This diary-article was firstly written somewhere in Dam Square, Ledseplein, Amsterdam sometimes in July 2008 during The International Federation of Landscape Architect Conference where the author was represented the country. It took for about a half and a year for the author to publish it. Even now it is still not completed yet due to the author lazy-ness. The article was written tailored to the young backpackers. The last sentence in this topic was typed in February 14th 2010 somewhere at the Room No 236. Flemington Hotel, Taiping Hello everybody.There are lots of things to share and some facts that I can guide you guys if u comes to this white province. I had a very wonderful time in Europe as though this is my very first time to these Caucasian countries. Let me start with my first date at the Schipol Airport and until now, right in front of Dam Square, Ledseplien( gua tulis ni masa tu lepas balik dari Luxemborg-----artikel ni dah berusia 1 tahun lebeh , dan tak siap2 tp gua publish jugak).
Day 1: June 28th. 08 – (KLIA, Golden Lounge & on flight)
I had my dinner with my family (Zareene, Yasmine and my mum in law at KLIA Concorde- that is the cheapest buffet in town) and they sent me to the airport . I met Sabaruddin at one of the coffee house and Puan Hajjah Rotina at Golden Lounge .Enjoying the Golden Lounge ambience, with a cup of classic espresso and some Swiss Cookies, I started doing my last checking of the paper presentation. Manifique. Macam orang kaya rasanya .
I start travelled to Schipol at 11.55pm from KLIA with a business class ticket.(chewahh). A lot of difference as u can differentiate it from the type of seat provided and the excellence hospitality like the multimedia tools, food and the material of blanket. For those who never experience the business class; I suggest you just to try once if you have a chance. Marvelous and it is an amazing experience. You can sleep calm and soothingly while enjoying the series of Everybody Loves Raymond. An MP3 touch screen player is provided on your right side and it will entertain you from classics tune of Lucianno Pavarotti to the brand new garage rock band. Easy-listening and strictly radio-friendly.
Day 2: June 29th 08- (Schipol, Amsterdam, Apeldoon)
I reached Schipol at 6.00 am. The moment I reached there, the place just telling me that Holland is the meeting point of the youngsters all over the world. One of the phrases that I read from one unknown T Shirt’s “Good boy goes to Heaven, bad boy goes to Amsterdam”. I, Hjh Rotina and Sabaruddin tried to catch a train to Apeldoorn where the conference will be held. It was quite hard for me to get the right locomotive because it was the first time I‘ve been the Deutschland. With a little help of one local people, we finally found No 302eu train to the Apeldoon provided we have to change the train at the Amerfoot. From my observation, I can see the train in Amsterdam is not much different in Malaysia. It is just like our commuter in Rawang which we can see from the colour scheme and the quality as well .Yeah ... along the way of course , the windmill lying on the plantation looks cool but from observation it is just like paddy field in Kedah.
I reached Schipol at 6.00 am. The moment I reached there, the place just telling me that Holland is the meeting point of the youngsters all over the world. One of the phrases that I read from one unknown T Shirt’s “Good boy goes to Heaven, bad boy goes to Amsterdam”. I, Hjh Rotina and Sabaruddin tried to catch a train to Apeldoorn where the conference will be held. It was quite hard for me to get the right locomotive because it was the first time I‘ve been the Deutschland. With a little help of one local people, we finally found No 302eu train to the Apeldoon provided we have to change the train at the Amerfoot. From my observation, I can see the train in Amsterdam is not much different in Malaysia. It is just like our commuter in Rawang which we can see from the colour scheme and the quality as well .Yeah ... along the way of course , the windmill lying on the plantation looks cool but from observation it is just like paddy field in Kedah.Amazing...? Huh. Nothing much impressed me if everything is just like my kampung.We reached at Apeldoon 2.00 pm and straight away went to the Municipal Council where the World Congress meeting was held. Boring with long waits, I and Hjh Rotina decided to go to the bungalow provided. Anyway the meeting is not compulsory for me and Hajah because we are not representing the professional body.
We took bus and I felt that the accommodation is damn far-far away.I wished that the driver not send us to the never-neverland.Omeegawd!!!....the bungalow is in the jungle and it is damn far away from the real world. , The wood area and it‘s about 10 km from Apeldoorn. By the time we reached there, I just lie down on the sofa. The room was quite big but I faced the other problem. No towel, no soap, no food and no everything. I had to wipe my body after shower with a blanket. What a stupid accommodation in world class conference?I started to complain about the event, the venue and the poyo of IFLA.Gossh....!!
Day 3: June 30th 08 ( Apeldoon)The conference day.
Hajjah was presenting my paper at 11 am with one hour late.. Hmm... I snapped some photos of her and had my "little" lunch (bread - what do you expect for a typical Malay like me).There was a Q and A after the session. I choosed not to ask anything because I knew that IFLA is just like a social party from the past ,present and future ..and also the meeting venue for every landscape architect all over the world forever and ever. This day, I and Sabaruddin agreed to quit the conference and decided to tour the Europe .Fortunately, Hajjah agreed not to follow us. The reason given is momentum and big possibility assumption is ..she just wanna gimme a chance lah kot .On the next morning, I made my own history.
Day 4: July 1st 08 (Amsterdam Central, Overtoom, The Red Light District)
From Apeldoon, we took a train to Amsterdam Central / Centrum. We managed to get a tourist information kiosk and book a budget hotel at Overtoom. Hotel Crystal at Overtoom at the rates of 40 Euro per person (yeah RM 200) - shared bathroom, hilly steps and bad hospitality) I guess I can get a good treatment if I checked in Mutiara hotel JB with the rate like this. It was like a haunted hotel in a hollow town like Aloq Staq. To get the bloody hotel we had to walked and crawled after lost the location. Amsterdam really taught me how to exercise anyway.
The real Holland is in the Amsterdam city and their official transport is bicycle. Everybody in Amsterdam is using bicycle travel around the town. It is normal for an executive to travel to the office by bike. One thing that really attracted me was when I saw a bloody cute girl just cycling
to a shopping mall. From my observation it will not be happened in my country and even the super babe model like Maya Karin definitely will refuse to take a Kancil. Now I just realized that most KLians are not ‘real’. Just cycling. It shows how they preserved their own identity and culture without rejecting the transformation of technology. Amsterdam is good urban preservation example .They really revitalized the culture, heritage, architecture and their national identity.After knap, we walked to get a lunch get a small Indonesian kiosk and we get Nasi Padang. It cost us 15 Euro per person (time 5 please).. “Penny Wise Pound Foolish”. I was told that most Dutch man eat Nasi Padang .They said Dutch lived Indonesia for more than 400 hundred years and most of them not just married but practice the archipelago culture.
After we had our lunch, we went to Amsterdam Central and then walk to The Red Light District. It is a place where prostitution and marijuana are commercially legalized and well traded. They are freely grass weeding and nobody will interfere you as doing something bad.
European quotes that Amsterdam is just a heaven to men and a party station twenty four seven. The hookers with bikini are well displayed in the sex diorama. You can bargain them or the agent to get affordable price. And of course you cannot get a tight hole at a cheap price. Frankly speaking, I didn’t commit with any sex trading except I watch one of the sex theater that cost me at 20 Euro. It just that a stupid boy and beauty girl ‘really’play right in front of you. I believe it is normal perception for a man watch that obscene theatre because I saw many Malaysian men went to Pat Pong during my tour to Bangkok last time. It is an acceptable taboo that yes to men do that but not the women. In Amsterdam, men or women, good or bad , better or worse you are entitled to enter The Red Light
After the sex theatre we went to Madam Tussaud, a wax museum. I can see the real figure of John Lennon, Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, Saddam Hussein and other huge name in the rest
of the world made by latex, wax and other composite material. Sadly, you cannot bring up your camera because they do sell the lenses services at the cost of 30 euro one photo. I can’t afford to pay that at the moment.
Night scene in Amsterdam starts at 11.00 pm so only the dark night you will see at that particular time. We had a coffee at the Hard Rock Café while having a nice view of riverbank. The specialties of hard rock here is the rare guitar collection of Paul Mc Cartney and Jimi Hendrix. You cannot find in any other Hard Rock all over the world. ___________________________
The real Holland is in the Amsterdam city and their official transport is bicycle. Everybody in Amsterdam is using bicycle travel around the town. It is normal for an executive to travel to the office by bike. One thing that really attracted me was when I saw a bloody cute girl just cycling
to a shopping mall. From my observation it will not be happened in my country and even the super babe model like Maya Karin definitely will refuse to take a Kancil. Now I just realized that most KLians are not ‘real’. Just cycling. It shows how they preserved their own identity and culture without rejecting the transformation of technology. Amsterdam is good urban preservation example .They really revitalized the culture, heritage, architecture and their national identity.After knap, we walked to get a lunch get a small Indonesian kiosk and we get Nasi Padang. It cost us 15 Euro per person (time 5 please).. “Penny Wise Pound Foolish”. I was told that most Dutch man eat Nasi Padang .They said Dutch lived Indonesia for more than 400 hundred years and most of them not just married but practice the archipelago culture.After we had our lunch, we went to Amsterdam Central and then walk to The Red Light District. It is a place where prostitution and marijuana are commercially legalized and well traded. They are freely grass weeding and nobody will interfere you as doing something bad.
European quotes that Amsterdam is just a heaven to men and a party station twenty four seven. The hookers with bikini are well displayed in the sex diorama. You can bargain them or the agent to get affordable price. And of course you cannot get a tight hole at a cheap price. Frankly speaking, I didn’t commit with any sex trading except I watch one of the sex theater that cost me at 20 Euro. It just that a stupid boy and beauty girl ‘really’play right in front of you. I believe it is normal perception for a man watch that obscene theatre because I saw many Malaysian men went to Pat Pong during my tour to Bangkok last time. It is an acceptable taboo that yes to men do that but not the women. In Amsterdam, men or women, good or bad , better or worse you are entitled to enter The Red LightAfter the sex theatre we went to Madam Tussaud, a wax museum. I can see the real figure of John Lennon, Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, Saddam Hussein and other huge name in the rest
of the world made by latex, wax and other composite material. Sadly, you cannot bring up your camera because they do sell the lenses services at the cost of 30 euro one photo. I can’t afford to pay that at the moment.Night scene in Amsterdam starts at 11.00 pm so only the dark night you will see at that particular time. We had a coffee at the Hard Rock Café while having a nice view of riverbank. The specialties of hard rock here is the rare guitar collection of Paul Mc Cartney and Jimi Hendrix. You cannot find in any other Hard Rock all over the world. ___________________________
Day5: July 2nd 08 (Overtoom, Amterdam, Brussels, Paris Gare du Nord)I started the morning at Overtoom by having a short breakfast. I and Sabaruddin decided to go to Paris. After Overtoom breakfast, we took tram to Central again try to get Eurostar but then we were told that the train is quite expensive then we changed to take Thalys. At 11 o’clock we took train to Paris (Gare du Nord) and it cost me 75 Euro. There are some of the station that really impress me especially The Hague (the International Court of Justice is here) and others like Anterwerp and Zuid Midi. 12 pm we reached Brussells, Belgium. We decided to take a transition and walked around the city. Brussels architecture is really haunted me as you can see the pre Victorian and pre War style art deco. A lot of human sculpture if that you can view from the Zeus statue to public art of Neuron. (I am not good enough to identify building facade genre).
After two hours in Belgium we get another train to get the romantic Paris. At 3.00 pm we reached Gare du Nord, a central railway station in Paris exactly looks alike Hogwart in Harry Porter movie.
Paris – a fashion power house station . As I can see ,everybody here catwalks and spends lotsa money for their costume.
I finally get this city. It reminds me to my previous girlfriend who dump me to get a French guy. After had my tea-time at Lafayette, we get the cheapest hotel in town Hotel de Lille, Rue de Lafayette. Here, you must speak Malay first to ask, and then they will ask you in English otherwise, if you start the conversation in English they won’t bother you make a weird face. Just speak French if you excel in that language. Night activity was gambling.
Day6: July 3rd 08 (Paris)
After winning 500 euro in casino last night, I travelled with hop on bus. The price is quite cheap for a fortune-gambler. A must visited place like Eiffel Tower, Musee de Louve, Arch de Triumph and Moulin Rouge. Yer right spend money for small key chains and T Shirts are no more something that really burdened me now. As I passed through one of the road at the Arch de Triumph, I can see a lot of designers shop like BCBG, Louis Vuiton, Armani, CK and etc and guess what?, they didn’t sell it to Chinese. I was told from one of the local French Jew that designers and fashion is the backbone of the country’s industry so that they are really against the duplication of their main industry course. I saw one of the signage stated “Chinois non entrée pas ‘” – something like that lah kot , and sounds really racial prejudice and racist. (My French foundation is physically bad and I find this language is damn pathetic)
Here in Paris, I can say that no Japanese car lah.... What you can see is only Peugeot and Citroen. And neither British car nor other Euro cars like Aston Martin and even Maserati.
One good thing that really attracted, is everyone here catwalks like a model no matter what fsize of they are whether they have a papaya sexy shape or Michelin tyre-shaped. Costumes? Each of the roads in Paris is fashion battleground. You can see makcik2 wearing big designer’s sunglasses and flowers chiffon /lace pashmina on their neck. Just watch over their fingers, you will see decorated with really big-big stone in many form and colours. I just smile on it. If it happens in Malaysia maybe the numbers of polygamy will be decreased successfully. A good scenario for women happens in France that Shahrizat Jalil should take action on it. A lesson for Malaysian women and wives: just be stylish to save your marriage..
Now …February 14th 2010 @ Flemington Hotel, Taiping
Ok that's it ..Sampai sini ja larat gua tulis..By the way, my international passport recorded that I was backed in Malaysia at July 11th 2008 and through my medical record, I was loosed on wieght about 7 kilos right after the Europe tour. Now...huhuhu ....takpayah cakapla ...ok I've got meeting @ Bkt Jana..I have to sleep now ...ZZZzzzz
Ok that's it ..Sampai sini ja larat gua tulis..By the way, my international passport recorded that I was backed in Malaysia at July 11th 2008 and through my medical record, I was loosed on wieght about 7 kilos right after the Europe tour. Now...huhuhu ....takpayah cakapla ...ok I've got meeting @ Bkt Jana..I have to sleep now ...ZZZzzzz
