Solo Adventure in Amsterdam, Netherlands

 9th November 2023, Thursday

Today i was on leave and the weather was good, so decided to head out alone to Amsterdam (since my friend is working today). So she recommended me to head down to Dappermarkt located at Amsterdam Muidenpoort first before going to Amsterdam Central for the rest of the day. I prepared myself and made sure i am wrapped warmly (with my thermal wear and jackets), off i went. The wind was blowing strongly when i was walking to the train station. I waited for the 10:13 am train to head down to Amsterdam Muidenpoort station. It was a 15 mins ride....and luckily the sun was out today. When i reached the station, i made my way to Dappermarkt. Though the opening hours was from 10 am, there were multiple stalls not opened yet. But those opened were selling flowers, cheese, fresh veggies and fishes. Others were selling clothes, socks or toys. At the fresh fish stall (De Graaf - Roos & Zn), they were selling fried shrimps, cuttlefish, etc too. So i decided to buy some fried shrimps to try after long thought and i was getting hungry at that time.  I bought 6 shrimps for $5.50 and additional $0.50 for the sauce. It was nice and filling even for 6 shrimps though it was expensive.....😅..Afterwards, i just continued exploring the market. I decided to head down to Amsterdam Central as there was nothing much that i was interested in the market.

A day with sun

Dappermarkt Entrance

Available stalls

Fried giant shrimps

I took the 11:43 train to Amsterdam Central and it was just one station away. Luckily there was no train disruption or anything else going on. When i reached Amsterdam central, there were so many people around and i tried to walk towards the canal. But i think i just ended up on the tourists area where there were a lot of shops along the streets (like our Orchard road like that). So i just went shopping while looking at the buildings around. I walked for some time before i decided to go find one of the popular french fries shops - Fabel Friet in Amsterdam. Along the way to the fries shop, i walked into an alley where i saw a long queue to a cookies shop - Vans Stapele Koekmakerji and the chocolate smell nice. So i decided to queue for it while googling online on the items the shop is selling. I just saw people buying 1 or 2 boxes of cookies. So i decided to buy a box of 6 cookies (12.50 euro) and tried to eat one outside. The cookie was warm and soft, it was also sweet in the centre because of the white chocolate (It still tasted nice after 4 days and my friend seems to like it more after the 4 days period cos it become harder. I prefer it to be soft).

Amsterdam Train Station

Opposite view of Amsterdam Station

Houses in canal

Cheese shop

War memorial

Cooke shop

Freshly baked chocolate cookies

After that, i made my way to the fries shop - Fabel Friet and i saw a small crowd of people standing outside of the shop waiting for their orders. The shop was quite small with 2 cashiers taking orders and i went in to make mine. Then i went outside to wait for the staffs to call for my order.  I got a small fries with truffle mayo for 4.90 euro (The uniqueness of this shop was that you can add cheese for 1 euro to your fries). I found the fries nice and enjoyed it...just that it was too much... I saw people just threw their leftovers to the sea gulls and other birds. I just ate while i continued on my shopping. 

Queue outside fries shop

Freshly cooked fries

Then i walked until a flower market - Bloemenmarkt where the shops sell mostly flowers seeds for planting purposes. There were also some souvenirs and cheese shops around. From there, i walked to see the stalls and bought 2 tee-shirts from a souvenirs shop. After which, i made my way back to the train station but the sky got dark and was drizzling. As i walked back, i went to another souvenirs shop to get some souvenirs as the prices were 2 euros cheaper here. After that, i stumbled upon a mall-looking area where there were bigger shops inside. So i decided to went in 1. for toilet break and 2, to find a new pants for myself (the rubber part of one of my pants had become loose...😂.). I managed to get a Nike track pants instead for 40 euros. After that, i walked planning to go the train station but i went into the lego shop to fix a figurine instead. I spent quite a while inside the shop and by the time i was done, it was already pouring with rain. So i walked with my umbrella till McD and hide inside until the rain gets lighter (if i am lucky). 

Stall at Bloemenmarkt

Mall entrance

Ninja Lego figurine

After some time, i headed out and before i can walk to the station, i came across a waffles shop - van wonderen stroopwafels selling waffles and stroopwafels. People were queuing to buy the waffles but i chose to buy their stroopwafels (15 euro). After i bought it, i walked very quickly to the station as it was getting late and my friend waiting at home for dinner.  It was about a hour plus back to the home and before that, i headed to the supermarket nearby the house to buy a chicken wrap back for dinner. And, this was my one day adventure in Amsterdam....😀

Photo Album: Click Here

A Day Trip to JB

17th Oct 2022, Monday

Woohooo!!! Finally decided to go JB with my friends with KTM train today. We bought the train tickets a month ago to avoid not getting the date we wanted. We all woke up around 5:30 am to get ourselves prepared and met up in Woodlands Interchange. We had took Bus 911 to go to Woodlands Checkpoint but the bus was going round and round and round within woodlands. It eventually went back to Woodlands Interchange again and it went another BIGGGGGG round before it actually reached Woodlands Checkpoint. It took us about more than an hr to reach the checkpoint in the end.

When we went up to the checkpoint, there was already a queue waiting for the customs to open for departure. Apparently, the customs will only be opened 1 hour before the train's departure time. And it actually took about a hour to clear both Singapore and Malaysia Customs before boarding the train. Luckily, it wasn't really very very crowded in the two customs but there were still a large number of Singaporeans travelling to JB today. There was still a 5 or 10 mins wait before the door was opened for boarding. The train carriages were having seats facing in opposite directions, so you may be facing backwards. We were lucky to get seats, there were people standing at the train doors cos they don't want to seat separately or not able to get the seats they wanted. 

KTM Shuttle Train

The train left the station slightly later than the actual departure time and it just took 5 minutes or so to reach JB train station. By then, it was already 10 am and everyone was just dashing out to start their day in JB. We too figured to exit out and walked to our first stop - Restoran Hua Mui in Jalan Trus area. The walking journey took us about 15 minutes to reach the place and we could see a long queue outside. So we decided to give up eating there and we went to Flowers in the Window cafe nearby. Their signboard is so small and we can't make out the cafe name on their signboard. And, their menu was quite limited and decided to go for The Replacement cafe opposite the street as it had more choices (Slightly expensive than Flowers in the Window). It wasn't crowded and the customers were the ones who got the same train as us.

Flowers in a Window Cafe (Quite creepy, right? >_<)

We decided to share the food and go over to  Restoran Hua Mui to try their Hainanese Chicken Chop after that. So we ordered a big breakfast and a French toast with hot chocolate, latte and coffee for each of us. The food arrived quite fast and we took our own sweet time to finish the food while chatting. The food was quite tasty. After that, we decided to walk Salahuddin Bakery which we thought there was a distance to digest our bunch. But it was just like 50 or 100 metres away from the cafe. ^_^. It was a old looking shop owned by an Indian, selling breads, cakes and curry puffs. Ended up not buying anything. After that, we walked around the area and walked past Hiap Joo Bakery which was famous for their banana cakes. We decided to skip buying too as the queue was crazily long and had to stand under the big sun. 

Hot Chocolate

French Toast

Big Breakfast

So we decided to go back to Restoran Hua Mui and there was no longer any queue but the place was still crowded with people. We sat a table near the window and discussed what we should order there. We initially wanted to order 2 plates of their "famous" Hainanese Chicken Chop as we saw a lot of the customers ordered and it was recommended by other bloggers online. But we ordered 1 plate of the chicken chop and a plate of Otak Nasi Lemak. By look, the nasi lemak wasn't appetizing and the otak was quite small. Whereas, the chicken chop was big and it came with potato wedges and colesaw. It turned the batter of the chicken chop was not crispy enough and it doesn't taste good to what we were expecting. And the potato wedges were all cold. It was quite disappointing for us and it felt like it was over rating for the chop. We found the nasi lemak is much better than the chicken chop. However, these were just our own personal preferences on the chicken chop. 

Otak Nasi Lemak & Chix Chop

After that, we took a grab car and headed to KSL shopping mall. The grab driver took some time to reach our waiting point and there was a long queue of cars on the road we were waiting. The driver told us it was his first day driving grab and keep apologizing that he was being slow in the driving. We walked around and did some shopping in the mall when we arrived. After walking around, we crossed the road outside the mall to Avery Day Convenience Concept Store which was just opposite the mall. It was another disappointment to go to the store where it was just selling some normal tibits and the prices were not so much cheaper too. There were some food carts at the last basement of the mall too. There wasn't anything interesting there, so we took a grab car back to City Square mall after buying Auntie Annie's. 

 Avery Day Convenience Concept Store (Opposite KSL Mall)

When we reached City Square mall, we walked around and i was glad my favourite BBQ shop (Kimdo BBQ) had not closed down. So i just went ahead and bought 3 chicken wings to satisfy my cravings. After which, we went to buy some breads from Lavender and there was a queue of customers buying the cookies and breads. I went over to another bakery shop named Seasons and bought two red beans breads and a croissant which cost around $8 plus ringgits. After buying the breads, we went up to the last level and rested at Miyakori Coffee. There, we ordered some drinks and rested our feet from the walking. 

Kimdo BBQ

Hot Chocolate...Again!!

We rested till around 4 pm, then we headed around the mall to get to Meng Meng Roasted Duck restro for our dinner. It was located very far inside of the mall and there were only 2 or 3 shops remained open. We wanted to order some dim sum but to our disappointment, the items we wanted were all sold out. In the end, we ordered 3 roasted meats (duck, char siew and roasted pork), a dumpling soup and a veggies with rice. I personally found the roasted pork quite salty but the char siew and duck were not too bad. The dumplings soup was also tasty. After that, we made our way slowly to the entrance to the Malaysia Customs and to board the train. As usual, there was already a long queue waiting for the gates to open. We just sat down and waited. The gates were only opened around 5 plus and the queue moved slowly as the people tried to scan their passports on the gantry for entry. As there were people who did not know how to scan, there was only one KTM staff and he was walking to and fro to help the people to scan successfully. After that, we had to clear the Malaysia Customs and it was dashing and queuing for everyone again. 

Meng Meng Roasted Duck

Once we cleared the customs, we headed to the train and some of the carriages were already packed with people. Some were even standing inside the carriages. So we walked towards the carriages behind where there were more empty seats. We reached Singapore 5 mins before 6 pm and we had to clear Singapore Customs when we alighted. There were quite a lot of people at Woodlands Checkpoint as people had knocked off and were rushing back to JB. Some were like us, rushing back home after coming back from JB. We went and boarded the same bus number 911 to go back to Woodlands Interchange where we went on our separate ways home. It was a fun and relax day after 3 years of no travelling. Taking trains to JB is really easy and less squeezing than buses. Hopefully, it can remain like this and no more lockdown globally.... ^_^

Places visited:

1. The Replacement
2. Salahuddin Bakery

3. Hiap Joo Bakery

4. KSL Mall

5. Avery Day Convenience Concept Store

6. City Square Mall

7. Kimdo BBQ

8. Miyakori Coffee

9. Meng Meng Roasted Duck

Otaru, Hokkaido Trip (Day 13)

23th May 2019, Thursday

Today, we woke up early and got ready to drive ourselves to Otaru which is quite nearby to Sapporo. We ate maki and strawberries which we bought yesterday before we headed out. It  was about 1 hour drive and we had driven onto route 5 expressway. We stopped at a games store (didn't see any game stores throughout our holidays) and had a toilet break. And, of course to shop around the games stores to see if there are any console games which i could buy back. There are plenty of games for different consoles, anime and movies VCDs/DVDs plus music soundtracks. There are some recent games selling at quite cheap prices as compared to buying in Singapore. I spent quite a long time trying to pick the games to buy and buying for my brother some ps4 games.

PS4 Games

Nintendo Switch Games

After buying the games, we finally left the game store and looked for our lunch. My friend googled a popular seafood restaurant named Aotsuka Shokudo which was located near to the Otaru Aquarium. So we decided to drive there to have some seafood as Otaru is located near the sea too (Seafood must be fresh and good.. ^_^). The restaurant was quite towards the end of the town but it was accessible by car. We parked the car at some empty lot beside the restaurant and went to the restaurant. There was another seafood restaurant beside the one we wanted to go and we got a bit confused as the restaurant's name was in Japanese. We were guessing if which one was the one we were looking. So my friend went and asked some guys standing in front of the second restaurant to confirm the restaurant's name.

Correct Restaurant

There wasn't much customers dining there as it was already 3 plus in the afternoon. Luckily the menu had English translation on it, so we were able to order. Of course, we also asked for recommendation from the staff. She was able to understand slightly and able to recommend us some of their popular dishes. We ordered raw salmon, seafood don, grilled fish and grilled scallops. The seafood was really fresh and yummy and while we were eating, it suddenly to rain heavily. So we took our time to enjoy our yummy lunch. There were a few customers who came to have their lunch too, an elderly couple came and ordered their giant crabs. It looked so great. We were lucky that the rain stopped by the time we had finished our lunch. So we thanked and paid for our lunch and went out for a walk.

Raw Salmon

Seafood Don

Grilled Fish

Grilled Scallops

We walked up a hill behind to see the Hiyoriyama lighthouse above but it was not operational. But from the height we climbed up to, we could see the coast of Otaru port and the sea animals in Otaru Aquarium. There was a house located up the hill when we climbed up but we didn't went in the house to visit as it looked closed and required some entrance fee to enter. However, there were some antique equipment outside the yard.

Antique House

Otaru Aquarium

Coast of Otaru

Hiyoriyama lighthouse

After that, we drove down to the town centre and walked past Otaru Canal. And of course, we walked around the area which passed by some of their historic buildings in Otaru Historic Scenic District. Some of the shops were still in operational since they were built in the 1900s. There were many shops along the street and a lot of goodies to buy, be it snacks, anime stuffs, gifts, chocolate. The famous LeTao shop was also located there and with a mini cafe in it. A lot of people were packed inside the shop to grab their famous cookies to bring home. We are not any exception too, my friend had been thinking to grab their cookies on the whole trip and she was already busy grabbing what she had already planned to buy. For me, i don't know about this brand but still, i bought a box back for sharing too (not cheap leh)...hehee...then we went and kaypo what desserts they are selling in their cafe. I saw they were selling their milk pudding as their limited item and wanted to get one to try. So my friend went and bought an ice-cream and pudding. Their pudding was really smooth and yummy!! i finished it in no time before my friend even knew it (She only managed to have one bite to try...i ate the whole pudding while she was busy talking...hahahaa! We should have bought more back). However, we did bought a slide of their cheesecake and tart back. There was a chocolate shop owned by LeTao opposite the main shop.

Otaru Canal

The Former Takasaburo Natori Store

The Former Motosaburo Kaneko Store

Desserts available in LeTao

Ice-cream & Pudding

Otaru Beer

After that, we walked a bit longer on the alley but we could see there were some shops preparing to close as it was already past 5 pm and their closing hours was at 6 pm. As it was also getting dark soon, we made our way slower to our car. But it was a pity we can't stay long in Otaru, there are still so many food to try and places to see. Next time, we will definitely come back again. With that, we drove back to Sapporo and went back to the hotel to put our goodies. We went back to Meshiba Ookami to take away some chicken wings but this time, the staffs told us they do not allow for take-aways which was so weird. But we did not bother to pursue further, so we just left.

After that, we went to have some sushi at a restaurant (Sai Kaku) instead as recommended by the hotel staff. We ordered a sushi platter with 11 different kinds of sushi as my friend wasn't hungry. The sushi chief saw us trying to cut the sushi into half so that we each can have a bite on the different sushi. He took our plate and helped us to cut each of the sushi into half and passed it back to us. We were taken by surprise that he actually helped us to cut...hahaha. However, the sushi were nice and we thanked the chief for the food. Then, we went to a nearby shopping building mall to see what shops do they have. I was happy when i saw the shops were all selling anime toys, game cards and video games but the shops were closing as it was late. So we decided to come back again tomorrow and headed back to the hotel to rest for the day.

Sai Kaku

Sushi Platter

Places visited:
Aotsuka Shokudo (Address: 3 Chome-210 Shukutsu, Otaru, Hokkaido 047-0047, Japan)
Hiyoriyama Lighthouse
Otaru Canal
Otaru Historic Scenic District
Sai Kaku (Address: Japan, 〒060-0063 Hokkaido, Sapporo, Chuo Ward, 南3条西4丁目 ＴＯＳＨＯ３．４ Ｂ．Ｌ．Ｄ)

Hotel Stayed:
Hotel Vista Sapporo Odori