Cumbria – The Lake District, is known as England’s most beautiful corner which is situated between the South West Coast of Scotland and Lancashire. Apart from being rich in history, wildlife and literary associations, it is also the home to some of the most spectacular and breathtaking landscapes, rugged fells and tranquil lakes. For those who in search of serenity, a cruise down Lake Windermere would serve best. Mountain walks and museums visitation are available for those who seek to edify themselves about Lake District. It is a place that every traveller who visits England will not miss.
We stayed in a huge Youth Hostel with a waterfront view. Khai Fei and I decided to share a room but there wasn’t any left. We couldn’t afford to wait as the activities start as soon as we arrived. We couldn’t care less and dumped our bags on the lobby and left.
The first activity was the ferry ride around the lakes. It was freezing but yet people stayed on top of the ferry to enjoy the view. From a distance, we could see the snowy hills of Lake District (I heard some people took a 3 hour walk up the hills just to play with the snow). Seagulls were circling our ferry, probably in search of food while the ducks and swans were waiting at the jetty for people to feed them.
MASSOC struck a deal with the ferry operators. They will charge us cheaper and allowed us to make any stops we want to.
We stopped at the Lake District Aquarium which apparently struck me with its beauty at the first sight. We paid the entrance fee impatiently and headed straight in.
What a disappointing exhibition. Everything seemed to be poorly designed and dilapidated. The only interesting sight is the tunnel crossing the aquarium. The ducks and the carnivorous fishes (ie sharks) lived harmoniously. I wonder why the sharks don’t eat ducks. We had a really sulky dinner at the Youth Hostel. After dinner, the bus drivers offered to take us to the pub but with a payment of 1 pound per person. Unscrupulous bastard bus drivers, we knew that they are going to the pub for a drink anyway but those arses charged us.
The pub wasn’t that great. All we had are just hot chocolates and left as soon as we finished it. We took a stroll around that area passing a graveyard and the lake.
Khai Fei and I were finally given a room to stay. However, we had to share the room with Wen Dee because there weren’t any more rooms left.
I unpacked my stuff and went to sleep. While I was happily sleeping, I was woken by a group of people in the room. They were singing “Happy Birthday to Wendee!” I was too tired to say anything or grab the cake they bought for WenDee to eat.
Category: Travel
Amsterdam – the city of sin: Day 4
Breakfast: salami, ham, dutch cheese and wholemeal bread
Lunch: Pepperoni Pizza
Words learned:
Bier = beer
Politie = police
Uur = hours
Automatisch = automatically
Instruction = instructiche
» Last day.
We were quite upset about leaving the place, seems like there’s still lots of things undone. We had our last session at Stone’s cafe (a coffee shop with Arabic designs).
stone’s cafe
We met this Australian girl named Carla. She’s been backpacking for almost a year. She said she was in Barcelona for few months and she’ll be staying at Amsterdam for another 6 months to work. woah man, I wonder when she’s gonna stop.
inside stone’s cafe – picture taken by carla
The trip back was pretty quick. It took us an hour to fly back from Holland to East Midlands and another hour to travel back to Nottingham by bus and another hour to travel back to Sheffield by train. The whole trip back home went smoothly with no delays. Anyway, all of us were pretty upset about leaving Amsterdam. We had a good time there. Everything is so much different and special, scenery wise and statutory wise. hehe. END
our favourite pizza place!
me with some statues @ Amsterdam airport
posing infront of the plane when we’re back in uk while carl looking sad 🙁
» misc. facts
We went to the Sex Museum; the exhibition ranged from Chinese ancient sex taboos to Fat French women having sex. There were also pictures of the real Casanova and Marilyn Monroe.
the sex museum
big dick!
There are a lot of dealers (mostly black people but I’ve seen a Chinese selling before) on the streets offering ecstasy and cocaine. BEWARE! Some of them are fake!!
Amsterdam – the city of sin: Day 3
Brunch: Pepperoni Pizza
Dinner: Shoarma and Fries
Words learned:
Roept = love
Marihuana = marijuana
Halte = stop
Duwen = push
Sinds = since
a view of the canal
» Daytime
We went for 2 strip shows at Casa Rosso. The first one was pretty boring, a middle-aged couple screwing on the stage and a skinny teenybopper Asian teenage stripping. *euw* The only interesting part or i might say hilarious, is one of the performance by an audience. He was invited by the middle-aged lady to perform with her. When he got up on the stage, he swayed his ass on the stage and start making faces when the lady was touching him.
me posing stupidly infront of casa rosso’s fountain
The second strip show was just too boring. I feel asleep halfway. *yawn*
» Evening
We went for a boat ride in the Canals around Amsterdam. Nothing interesting except for couple of sceneries but not even the famous Windmills and Anne Frank’s home. Here’s some fact i picked up from the information the boat captain gave.
– Due to the shortage of land, people have to live in boathouses (but of course there are those who choose to do so)
– Legal boathouses are provided with electricity and water supply.
– Illegal ones aren’t
– There is about 100km of canals and more than 100 bridges.
» Night time
We were pretty much exhausted from the daytime activities. Most of us choose to sleep.
me & khaifei @ one of the sex shops
Carl, Juleun and I decided to walk around the Red Light District. One word of advice, don’t ever try to walk there alone, it’s dodgy. We went for couple of peep shows. It cost about 2 euro for 2 minutes. There’s couple of rooms surrounding a rotating stage with a girl doing sexually explicit acts on the small stage. The main thing I don’t like about the place is that there’s cum stain everywhere!!
Amsterdam – the city of sin: Day 2
Breakfast: McDonalds
Lunch: Pepperoni Pizza
Dinner: Pepperoni Pizza
Supper: Pepperoni Pizza *again*
Words learned:
Uitgang = exit
Entree = entry
» Day time – The wedding of Prince William and Princess Maxima
Coincidentally, our trip was in conjunction with the wedding of the Prince of Holland. There was a parade on the streets. Coincidentally again, our hotel room is facing the parade and thus we were able to see the parade on the streets. There were military personals marching, music bands and military personals on the horses parading the streets. The whole town was filled with joyful and merry people. There were some people giving out orange banners and some orange stuff. It seems that the Dutch loves orange. Anyway, the wedding ceremony was in a church in Dam Square and shown live on tv. We took couple of pictures of the ceremony.
Gold Carriage!
Canal Buildings (our hotel is the 2nd one from the right)
us @ dam square
William and Maxima!
Me after the parade
» Night time – Clubbing at Amsterdam!
We went clubbing at the so-called best club in Amsterdam called Escape. The place opens at 30 minutes past eleven. The cover charge is about 15 euros and as usual you are screened before entering the club (walking through metal detector and stuff). One thing I like about the club is it’s multicultural compared to the clubs in Sheffield which is mainly British locals. In Escape, you’ll see plenty of Asians and other races from around the world. Well, conclusion, the atmosphere of the club, the crowd is great the music is fine!
Amsterdam – the city of sin: Day 1
We arrive at Amsterdam late in the evening. Everything was fine and we were pretty excited.
“Tiu” means ‘f*ck’ in Cantonese
As we were walking, there was one guy who offered to find hotel for us approached us. He took us around couple of hotels until we settled down at this hotel called Hotel Centre. It cost about 25 per night. It’s a pretty reasonable price. We put our stuff immediately and went to a coffee shop.
Our first dinner
Facts
» Weed, magic mushroom, prostitution and pornographic materials are legal. Weed ranges from hash to marijuana. They have many types of marijuana, for example, jack heror, black widow, white widow, and super skunk. The prices vary from types of marijuana. You can even purchase them in pre rolled joints or probably use the bong in the coffee shop itself.
magic mushrooms & a pack of weed
cannabis sativa!
» Porn ranges from gay, lesbian, animal, grandma and grandpa, incest, gangbang, rape, transsexuals, bondage and all the sick stuff you could imagine. They have shops sells porn dvd, cassettes, magazines and sex toys.
» Prostitution: blowjobs for 35 euro, sex for 50 to 65 euros (could be less if the girl really likes you), you are not allowed to kiss the girl, condoms are required even during a blowjob, the girls poses behind a glass door with a red neon light placed on top of the door outside their rooms, most of them are half naked usually in bikinis, no pictures are allowed to be taken in the red light district.
juleun *roar*
carl: *yea!*
Trip to Leeds
Stratford-Upon-Avon, England
Melbourne Trip 2001 – Day 21
I took alot of photos today. I went Bourke Street, Swanston St, Flinder St, Collins Street, Spencer St. Station, etc. The best was in St Paul Cathedral, Flinders St., the architecture design is beautiful, never seen anything like it before.
I went Vic Mart this morning. I had Dutch Pancakes, it’s some small pancakes covered with maple syrup and butter, mmmm, nicee…ahhh…Then i had Spanish Doughnut, it’s a long crispy dough with caster sugar on it…mmm…nice..ahh. I bought a lot of souvenir for my parents and friends at Vic Mart. I bought this aromatherapy gadget and couple of essence oil for my parents, i wonder if it really works.
I went to Crowns again just now but this time I went into the casino, damn a lot of slot machines and gambling tables. I wonder how many millions does Crown make a day.
Tomorrow I’m gonna have Mcdonalds for breakfast with Nick before I leave, my flight is at 2:15PM, I think I’ll reach KLIA at 8:15PM.
This should be the last night here for my Melbourne trip, I’m gonna miss this place man.
Oh well, I think I’ll just visit here again next year, hopefully. hehe, I guess this is the end of my Melbourne trip journal. Goodbye.
Spotted Ayer Rocks from the plane while on the way home.
Melbourne Trip 2001 – Day 19
I went clubbing at Sirens just now, kinda big place. There’s 2 rooms, 1 r&b and another one techno/trance. i was there wif my gf, nick, kerwynn, shawn, yeanpeng, joyce, kim, and others, johan got kicked out cause he’s in jeans, aw man , he walked straight back to Crown.
We ordered a bottle of Black Label, cost bout $120. I had bout 4 cups, all bottoms up, due to the other friends who wanted to get drunk fast, i ended up having a headache on my head now, uh.
After years of hearing all the significant of the special dance in Melbourne nightclubs, i’ve finally seen it! It seems that 99% of the people there (the techno/trance room) can do melbourne shuffle (thats what some people call that dance). It’s really damn nice and unique, i’m quite amazed! Usually in kl you can see 2 or 3 people doing Melbourne shuffle, but there its like everyone can do it, and oh yeah, the weed here smells better, hehe.
Today is the last day for me to do all the things i usually do. For example, watching The Simpsons. I taped the Simpsons today, damn nice…1 hour special, damn, i cant watch it in Malaysia no more 
. Furthermore, today its my last day of attending uni wif my gf, but thank god, the lectures are freaking boring and i haf to wake up early for it..sheshh…but oh well, one hell of an experience.
Gotta go sleep now
5 am ohrehdhe..
goodnite
Melbourne Trip 2001 – Day 16
I went to lecture again today, introductory macroeconomics, shesh, damn boring, thank god i’m taking law now. I met up with nicholas, yeanpeng, joyce, toon, jenkin and julian today. It’s the first time i see nicholas here ever since i came here. Didnt do nothin much today, went tahkei with nicholas then yamcha for a while. I had pizza and pasta for dinner at Mark’s, damnnn nice…cabonara and 1/2 pizza tandy chicken and marinara. yum yum