Amsterdam is a beautiful city with its network of canals running outward like a spider's web from the city central and road systems connected by hundreds of bridges. It's very picturesque and has a lovely romantic feeling. Streets beside the canals are lined in the water with houseboats, and on land with beautifully decorated merchant's residences and warehouses from the 17th century, all with unique architectural design. House gables are all adorned with hoisting hooks which were, and still are, used to hoist furniture in and out of residences where narrow internal stairways would otherwise make moving impossible. Whether you tour around by canal boat, bus, tram, by foot or bicycle, the city of Amsterdam is a beauty to behold. With tons of bicycles, tulips, wooden shoes and windmills ... Amsterdam has it all.

Amsterdam also has a wonderful international and exotic feeling. It is not uncommon to hear a number of different languages being spoken while walking down the street, only some of which I understood.

People come to Amsterdam to experience its unique beauty, but there's no doubt that a lot of people are also drawn to Amsterdam out of curiosity and to experience their more liberal attitudes towards prostitution and the sale/usage of soft drugs. I personally think it's a very good attitude and great for the people of Amsterdam, but unfortunately it seems to attract people from other countries where similar attitudes do not exist (ie. the rest of the world!) and as a result I saw a lot of whacked out people wandering the streets, more here than I've seen anywhere else in my travels (well, maybe excluding the Rasta boys in the Caribbean!).

Anyway, I stayed right in the heart of Amsterdam at a place called - get this - the Flying Pig Hostel! I mean, who comes up with these names?? The rooms were very basic, but it was in a great location and within walking distance of anywhere I wanted to go. The hostel had a "Happy Room", a zen-like sit-on-the-floor-on-cushions-like-hippies kind of room where soft drugs could be smoked. Of course the Happy Room was on the main floor, right beside the main entrance/reception, internet area, bar and games room, so no matter where you were on the main floor, you were "happy"!!

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You actually haven't seen Holland until you see a Windmill, and I saw a few as I booked myself on an excursion. Unfortunately many tourist who come to Holland come just to see Amsterdam as they try the drug and ladies scene. But there is such an expanse of beautiful country here that you real need to explore the country side before you get a real appreciation.

One place in particular called Marken was my favourite as it's traditonal here to paint your window frames white, so the whole town is a contrast of dark colours generally, blue and black with white window frames. Marken itself used to be an island but they have built a road to it now, no not a bridge because its only 3 meters deep so they just piled a lot of dirt and built a road to it now, so its actually turned the island into a penisula.

Holland has always interested me, mainly becasue I had no understanding why they called their people Dutch but the country is called either Holland or the Netherlands. Luckily for me the tour lady brought this to my attention as she explained that the name Holland originated from the words Woodlands as Holland was once plentiful with forests. They also called it The Netherlands which means Low lands because its the country in the world which has the most amount of land submersed under the sea at a a staggering 42%. 

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Eye care project sparks new community vision
in Fathenagar, India

Nagalaxmi (centre) directs
patients who have arrived
seeking treatment.

Fathenagar slum is located near the core of India’s sixth largest city, Hyderabad. It’s home to more than 32,000 people and since 2008, has been the focus of an Operation Eyesight eye care and community
development program.

With financial support from Standard Chartered Bank’s Seeing is Believing program, the project is bringing eye and general health care, education and economic development to the district – as well as a new spirit of community activism.

Nagalaxmi is a young wife and mother of three who has lived all her life in Fathenagar. Early on, she recognized the benefits of the new project and made sure her family participated. Noting her enthusiasm, a project supervisor offered Nagalaxmi the opportunity to serve her own
neighbourhood as a trained health care worker.

As part of her new job, Nagalaxmi searched for temporary locations for health check ups and eye screenings. She soon realized the potential of a dilapidated old community hall, long shut down for lack of repairs. Although her numerous appeals to community leaders for support in refurbishing the hall were rebuffed, Nagalaxmi persisted, rallying a group of local women who raised their voices and lobbied local government officials for action.

Support for the project soon snowballed as other members of the community stepped forward and offered to help.

“With combined funding from Operation Eyesight and local donations, the hall reopened in November 2010,” says Lynda Cherry, Operation Eyesight’s vice-president, International Programs. “Today it is a vibrant and busy hub of the community, offering services and courses ranging from eye screening to child growth monitoring and microskills training.”