Hi Ladies and Gents, I have a terrible job. Every now and then I have to go to some or other Godforsaken place like Abuja or Harare. But then there are also the times that I have to go to places like Saigon or Amsterdam... Now those are the ones that makes my job a little more bearable...
Let me tell you a bit about my last trip - well, I am still busy with it, so It might be an incomplete ride report, but still! I had to present a very boring topic on a conference in Amsterdam. Presenting the topic felt like a burden the size of a R500 soft tail from Game! BUT having the potential opportunity to do some cycling in the country where the majority of people uses a bicycle as their main means of transport, now that is something that lifted the burden and my spirit to new heights! My colleague that joined me for this part of the trip really got [EMAIL PROTECTED]<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>” for me. I could talk of nothing else than going out, renting a bicycle and ride around in the Netherlands! Well, the damn conference started and took a lot of my time, but eventually we managed to duck the damn Yanks organising the event and made a split for it on Friday afternoon. We took a train to Amersfoort, a small town about 45 minutes per train from Amsterdam. As we exited the station, there she was!! A rent-a-bike-shop! We coughed up a 100 Euro deposit, an additional 10 Euro for rent for a day (yeah, things in Europe costs more than a pretty penny), and off we went! We had no idea what this town will be able to offer, except for a small pamphlet that I managed to get my hands on in Amsterdam. In there it said that you must at least see the wall around the old town and the very unique entrance that catered for road as well as water access. So, that as our mission, we decided to head off to find this entrance. The map did not have distances mentioned, so we assumed the worse and took off at a nice pace. Before we broke a sweat, we realised that we are about to leave town... We turned around, stopped at a coffee shop (dangerous exercise in Holland - you might get some weed in your rusks...story for another day) and asked directions. The damn Dutch drew the map with south at the top!! Dutchmen... (I almost sound like Puke Watson!!) Without boring you with the rest of the details, a few highlights. The town is so small, we rode about 75% around it in about 3 hours. We managed to find the wall around the city with the very unique entrance. The bicycles are very primitive and the saddles not built for RSA assess! We decided that is why people call it Holland... (Jou h*l ook seer?) We saw a fire brigade filled with red bicycles and one truck! We saw people on bicycles from ages 3 to 90! We saw a family of 5 on one bicycle - all with their own seat - not a tandem! I rode in some of the most beautiful country scenery that exists on planet earth! Best of all - everybody have bicycles!!! Everybody loves riding around! I did not see any overweight people in the Netherlands, except for the foreigners at the conference. There are no traffic jams! I even stumbled into the red light district one night - long story - and there was one of the ladies on her way to work, on a bicycle, wearing nothing that needs some imagination! Riding in Netherlands was a dream come true for me. I wish that every Afrikaans speaking dude and every cyclist in the word gets a chance to experience the Netherlands! It is an awesome experience!! I am in Saigon now. I've just rented a 125cc scooter. I use it as my primary means of travel. Yesterday the cops tried to stop me, I still do not know why! I dodged them and used the other 3000 scooters to cover my getaway... We'll have to see if they managed to trace it back to me... I rented it from a very informal rental dude... ;-) This is a story for another day. I also have some brilliant video clips I took while dodging the trafic. I'll leave that for another day... Where can I upload a few pics and video's for you to see? Cheers until another day. The Russian in Dutch and Vietnamese territory! --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "DarkAndDirty" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/DarkAndDirty?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
