Uploaded a video of my cycling trip to office..

Some of the few things I observed about Dutch People and the country.

Almost all are soft spoken
Dutch homes are very open. Yeah you can see everything in the house when you walk by the street.
Amsterdam has fantastic cycling routes and walking routes. Cycles are aplenty and so is cycle theft.
Dutch gals are awesomely beautiful. Yah I know this point should have come first !
Dutch have cold breakfast, cold lunch and hot dinner. Not sure if the heat is required to ignite something else.
Dutch have funny pronunciations.

I'm going to test your dutch knowledge, in the process make you forget your English.

How do you pronounce Jaap Jaan.
a) Jaap Jaan
b) Jackei Jaan
c) Yaap Yaan
d) Goiyalaa

If you chose option D, this questionnaire is not for you. Please quit. NOW !
The correct option is C. Yeah it's pronounced Yaap Yaan. Phunny people..err..funny people

If you patted your self on the back for succeeding in saying 'She sells the sea shells in the sea shore' fast, try to pronounce this - 'Paasheuvelweg'. If your tongue gets intertwined in the process of pronouncing this, please contact Mallika Sherawat. Don't' come to beat me.
This is where my office is. Imagine my plight (sob..sob..), I have to say this every day.

How to do you pronounce Radhius
a) Radha Blouse
b) Radhouse
c) Radhius
d) Seruppu

If you chose option D, you have come forward without heading to my warning/request. You will be given 1 free ticket to the latest Captain flick 'Dharmapuri'. Stop reading now !
If you chose option A, sorry machi, paranagi malai Jothi poradhai konjam korachukonga !
If you chose option B, you got it. I'll have a Heineken beer to celebrate this. Will send the snaps ok.Don't sulk.

A short guide to speaking Dutch.Speaking dutch is very simple, especially for Indians. When you kaari thupify, you generate a sound right. Whenever you end speaking a dutch work suffix this kaari thupifying sound to it. For example if you were to call a person called Frans. Start with the normal fra........when you reach ns..start kaarifying. So you'll end up saying fraaaaarrrrkkkkkkssssss. Gotchaa ! Just be careful not to spit out when you speaking Dutch.

Happy Dutching !

I had enquired every soul in Amsterdam central to find where i can find a universal travel adaptor and the answer I got was 'prrrr...I dnt know'. Anyway for all those unlucky souls, who are in similar situation as me, a little trip. The other adaptors you would get somewhere else might cost around 10 EUR, did you know that ANBW, the Netherlands Transport authority has a store just behind the Amstelveeen bus station, where they sell travel adaptors for 4 EUR. Nice deal eh.Saves you a lot of trouble and travel.

If you still wanna get it cheap, you can go to Albert cyup market. It's near the Amsterdam center. But don't know the way to the from the center. But I know the route from Amstelveen to Albert Cyup market. Take the tram 5 to Central Station. Get down a stop before Museumplein and the stop name is Roelo Hartplein. From here, you can ask anyone to the market. It's pretty close, some 5 minutes walk from here. You can get cheap products here, much like our road side markets.

The nearest route is going to Zuid WTC and taking the metro 51 to isolaterweg. You need to get down at the last but one stop called sloterdijk. Get out of the metro, walk down the escalator, take the left and come out, now take your right and get down the station to the ground floor. You'll see a large open grass ground in front of you and a ING building. The tax office is just next building. It's a dark grey building and flags fluttering at the entrance. I'm telling you this coz I found it only after some trouble. No one in the area knew about it. But it's easy to find. It's the next building to ING. Gotchaa.

I hasd to register at the Amstelveen townhall after i have a house. This is mandatory for everyone who's staying in netherlands, regardless of long term or short term. Many would suggest walking the distance from the Amstelveen Bustation to the Townhall, simply 'coz the bus route would be unknown. Fortunately for me, a some samatarian informed me that there's a bus No 166 that goes to Amsterdam WTC. I have to get down at the second stop calel Radhius(pronouncd Radhouse). Get down at the stop. Cross the road, walk a few feet to your let and you'll see the Townhall building. It took more than 2 hours for me to get registered, coz there were a bunch of TCS guys who had gone in and they took 1 hour of my time. Anyway if you wanna go to the townhall, go to Amstelveen busstation, take 166, get down at Radhius. Simple.

People said it would be tough to find a house in Amsterdam and it's costly and it wouldn't satisfy our requirements. All our office folks had contacts with an Agent called Shantha from Inca housing and I think everyone got a raw deal. Fortunately for me, she didn't have any apartments with her at the itme of enquiry and I had to look for another agency and then I found this Roots Van Group. I landed in Amsterdam on Friday and the next Friday I had a roof on top of my head. Found a apartment in Zonnestein. This is in Amstelveen area close to Amstelveen busstation and further importantly, very close to the pick up point of my office shuttle. I cross the road take the shuttle reach office in mins flat. If I had to take the public transport, it would take 45 minutes to reach office. I save time more importantly than money. This is my home sweet home.

The kitchen is fully equipped, all I had to buy was a cooker. It had oven,coffee maker, toaster,juice maker and the standard fridge, dish washer and washing machine.

This is the hall, the highlight of the house. Has a home theatre system, but we cant keep in full volume. Dutch homes have very bad acoustics. Twice in two weeks, the tenants who live down have come and asked to walk slowly over the floor.

And the house has a mp3 player dedicated for music .Nice eh ! And then two bedrooms. This is my room As messy as ever. You a machine at the corner, its the dryer.

The price of this place is 1350 EUR inclusive. Inclusive means, you pay the current, gas and other charges upfront every month. Usually the meter readings happen in once a year and the owner collects amount based on the average consumption. So he';s collection 150 EUR for each month. S little costly considering the allowance I get, but it's the way it is in Amstelveen.
I just have a feeling that all the Rental agencies are hand in hand in this and they push all expats in this area and are increasing the rent of the apartments automatically.

The nomenclature for this part 2 can't be directly related to the happenings on ground, this is sequel time, i alsothought of naming this post in succession. 2 days in MUmbai was very much a personal affair, other than the times i went to the Dutch embassy. Everything went smoothyly and boarded the flight to Zurich via swiss air at around 1.00 a.m. This was my connecting flight to Amsterdam. The flight was ok. May be I drank too much wine, was feeling very unfortable in the seat for most of the journey. Landed in Amsterdam Schipol Airport at 8.00 a.m. I walked in through the immigration and hoped it would be as smooth as the US immigration. But they seem to have seen a Hijacker in me and asked me to sya along with a bunch of Bangladeshis for almost an hour. Seems they wanted to check if i was really born in the hospital that was mentioned in my birth certificate.

I managed to come out of the Aiport at 10.00 a.m.
Since I had a bad experiance with the Taxi in MUmbai, wanted to be doubly sure and checked with airport authorities and they showed me where the authorised taxis were. I was booked accomdation in Hotel ETAP that was near Shipol Aiport. After a short 0 minutes travel, reached the hotel. You wouldn't believe I lived in this room for 7 days. The room could have been very romantic f i had come with my gf, coz the shower was very small and without any locks. The glass door was translucent. Yeah like they show in the movies. But i was staying with guys and I utterly detested the idea. Fortunately the toilet was made of a wooden door. ...

More to continue....

Atlast kindaa settled in Holland...after some really "intersting" experiances back home in India and here in The Netherlands. This post could well be n te form of a diary..read ahead f u really bored...

I had booked a seat in kingfisher to fly from chennai to mumbai. y mumbai n nt amsterdam, coz i had 2 get my visa stamped in mumbai and that took two days. But owing to last minute contraints cudnt make n time for te KF flight and had to be content with the late night Jet flight. I had 30 kg internal baggage allowance, but Jet seems to be on ATkiens Diet and didnt allow more than 20kg. I had throw out my fav jogging shoes, my trekking shoes, shuttle bat n a lotta other fav items.

'enda vennaingala....enga thalaivar captain vandha ..idhu passener plane...cargo plane illai' nu solli anupuveengallanu kaekka nenaichen...but Counterle oru alagana lady irundhadhanaale...'oh apapdiya no problem' nu valinjitu vandhutten..

Then flight landed in mumbai at around 1p.m...i was too tired to even walk across to the taxi counter...someone walked across n asked f i wanted a taxi..everyting around me happened n a haze..believe me i was so tired te evening running from block to block...for last minute docs...i was almost dead....and so i said yes and took a taxi where tere were 2 drivers..but only one steering wheel. And then they demanded me Rs.900 from airport to churchgate..i said no..cant pay...then they settled for 450..widout bill..te intersting part starts here...namba ooru auto madhiri...tnagar to mambalam via poonnemalle...ennai oru suthi suthi airport pakkame kondu vandhu uttanunga...then another taxi took me..

While talking to the new driver, got sme gyan. That the other folks gave this one only 250 for dropping me at churchgate. They got 200 for showing me around the airport. Two things to remember in Mumbai1) Never board a taxi where there are 2 people in the front.2) Never pay the amount upfront. The mount should be given only when you are dropped at the destination.
As i said b4, i was freaking tired and was n no mood to repent or reply. But I did repent when I gained a little energy in the morning.
I reach Hotel Astoria at around 2 a.m and I get a prompt reply, I'm late and so my room is not ready. Ennangada idhu ...musical chair programa nadathureenga ,naan illainaa ennoruthanuku room tharaduku..again..I didnt wanna aruge..i just needed a bed to drop and get some vital sleep. I was taken in taxi again to another hotel called Regent and without even checking whats in the room, dumped myself in the room.

Early in morning, something woke me up...someting scratching...r rubbing against my ankle...switched on the light to see a rat sharing my bed. Umm...looked a little deeper, i found coackroaches. All this was like dream and I didnt wanna get up. The first thing I did in the morning was to get ready, go to the embassy at 9.00 a.m and blast my travel agent for the screwup. When I returned from the Embassy my room in Astoria was ready. Aamaada night vadhavan vellai mudichittu poyiruapaan adhaan ippo room kudukureenu kinaichikitten. uh..asked them for a new bedcover, bed sheet. Just in case you know.

will continue my troublogue.........