Ayutthaya, Another UNESCO Heritage Site (checked)

My sister's life long ambition is to tick off every single UNESCO Heritage Sites in the world. This is why we are not going to Bangkok without visiting this ancient city, and take a picture in front of the UNESCO sign. She will not let us skip this part of the itinerary! :P

The ruins

It reminds me so much of Siem Reap, the temples and ruins, the colors of the bricks, the headless Buddha statues... This place was destroyed by the Burmese back in 18th century and Siamese Kingdom has moved out from there ever since. And never rebuilt.

Buddha head in the tree

This Buddha head is said to be found from the ground in one of the excavating events. It is so precious because there are only a few left in the ruins now, the archeologist placed this at the tree and the tree grows around it, protecting it ever since.

Headless statues

The complete statue at far

Tourists and the ruins

The ruins (waited so long for it to be cleared from crowds)

It is said that each of the deceased King of the kingdom is buried under a stupa. So each stupa you see in the site, representing one deceased King from the past. At least that is what we heard from the tour guide from Taiwan tour group.

Much to my sister's disappointment, there is no UNESCO sign, anywhere in the ruins, not outside the ruins, nor the entrance. No where to be found. That makes her collections incomplete. Visiting is one thing, keeping a copy of evidence is another. Maybe she will have to be back when they finally put up a sign.

I am slightly disappointed too, because Ayutthaya is one of the most mentioned attractions, one of the most recommended, but the restoration and preservation of the site is not as well done as Siem Reap. Maybe that is why the entrance ticket for foreigners are only 50baht.

After the fruitful sunflower farm trip and ancient city, we're all hungry. It's been hours since we first had a proper meal in our stomach so my sister told the driver we want to have boat noodle.

The name of boat noodle comes from the time when vendors are selling them in the boat along the canals and rivers. Along with the development in modern days, the boat noodles move to the land.

Boat noodle

The serving of boat noodle is so small, we all had two bowls each. Like any other Thai food, it is sour and spicy, always appetizing! I've ran some checks, it seems like there is cinnamon in the soup too.

Our driver also taught us the Thai way of eating the noodle, which is to go with the deep fried pork skin! Healthy eater might be turned off by this, but our family adore this so much, my parents have to buy one pack to snack along the way.

Boat noodle with deep fried pork skin

Ayutthaya is our last stop of the day. Our driver wanted to buy Roti Sai Mai home for his kids, he told us his kids love it. We've heard about it too, so we decided to try them as well!

Roti Sai Mai

The skin and the fillings are sold in separate packet (50baht a set that can feed more than 6 person). The skin, which is very similar to our Poh Piah skin is slightly salted in taste. While the fillings, resemblance of Long Xu Tang is extremely sweet. They are not delicious to eat separately, but when paired up, they're just nice and fragrant. There must be santan in it too.

This concludes our day trip out of Bangkok.

Not My Favourite-Red Light District

Red Light District in Amsterdam is one of the place that is in the "must go" list, because you're the tourist. But you're not necessary liking it. It's more like "been there, done that".

RLD is located really near Dam Square and Chinatown. If you're taking tram, you can stop at Dam Square.

As we're walking away from Dam Square to look for RLD

Canals everywhere.

Crossing another canal and surprise to see so many geese.

We continued to cross the canal and walked straight up, which was the wrong move. Because much that we didn't know, RLD is just along this canal. All we had to do was to walk along the canal and we'll find RLD.

It's like what I've imagined it to be. The girls in sexy lingerie were dancing and luring customers, in the tiny display windows. It didn't feel right at all, as if the girls are just products. As if all of us (yes, including myself) are the customers who came for window shopping. Occasionally I do see guys approaching the girl to ask for pricing.

For the windows which were closed, what I heard is that "business is ongoing". I do not know how true was that. But when the girls are standing by the window I did see the bed. I perhaps, it's really true.

It's a courtesy for the girls for not taking photos. You're got beaten up if you do, I perhaps. So of course we didn't.

But, we did take one away from RLD from the canal bridge.

The only photo along RLD

There were a lot of sex shows too. Some might be very popular, because the queue to purchase the entrance ticket was really long. We didn't purchase any, but we did browse some of the posters out there. I remember one said "F***ing Live Show". Well, literally correct.

Sex shops were everywhere. And people went into sex shop like it's just a normal groceries shopping. We went in too. Amazed by all the toys they have, and can't even imagine what it's for, or maybe try not to imagine.

But one thing we did do was to visit the Sex Museum. Well, nothing to shout about. I did learn something though, i.e. in the 50's, only the rich can afford porn because they're really expensive and condoms were once made of goat's intestines... YUCKS!

Not a child friendly place, for sure. Not even family friendly, imagine you're taking a stroll along RLD with your mom and dad. Hm... Better not.

The Heineken Experience!

Heineken!

I was never a Heineken fan, but Heineken Experience can simply turn you into one. Seriously!

Heineken commercials have always been one of the most entertaining ones. Especially, the "walk-in fridge" which have made its mark! Which is why, a visit to Heineken Experience had became a must when I was planning our itinerary in Amsterdam.

Entrance to Heineken Experience

The entrance to Heineken was 18Euro per pax. I've printed out a 20% off vouchers from websites so I bought two tickets at 27Euro. With this ticket, you're entitled for two pints of beer, a free beer bottle opener, and a free short boat ride in the canal.

Heineken Experience was flooded with tourists on Eve of Easter, they're too busy serving the beer

The green boat at the left shuttles the visitors from brewery to Heineken flagship store

If you're expecting some serious beer tour, you're probably in the wrong queue. The brewery tour was pretty simple and fast. The guide walked us through how Heineken came about, how it was established, what is the type of barley used etc. We also got to taste the barley drink before they were fermented into beer, it's really fragrant and sweet! I could drink the whole jar!

One of the first logo used

Old logos

Even back then, Heineken had already considered recyclable bottles

After that, it's fun time! There was a 4D movie, that you're the beer, in the process of brewing. There was water splashes, vibration, wind etc. It's still an explanation of brewing the beer, but different from the other brands, they just make it more interesting.

After the 4D movie, there are a lot of activities, i.e. making your own Heineken card, Heineken MTV, create your own Heineken bottle customized with your name, watching all the Heineken commercials since 1950s, how to pour the beer etc. Just way too much we can't even finish them.

So, what makes them so special that I started to like them?

Friendly and helpful staffs!
We spent too long a time in Heineken, we're hungry at the end of the tour, we only had one pint of beer each. Since the staffs told us we can always redeem the free gift and free boat ride the next day, we left Heineken with a bag of souvenirs for dinner.
The next day, we came back chit chatting with the staff. We told them we haven't redeem our second drink. He brought us in through the exit to the bar (with tic purchased one day ago) so that we could have the second drink before the canal ride!

Willing to listen!
As we were chit chatting with the staff, we told him we're from Malaysia. And I pointed a mistake on the carpet which wrote "Selamat Dating" instead of "Selamat Datang". He apologized, and made some jokes about how stupid it was to actually wish visitors "Selamat Dating".

Selamat dating~

Whether or not they have changed the printing is an unknown to me, but the fact that they've listened and accepted the mistake is what makes the difference.

Fun!
Since there are so many other breweries in the world, why not make it fun anyway? Tonnes of activities and funny commercials to watch. I personally thought the entire tour was very in tuned with the image of Heineken, fun!

I would say Heineken Experience is probably one of the best marketing ever! The moment we walked out from it, we've both liked Heineken!

Albert Cuyp Market

When we were in Amsterdam, we stayed really close to Albert Cuyp Market. Basically, just next street from it.

Albert Cuyp Market

Albert Cuyp market is the open air market located at Albert Cuyp Street, which was highly recommended by most of the guide books. It is also very close to Heineken Experience, so if you're planning for a trip there, you could combine this into your half a day itinerary.

Influenced by my parents, I like to visit markets in different part of the world. Just to experience how the day to day life of locals. I've got to say, I really like this market.

Like markets in Penang, they sell a lot of local finger food. Sandwiches, herrings, poffertjes, fries, cheese, freshly baked breads etc.

Poffertjes, looks like mini pancake

All sorts of cheese!!!

Freshly baked bread, smell so nice!

And it's really clean, even though they're selling seafood and meat! How did they manage it? I think Penang government should really learn from them, and hopefully one day, market can be part of the tourist attractions too.

Fresh seafood!

And there are some stuffs that I've never seen before.

Do they need so many varieties of tomatoes???

Weird looking ones

And, there are a lot of flowers! Mainly tulips! People like to decorate their house with flowers. However, if I asked mom to buy some flower for home, I bet my mom will say "Siau ah?!". Lol.

Flowers

Tulips~

It's interesting how the government turned this simple day to day life thing into a tourist attraction. I hope with much effort to clean up Penang by the Penang state government, one day, when foreigners ask us where to go in Penang, we will recommend them market too! =)

Oh, by the way, please do not try to go to the market too early. I read from the guide, market open at 9am. So when we went there at 9am, they're just setting up the stalls. Go slightly later than 9am, you'll find most stalls are up and open.

Atomium

Atomium wasn't in my planning initially. However, after I knew that it's built in year of 1958, I became interested in it. I didn't expect this building to be this old, even though not as old as all the other attractions which were there since a few centuries ago. However, I expect this Atomium to be fairly recent!

The Atomium

Closer look

The Atomium is a "body centered cubic", crystal structure of iron. It's built in year of 1958 for Expo. And was meant to be demolished after Expo. However, it got so popular, eventually it was kept until today.

If you purchase a ticket for entrance, you'll enter from the atom from ground, and like any other tall building in the world, you'll take a lift that goes straight up to the highest level to enjoy the view of the city.

Realize there's only a little skyscrapper in the city that stood out among the buildings

Very gloomy day, nothing much to view actually

After viewing from top, you can go back down to ground floor, and take escalator or stairs to other "atoms" for some other exhibitions. However, to our experience, that's really redundant. The exhibition was so boring and totally waste of time. We simply walked a round because we have to get to the other side to get down.

Stairs to another atom

The entrance is 11Euro per person. In my opinion that was a bit expensive because the view was just okie. Maybe the weather wasn't very good. Besides, the exhibition was very badly done. However, I wouldn't say it's not worth to visit at all, at least I admire the engineering that was done back in 1958. It's still amazing even for today's standard. (sorry, I'm a nerd)

Maybe another better way for visiting the Atomium is to make reservation for dinner at the highest level . I think it'll be great to enjoy night view while having dinner. It should be romantic. We didn't make reservation because our itinerary was not fixed entirely. It's a shame.

How to go?
With Metro, everything and everywhere is accessible. Atomium can be reached by Metro, simply alight at Heysel station, Atomium is just a few minutes away.

Musical Instruments Museum (MIM)

Musical Instruments Museum is the only museum we visited in Brussels when we were there. We spent a long time in the museum, longer than we expected, almost half a day there. And I thought, it was one of the coolest museum that I've ever been.

Building opposite the back of MIM

MIM

MIM

I took this picture in the middle of the road

MIM is easily accessible. To go to MIM, you can either take metro to Troon station. Or, you could chose to walk from Grand Palace. We chose to take metro to MIM, and walked our way back to Grand Palace.

The reason I said MIM is only of the coolest museum I've ever been, is the audio guide, the abundance of musical instruments that you've never ever heard of, and the value of the ticket.

Some certain musical instruments have had some recordings. There is an audio sign on the floor for these instruments and all the visitors have to do is just to stand in front of the instruments with a guide, the guide will play the music from that particular instruments automatically. Besides, the screen of the audio guide will show the picture of that instruments too, so that you can be sure you're listening to the correct one.

There are total 10 levels in the building, and total 4 levels with display of musical instruments. I've learned a lot of funny looking/weird/interesting instruments, i.e. Jew's harp which makes funny sound, glass harmonica which was invented by Benjamin Franklin, Bible regal which is an instrument that looks like a thick bible etc. I also learned that saxophone was invented in Brussels, by a guy called Adolphe Sax. Because there are just too many things that were not explained in the museum, I bought a book in MIM, titled "50 Unusual Instruments", featuring the most unusual and popular instruments in MIM collections.

The ticket was only 8Euro per person, with an audio guide for each. With the abundance of instruments shown, I would say this 8Euro is really worth it.

After hours spent in the levels looking at the instruments, we decided to have our lunch at the top level of MIM to enjoy the view of Brussels.

From our table

Other side of the restaurant

From the outdoor seating which nobody wants to sit as it's too cold

Interior of the restaurant, it's simply packed with tourists

The food in MIM was actually good. I ordered a MIM salad, while the Man ordered Fish of the Day. As our bags were kept in the locker, I could not change my wide angle lens with a normal kit or my 60mm, I didn't take any photo of the lunch.

After the lunch, we made our way to Brussels Central Station which was only walking distance from MIM to get our train tickets to Amsterdam. And we enjoyed the walk back to Grand Palace.

For a moment I thought it feels a bit like San Francisco

Slanted street like SF

A building opposite MIM

Just like the contrast of that van

A park near MIM

View from the park to where I was at MIM

How to go?
Nearest metro station: Troon
Or you can walk from Grand Palace

How much is the ticket?
8Euro per pax