happy (which makes it a recurring event).

A dutch drawbridge. I was too exhausted, having just arrived and too depressed from the nonstop rain to investigate closely. I am not sure if this is the famous Magere Brug. It looks too small to be the one.

Flower market next to a canal, taken on the morning I left for Helsinki.

The Rijksmuseum. Unfortunately they closed down the entire painting section 'coz they found asbestos in the building. So no Rembrandt or Vermeer for me, not that I know how to appreciate them. When I was in the Louvre in Paris, there are signs everywhere pointing to Mona Lisa. Although there are clear signs barring flash photography, almost nobody cares. I felt bad for Mona Lisa.

Singapore has really tough law on marijuana use. It's scary. We are punishable in jail terms even if the actual consumption is elsewhere outside Singapore. I was appalled to read the following story when I was in Berkeley. Needless to say, no space cake or marijuana for me while in Amsterdam, even though it is legal to consume them in the coffeeshops in Amsterdam.

Read the story here...

One curious thing I observed on the subway and trams in Amsterdam and Paris is that there is always a button or a lever on the door that you need to press or lift in order to get in or out. But in Singapore the door is controlled centrally by the bus driver. I wonder why. I don't imagine the metro in Paris is less busy than the MRT in Singapore. Why not open all the doors at every station? What is the reason behind this design. The bus in California requires the riders to push a bar to open the door to get out of the bus, but it doesn't allow people to open the door from the outside. In the case of the US, this design, as I understand it, is to prevent the free riders from entering the bus from behind. But what is the purpose of this design in Amsterdam and Paris?

The metro in Paris is designed to prevent people from jumping over the entrance. Yet no such device exists in Singapore. One could end up reading too much into this, admittedly...