GARGANTUAN steps

Friday, June 22, 2012

Je maintiendrai, Ik zal handhaven

I will maintain

I found it particularly apt that the Dutch motto (which is the title of my blog entry; and is in both French and Dutch), when translated into English, means 'I will maintain'. Guess it is a reminder to be steadfast in this final journey towards my final exams! Fear, trepidation, anxiety, stress, excitement all rolled into one. Dread and longing all in one. And now as I complete this blog post, my final exams have just ended! The run up to it was particularly stressful. I had nearly 8 weeks of study leave to prepare for it (still not enough definitely, but nothing will be enough), and the exams itself lasted across three weeks! More of a marathon than a hundred metre sprint. The whole can be said about medical school as well. It is a marathon, and it is coming to a definitive end in a week's time. More fear and trepidation awaits, but between then and now, I have a short trip to Milan and Naples to make before returning to London. 

Meanwhile, Amsterdam was one of the many European capitals that I had yet to visit, and I have been longing to go for ages, just didn't have the time nor the company. I wanted to go back in February with my brother, but he was studying for his exams, so we ended up going after his exams, which were in April (perhaps not the best of times for me since I had exams to prepare for myself!). Anyway, I believe fully in this quote my friend once told me - work expands to fill the time that you have. Hence, I took a short weekend break to Amsterdam to enjoy its beautiful canals, wonderful art, and dazzling flowers! April is probably the best time to go as well, with the flowers out in full bloom, and they are amazing!

Day 1 - Amsterdam, Anne Frank's House and the Red Light District

My brother and I caught a flight out from Heathrow Airport and it was a relatively uneventful journey. We even managed to catch a 'free' train ride into Amsterdam Centraal Station, mainly cause we were running for the train and didn't see any purchasing booths along the way, and assumed that a ticket conductor would be on-board to empty our pockets. And I guess it's amazing how European cities are so trusting of its citizens to have integrity (some would say that they are just naive). This definitely won't work in an Asian society. Then again, I wonder how it works too in such cities, because there will definitely be more people who wouldn't pay for tickets then pay for them, though that might just be my own narrow mindset. 

The weather wasn't too obliging with an incessant drizzle interrupted with the occasional shower of sunlight. It didn't help with my brother's mood either. Neither did the queues at the various museums that we went to help. To top it off, the hotel we stayed at, easyHotel, was quite a rip-off. It was one of the most centrally-located hotels of a reasonable price that I could find, but they definitely did try to get as much money as possible out from its customers. An additional 10 Euros had to be paid for an early check-in (meaning before the allocated 3 pm time slot), and if you wanted to use the TV or the internet Wifi, you had to pay 10 Euros for 24 hours of usage! An absolute rip-off. The worse was that the internet Wifi could only be used on one device and was non-transferable! Absolutely disgusting. Will definitely consider paying a bit more in future for a better hotel and better facilities. And the cream of the crop - the toilet consisted of only glass walls with opaque bits covering sensitive areas.


Amsterdam Centraal Station


easyHotel and the glass-toilet

Our first stop of the day was a visit to Anne Frank's house. Technically, this should be called Otto Frank's house (her father), since it did belong to him (just being pedantic unfortunately). So for those who don't know the story of Anne Frank, she was a Jewish girl who lived in Amsterdam during the second world war. When the Nazis invaded the city, the Jews were either leaving the city, or getting sent to concentration camps, and the rest remained in hiding. She was one of the more famous ones because she left behind a diary detailing her life of self-imposed captivity in this very house. They were unfortunately betrayed and the family was sent to various concentration camps. She unfortunately died a few weeks before the concentration camp she was in was liberated by British troops. Cause of death - typhus. Her father and her diary survived, and he had it published (because her dream was to be a journalist and a writer). 

Unfortunately, we aren't allowed to take any pictures of the interior of the house, which to be honest, wasn't too spectacular. The interesting thing of note was a sliding bookcase which hid a set of staircase which led to the attic where the family lived in darkness for over a year. They had to have the curtains drawn all the time, and had to do everything in complete darkness, from eating to showering. Pretty haunting and depressing to read about their unfulfilled lives, having to live in perpetual fear.


Entrance to Anne Frank Huis


Anne Frank's house


Me and one of many of Amsterdam's canals

After queuing up for slightly more than an hour to get into Anne Frank's house, we spent about 30 minutes in it before making our way back to our hotel, making several stops along the way. One of them was Dam Square, which is Amsterdam's main square (akin to Trafalgar Square in London). Nothing too spectacular though except for the typical lion statues and central monument. We then made a brisk walk through Amsterdam's infamous red-light district. Scantily clad (or un-clad) women were gyrating in see-through windows, cajoling men to go in and empty their wallets (and more). A huge tourist attraction in itself, there has apparently been a governmental initiative to clean up these streets, but yet being a highlight of Amsterdam itself, they face a huge backlash from the tourism industry. You can't take pictures of them or you risk being punched in the face and having your camera tossed into the canal. Compared to this, Geylang (and Joo Chiat) can be considered extremely tame till the point of being laughable. Still, an interesting walk that lasted all but five minutes.


Dam Square


Bro and me


A canal in Amsterdam (and the shops with the neon signs are those housing prostitutes)

Day 2 - Van Gogh Museum, Rijksmuseum and old friend Anand

The next day was spent visiting the many art galleries of Amsterdam (we managed just two out of three though, giving the Rembrandt Museum a miss). I was never really an art museum/gallery fan but I really did enjoy roaming through the Van Gogh Museum. I do especially like the paintings which consist of multiple dashes and dots, making the painting look extremely intricate. The interesting thing I discovered was that van Gogh used to like painting dark-coloured pictures, but he gradually started painting in bright colours instead, and those are the paintings that I love most. In particular, 'Sunflowers' (of which he painted a few, because his friend had come to live with him, and he wanted to decorate his friend's room), his self-portraits, and 'Garden with Courting Couples'. Amazingly, there was no one stopping people from taking pictures of these paintings, and so I happily snapped away. Unfortunately, one of my favourite van Gogh painting, 'The Starry Night', is not in the Van Gogh Museum but in New York's Museum of Modern Art. Definitely headed there when I'm in town.


Breakfast and a hungry dog


Me at the Rijksmuseum


Queue at the Van Gogh Museum


Garden with Courting Couples


Sunflowers


Self-portrait with Grey Felt Hat

The Rijksmuseum is another of Amsterdam's highlights. Besides paintings, there were models of boats, sculptures, and other crafts. Still, it was the paintings that captivated me the most. The apparent highlight of this museum is the 'The Night Watch', painted by Rembrandt. It is also apparently known as 'The Company of Frans Banning Cocq and Willem van Ruytenburch'. First of all, the main thing about this painting is that it is huge - 3.6 metres by 4.3 metres. And it is suppose to portray a sense of motion in an otherwise static picture. Can't say that this particular painting moved me. Personally, for large, beautiful, moving paintings, head to the Sistine Chapel. There were other beautiful paintings as well, and once again, thanks to lax security, I am allowed to feature them here on my blog.


Rijksmuseum


The Night Watch


Still Life with Flowers by Hans Bollongier
(the apparent ironic thing about this picture is that tulips, roses and carnations, all of which are depicted in this picture, do not bloom at the same time, hence a factual error on the part of the artist)


River View by Moonlight by Aert van der Neer


Woman in Blue Reading a Letter by Johannes Vermeer


The Kitchen Maid by Johannes Vermeer


The Merry Fiddler by Gerard van Honthorst

I met up with an old friend, Anand, who is from my church choir back in Singapore. My brother decided to sit this one out, for a variety of reasons. After a nice dinner at Gauchos (an Argentinian steak house), we adjourned to catch a bit of La Liga football at a pub (with table-top dancers and perverted men). Barcelona versus Real Madrid was the match of the day, and unfortunately, the results didn't pan out the way I wanted it to be. Still, an enjoyable time catching up with an old friend.


Me and Anand

Day 3 - Keukenhof Gardens

Our last day in Amsterdam was spent visiting the amazing Keukenhof Gardens, just along the outskirts of Amsterdam. These gardens are only opened from the months of late March till the end of May, and they attract a few thousand tourists every day. The park was literally swarmed with tourists, and though spectacular with millions of blooming, brightly-coloured tulips, there were just too many people! Perhaps because it was a weekend, and because it was the weekend where the annual flower parade was being staged, hence the seemingly endless throngs of people. Still, it doesn't detract from the gorgeous array of splendor. The rest is a sight for you to behold, and though just flowers alone, a reminder of the beauty of nature.


Keukenhof Gardens

 

Red tulips


White and pink tulips

 
Bro and me


Largest chicken feet ever

 

Beautiful scenery

 

More tulips


Me sitting on a swan-like chair

 
 
Swan(s) lake


More tulips


Keukenhof Gardens

Thus ended my short weekend trip to Amsterdam, which though seemed an inappropriate time to go (before exams), was probably an opportune moment to go. It was a short, enjoyable trip and I'll definitely be back there again. Meanwhile, it's off to Milan and Naples for me for a short trip before results are back! A week of stress and anxiety ensues.

Labels: , , , , , , ,

posted by Gabriel Yan at 1:48 AM 0 comments

Friday, June 04, 2010

land of the rising sun

My fourth year of my university life went by in a flash, and I'm once again back in the land of intense heat, sunlight and mosquitoes. Barely was I back for three days before I was whisked to a country which is as close to a perfect one as can be, just that they have a few infuriating habits, as well as the fact that they do not speak English. But, I can be adaptable, and I look forward to going back to Japan one day, and visit more places! Hokkaido, or 北海道, is the northern island of Japan and it provides nothing of the business of Tokyo (which I've yet to go), but the scenery, and the multitude of flowers, is astounding. Unfortunately (for me), the tour was organized in Mandarin, my so called Mother Tongue, though I am embarrassed to say that I can barely string grammatically correct sentences together, nor understand fifty percent of the words being said by our tour guide Helen. But it was still bearable. I will probably have to go there myself again in future! As usual, let the journey and the pictures begin!

Day 1 - Narita: Change of Plans

We had to catch an early morning flight to Narita International Airport, so we arrived at Changi at around six in the morning. There were some changes to the plans about catching the connecting flight from Narita (near Tokyo) to Sapporo in Hokkaido - we were initially suppose to fly that same day, with a short transit. However, the night before, my dad received the list of hotels that we were staying in Japan, and the first night stated that we were going to stay in Narita. Hence, my dad wasn't too please about it, insisting with the tour guide that there was nothing much to do in Narita, and the hotel should have housed us in Tokyo instead! However, I guessed there was nothing much she could do about it. A few things to note about this tour organized by Hong Thai Travel Services - the tours to Japan are in Mandarin; the food they arranged for us was excellent (or maybe just the Japanese food in general was top notched); we didn't have a local Japanese tour guide, which was both good and bad; our Singaporean tour guide studied in Japan for three years about twenty years back, and was previously employed by the Japanese Tourism Board.

Nothing else interesting happened for the rest of the day with the horrendously long 7 hour journey to Narita. I had barely got back from London via Dubai, and I had to endure another long flight. Japan Airline planes don't exactly cater for tall people, and worse still was the small screen in front of you! I slept most of the way there, occasionally indulging in a Sudoku puzzle. Arriving at Narita airport and on our way to the hotel, Helen assured us all that there was food available near our hotel and it wouldn't be difficult to find, and there was even a 7-11 directly opposite our hotel! Think she was rightly embarrassed to find our hotel situated on a hill with nothing surrounding it except lots of trees. Thankfully, she arranged for a bus to bring us to a nearby shopping centre to have dinner, which was the first of many ramen meals that we had, though this had only a miserable slice of meat to accompany the noodles.

A few things that I noticed about Japan - it is an extremely clean country; they have an amazing service culture; their products are of extremely high quality; all their rubbish bins have separate compartments for conservation and recycling; and their toilets are top notched, with an electronic bidet that is really interesting! You'll have to try that one out for yourself, but I've put some pictures for you to get an idea of it! 



Electronic controls for the bidet



Bidet in action
(You need to press on the seat for it to function, hence my toes)
Day 2 - Shiraoi and Shikotsu-Toya National Park: Porotakotan Ainu Village and Hell's Valley

The next morning, we caught our connecting flight to Sapporo, Hokkaido, where we adjourned to have our barbecue lunch. We then started our tour proper with a visit to the Shiraoi Ainu Village, which was also known as Porotakotan. The Ainu are the indigenous people of Hokkaido, though they were previously ostracized and subjected to racial segregation by the Japanese once the Japanese came from the south. They were not allowed to marry outside of their race, and had their land taken away from them. However, that has all ceased now, including their many other practices, including men requiring to grow facial hair and long beards once they were adults, and women requiring to be tattooed as well when they were adults, and that includes tattooing around their mouth! They also had a penchant for hunting bears, and many other animals, to eat, but that practice has stopped also. Now they live just like any other Japanese, and those in the tourism industry and songs for tourists to show their culture and practices.


Shiraoi Porotokotan



Dad and Mom and the first of many Cherry Blossom trees


Salmon-skin boots made by the Ainu



Painting of a female Ainu


Instrumental Ainu performer



Ainu dance video

We then adjourned to Hell's Valley, or Jigokudani, located in Shikotsu-Toya National Park. This was basically a valley with sulphurous fumes spewing from small ponds. The water wasn't boiling though, just at a temperature of around 60 degrees Celsius. We ended our day by staying in a hotel which used tatami mats as beds! It was an interesting experience, though I think my parents found it tough getting up from such a low position. They even offered a spa in water from the hot springs, which I duly declined. Maybe next time! There was a show of fireworks by the Lake Toya, which was where the hotel was located, and this lake was really beautiful and scenic!


Hell's Valley



Me and mom



Hotel room in Kohantei

Day 3 - Hakodate: Mount Showa, Mount Uzu, Fort Goryokaku and Mount Hakodate

This is also the day of two cable car rides. We started the day by visiting a newly formed volcano, Showa Shinzan, 昭和新山, which sprung from the ground in 1943, and has erupted nearly every quarter of the century, the last time being in 2000. We then went up, via cable car, Mount Uzu, to have a better view of this newly formed volcano, as well as having a much better view of Lake Toya! Next, we visited a seaweed factory which screened a video in an omni-theatre to show how they collected seaweed. This video had an emetic effect and worse still, it was in Japanese. The seaweed was really good though!

We then made our way towards the city of Hakodate where we visited a five-star fort, Goryokaku, (which is a European design), though none of the structures of the fort were present, and this had been converted into a park with thousands of cherry blossom trees planted, though the flowers had all been shed, sadly, or else it would have been a sight to behold! The Japanese make it their past-time to see cherry blossoms, and this reminds them of the fragility of life. The flowers bloom only for about two weeks out of the entire year, and it is a reminder to them that life is short. Apparently, the Samurais were the ones who used to plant them throughout the country, though whether I can trust this information from my tour guide remains to be seen! We then made our way up Mount Hakodate after dinner to view the splendid night view of the city! Hakodate is situated at the south-western most end of Hokkaido, and the city is placed at an hour-glass part of the island! The views were beautiful, but the crowd at the top was such a turn off! It would be a nice place to bring a date there if there weren't so many people!



Lake Toya



Dad, Mom and me by Lake Toya



The entire tour group - twenty-one of us!



Showa Shinzan and the surroundings



Konbukan seaweed production factory



Goryokaku



Hakodate night view

Day 4 - Sapporo: Shikotsu-ko, Hokkaido Shindo Shrine, Ramen Republic and JR Tower

We made our journey back to the capital of Hokkaido, Sapporo, the next morning. We stopped at a restaurant serving seafood, and I finally managed to get the taste of fresh fish in the form of the tuna-belly sashimi! It was ridiculously priced, with 200g of tuna belly sashimi costing 5000 yen, which is equivalent to nearly $75! But it was really good! I could probably eat that every day, together with the Japanese rice! But there was more good food to come with the rest of the trip. We then visited Lake Shikotsu where the boat had an under-water viewing gallery where you could look out into the bottom of the lake, as well as see the fish in it. The lake had previously formed from a volcanic eruption.

We then adjourned to the Shindo Shrine in Hokkaido which is their place of worship in the city. People even drove their new cars in to get them blessed by the priest! We stopped by Odori Park for a while with an underground shopping street built beneath it, and then proceeded to have our dinner at the Ramen Republic in Hokkaido! This was located on the tenth-floor near Daimuru shopping centre, though I have my doubts about the authenticity of this place once again, cause I wonder why they would situate the best ramen stores in a shopping centre! But anyway, there were around eight ramen shops located on this floor, supposedly serving the best ramen in Hokkaido, and my dad finally had his ramen-craving fulfilled. At least this was much better then the ramen we had on our first night! We then made our way up JR tower, which is the tallest building in Sapporo, though a miserly 38 floors only! One could see the city laid out in a grid-like fashion, just like how it is like in the States, as well as in Barcelona (and probably countless of other places).



Steamboat lunch with our tuna belly sashimi located top left



Mom and a stuffed-bear



Shikotsu-ko



Dad and Mom at the Shindo Temple



Priest blessing the new cars



Ramen Republic



Men's toilet on the 38th floor together with spectacular views

Day 5 - Furano and Biei: Scenic drive, Cheese Factory, Farm Tomita and the Ice Pavilion

The morning's drive from Sapporo to Furano via route 452 was the most scenic of the trip! There was so much green to see, and the mountains made such beautiful landscapes together with the trees of different colours! Due to the abnormally cool summer thus far, the trees had shades of autumn in them, hence the reddish-leaves still present. The drive had Joe Hisaishi's music going through my head, 'A Summer's Day', and I felt as if I was in a Hayao Miyazaki film. We made our way to a cheese factory, and they made really nice cheese-cakes! I think I had no qualms about putting any food in my mouth whilst I was in Japan, considering how I can be quite a fussy eater.



Scenery on route 452



Helen Lim our tour guide


Seaweed-coated cheese (left); Plain cheese (right)
After lunch, we made our way to a flower-farm, and though they were still planting certain crops and not all the plants were in full bloom, what they have was still beautiful! From Furano, we then made our way to see Biei with its famous fields and hills that were used as a backdrop for many commercials. Also, there were a few famous trees that featured in commercials, though it was a pity we 'couldn't get their autographs', to quote our tour guide. Helen was a good and helpful tour guide, though she could be really quite a nagger and kept repeating her story endlessly till I could tell what she was going to say next!

We ended our day by visiting the Ice Pavilion which was a building which kept the interior at a temperature of -23 degree Celsius! There weren't many ice structures inside, though they had a room which was suppose to be at -41 degree Celsius, to simulate the coldest temperature ever experienced in Hokkaido. However, this consisted of only a fan blowing at you at -23 degree Celsius, though it was really really cold! I didn't wear enough as expected, though I wonder whether I would have fared better with my favourite fireman-jacket from London! We spent the night at Asahikawa where my dad finally managed to eat some KFC too! That was one of the worst KFC he has ever eaten, according to him!



Farm Tomita



Ken and Mary Tree in Biei
Famous for being the Nissan Skyline advertisement in the 70s


Dad and Mom in the Ice Pavilion



Self-cooked ramen dinner



McDonald's in Japanese



Dad and KFC (肯德基)

Day 6 - Otaru: Asahi Beer Factory, Shiroi Kobito Park and Otaru

Our final day of touring began with a visit to the Asahi Beer Factory, and this time, we had a video in Mandarin explaining how they made their beer, and how they were heavily involved in environmental conservation. They ended off by giving us beer (which wasn't too bad, but I'm not a beer-person). We then had our lunch, and this was the second treat of the trip, with 200g of Kobe beef! It was excellent and literally mouth-watering! I would hard pressed to select between eating my tuna belly and the Kobe beef if I had to choose between the two.



Asahi Beer Factory



Dad and the Kobe beef

We made our way to the Ishiya Chocolate Factory after lunch, and if anything, those chocolate biscuits were really excellent! I should have bought more and distributed for people to eat! The owner did up the factory in some sort of a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory style, to lure the kids with a fantasy-sort of park. The factory coupled as a museum as well, show-casing the owner's collections of different things, ranging from toys to gramophones. We then did some shopping at Otaru, where they had a shop serving really delicious and cheap custard puffs together with free coffee (only 70 yen!). This thus ended our holiday in Hokkaido, with catching our flight back to Singapore the next day being all that was left.


Ishiya Chocolate Factory


Factory workers



Microbiological testing of chocolates


Dad, Mom and me at Otaru Canal

Day 7 - Narita and home sweet home

The final day consisted of us being transported to Sapporo New Chitose Airport to catch our flight to Tokyo and from Tokyo, we still had to take a one hour bus ride from Haneda International Airport to Narita Airport to catch our flight back to Singapore!



Rubbish bins in Japan

It's been quite a pleasant and rather relaxing trip this time round, pleasing to the eye, and easy on the mind, besides the fact that I had to try and understand things said in language I wasn't too comfortable with! I look forward to coming back to Japan again, this time, to visit both Tokyo and Kyoto as well, though I wouldn't mind a trip back to Hokkaido to travel on my favourite route 452 again! This time, I'll drive and stop to take pictures! I wonder where my next trip will be too! Have a few options in mind, but I shall now relax back home in Singapore, with my last long proper break for the next two years.

Labels: , , , , , , ,

posted by Gabriel Yan at 4:20 PM 0 comments