Zaanse Schans and Red light district

From Asmterdam, we took a short train ride out to Zaanse Schans, a little town very popular with tourist.

Before entering Zaanse Schans.


Zaanse Schans in the background


Our first stop was a traditional looking shop selling coffee and other knick knacks.


A tourist attraction, but there are still people living here.


Outside a shop that sells Zaanse Mosterd. (update: this musturd is superb! Someone buy me another jar if you are visiting)








After walking past many houses, we come to a cheese factory and shop. The cheeses here are fantastic. Much tastier than the cheeses we get in Sweden. The smoked cheese and garlic cheese are very tasty, while goat cheese is an aquired taste.


The cheese shop



Little cheese factory



Nice smiley girls and loads of variety for us to sample.


Cheese for sale!




Very tempting to buy some cheese home.


Easter is around the corner!

After the cheese shop, we come across a shop that sells.. umm... an assortment of things. I guess anything that looks antique and pretty probably. You decide for yourself.





After the antique shop, we move on to another souvenier shop and then lastly to a clog shop! There're just rows and rows of colourful clogs on display.


Clogs lined up against the wall and even on the shop ceiling.






One of the designs I like more.


The machines used to make clogs.


Big clogs!


Step-by-step clog making.




More fancy clogs on display



After Zaanse Schans, we head back to Amsterdam. Tonight, we plan to check out the famous red-light district of Amsterdam. By following the information given to us by Dom's Dutch friend, we board the bus and head on to the so-called red-light district. There was this ticket counter in the bus and Dom kept asking the lady repeatedly where the red-light district was. Initially, he just wanted to be sure we were headed the right way, then later he did it just as a joke. Anyway, we got off and started walking through some streets. It was quite a deserted and doggy looking street and I didn't feel all that comfortable. I told the rest, let's just go in to the edge of the red-light district, see how its like and leave. The rest agreed. We were even approached by this taxi-driver that came on very strongly. He said we were not in the red-light district, but he'd bring us there in the next half minute. After that, we met a young couple and we asked if we were at the right place. I guess we are not embarassed to ask because we are obviously some desperate, sua gu tourist who want to check out the red-light district. After the guys have asked for directions, I also ask them if they think red-light district is safe for us to go and if we will meet with trouble. The girl laughs and tells me that the red-light district is probably the safest place in Amsterdam because there are always police men patrolling the area. It turns out that we are indeed not in the right area. When we check out the map again for the area which the couple has directed to, this time we notice that there are icons that look like little lamps marked there. Wow... So in Amsterdam, prositituition is not only legalised, the areas are distinctly marked out for you on the maps... What else can I say.

When I get to the red-light district, I kind of understand why its on the map. As what the couple told us, the red-light district isn't the doggy, dark and dangerous alley I expected. There are bright neon lights everywhere and the streets are crowded with people. It's obvious that most of the people are tourist like us and are more interested in just looking, instead of potential customers. Amsterdam red-light district is actually a tourist attraction for silly tourist like me... oh well.. Yeah, so what the second use for the big windows in Netherlands, is for the prostitutes to sit behind these big windows, so that they can display and market themselves to the passer-bys. If you are interested in a girl, all you have to do is to approach the window and open it. You then negotiate your price. If the deal is sealed, you enter through the big window and the curtain for that window is drawn. So on a good night, it would mean more curtains drawn, and less gals sitting by the windows trying to entice customers.

Pink Elephant
There are also a lot of live shows going on and lots of man calling out to you about their cheap shows. Their language is rather crude, but yeah.. what do you expect in the RLD. There are also lots of sex shops around, which sell just about anything you can imagine.


Lady in the window waiting for a customer. Most of them are dressed in some sort of lingerie. Some of them just go about their business, priming themselves or chatting. Some would call out or gesture to customers. Anyway, despite this photo here, you are NOT SUPPOSED to take photographs in the RDL. It's not a written rule, but I guess its kind of a well-known fact. People don't like being photographed in the RDL. I guess as a tourist you think its okay, but believe me, the customers, local or foreign are going to be mighty pissed off with you if they catch you filming. The gals of course would be pissed off too and may choose to close their curtains swifty or bang on the windows and shout at you. Somebody managed to capture this photo still, either blatantly or discreetly I have no idea.


Out of the main red light district, the Royal palace is within a few minutes of walking.


By looking at the map, we head on to another red-light district. Dom captures this photograph of the church we see from the red-light district. Dom wants to show the mockery in Amsterdam. The city church and the red-light district in the same picture. If you look at the map in fact, the red-light district is not next to the chruch, but in fact, you see those familar icons surround the church.

As Dom is taking this photo, the disapproval of photography in the red-light district is apparent. He only wanted to take the church, but the mere sight of the camera in the area attracts stares from the people. We are lucky that there were 2 police man in the area. He told Dom, "you better keep that camera of yours, people here don't like photographs", and Dom finished his picture asap. We walked to the church for some more photographs, then we made sure we kept the camera and then walked past this same area to leave. As we walked past a group of people, I heard some of them say, "no picture! no picture!"


Finally, we are very tired and decide to head back to the hostel. We make a final "detour" ( one hour detour) to this bridge, because Zhiqiang heard that it was a very nice looking bridge. Ehh.. ok loh.. hahaha!