Sao Darly

A few photos of China town in Rotterdam. I thought it was odd to have KFC in the middle of it all but the place is quite popular among the Asians living in the area. I haven’t been to KFC for years and the place is off my list now or else I would have bought some fried chicken to go with my tum maak houng. I was being good and didn’t even visit the bakery. I took at peek at the window and saw many of my favorite sweet and treat.

I spent Monday afternoon doing chores in Rotterdam. I visited the post office and then went to take my photo for the passport and finished the day with grocery shopping in China town. It was a treat to find a display of green papaya and I bought two and has been eating tum maak houng almost daily.

It was a good and productive day to test my new Satio.

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It was nice and sunny on October 04, 2009 and I didn’t want to waste the day sitting inside. I was out doing chores and enjoying the afternoon in Rotterdam and taking pictures using my Nokia N97.

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I am fond of bridges and took a walk on de Willemsbrug or Williams Bridge, which can be seen from the cubic houses. There were some tourists walking there as well so I didn’t feel so alone.

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Afterward it was a return to the Blaak Station and a trip to China Town for some grocery shopping. It was a long afternoon but an active and fun one.

One of my favorite spot in Rotterdam is at Blaak Station with the cubic houses and the pencil apartment next to it (see video). When the weather is nice there would be a big crowd of people having their lunch or late afternoon drinks with colleagues or friends. It is also a hot spot for tourists to check out the unique cubic houses (Kubus woningen).

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After doing some shopping at the Bijenkorf and around Beursplein, I walked to Rotterdam Central Station to pick up my mail next to the station. Then it was a walk toward Blaak Station for some sightseeing at my favorite cube apartment and the harbor. I spent five hours walking around town including doing some grocery shopping at China Town.

The weather was nice and I had the entire day off so there was no point to lock myself up in the apartment when I can be out and be the best tourist that I can be.

I had an appointment with my dental hygienist on July 28, 2009. It was a quick routine visit and I went to de Bijenkorf afterward for lunch and a little shopping around the city centre. On the menu for lunch was Thai curry chicken sandwich and I had to try it out if nothing else it was a good opportunity to examine the ingredients. I have this habit of trying out the food and then later try to replicate it in my own little kitchen.

De Bijenkorf Department Store in Rotterdam has a restaurant so shoppers can enjoy a range of food from sandwiches, soup, and salad, to international cuisine such as sushi. At lunch time you can select a variety of sushi which is not cheap with 7 pieces for 10 Euros. It would have been a better dining experience if the restaurant would provide real chopsticks than the cheap throw away ones which is not easy for me to handle the big pieces of sushi.

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It was a beautiful and sunny day on March 08, 2009 and a great day for a little walk along the port of Rotterdam if you don’t mind a bit of wind that is. I had some time to kill before catching The Watchmen at 16:30 hour. I didn’t last more than 30 minutes because it was quite windy in this area and the sun was playing hide and seek with me.

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I sent my Panasonic Lumix TZ5 to Laos a few weeks ago because I wanted Aunt Kian to have a nicer camera to take pictures of Boun Loy Vanh for Grand-Mama. Aunt Kian was fond of my camera and didn’t like using the smaller Canon Ixus 800 that I gave to her and Bee Bee (Aunt Phone’s daughter) since it was too difficult for her to use. I thought I could wait until April to buy a new camera and had my eyes set on Panasonic Lumix TZ7 since I fell in love with the TZ5 version. Then a few days before Valentine’s Day I found out about a surprise trip to Berlin. I had no choice but to shop for a new camera to take on a trip with me.

So, last Thursday I spent all day looking for the silver Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ28 all over the city. By dinner time I finally bought everything that I needed, an extra battery, a camera bag and 16GB SDHC card. There was no English manual that came in the box and I had to do the best I could with the settings and hope for the best. It’s a bigger camera than the TZ5 and packed with more features but I still like the compact TZ7 and will definitely get one in the near future. That way I can be a bit more discreet when making photos and clips. The above are test photos that I made with my new camera after a long day of running around Rotterdam. I rewarded myself with dim sum and stir-fry noodles for dinner.