Beyoncé in Holland

Treasure Trove

Looking for antiques? A couple of photos showing what are on display in the flea market. There are plenty to see. These items which all seem to be junk could be worthy to others as collectibles. Old irons, telephone sets and even an old microscope. These place is like a treasure trove.

Amazing Flea Market

This is what the town of Delft is also popular with - it offers one of the most outlandish flea market we have ever encountered.

On every Saturdays between April and September, the flea market appears to create a festive atmosphere in this town. Crowds of people throng the market to see what are on offer. If you are into antiques and ornaments, this is the place to go.

The flea market is basically a thin, winding market that uses many alleys, roads along canals, courtyards and small squares. It is well spreads out, disappearing down narrow alleys, then re-emerging into the courtyards and the squares.


One can stroll along the canals and narrow alleys to view a fabulous range of antiques, flowers, books and various household and collective ornaments - items that seem to be useless but amazingly are being sold. Apart from that one could also find elaborately decorated teacups, small vases, glass wares, old maps, painted miniatures, photographs and so on. Then there are the old tables, chairs and cabinets, boxes of old china, pictures of saints, and so on.

We are not really sure how the system work, but seems that anybody could just set up a stall and sell anything. The items are either displayed on a long table under a small canvas tent or simply arranged on a polystyrene sheet laid on the floor of the alleys.

Basically one could delved endlessly looking at the items on display and to see if anything interesting to buy. We were today just looking around and enjoying the company of the crowd.

Walking in Delft

There are so many things to see during this time of the year. There are all sort of festivals or shows going on. One of the thing that we inadvertently missed was the Dutch flower festival which is like the Pasadena flower parade in the States. With the sunny weather today we decided to go to the town of Delft to experience its lively Saturday atmosphere. We have been to this place before but mainly to buy the Delft ceramics but had never been to the centre of the town on Saturday.

The town itself is just a 20 minutes drive from home. The town could be described as a very typical old Dutch town with lots of canals, narrow alleys and traditional houses. But Delft is more than that.

The town of Delft is more associated with the Royal family and its blue 'Delft' ceramics is famous all over the world. The ceramics are of various designs of which two brands are known to still retain the true original authentic design and are allowed to use the royal seal on the ceramics. One of them has a factory attached to its shop and one could follow a free guided tour to how the ceramics are made. Typically these authentic ones are quite expensive, costing hundred or even thousand of euros each. Of course one could buy the cheaper ones which are sold in most souvenir shops. Most overseas tourists would drop by to the town of Delft apart from the more popular tourist's trapping of Amsterdam.

The town of Delft itself is quite lovely and full of culture and history. The main landmark is the main market place and the tall old Gothic church tower which dominates the skyline. One could climb the tower to the top to see the nice view of the town, but we didn't have the energy and time to climb up! On the West side of the market place stands the Stadhuis which is now already nearly 400 years old. This is also quite a majestic building, bearing in mind how amazing it must have been back then when it was completed during the early 17th century.

Orange Shirt Day

Here the royal brithday or the Queen's day is symbolically celebrated on the 30th April every year. Statistically it is supposed to be one of the best time of the year when the weather is mild and sunshine is more or less guranteed. Typically the celebration is started when the royal family go to a designated town or village to celebrate with crowds of well wishers. This year the town of Apeldoorn was chosen. Elsewhere, the rest of the nation especially in the big cities, the day is celebrated with street parades and open air concerts. For the populace it is a good enough reason to go out and dressed in orange to live up the ocassion. The biggest party is naturally in Amsterdam where milions would flock to the canals.

This year however was marred by an incident when a car tried to crash into the open-top bus carrying the Royal family. Five poople were killed by the crash. Immediately all major music and parade celebrations throughout the country were cancelled. Today we went to the centre of The Hague to see what left is going on a day after. There were still a few rides and stalls still operating. Loads of people were still out, enjoying the good weather.

A Grain of Hope

Back home at last last night. The airport was amazingly quiet. It was probably because it was a public holiday in Holland for the Queen's day. Or could it be because of the Swine Flu that people start to limit their travelling. People here though are still not panicking for that. The number of deads seems be blown out of proportion.

Reading through a backlog of local news I learnt about the new rice coming out of Brunei. It was last monday that HM attended the official kick start of Brunei's drive to secure future food supply. For that HM went out to the field to plant the first seedlings of the newly-renamed local rice variety - 'Laila'. It is expected that this will be harvested in 3 months time when HM will come again for the harvest.

Looking at the scale, speed and planning put to implement the rice supply strategy, indeed it was very impressive for what have been done . For the first time there is a real encouragement that we are turning towards the right direction.

The given name to the rice however is not that unique. Browsing through the net, apparently there is already similar name used for a basmati from Pakistan.

Day out in the Museum

Today had a chance to wander around before flying back home in the afternoon. Not to lose time went to the National Museum just as it was opening at 9 am. But alas yours truly was not the first one as there were already hordes of tourists shuttled to the place in coaches waiting at the gate! Mostly were Italians and Chinese.

The museum has two major exhibition wings - the Roman and the Islamic. However, the Roman Wing is better curated as the museum recently received a massive funding of 6 million euros from the Italian government. Obviously with the rich Roman history, the Italian would favour more to curate that part of the history. In the Roman era, two great cities were formed in Syria - Palmyra and Apamea.

The Islamic exhibits nevertheless are quite interesting. Now with a better sense of the Syrian history, it was quite interesting to see the relics from the great Umayyad to subsequent dynasties in this great land.

Ironically the Ottoman Empire which ruled the land from Istanbul for more than 400 years does not really feature much in this museum. There is probably still deep resentment for those era when the Ottoman being non-Arab were the ruler of the Arab and Islamic world at that time.

Sejuk Subuh di Mesjid Umayyad

Hopefully I will be able to come to this place again. The great Mesjid built in the beginning of the 8th century is a real icon for the Islamic world. It is one of the most beautiful mosque, built at the height of the Umayyad Dynasty when Damascus was the centre of the great empire which stretched from Spain to the border of India.

The compound was quiet but once inside there was already a good crowd of the faithfuls waiting for the prayer to start.

This mesjid also shares great importance to the Shiites and the Christians. At one corner is the tomb of Iman Hussein, the grandson of our Prophet, which is a pilgrimage site for the Shi'a or Shiites. In the middle of the mosque is the relic of Nabi Yahya or to the Christian John the Baptist. At the back of the mosque is located the tomb of the great and most respectable warrior Saladin.

The Syrians in general are fiercely Sunnis, but the ruling family are from the Alawis, a Shi'a sect that originates from the northwest part of the country. The Alawis dominate the government. There are many religious literature one could read both in Malay and English about Shi'a and Alawis. The Alawis does not have their own mosque. Most of the mosques in Damascus are Sunni with a very few being Shi'a. If one is familiar with the Druze of Lebanon, historically both the Druze and the Alawis are similar. They were both formed from an earlier split from the Shiʿa. Just as a snapshot, I cut and paste from wiki the following paragraph that describes the Alawis.

"The doctrines date from the ninth century A.D. and derive from the Twelver or Imami branch of Shi'a Islam (the sect that predominates in Iran). In about A.D. 859, one Ibn Nusayr declared himself the bab ("gateway to truth"), a key figure in Shi'a theology. On the basis of this authority, Ibn Nusayr proclaimed a host of new doctrines which, to make a long story short, make Alawism into a separate religion. According to Ibn Kathir, where Muslims proclaim their faith with the phrase "There is no deity but God and Muhammad is His prophet," Alawis assert "There is no deity but 'Ali, no veil but Muhammad, and no bab but Salman." According to Twelver Shi'as Muhammad al-Mahdi is the final Imam of the Twelve Imams and the Mahdi, the ultimate savior of humankind. Other Shi'a schools, along with Sunnis, do not consider ibn-al-Hasan as the Mahdi. Twelver Shias believe that al-Mahdi was born in 869 and has been hidden by God to later emerge with Jesus (Nabi Isa) in order to fulfill their mission of bringing peace and justice to the world."

Ok enough of that. Moving around in Damascus is quite easy. The place is safe and taxis are dirt cheap. A typical metered ride normally cost between 20 to 50 syps or Syrian pounds which is equivalent to 30 to 80 euro cents or $B0.70 to 1.70. But normaly we just pay them 100 to 200 syps. Taxis are a plenty, the streets literaly awash with yellow cabs, but can come in various conditions. There are plenty of good ones to choose.

Dining in Bekaa Valley

On Monday night, we went out from Damascus in the direction of Lebanon. It was a farewell do for us in yet another one of those amazing restaurants one could find in Damascus.

The place is at the edge of the well known Bekaa Valley, a fertile land located between Damascus and Beirut, though we were still on the Syrian side. Beirut was just 30 km further on. The Bekaa Valley is in-between the two famous mountain ranges in the region known as the Mount Lebanon to the West and the Anti-Lebanon mountains to the east in Syria. We were smacked on the foot of the Anti-Lebanon mountains.

Just South we could see Mount Hermon or known as Jabal Haramon. It is prominent for its snowy top on the border between Syria and Lebanon. It also overlooks the Golan Height where a small contingent of Austrian army is posted there to oversea that nothing is happening in this most sensitive real estate. The place was annexed by Israel during the war with Syria.

Back to this amazing restaurant, it has an Egyptian theme. The front of the restaurant is lined up with pharaonic sculptures, the inside equally has lots of Egyptian artifacts. Simply amazing to dine here knowing that I was quite close to one of the world's hot spots.

A Journey to the past

On the road again. Been in Syria for 4 days now since Sunday but only got the time now to log in. This is a special trip as it is likely to be my last trip to this place.

Over the last three years I have made eight trips to Damascus and my part of the project has almost finished. Hopefully something fruitful will come out of it that will benefit the people in this beautiful country. Apart from the city, I had the privilege to visit the northwest and central part of the country. It is a country full of rich history. Combine that with the food, which the Syrian cuisines are world renown, Syria is definitely a worthwhile place to visit.

From the plane the scenery outside passing through mainland Europe is beautiful. The whole landscape is of endless farmlands. With the industrialisation and massive agricultural drive over the 19th and 20th centuries, there are hardly any forested areas left. Ironically the aspirations of the developing countries to follow that path are being challenged for reason that it would result in negative impact on environment. It does seem unfair - they did but we couldn't.

What's in the Pattern

Zimah took these pictures when we were in Spain. I find the pictures really amazing. Apparently she has a different way of seeing and appreciating things. Rather than looking at the bigger constructions her mind is more into the little things.

In fact little thing like that does matter in life. We tend to look at the bigger picture only and always in a hurry to go forward. In the excitement of trying to reach our goal many little things in life are forgotten.

Today the kids started cycling to school again after a long break during the winter months. It looks quite funny when we left home this morning, all four of us were on two wheels, yours truly to the office and the three kids to their school. I bet you won't see that scene back home in Brunei. Their ride to school take them 30 minutes, by train is 5 minutes but that still need walking from the station to the school.

Tulip Landscape

Here are some photos taken today around the tulip fields in Noordwijk, 20 minutes drive from home. And a nice tulip poem by Abraham Cowley and write up to go with it.


The tulip next appeared, all over gay
But wanton, full of pride, and full of play
The world can't show a dye but here has place
Nay, by new mixtures, she can change her face
Purple and gold are both beneath her care
The richest needlework she loves to wear
Her only study is to please the eye And to outshine the rest in finery.

At first glance, it looks like a giant child armed with a box of crayons has been set loose upon the landscape. Vivid stripes of purple, yellow, red, pink, orange and green make up a glorious technicolour patchwork. Yet far from being a child's sketchbook, this is, in fact, the northern Netherlands in the middle of the tulip season.

With more than 10,000 hectares devoted to the cultivation of these delicate flowers, the Dutch landscape in April to May is a kaleidoscope of giddy colours as the tulips burst into life. The bulbs were planted in late October and early November, and these colourful creations are now ready to be picked and sold as bunches of cut flowers in florists and supermarkets.

More than three billion tulips are grown each year and two-thirds of the vibrant blooms are exported, mostly to the U.S. and Germany. In the first picture, an extraordinary 60 million tulips can be seen coming The fields of northern Holland explode into a colourful springtime display.

Their dazzling colours are thanks to the years in the 17th century when Tulipmania swept the globe and the most eye-catching specimens changed hands for a small fortune.

But like a rainbow, this colourful landscape is a short-lived phenomenon. When the flowers are gone the land will be cultivated for a rather more mundane crop of vegetables.

Middle of Spring

It's back to school today for the kids. No more late nights and watching Bones and cartoons on youtube. Faris said he actually learnt a lot of new things from watching cartoon that they don't teach at school. He said amongst other things, he picked and learnt from Homer in 'The Simpsons' about nuclear energy. Homer Simpson works as a nuclear plant operator in the cartoon! Sounds obvious to adults but try to hammer that point in the classroom -don't think kids would be able to grasp that as easily.

We are now almost in the middle of Spring. The weather has been charming outside with colourful trees and green sceneries. Everything seems to come alive again. Migratory birds are back making the whole place noisy and sounds more tropical. The same with homo sapiens who are now more out and about, in short sleeves and crowding the cycle lanes. Roads are also getting prone to congestion as people are spending more time outside and travelling. We hope the weather will last a little bit longer as this is probably the best time of the year when it is not too hot and flowers are blooming.

Back Streets

It was a short weekend trip to London, our last outing before the kids go back to their school routine and then sit for their exams. On this trip, we went on a wander around the backstreet of Regent and Oxford Street. Surprisingly there are many things to see and also many speciality shops that we have not been aware of. One street we stumbled into is known as Carnaby Street.

It has also been a while since we went to buy books at Borders. It's hard to keep up when the kids are really fast readers whilst yours truly always struggle to find time to finish my current reads.

Apparently there are now a number of Malay restaurants sprouting in London. A lot of people talked about them but we were not sure where they are. So it was just back to normal routine at Bonda Cafe to have the usual nasi lemak.

We came back late Sunday. On the way after driving smoothly for 2 hours on cruise control, we hit a traffic jam in Belgium. That was unexpected as normally there would be hardly any traffic jam that late. But apparently there was some major road work going on and two lanes of the motorway was shut down. We got stuck for almost an hour.

Trying to be Green

We started to notice more and more cycle lanes are being added to the streets in London. And that is good news as that provides another commuting option. More and more Londoners including a few MPs are ditching their cars and use their bikes to go to work. There is however quiet a contrast to the proper cycle lanes found in Holland. The bike lanes in London are quite narrow, at times cyclists are competing with what little space they got with the red buses.

Overall it does look quite dangerous cycling in this city when the bike lanes are actually not a proper lane but something that is carved out from the streets, and squeezing the remaining space to the other heavier road users i.e. the buses and the cars. The other irony is there are hardly any places to park the bikes. So the city is trying to be green but only seems half-heartedly.

Saturday at Khan's

The restaurant that we came to know from RanoAdidas's blog, the Khan's is located in Bayswater, right at the corner to Whiteleys along Westbourne Groove. Apparently the eatery place has been in business for over 31 years and has refrained from serving alcohol for 10 years now - quite a challenge as Brits like to eat their curry with their beer. But business nonetheless is roaring. We booked our table well in advance but due to traffic turned up a few minutes late, that ended seeing our table been taken away. So we have to wait, but luckily not for too long. There are always people waiting to be seated but the place is more than capable of handling the demand. I asked the chap serving us about the place, he said there are up to 300 seats (really hard to believe) with nearly 70 workers and 3 kitchens, so the service is really fast and efficient.

On the place itself, it has definitely its own unique buzz and atmosphere. It's more of a place where you want to meet up in a large group, things around you just too frenzy if you are looking for a quiet meal out. The best food we thought is the chicken tandoori, the rest are nothing extra-ordinary. If one is looking for real special Northern Indian cook, there are better places to go. The prices here though are quite reasonable, definitely cheaper than those in Holland. And if one is driving, the restaurant would pay the parking ticket but it only applies to a NCP car park nearby. That is definitely good value for money as parking in London can really bite your wallet.

Skillful Footballer

Guess what? Ronaldinho was there performing on the street. This famous Brazilian football with a certain distinguished facial feature was the greatest footballer of his time. Actually this one is his lookalike, but is also equally skillful. Real fun watching him.

Badminton Time

Caught them in action. The kids have been wrecking the lawn. Their daily badminton game is causing a huge stress to our beautiful grass. Believe it or not this photo was taken at 8 pm, still glaringly sunny here, and daylights will be getting longer as we are approaching the summer.

Famous Street

These are some of the photos we took along the La Rambla. Rambla apparently came from Arabic word meaning dry stream. I won't dwell into how that word became to be used for this street. La Rambla is no doubt the most famous street in Barcelona. It is actually a wide walking pavement in the middle of the street, normally thronged by tourists and locals alike. It connects Plaza de Catalunya, the central park, with the harbour area. A walk along the street is a nice way of spending the afternoon whilst seeing and being entertained by lots of street entertainers.

There are all sort of them. Mostly are there to ask for a small change for the chance to take photo with them.

On this trip we were quite wary of pick pockets. A friend of mine has his bag stolen whilst arriving on the train here recently. Most of my office colleagues also warned that pick pocketing is rampant in the city. Things like this sometimes make you wonder whether you want to know about it. Now that you know, you tend to be over cautious and that sometimes are really spoiling the spirit of a holiday.

In any case we decided to travel light, I was not even carrying a wallet! Looking around, because most places are crowded, people can easily fall victims to pick pocket.

Back to Amsterdam

We are back from the trip. Like Paris (and even London), there is a bus service to get to the airport. Most of the tourists here are using it. It is actually very convenient and only takes 30 minutes to the airport. The bus pick-up is right at a corner of the Plaza de Catalunya which is next to our hotel. When I checked out how it works, there was a long queue at the bus stand. But then the bus leaves every 6 minutes so there is no risk of being left out.

Finding halal restaurants here is quite easy. There are mostly located along the streets called Carrer de l'Hospital, Carrer de I'Arc de Sant Agusti and Carrer de Sant Pau, all are next to the La Rambla. There are at least a couple of Pakistan/Indian restaurants and a few Moroccans. Of course one could try the Spanish national dish, the pealla, which is a rice dish, but we only opted for Pakistan's curry!

The kids will still have a week or so to go on their school break. While yours truly is back to the donkey work in the office tomorrow.

Plaza de Catalunya

This is the centre of the city, a large central park where people tend to hang around or just wanting to feed the pigeons. Today was a nice and sunny day for a change, the last two days have been mixed with light shower now and then in late afternoon and the evenings. Today being Easter Monday most shops are closed. But there were large crowds out in force to enjoy the sunshine.

Our hotel, called Hotel Regina, is just a minute walk from this park. After searching around the Internet, it seems to be quite a convenient hotel in terms of location. Overall hotels in Barcelona are quite expensive but can be a bit reasonable if one does not mind to go a bit further away from the centre. Everything else are quite cheap. For instance food are almost half the cost compare to Holland. A ride on the metro only cost 1.20 Euros.

Red and White

Saw these red and white bicycles all over the city. The bicycle scheme started with only a few bikes. But it became so popular that the city council now provided 3000 bikes to the users.

The scheme is quite simple. Basically you pay an annual subscription of 24 Euros. This gives you a key to use any of the bikes that are park all around the city for you to cycle to another location. The first 30 minutes are free and if you need the bike longer you pay 30 cents for each half an hour. The maximum time you can keep a bike is 2 hours. The are now 3000 bicycles located at over 200 stations, connecting other public transport stations such as metro, train, buses and major car parks. Is this something for back home?