Amsterdam - the overall review.

I'm gonna start off with the overall review of Amsterdam before I go with the details since a friend of mine is going soon. So here you go :

The city

This is from what I remember la eh I can't guarantee this is 100% true. Ingat-ingat from what the guides told us during the excursions je. Ada part of Netherlands is located below the sea level. The Dutch ni macam create a new land from sea adalah using their techniques. Google sendiri for the details. lols..One of the reasons there are lots of windmills in Amsterdam is for the land reclamation ni lah. Some of the area used to be watery area, and most of the part of the Netherlands ni flat. So nak naik basikal tadehal lah takde penat naik bukit.

Netherlands is part of EU, so the currency is Euro. Population tak sure, but ada banyak gak Muslims so we can find mosques in this country. They said there are a lot of Indonesian here tapi I didn't see that many pun maybe they live outside the city kot. Malaysian kat situ tak surelah ada berapa ramai tak pernah jumpa pun yang reside kat situ, tourists ada lah a few.

Transportation

Amsterdam, in my opinion is not that big. So kalau larat, you can rent a bike to get around the city. There are a lot of bicycle rental service in the city. At the central station itself, you can see about 5000 bicycles. Kalau lebih larat lagi, pun boleh jalan jugak. Takdehal...

You can travel to the city from Schiphol airport by train. It costed 3.80eu per single journey. If you are flying with Ryanair, you'll land at Eindhoven airport, dalam 1++ hrs from the city so kena la naik bas nak pegi central. Menyusahkan, so I chose to pay more for conveniency and flew with Aerlingus.

To travel within the city, other than bike, you can buy the city pass at the ticket centre. Unlimited rides of Tram, Metro or Bus. 24hr pass - 5.50eu, 48hr pass - 11++ eu, 72hr pass - 15.50eu.

You can also buy the I.Amsterdam card IF you are interested with museums and etc. Ada 24hr (38eu) pass, 48hr (48eu) pass etc. With that you can get free entrance or discounted price for museums, tapi tak boleh pakai for all museums, discounted price at certain restaurants, city pass and free 1 hour canal cruise. The main museums like Rijskmuseum (spell check, malas nak google) or Van Gogh museum tak boleh pakai in I'm not mistaken.

Accomodation

We stayed at Stayokay Stadsoelen Youth Hostel. Location not too bad and safe, like 5 minutes walk from the tram. Security - good, takde orang mabuk ke high ke apa. Since both of us has the Hostelling International card, we get 2.50eu off from the price of the rooms. So 3 hari stay dah bleh jimat 7.50eu not too bad la. We paid 25eu for the private room (2 nights) and 19eu for the dorm (1 night)

Food

Searching for halal food is not a problem. Ada je you can find big HALAL signs in the restaurant. One of the popular food in Amsterdam is french fries. Bunyi cam bosan je kan but I recommend you to try 'em. I was skeptical at first but actually it was so good. Makan pulak dengan the oorlog sauce fuuuuh terbaikkk..

Things to do

I recommend you to join the excursions offered by the companies. The tickets can be bought at Damraak (located like 2 mins from the Central Station, ada lagi tempat lain jual but that's the easiest place to buy lah) and from there you can choose from the many excursions offered. Buy online also cann..

We chose 2 excursions, the Keukenhof (tulips and pretty flowersss) and visiting cheese & clog factory, windmill and fishermen's village. Keukenhof excursion costed around 32eu, lasted for 4.5 hrs including the journey while the second excursion costed around 33eu, with the same duration as the previous one.

Banyak boleh dapat from the excursion because the tourist guide will explain/membebel non stop about the history of Amsterdam etc during the journey. Baguslah for people who are too lazy to read the history like me.

On top of that we bought a canal cruise ticket for 7eu. For an hour, the cruise brought us around the main canals of Amsterdam.

Other than that if you are art lovers boleh pergi to the museums there. Boleh jugak visit the Red Light District just for the sake of going lah :P Keep in mind you'll be seeing lots of nasty things jugak in Amsterdam so open your mind lah ye. Lepas otak dah rosak pergi tempat bukan-bukan pergilah tengok the tulips to clear up your mind :P Dekat area Van Gogh museum, Rijskmuseum semua tu ada park where you can just hang around.

Yang lain-lain, would be choosing a right time to visit. Pergi time spring, around mid April like that would be the best. The flowers pun mesti akan full bloom, and the temperature would be just nice for traveling. The people there can speak English so communication is not a problem at all.

That's all I can write about for the time being. I'm not at my best condition now coz I'm super tired so macam tak boleh nak come out with better ways to explain. Hope this helps :)