My Amsterdam experience

After writing about my Paris experience it becomes imparative to write about Amsterdam experience. Myself and Rashi, we both feel that we should have spent some more days in Amsterdam than in Paris. After 4 days, stay in Paris was becoming  monotonous. If we knew, how beautiful is Amsterdam outskirts (mind you, I didnt say Amsterdam city) we would have saved more days to stay there. Anyways, here are my thoughts about the city.

Things I liked most about Amsterdam

1. Serenity and excitement live together here. Some areas like red light district and the place around Dam Square are full of activity, action and night life. Rest of the city is quiet and calm, all during the day and night
2. City has tilted buildings. Some tilt side ways and some forward. They say, buildings turn side ways because of fault in the foundation, as the area was a swamp earlier. Buildings are constructed to tilt forward because the staircase of houses in Amsterdam are very narrow. To lift big articles each building has a pully in front and due to the forward tilt articles do not hit the wall or window while being pulled. 
3. Walking  around the city just like that for no reason along with the canals is relaxing
4. Free walking tour is good, not because it is free. It covers good part of Amsterdam. You can give any amount as tip as per your wish. These guys are really good and try to make the tour as interesting as possible. But I guess it depends upon the people in the group as well
5. When in Amsterdam, a visit to Heineken Brewery is must. Visiting the brewery was one of the best experiences I had in this whole trip and ofcourse 5 pints of beer added to the pleasure
6. Windmills, wooden shoe factory and eating fresh fish in the fishing village is something not to be missed.
7. The outskirts of Amsterdam is beautiful. Given an opportunity if I visit Amsterdam again, I will choose not to go to the city but tour the places around Amsterdam.
8.  The RGV bus service is excellent and dot on time. The bus drivers are very courteous and try to help passengers with information even if it requires extra effort. Kudos to you guys
9. No doubt the red light district is HOT and grabs a lot of attention
10. Coffee Houses again entice lot of people. But it didnt attract us more than the beauty of Amtserdam city
11. The New Hampshire Hotel is beautifully located. I wish I can stay there for 5 to 10 days and relax. However, not all the things are good with the hotel. My neck and shoulder pained for 1 week after coming back to Dubai due to poor quality mattress of the hotel. Please read further down about Hampshire experience.

Things I didn't like about Amsterdam

1. Food is a big problem. There is no authentic Dutch food. Therefore, in Netherland you eat Chinese, Turkish, Thai, Mexican or Indian food. I am surprised and cannot still believe it. Only good  food I ate in Amsterdam, was the hot omlette and toast at Information Centre opposite Central Station upon arrival for a reasonable price
2. People in Amsterdam are rude. I didn't feel it in Paris but in Amtserdam it is visible and can be felt. It happened in Central Station where the officer on the information desk didn't even look at me while he was gossiping with his colleague. The receptionist in New Hampshire Hotel was also  rude.  She chose not to  look at us for more than 5 minutes as if we didnt exist . Further to that, she gave us a room in the other end of the hotel building. After walking 10 minutes even before we could reach back, I come back and asked her to change the room. She made some fuss but then she gave the room. Come on lady! you could have done it in the first time itself. Then we told her to wake us up in the morning. Again!!! no prize to guess, she didnt do that either. 
3. Firstly you should never take a full day guided tour. It becomes very tiring and after some time you stop enjoying it. We took full day Viator tour. First half was excellent. We went to see wind mills, fishing village (had very tasty fish there) and then to wooden shoe factory passing through beautiful houses. But in second half we were driven for 1 and half hour to Hague and there we were shown various embassy buildings from outside. Come on!!! Get a life. We havent travelled to Amsterdam from Dubai to see embassy buildings?
4.  You cannot distinguish between residents and tourists. There is no Paris like distinction. Here tourists are better dressed than residents

Well as I said earlier, I would like to visit Amsterdam again. It is amazingly beautiful.

My Paris experience

We had a short 5 day trip to Paris before heading to Amsterdam. We stayed in Paris from 22/10/2010 to 26/10/2010. We chose to stay in a rented apartment in Monmarte district, rather than in a hotel because of price factor. It was a wise choice. Here are the few things that I really felt about Paris.

Things I liked most about Paris 

1. Most of the people of Paris are very nice and helpful, very much opposite to the wide spread notion and what was told to me about them. Many a times, they came help us, without even asking. I was really impressed.
2. The girls in Paris are very always nicely dressed. The best part was that everyone, male or females, were wearing black or grey jacket/coat. Tourists can be distinctly identified with their colourful jackets unlike most Parisans. Myself and Rashi were wearing blood red jackets
3. There are no flies in Paris. May be that is the reason all the restaurants have open seating area, where people enjoy their food, coffee or wine all the time
4. Transport in Paris is excellent and no one can be lost if learns the trick
5. You can drink beer at any time of the day and any where without restriction
6. In boulangeries you can get very fresh breakfast. We used to have breakfast in Cloquet boulangerie close to our appartment. This place was fully managed by nice cheerful girls. What I liked most about having breakfast here the coffee/hot chocolate served in big soup bowl. I really loved it
7. For budget travellers, rented appartments are always better choice than hotel
8. There is a kind of youthful positive energy in the atmosphere. So many young people hang out in restaurants and pubs every evening.
9. Moulin Rouge show is exceptionally beautiful and must see for all Paris visitors. Despite it being topless dance it is not at all obscene.
10. In Versailles, I really enjoyed the musical fountains, roasted potatoes of Mister Potatoes in front of Marie Antoinette's apartments. Biking around the Versailles is a very lovely and memorable experience.
11. The view of Paris from Sacre Coeur basilica in Montmartre is lovely. Infact, I liked the walk on the road in Montmartre where lot of artists sit. We heard/read that tourists can be cheated there, so we chose to avoid the shops there.
12. Eiffle Tower is a majestic metal artifact.I was amazed thinking of the kind of mental and physical effort put by the people behind to erect it in those days.
13. You must buy the tickets in advance before travelling. This saves from long queues everywhere. 
14. A lot of information is available on net for anyone to research and plan the trip to Paris   
15. The paintings in Louvre museum are amazingly beautiul. Hall # 6 has Monalisa. But there are many paintings, many of them nearly 500 year old that are restored and kept here.
16. Feeding the bird in fron of Notre Dame is another once in life time experience.

Things that I didn't like about Paris

1. I was always worried about the stale food except in boulangeries. It is always very likely that they will simply warm the stale food lying in their freezers and serve you.
2. You get bored in Paris after 4 days when you have seen most of the monuments and places. This happens when you have less time and want to cover only major places. On the contrary, if you have plenty of time in hand, you can choose to see each place at your leisure and you will not even come to know where you spent your 15 days in Paris.

Dominating colleague

Many a times it happens when you work too hard, do all the dirty work and when it comes to reaping the benefits, someone else, junior or at par to you, will come and start throwing his clout.

This is what happening with me at the moment. I am working on a project and there is an account manager for this project. Ofcourse, he is an important person as he brought this account and he knows the key decision makers for a longer time than I do. There are commercial decisions he can take, which I cannot take. But, that doesn't mean I have to be sidelined. I go to customer site every day driving 200 kms one way, sit with customer project team and ensure the vendor team is working. In between this gentleman will jump in, at his own will and start showing as if he is running the show. I cannot take it for too long. But at the same time, I want to handle it in a professional way.

I have two objectives. 

1. Finish the project successfully and on time
2. Don't let anyone overshadow my work

To meet the first objective, I would do following - 

1. Keep adequate pressure on the vendor and make sure he finishes the work on time and with quality
2. Make sure all the issues are discussed regularly

Well, I have been doing it so far and I will continue to do it in future.

For the second objective, I would do following - 

1. I will reveal bare minimum information with this gentleman. As he is using my information and showing it as his own information. Or at times, he finds what is missing in my information builds his case to take all the credit
2. All my communication will be in written so that everyone knows the source of it.

Is there any better way to do it? Advise.

Crazy things

I was thinking, what crazy things I did in past, which when I recall bring smile on my face? If I have to name few of them, then what will be those?

1. Driving my saloon car off road and then sending message to Mohammed Al Falasi, my deputy CEO to pull it out of sand (happened some 2 weaks back). Thank god he was around in town and saw my call and sms.
2. Walking with Rashi (my wife) in red light district of Amsterdam and ogling at those scantily clad females who were standing behind the glass panes.
3. Smoking weed in a coffee shop in Amsterdam. However, it didnt excite me much. Being a non smoker and I couldnt inhale the smoke properly and ended up coughing.
4.  Running from Karama to Dubai Marina (approx 35 km) early in the morning on a Friday. Waking up Bhaskar (my friend) who was sleeping after a late night booze party, to cook large breakfast for me and take me back to Karama.
5. When  I was nearly 8 year old, I sneaked from the toilet into our house, to get my cricket equipment as my father was in his office and my mom had gone to temple. My father was very angry on me later on.
6.  Around the sametime, I along with my elder sister Meeta were going to school (Children's corner), when we saw a helicopter flying overhead. I don't know why I felt that it was a toy and I can grab it. I stood on the boundry wall of Upper Club (people who lived in Mukteshwar might know this place) for more than 20 minutes to catch it. Eventually we were late to school and Singh Aunty (head mistress) gave me sound beating.

Sometime, it is good to do crazy things without any fear of what people will think and for no logical reason.