Almelo
I was invited to attend Anime 2011 in Almelo, in eastern part of Netherlands (Overijssel). My friends booked me at a hotel in Hengelo (short bus ride away from Almelo), home to Piet Blom’s Kasbah houses. Unfortunately, I couldn’t figure out how to visit Kasbah by bus, so I decided that I’d visit the Kubuswoningen in Rotterdam later. Compared to my tiny hotel room in Paris, the Van der Valk Hotel Hengelo’s rooms were huge and luxurious, with large bathroom and its own patio. The breakfast buffet was comparable to Las Vegas, with a variety of juices and smoothies. The Dutch have one heck of a sweet tooth, they’d eat toast with spread plus chocolate sprinkles on top, then add cocoa powder to their milk.
Coming from Paris, walking around Almelo was a cultural shock. The people there were tall, I saw some girls on bicycles that were well above 180 cm (6’). Compared to Parisians, Dutch girls here were taller, bigger, friendlier, and wear less clothing. They say the French girls dress for comfort and Dutch girls would rather suffer in high heels to look sexy. Walking around the town square, you see people sitting at café tables chatting with people sitting at other tables. I think the French are skinny because they eat less and walk more, and the Dutch are genetically one of the tallest people in the world, plus they eat a lot and you can see some fat people. Watch out for drunken Dutch folks on bicycles, I almost got ran over by one. There are also many elderly people on electric wheelchair scooters, be careful walking in front of them!
Having been in the Anime hobby for 20+ years, I’m like a fish in water at an anime convention. But Almelo really takes the cake in levels of friendliness. I was at the convention for 3 days, and every day when I went to eat the lunch buffet, someone would invite me to sit with them, or ask to join at my table. Unfortunately this is not true in other parts of Netherlands – more on that later. On my first day there having dinner, a girl from a local Manga studio saw me sitting by myself, and came over to ask if I’d join her table. I was kinda bummed that my friends were busy running the convention and couldn’t join me for dinner, but being invited by girls was much better. The next day, I had 2 girls join me at my table, and the day after, a whole Dutch family visiting from elsewhere. They told me that in Netherlands, Almelo is well known for its open & friendly people. Afterwards the daughter and her friend joined me to wait in line for a show. Both of the girls were 15 years old and 175cm tall. If they didn’t tell me I’d have assumed that they were at least 19.
On the day prior, I meet a couple of girls and took them to the hotel bar, after ordering beer they told me that they were underage (!). So I had to go back to the bartender and ask for appelaere. The bartender got pissed off at me for bringing underage girls to his bar. I had to ask one of the girls to go to the bar and order, which she didn’t want to do earlier because she said guys would hit on her. As soon as she walked up to the bar, 3 guys jumped up and tried to go chat her up, LoL. After that I learned to be more cautious and ask “so how old are you?� first. ;p The highlight of the convention was a live concert by Aural Vampire, I got front row center seats!
I was hoping to meet up with a friend from Belgium (so I can go visit Belgium and bug him later!) but, unfortunately he couldn’t make it. My friends from Rotterdam and Denmark were there but they were busy. We found some time to get together and go have mojito ice cream (with real liqueur). There was a farmer’s market at the city square on weekend and I got to sample a lot of different foods. After interacting with the Dutch here, I concluded that they were a lot more open and blunt than the French. Some of the Dutch guys I talked to were openly nationalistic and detested Turkish immigrants. When I asked about Asians some claim that they were part Asian from the Dutch East India company days. So I’m looking at these tall white Dutch people with blue eyes telling me that they’re part Javanese from their grandparent’s side. Um… OK, I mean, Kevin Costner says he’s part Cherokee. The Dutch boys also like to bash the French as short men who can’t fight. IMO the French are just arrogant, and the Dutch culture is as flat as Holland’s terrain. The Dutch are embarrassed with Amsterdam, versus the French look up to Paris. They say in Netherlands that Rotterdam is where people go to work and pay taxes, the Hague is where politicians go to do no work and spend tax dollars, and Amsterdam is where you shovel money down a dark pit.
It should be noted that people at Anime/Manga conventions are into Asian culture, so you'd find a larger number of AM/WF couples. Several Dutch girls I meet all had PRC boyfriends, one even had a sister who has moved to Beijing. Elsewhere in Netherlands this is not the norm, and the typical WM/AF couple you'd find on the streets of Amsterdam would be Dutch guy with his Indonesian wife. I'd also note that Almelo is not Amsterdam and the culture of a smaller Eastern Netherlands town is different from a city to the west. In Almelo and Hengelo the girls would open doors for me, and smile at me from across the table. Elsewhere that does not happen.
Amsterdam
Unfortunately, I was stupid and didn’t take my Dutch friends advice to avoid Amsterdam. How to describe this city? Gritty without the charm? Built during the Dutch Golden Age (17th century) and forgot to do maintenance work for the last 300+ years? People in Almelo said the tap water in Almelo was clean and good to drink, but Amsterdam’s tap water is recycled drainage waste water. The air in Amsterdam was bad and the canals were drainage ditches with dirty looking water and trash. If I have to think of something good to say about the city, no dog poop in the streets, the light rail is above-ground and new/clean, and the couple museums were fairly nice. You’d find many Argentinean steak houses offering all you can eat ribs for 10-16 EUR, watch out for the 9,95 EUR specials where they hit you up for 5 EUR for water.
The red light district of Amsterdam is a complete dump, flanked by Chinatown on one side and coffee houses where people go to get high on the other. I walked by some sex tourists talking to the prostitutes and it was kinda funny listening in on guys trying to negotiate for lower rate. I saw one guy come out and I asked him how was it, and he said the b*tch was a liar, she claimed that she was Dutch but in fact she was Russian, and instead of 50 EUR as agreed, she made him pay an additional 50 EUR to take off her cloths. I overheard another sex tourist asking a girl if he’d get a refund if he didn’t ejaculate, and the girl said no because 40% of her customers “couldn’t do it� and she can’t refund 40% of her customers. LoL. What a sh*thole. It was a bit surreal to see people take their kids to walk through the red light district, and the tourist girls walking on the streets were far better looking than the prostitutes.
I didn’t take any photos of the girls there because it’s not allowed. One German tourist walked around with a camcorder and the girls shut their curtains and one came out to scream at them to shut off the camera. The tourist was dumb and argued back that they were prostitutes and what do they care. That was definitely the wrong thing to say and, very soon a lot of mean looking people started coming out of nowhere. I decided that it was a good time to make a quick exit, and as I scurried away, I saw 2 Dutch cops arrive on bicycles.
Unlike Almelo, the residents of Amsterdam are far less friendly, and won’t help you find directions unless you ask. As I’ve said before the Dutch are far more direct and blunt than the French. In France if you need to use the toilet, you can walk into any café and ask to use it, it’s OK and they’re polite about it. In Amsterdam they’d look annoyed and say you should buy something. Also, in France you can order something at a café and sit there for hours. In Amsterdam they want you to drink up and get the f*ck out. It’s a good city for sex tourists and gay/lesbian bars, but other than a few good museums, it’s not worth your time. I did very much enjoy visiting the Van Gough museum and seeing De Nachtwacht by Rembrandt at the Rijksmuseum. When I saw the painting, the first thing I said was “holy sh*t did he paint this thing from a 20 foot ladder?�. I felt sorry for this poor painting that was chopped up and vandalized several times by knife and acid. I hope that some day the museum would restore this painting to its original format (restoring the parts that were cut off).
Keukenhof
Looking for an escape from the piss-bucket city of Amsterdam, I made my way out to Keukenhof, the tulip garden of Europe. The Dutch have a long history with growing tulips, in Amsterdam there’s a flower market where you can buy tulips in a can. They also had Venus fly trap and marijuana in a can, just open and add water to grow, hehehe. Keukenhof is some distance away from Amsterdam and you can tell by the much cleaner air and water. I noticed a larger number of PRC nationals and tourists in Amsterdam compared to Paris. At Keukenhof there were several PRC tour groups. In Amsterdam you’d find many PRC nationals working in the supermarkets and walking around the train station and the street. However most of the WM/AF couples I saw in Amsterdam were Dutch & Indonesian.
Keukenhof is a 32 hector flower garden that’s open for about 2 or 3 months every year. During its annual season they go through 700,000 tulips. Gardeners constantly “refresh� the gardens with fresh tulips to maintain its appearance. To get here you’d take the train to the airport station, then buy a combo bus + entrance ticket there. Or, from Amsterdam you can pay 40-50 EUR and board a tourist bus from there. The gardens are very pretty and I took a lot of photos, enjoy!
Rotterdam & some comparisons
Rotterdam is like the financial capital of Netherlands. You see brand new tall office buildings; the city looks like it’s under constant construction. Right out of the train station, if you make a right turn, you’re in Chinatown. Most of the shops are run by old-time Cantonese speaking immigrants, with dim sum restaurants (3-4 EUR per dim sum dish!). I picked up a local Chinese newspaper, and as I walked into local stores, the Dutch storekeepers would greet me with simple Chinese words (“nihao!�). I guess the ethnic Chinese population there is significant.
Compared to Amsterdam, Rotterdam is clean and modern; because the city was bombed flat in WW2 and they had to rebuild it. If I were to visit Netherlands again, I’d stay in Rotterdam and only take the train to Amsterdam to visit museums for 1 day. Unfortunately, the people in Rotterdam were still not as friendly as those in Almelo (but better than those in Amsterdam). I also noticed that people in the western cities were far more mixed genetically and shorter in height, versus the eastern towns were more genetically pure Dutch with taller people.
In Paris they have a lot of problems with dog poop and many parks have “no dogs’ signs. In Netherlands the owners pick up after the dogs, and the Dutch have a better “green thumb� than Parisians. The Parisians just plant grass and some trees, versus the Dutch go all out with their plants. Customer service in France is better, Dutch waiters need to be reminded several times before they’d bring you water. Also, I’m not sure why but the Dutch just can’t seem to clean their tableware well. Plates in Netherlands are often not clean with small bits of food stuck on it. However, in Rotterdam I think customer service and restaurants are more professional and it’s less of a problem.
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Would I visit the Netherlands again? Maybe, but definitely skip Amsterdam. If you’re looking for a place with friendly people and tall beautiful women, go to East Netherlands and avoid the cities to the West.
