Sex, Drugs, and The Anne Frank House – Amsterdam, NL

Sex, drugs and The Anne Frank House constitute three of Amsterdam’s best known attractions. As the rain clouds ultimately drifted away from Holland’s lowlands – the sun finally came out for real on Sunday, my fourth day in Amsterdam. And off I went to explore all three.

You probably have heard that Amsterdam is famous for its Red-Light District. Well they’re open for business at all hours and you don’t have to look for any actual red lights themselves. Just walk straight down Damrak from Centraal Station until you notice a canal on your left. You’ll make a left turn at the point when you see the boats tied up.

After you make that left turn, the above picture is the view you will have of you look back towards the station. You can see how close to the train station this is. If those instructions are a bit basic or vague – please understand that I wasn’t in the know about where it was. You can have a look at Rick Steves’ Amsterdam Guide book for a map or google for it.

But if you are there in person, you just have to follow the crowds of excited young men. I saw and heard men from Poland, Russia, Italy, Spain, and Greece, even fellows from India, and I even saw a bunch of young lads all kilted out – Glasgowians?Maybe, but if not, they were certainly and definitely Scotsmen – I wouldn’t say for sure, but they were speaking English and to the best of my knowledge, the Irish and the Brits do not do kilts. Of course the Dutch themselves were present in droves, and many may have been avid ‘shoppers’ as they filled the streets.

Dead center in the middle of the district is a big old church, so sin and redemption are within steps of one another.

Amsterdam NL: Rain or Rain?

Amsterdam: Rain or rain? I’m not kidding – the forecast was for sunshine. But we wouldn’t see sunshine until the mid afternoon on Sunday.

There’s a classic scene in the Marx Brothers film Duck Soup. Chicolini (played by the fast talking Chico Marx) was assigned to spy on Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho Marx) by his adversary from the neighboring country of Sylvania – Ambassador Trentino (played wonderfully by Louis Calhern). Trentino asks Chicolini for his report on Firefly’s activities -

Chicolini: Monday we watch-a Firefly’s house, but he no come, he wasn’t home. Tuesday we go to the ball game, but he fool us: he no show up. Wednesday HE go to the ball game, but we fool him, WE no show up. Thursday it was a double-header, nobody show up. Friday it rained all day, there was no ball game, so we stayed home, we listen to it over the radio.

The view from the balcony

Well folks, that’s sort of how my first few days in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, went. Rain and rain. If there had been a doubleheader scheduled, it would have been washed out. So after arriving on Thursday, Friday was scheduled to be ‘get to know the town day’. Needless to say – it rained off and on all day.

So the game plan changed. Instead of walking about and learning about this exciting and vibrant city which is all about personal freedom and doing your own thing – I stayed around the neighborhood. Went to the supermarket – where I did learn something:

A less exerting way to see the town

In Amsterdam, you have to ask for a bag – and then you’ve got to bag your own groceries. Well maybe she did ask me if I wanted a bag, only because my Dutch is kind of seriously lacking, I may have missed it. The other thing I missed is that they ask you if you want a receipt.

Amsterdam NL – Good Evening Mr. Singh

Amsterdam, NL

Amsterdam – A city filled with canals and bikes – check out this boat with its own tree

Arrival:

The seven and half hour overnight flight from Atlanta to Amsterdam wasn’t bad at all. Delta now works with partners Air France, and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. The Atlanta airport has one runway out of commission for construction so things are running quite late both coming into Atlanta and departing. As such, a good number of folks booked from Atlanta To Paris, France missed their flight. They were offered a choice – they could fly Atlanta to London then on to Paris, or Atlanta to Amsterdam and then on to Paris. So my flight to Amsterdam was a full plane.

Amsterdam Schipol Airport is major transit point – a guy sitting across the aisle was picking up a flight to Damman, Saudi Arabia, near the Persian Gulf. He was from Oklahoma and was working on an oil rig. The guy in my row was from Atlanta but he was headed to Tel Aviv, Israel. Finally the woman sitting next to me was booked on to Charles De Gaulle Airport in Paris. We were in Row 11 – so we got off the plane rather quickly.

You just follow the yellow signs toward Luggage Pickup and Arrivals Hall. Of course Passport Control came before the rest. Only had to wait for two people at the Passport checkpoint. A breeze. By the way, there’s no immigration card to fill out. Luggage came out rather quickly.

Next task – buy a train ticket from Amsterdam Schipol to Amsterdam Centraal Station. They go for $4.30 Euros which is just $5.55 in US dollars. Very quick trip – 15 minutes as well as a bargain. Not only that – it is a down escalator at Schipol and there’s a lift or down steps at Amsterdam Centraal Station which is very busy and bustling both inside and out.

The train platforms are above the concourse,

This isn’t the airport to Centraal Station train – but the actual one looks like this

so after you arrive you go down stairs to ground level. And that’s where it gets a little tricky. I wanted to buy a 5 day bus/tram pass so I needed to find the tourist info building (which also sells the bus/tram passes) which isn’t in the train station proper it was small building with an orange roof

and I had to ask two policemen because the signs weren’t helpful. The five-day pass cost $25 Euros. A bargain seeing how on the first day which was really only a half day = I took three separate bus rides – to the apartment and then to go out for dinner. A single day ticket is good for one hour at a cost of Euro 2.60, so the five-day pass – good for 120 hours – already seemed a bargain.

The trams look like this – these are in front of the Amsterdam Centraal Station

UPDATE

Update:I’m off to explore -

TV:

Boss – two episodes of the series 2nd season remain. I will miss the October 12th episode, and I’ll be delayed in getting to watch the finale on the 19th. I plan to cover these episodes – but I will be late.

Nashville – the new ABC music/drama series begins on Wednesday, October 10th at 10:00 PM. At that time I’ll be in Amsterdam, NL, and then, I’ll be in Paris. So I’ll miss the second episode as well. My coverage will begin in-depth with the third episode. I’ve chosen this series as I had a lot of fun doing the recaps and commenting on NBC’s Smash last winter and spring.

House of Cards – this is a new TV series premiering on Netflix on February 1st. Yup, it is politics again – but this time, it is not from the perspective of a cable TV news show. Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright head up the cast. This is a USA version of the British TV series of the same name. David Fincher will direct the first two episodes.

The Darjeeling Limited

Is taking a spiritual journey on your list of things to do. Or have you taken a journey which turned out to be spiritual in some way without you planning for it. For me, the answer to both questions is yes AND no. You see, I don’t aspire to take a spiritual journey, nor have I found any spiritual events on my many journeys. In that sense my answers were truthful about the NO side of things

But, on the other side is the YES. That’s because I’ve taken a few spiritual journeys through the medium of cinema. The first one was Eat Pray Love which I reviewed here back on August 10, 2010. In that one, Julia Roberts divorced, left home and work, and made her way to Rome, Italy, then to an ashram in India, and last – she went to Bali; in all of those places she was seeking the answers to her personal questions. It may have been a spiritual awakening for her, or might have been that she loved the food. Maybe it was about meeting the right guy. Or maybe, it was about all of the above.

Today I took in the 2007 film called The Darjeeling Limited. Directed by Wes Anderson it is the story of three brothers, played by Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, and Jason Schwartzman, who are struggling with life, have suffered the death of their father, and their mother, well she had a calling of a sort. She departed their Queens, New York home, and ran off to a convent in the foothills of the Himalayan mountains in far off India. They, the brothers, have not communicated among themselves in the year that has passed since the funeral.  The idea of the trip was to reunite as brothers while simultaneously rediscovering themselves as individuals.

Francis (played by Owen Wilson) organizes a travel by train trip for the three of them through Northern India on the way to a reunion with their mother. Actually his assistant created the itinerary, booked all the tickets, arranged the hotels, and so forth. He’s in the film but doesn’t make any lasting impact.

All of the above is what the film is about, but not the actual beginning of the film. Right at the opening, we are in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India. We are in a taxi and the passenger is a businessman. He’s played by Bill Murray. The taxi careens through town barely braking for motorized rickshaws, cars, trucks, buses, bicycles, or even pedestrians.

One Night We Are Dining in Kowloon – Then Soon After We Are Watching Cops and Drug Lords in a Fight to the Death in Rio

It’s Wednesday. the 16th, and here I am about to review a film called Elite Squad which is set in the favelas and mean streets of Rio de Janeiro in faraway Brazil. A week ago, last Tuesday night I was far away from my home in Sarasota, Florida. That Tuesday was my last night, half away around the world, in Hong Kong.

I had planned a dinner with my friends Yu Ling, a technical designer of children’s clothing, now working in Mongkok, a section of Hong Kong, and Jeannette, an architectural project manager now working in Causeway Bay, another Hong Kong neighborhood.

Nathan Road and Peking Road in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon

After a few phone calls, the restaurant as well as the place and time to meet were set. It seems like Hong Kong is wired everywhere. Your cell phones work even three levels down in MTR stations and trains. When you ride these trains it is hard to make eye contact with anyone because either they’re on the phone talking and are oblivious to you, or playing a game on the phone, or web-surfing on their smart phones. I met Jeannette first on the corner of Nathan Road and Peking Road in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon which is across the harbor from Hong Kong Island. That happened rather easily because I called her, on my decidedly plain vanilla, borrowed Motorola and said, “Jeannette where are you?”  I’m standing right under the Sun Flower sign.” Bingo, she spotted me. She said she had to run off to pick up some tickets and would meet us at the restaurant. Two minutes later, I met Yu Ling on the opposite corner.

Ashley Road

Off we went – traveling west on Peking Road. Ashley Road is the 3rd street west of Nathan Road – and if I hadn’t met Yu Ling right then, she would have had to find the restaurant on her own. I had given her instructions, It’s either the 2nd or 3rd street down from Nathan Road. Turn right when you see the Omega Watch sign right at the corner”. We headed up the block and soon enough were seated in Gaylord, an Indian Restaurant at 1/F 23/25 Ashley Road. In Hong Kong, when giving an address, you can, and should give the floor number as well, as most HK restaurants are not at street level. 

 We were set up in a large booth, a semi-circle big enough to seat 3 very comfortably, or five less  comfortably. That’s it – the 2nd booth on the right of the picture to the right. Jeannette showed up shortly and after a great dinner consisting of Vegetable Samosas, Chicken Korma, Lamb Madras, and Chicken Biryani, plus one order of naan bread and one order of paratha bread, plus six Kingfisher Beers, we said our goodbyes. ‘Joi gin‘ means see you in Cantonese. I had a 4:50 AM wakeup call for the next morning. I was bound for my return flights home from HK to New York with Cathay Pacific, then from JFK airport onto Atlanta with Delta, and then change for a different plane for my flight into Sarasota.

Now that I’m back home, I’ve repopulated my Netflix queue, and Elite Squad arrived today. Released in 2007, Elite Squad, or as it was called in Brazil, Tropa de Elite, is about the Rio slums or favelas, and an elite squad of tactical police called BOPE, whose mission is not so much law enforcement as it is the eradication of the drug lords that rule the favelas.

This is not a film for the sensitive or the faint-hearted. From the extreme fire-fights in the streets of the favelas, to the brutal interrogation methods employed by the BOPE officers, to the downright excessive boot camp training of the BOPE candidates in which it is a good year if three out the 25 make the cut – the intensity level of this film starts at strong, and soon goes through the roof with hardly any down time at all.

The main character is Captain Nascimento played by Wagner Moura (above). He’s married, with a kid on the way, and he is one mean-ass cop. He’s doing his best and his wife wants him out of BOPE and into a less demanding and less dangerous line of work. Unfortunately, his daily work is more dangerous than almost any other because by the time BOPE is called in – things have already spun out of control.

Matias and Neto (l to r)

He’s got two guys who are already cops but they’re trying to get into BOPE. Neto played by Caio Junqueiro (Above right) has been assigned to supervise the motor pool after a disastrous night on the streets when his quick trigger finger got another cop or two killed by the drug crew. Only the motor pool is out of funds. One car is cannibalized so another might run, and headquarters hasn’t any money for him. So he has to steal a payoff to get some cash to fix the cars. You won’t believe who the money that he intercepts is intended for.

Matias and Maria

Matias played by Andre Ramiro  is a cop and is also trying to become a lawyer. He joins a group of students in a favela, and his girl friend Maria (Fernanda Machado) is living in the same neighborhood as one of the most brutal of the drug lords, Baiano. Matias hasn’t told her that he is also a cop. Once the secret is out – people will start dying – and in ways almost too brutal to describe.

Fabio Lago as Baiano

Baiano's handiwork - she got a bullet to the head, he got doused in gasoline while encased in automobile tires, then he was torched

Rocinha favela up close

Both Neto and Matias make the cut for entrance into BOPE. So there’s your set up. Three cops and a drug lord and his minions of street based retailers of drugs, look-outs, and the gunmen that back them up. Directed by Jose Padilha, the film is dense, claustrophobic, as well as noisy. There’s a lot of action at night, and the dialogues overlap, plus there is a grainy effect at night. Those things along with the jittery hand-held cameras that are utilized during the raids and ensuing fire-fights make the film a bit of work for the viewer.

That's Rocinha on the far left and center as seen from Ipanema Beach -The Dos Hermanos (Two Brothers) Mountain overlooks the setting.

But the payoff comes in the tension, the pressure, and the excitement. While some of the police were corrupt and in the pockets of Baiano and his ilk, and the residents of the favelas were living in an area where desperation and danger lurked around every corner created there by poverty, the murderous drug business, and the firefights with the BOPE . Director Padilha has left the beauty of the Copacabana and Ipanema beaches out of the film. We see Sugar Loaf Mountain only for a brief instant and we don’t see Christ the Redeemer standing tall above Rio from his perch atop Corcovado at all. The film isn’t about Rio’s highlights – instead it is about the places where visitors are unlikely, or rather shouldn’t, go to. This place is so dangerous, that mean streets isn’t even close to being an accurate description.

There was a bit of controversy about this film. Many people felt that the BOPE tactics were as criminal as the activities of those who were their targets. Others said that the film sort of made those BOPE officers heroic while Nascimento was just as good at killing as Baiano and that was hardly heroic. You’ll have to see the film yourself in order to decide what is the right answer to that question.

That is, if you have time between struggling with the decision to buy either the Kindle Fire from Amazon.com or the Nook Tablet from Barnes & Noble as a Christmas gift for yourself or your significant other. Black Friday is approaching rapidly.

A Slow Boat in China

Famed song-smith Frank Loesser wrote the song “Slow Boat to China” in the middle late 1940′s. The lyrics to the song start with these words:

I’d love to get you

On a slow boat to China,

All to myself alone.

Get you to keep you in my arms evermore,

Leave all your lovers

Weeping on the faraway shore.

The words began as an idea about about a gambler’s dream and not as a romantic ballad. Back in the late 1940′s after the war, a boat trip to China was considered to be about the longest trip you could take, and the trip would become a dream journey if you could meet a lousy poker player to gamble away the days and weeks with on this boat trip. The lousy poker player would not only fund your trip, but might make your entry into China a rich experience. Loesser turned that expression or idea into a romantic ballad.

I'm on a slow boat, really a raft, in China - I'm behind the camera recording the moment for history books as yet not even written

A week ago, I was on a slow boat – not to China – but in China. And it wasn’t really a boat. Instead it was a bamboo raft. Finally, we weren’t on the high seas. Instead we were gently floating on the Yulong River in the vicinity of Yangshuo, in Guangxi Province, China.

My guide was a bright young woman named Rong. We were driven to the launch point. We saw 100′s of these bamboo rafts waiting to be hired. That wasn’t a surprise, as I had watched the rafts float by my hotel, the Yangshuo Mountain Retreat, all day long. It seemed like a never-ending flow. Each raft could carry two people seated on a bench along with the boatman who propelled the raft by utilizing a long bamboo staff to push off the river bed. In most places the river was about three feet deep and often less.

The rafts themselves offer no amenities other than a bench to sit on and an optional umbrella if you are anti-sun, or simply desire some shade. As the raft meanders downstream you will have a seemingly endless panorama of the mountains that surround the valley of Yangshuo. The river has a current, although it is not strong enough to give the raft any momentum, or motion, on its own. Plus the river is quite shallow so you’re never in what might be called a dangerous or perilous situation. Plus you can request a life jacket if think you need it.

This dam is idle for the moment but entertains visitors almost all day long

The river passes over what could be called dams – nine of them. Mostly they are rocks and concrete built across the river and they leave just a narrow opening – a bit wider than the rafts themselves.

Depending on the season sometimes the raft can just glide over the dam under its own propulsion provided of course by the boatman and his long bamboo pole. When you do this – the raft has a bit of a drop to negotiate. What this means is that the front of the raft will take a downward angle, and when it reconnects with the river, you will get splashed and you will have to raise your feet because the river will rush in.

Not to worry – this entire splashing is quite brief (like one onrushing breaker on the beach only smaller) and the resulting possibility of being under water beyond just your shoes and socks is negligible. So remember to raise your feet. I guarantee you will get the hang of it after just one dam.

Other dams are a bit more complicated. Depending on how much you and your companion and the boatman weigh, you might not be able to go over the dam just on the strength of the water flow and the boatman’s bamboo pole. In these cases you have to step off the raft on to the top of the dam, and then the boatman will hand pull the raft forward enough so that it achieves a sufficient downward angle which means that once you get back on, and he pushes off with the pole, you’ll proceed to go forward.

Life on the dam: One boatman does the portage over the damn while the seated girl waits for customers

Don't forget to raise your feet!!

Food and drink – you can bring bottled water if you like but the whole trip is about two hours so you can survive without food. More than likely you’ll have a camera to carry and you might have to raise your arms (only to protect the camera) and your legs as you pass over some dams. But if you must eat and or drink – the enterprising Chinese have food and drink for you. Bigger rafts are lashed together and are set up as restaurants or bars – with hot cooked food, and or cold drinks available all on the river – no need tp tie up and go ashore.

In other places you can pull up to a bigger raft and have a digital picture taken, then uploaded to a computer, then printed out for you – all happening on the water. That’s right right, computers and printers all at work on the river.

The sights will include a few water buffalo bathing, and on my trip downstream, I saw at least three brides and grooms having pictures taken for their wedding albums. You’ll pass through some very rural and poor areas where people grow their own food. You’ll see the land being tilled, or crops harvested. You’ll see rice paddies, and of course the ever-present and eternal karst mountains.

You will also pass some luxury homes and some fine resorts – we are not talking international chain hotels here – instead think of some very nice Chinese resorts  speaking of which – here are a few photos of my hotel – The Yangshuo Mountain Retreat (above) that I took from the raft as we passed the hotel.

You’ll also notice many rafts going down in tandem with friends or family chatting away as they glided gently downstream. Girls will flirt with you, and you’ll see folks from your hotel as well as lots of westerners in the midst of the Chinese.

I’d have to say that rafting on the Yulong River, in Yangshuo, is one memorable and slow boat in China, and it is an experience that should not to be missed.