Amsterdam - The Night Life

Leave the first response June 1, 2009 / Posted in Travel

Dimly lit canal - Amsterdam

A prostitue displaying herself on a window. Reminds me a bit of roast ducks hanging in chinatown restuarants hmm....yumm....hmm...

I like walking around European cities at night. The city looks very different from the day and very romantic as the old buildings lights up the dark. Amsterdam canals and its canal houses are very lovely in the evening as I took a stroll towards the Red light district. Around the red light district, there are lots of coffee houses and bars you can visit. For some reason chinatown is nearby so I decided to pay it a visit as I like to visit chinatowns in different countries. The chinese seems to be everywhere!!. I have seen chinese with businesses in Nairobi to eastern europe.

I think marijuana and the Red light district in Amsterdam are overrated. First of all, yes the mushroom was great but you can always smoke hashes everywhere in the world instead of going to coffee shops in Amsterdam. Secondly, the Red light district is full of eastern europe girls rather than the local dutch girls. So, I do not really see the fuss over it.

The Dutch government is trying to close down and clean up the district. You see girls display themselves in the front window. You can approach them and agree on a price. Once the deal is on, they take you to the backroom just behind the window and the room is just big enough to fit a bed and a sink. Not very roomy but it fits the purpose :).

Aparently, the girls are required to hire the front windows and its not cheap. It costs about 500-1000 euros per night, I might be wrong though as I was having this conversation while spending time at one of the Amsterdam ‘coffee shops’.