Finally found the time to blog about our recent vacation… It’s been almost a month since our short getaway, our dream trip I may say and frankly we badly missed it already… So, where did we go? We visited 4 countries in a span of 8 days, can you imagine how hectic it was? The schedule was really tight but it’s really fun and worth it… 
It was midnight on 17th October which is Saturday when we left DXB via Air France (Dxb – Paris – Amsterdam)… We reached Schipol Airport, Netherlands at around 10:30 am (Local time) and it was damn cold… In Netherlands, we stayed at NH Schipol Hotel which is 5 minutes away from the airport… Check-in time is 2pm which means we’re quite early, so we ended up leaving our luggage’s in the hotel storage room and since our paid tour will only start on the following day, we then decided to start to explore the city by our own… And so by 12 noon we found ourselves inside the tram heading to Amsterdam… By the way we stayed in Netherlands for 2 nights...So let me share some of the highlights in Amsterdam… I was really impressed with their means of transportation, they all use bicycles… In every corner in every road you’ll see people riding bicycles and they even have their designated lanes and parking slots… We're able to experience the Canal Cruise as well and we also had a chance to visit the Ghazan Diamond Factory in which they sell diamonds on factory price... Amsterdam is a small city but it was really worth to visit, you’ll find lots of interesting things that might shock you, nevertheless it’s a safe city to travel… Why did I say shock? It’s because in some aspects they are unusual…
For instance, in most countries prostitution is illegal but in Amsterdam it’s legal, it’s kinda weird right?!? As part of our tour, we did visit Red Light District… So what is Red Light District? Well this is the area where you will find all the prostitutes behind a glass door wearing 2 piece bikinis and they are operating 24/7, yep you read it right… Not only that, Live Sex Show will also be seen in that area, plus the biggest condom store is located just around the corner… According to our tour guide, those prostitutes are paying taxes which mean that they are registered worker… One thing that stunned me was there’s a convent inside the district… It’s quite odd that nuns are residing in a prostitute area but as the nun says that they have a purpose why they are still there… Prostitution in Amsterdam started since 18th Century… In addition, you will also find an old church behind Red Light District... In terms of religion, majority of their population had converted to protestant and so, catholic churches are only used occasionally...
Red Light District
To add up, selling and using cannabis is also legal in Amsterdam, so most stores are selling cannabis and paraphernalia’s plus all kinds of sex toys legally… An individual is only allowed to carry 20 grams of cannabis which they consider as personal use and anything more than that is considered illegal… If you’re carrying more than 20 grams you’ll be put in jail and will be charged as a pusher…Despite their extreme culture, Amsterdam is one of the safest countries with low crime rate… It’s really intriguing eh?!?
Here are some of our photos;
We will definitely be back to see the extreme beauty of Amsterdam… I highly recommend this place if you plan to visit Europe…
Part 2 of our trip will be up next…
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