AMSTERDAM

Travelog date: Saturday Feb 7, 2009.

AMSTERDAM

                                                  



Where the administrative
 area is located



Amsterdam – the city of water and of a hundred canals.

I still remember the story told during my childhood days about the Dutch – about mereka datang ke tanah melayu meminta tanah selebar seludang (kulit) dari Sultan Melaka. Berapa besarlah agaknya seludang, kalau kambing paling besar sekalipun mungkin seluas 2 meter persegi agaknya. Being naïve and gullible, penduduk merasakan permintaan tersebut terlalu kecil dan tidak akan menjejaskan tanah yang ada. With all generousity and sincerity, and with the tradition and customs of treating guests with all kindness, the wish was granted, with little thought of the possibilities.



Being an invader at the time, (and for lacking of land in their hometown) the Dutch, cunningly, ended up turning the fleece or hide (seludang) into leather strip, a string like..and ended up taking acres and acres of land, as far as the leather string could cover. That was the story told when I was still a child.

Stepping foot on the land of the hundred canals, it made me understand why they need to seek land outside their country. How the Dutch was once considered as the greatest sailors, traders who sailed across the oceans to the far east - to Indonesia and Malaysia - to seek new territories, new wealth and new land.

The Dutch was known best as sailors and traders – thus the origin of Dutch East India Company and the Dutch West India Company which sailed all the way to our region.

Amsterdam itself, beside being the capital of the Netherlands, is also the country’s largest city.

Geographically the whole country is on soft soil. With the table water being so high (the whole Amsterdam is only located 2metre above sea level), the homes have to built on wooden foundations… cerucuk. Di manakah agaknya mereka perolehi cerucuk tersebut – kerana hanya kayu bakau sahaja yang paling sesuai untuk di jadikan cerucuk as it gets stronger soaked in water even after years.

Is it possible that they used to have mangroves in this land, yet is now nowhere to be found, mungkin kah kerana semuanya telah di gunakan untuk membuat cerucuk rumah mereka? Maka mereka meminta seluruh dunia menyimpan kayu bakau mereka, memberi berjuta2 ringgit untuk mangrove conservation?

Its water and more water

Hehehe, just theory saja, unfounded perhaps.

Because the land is peatland. So mangrove is not the indigenous species. Don’t know what kind of wood used for their foundation, but it was wood nonetheless, trees were definitely used.

Most of the land was reclaimed, with peat being the natural resource of fuel.

What is there to say about Amsterdam?

Body of water – its everywhere. The whole city itself was built on water. Even the name of the city itself – Amsterdam, was taken after Amstel, the river that runs across the city. The name was later transformed to Amsterdam. The river ends in the middle of the city and continued by the canals.

Hundred of canals were built to channel the water throughout the city – for consumption and for transportation as well. It is amazing how the drainage system in the city works, how the sewage system is functioning as there is no smell at all. It is clean, it is as clear as the river that flows directly  into the sea. Imagine if the river smells, imagine if garbage were floating on the cannels that serve as the main transportation for the city - other than bicycle and the tram.

It said that the canal system is divided into four that circles the whole city – three for residential (serves as barriers for the residentials). They are the Gentleman’s canal, the emperor’s canal and the prince's canal. Each has its own identity and class which differs one from the other.

The fourth is for defense and water management. These canals serve as defensive machanism with its' gates and transit points where passerby could be checked prior to passing the area.

It was an opportunity not to be missed to cruise along the cannels (for euro8 for adult) and the boat takes visitors to see the landmarks in the city – a view to be seen from the cannels of course.



Clear, clean water...
clear, blue sky!

 Boat houses parked along the cannels, some have been turned into restaurants, others remain as residential.

“They need permit from the city council to stay there at a specific place. They can not move anywhere they like,” said the tour guide.

It reminded me of taking a boat ride through the canals of Tallad Nam (Floating market) in Thailand. What a comparison. I remember pinching my nose at some parts of the journey, especially as the boat passing by the nooks with gutter flowing into the river from the houses nearby. It was not a pleasant sight to see (and the foul odour) as the blackish water running lazily from the gutter into the river. With the boat moving slowly dodging the faster speed boats, I was hoping that the river water would not sprinkle to my shirt, especially my brand new white cotton shirt which I wore during the Bangkok trip, in effort to cut the effect of steamy temperature. How I told myself, it was an experience – but an experience I would not want to repeat. How different it was from Amsterdam.

The cruise boat in Amsterdam even has a toilet, a small toilet located at the end of the boat. Being so used to the toilet condition back home and in other Asian country, I was kinda skeptical with the thought of going to use the loo. But pressing need overruled my worry and fear. Blame it on the freezing temperature, although I tried to prevent myself from taking too much liquid during the trip knowing that I would be doing a lot of walking. Besides, its not like I would be dehydrated from heat anyway.  But being winter (february) it was freezing, even to the mat salleh. Yeah, they have the liberty of consuming alcohol and ciggy. Not that I am complaining but it was just freezing, especially walking by the canals with the breeze slapping on your face. Brrrrr…..

Architecture

There is no need to explain much about Amsterdam architecture. Blocks of houses, each with its own identity, its own name, squeezed between one another throughout the alleys to avenues throughout the city. Each distincts on its own, with its colour, design, awnings and window. Just like we used to see in pictures. Everything looks very interesting, especially the first few rows, but then there were too many, and the interest dwindled down. I stopped taking shots of the buildings.

Each blocks is only three to four storey high, with about 2 units on each floor. In the old days, each block used to be owned by a family of aristocrats. But now, it become apartment units, each owned by individual families. There is no land for further development, so all of the buildings were maintained as is with strict rules on renovations to ensure that it abides to the image of the city.

notice the hook
on top of the window

These building do not have elevator. So how on earth do they carry the furniture up everytime when they move house?

The answer comes with the guide pointing at the top of the building. Near the rooftop, there is a hook.

“We will put a pulley and pull the furniture up to the desired floor, through the window,” explained the guide. Of course that explains why the windows are large, even larger than the door itself.

Multilevel parking space
for bicycles

Bicycles and more bicycles

If the sight of bicycles in Wageningen (a much smaller, university town in the Netherlands) amazed me…the sight of seing bicycles in Amsterdam was down right maddening. Its bicycles all over the place, on the bridges, under the bridges, by the rails on the roadsides, they even have ramps, three layers of ramps that is, dedicated for bicycles. It is one of the bicycle friendly city in the world. Facilities were superb such as bike paths and bike racks all over for cyclists to park their bike. The statistic says that there are about half a million of bicycles in the city (according to the tour guide).

Although there are variety of bikes used, the majority of them are the old type of bikes – basikal yang kalau kat Malaysia memang dah masuk museum – gerek tua. The heavy type, no fancy gear, back pedal brakes. Remind me of the one I saw in the Sultan Selangor museum, which was used by the late Sultan Salahuddin Abd Aziz Shah during his younger years to visit the villages. I smile sheepishly wondering if any of us Malaysians (young and old) would want to be caught riding these bikes in our country. But here everyone does, young and old, men in suits even ladies wearing chic dresses and high heels.

In the city, driving a car is discouraged. Parking fee is very expensive, and many streets are closed to cars or are one-way street. Local government supports carpooling and reward residents who share their car.

There's hardly any
private cars in the city

With tram lines taking passangers across the city and the water bus as an alternative, it is no wonder why the city is one of the safest when traffic is concern. There are more death caused by murder than from traffic accidents in Amsterdam (according to the city bulletin).

Being tourist among thousands of tourists in Amsterdam

Rows of shops offering everything that tourist wants, of course with a price to match..with cheapest tshirts costs about euro18, keychins about  euro4, magnets about euro3. hundreds of other things that can be taken back home. wanted to get the Ajax jersey but then the material wasn’t really nice.

Bytheway, smoking cannabis (ganja) is legal in the city so some of the coffee shops do offer the cigarette with 'grass' as the main ingredient. And the locals are so proud of it, for having such ruling.

Walking down the shopping area, saw a long queue waiting to buy something.

I decided to get in line and realized they were buying French fries. Jumbo size costs almost euro4 with the sauces (tomato, chilli, mayonnaise, tartar etc costs additional 60cents). What a heck, its the cheapest food that I could eat, in the neighbourhood.

photos by SALINA KHALID

Ends