Brasil.

Arriving at Amsterdam Sciphol Airport at 535 was quite a nice feeling. After all, I’ve already spent 13 hours on the plane. Lucky for me, I managed to get more than 40 winks! I slept for 8 hours on board KLM Flight 0897. However I feel that the new MAS Business class was much nicer. Heck, even the stewardesses of MAS look better. At least you can squeeze your way through when there is one coming down the aisle. Try doing it with the KLM stewardesses and chances are you’ll be squashed. Surprisingly, the sun comes up pretty early in Amsterdam. I was expecting a gloomy affair in the airport. But I was wrong! The sky was already bright, the shops were all open and a lot of people were already hustling and bustling around. I got to know that all the shops open an hour before the first flight out of Amsterdam. And daily, the earliest flight was 630 am! The first thing I had to do was stretch my leg (and of course to brush my teeth). Together with my co-worker, we head up to the KLM business lounge. This lounge was much better than the KLM lounge in KLIA. It was bigger at least. I tried to get a shower but I was told that the shower-room was only for Platinum members. Does that mean that only platinum members can be clean? Clearly there is a differentiation in standards. Since I wasn’t a platinum member, I had to settle for just a change of clothes. After that it was retail therapy a.k.a. shopping! First shop that I went to was the Perfume shop. There was a sale. 2 bottles of perfume (selected items) were going for Euros 49. That is only 24.50 euros a bottle! I got myself a bottle of CK One. That is almost a 50% savings. I should have bought more… After that it was on to the souvenir shop. What greeted me was astonishing…there staring back at me was a row of shelves packed to the brim with…adult DVD! PORN! Imagine, porn right smack in public. This is after all Holland, where everything is legal. From prostitution to ‘brownie’ to absinthe. Not 1 or two…but enough to make a whole nation of horny goats happy! They were each selling for 15 euros. After doing my conversions, I realized as cool as it may sound, it was just too expensive to get a few back for my buddies in Malaysia. Sorry guys. In the end I just got myself a pair of clogs (That’s what Holland is famous for), a couple of windmill magnets and some pictures. Aside from the shopping, what amaze me most was that there was a small museum right in the airport! The museum was having an exhibition on Rembrandt. As it was free of charge and I had 3 hours to spare, I took a tour. Now, art always intrigues me. How can people know how to differentiate between a Van Gogh to a Rembrandt or to a Da Vinci? To me it’s only the pictures that I remember. What brush strokes? What styles? They all look the same. I guess that is many of the questions in the world that I would like to know. I finally reached Sao Paulo Guarulhos International Airport at 5pm. Guarulhos, I understood later is an Indian name. Brazilian natives are Indians. But the Portuguese killed them all. That’s why no one has an Indian name nor speaks Indian these days. My hotel is called Tryp Melia at Tatuape. Tatuape is the town in which I’m in. The hotel doesn’t look too bad (it’s actually a 3 star). However the whole town is too small for me. It is an industrial town, that’s why not a lot of places of interest. The hotel is near to the office. (15 minutes by car). I might check out the downtown this weekend…Brazilians are practically crazy about football. More so when Brazil played Ghana (and won 3-0) last night. Everyone was talking about it. From the pilot of the plane to the commoner. Even the women knows about football. It's easy to make friends in Sao Paulo. Just talk about Ronaldo, Kaka, Adriano, Cafu and the likes. Tell them you adore Brazilian football and they'll embrace you like a brother. In fact there are 3 local teams in Sao Paulo: Santos (The fishes), Palmieras (The pigs) and Corinthians (The deers). Brazilian gives their club animal names and liken themselves to either sharks, Bambi or a wild boar. Funny eh? :-) Time now is 6pm. It's close to 5am in Malaysia and I'm wide awake. It's tough trying to get my brains working when I'm usually out cold snoring away. Lucky for me, the jet-lag is not that bad this time. Time to go have dinner...wonder what it will be. Hope it will be different from the Farofa Rice and lentil soup that I had for lunch.
Obrigado...chau!

(Amsterdam Schiphol Airport)

(1st picture in vin's blog. It has to be the basic building blocks...what better fit than Lego?)

Return from hiatus

After a long hiatus. I guess I'm back. Went through a lot of changes in my life. But it all seems empty...Decided to take a step back and look at the whole picture yet again...