Ed's 2009 Hadj - COMPLETED & PHOTOS ADDED

[ed the head]

Very nice report mate. Enjoyed reading that.
And I agree, Milehigh is a top bloke.
Looking forward to the rest.

Thanks Twitch, agreed Bret is a gem amoung men ....

[Blueberryyumyum]

cool

[PatMcrotch]

Awesome read man looking forward to part 2.

[ed the head]

Good report, thanks for taking the time and effort, i look forward to chapter 2.

(At Siberia we vaped some special GanjaTours Swazi South African)
Was this Swazi South African weed, Skunk weed or regular out door weed ? Plus is this bud on the menu at Siberia ? It sounds interesting

Confirmed with Milehigh that all the cannabis brought on the Ganjatour is grown by himself, it was super stuff

[ed the head]

... in a word ...

.......W O W ...

I will bold the actual weed reports parts so those of you more interested in those details can skip ahead.

My trip began with the last jay consumed on US soil, outside the back of my building.



It was colder and darker than in this shot, and I enjoyed the lights of the city's west view. It was easy to sleep on the 10 PM flight, and so when I arrived in Schipol I was fairly well rested, and completely down from the jay I smoked 12 hours earlier. As usual, customs, baggage, train - all no problem. No one collected the E2.30 trainfare and before long I am lighting a cigarette in front of Central Station, and then walking to the Central Coffeeshop. There I bought 2.4 g Cheese and 2.4 g Super Polm for E37. Although it was empty and I could have squeezed in,

I took my baggage up the Oudezidjs Voorburgwal to the Bulldog where they let me check in early. I was the only one in the room of 12, and I didn't realize this was the last time I would see a clean room before leaving. Anyway, had a shower, put my shit away and went down to the bar to dive into my weed.


I rolled a nice joint out of the Cheese and ordered a Heinekin. I have been careful to smoke too much weed lately (yes, thats right, too much weed, so I have an immunity when I get there) and so I was surprised at how stoned I got. Getting inspiration from the foum, I decided to photograph my weed, so I took out my camera. I don't know if it WAS an hour, or if it just FELT like an hour, but it took me an hour to figure out how to work the camera. That might not sound SO strange except for the fact that this is my camera. I literally forgot how to operate it. The bartender and I laughed over this for a while and finally got it figured out. The next obstacle was focusing and in the end, there are precious few usable photos! I noticed intense sensory augmentation particularly with vision and music. My notes say 'couch lock' and 'near paralyzing' ... definately a STONED high.




After a hour or two, I rolled a Super Polm jay and discovered that it is always fine to smoke tobacco in the bar as long as there is some weed in it. Works for me. With this fine joint, I got a DeKoninick red beer from Belgium. This beer is 5% alcohol, but I later found a draft Belgian beer named La Couffe that was 8.5% alcohol. Here my 'notes' get pretty hard to make out except for 'heavy audio distortion' which I remember bothering me for a long time, and then I cleared my ears from the airplane and it was gone just like that. David, the bartender, broke out the Volcano vaporizer and loaded it with some of his Blue Cheese though I don't recall where he said he got it. It was one of the large bags that contain at least four lung fulls. My lungs felt cleared and I began to notice with increasing intensity the halo of the light reflecting in the bartop. This fascinated me for a long time and distracted me somewhat from conversation with David. I was lucky to catch him, as this was his last shift before leaving for a vacation to Antwerp to meet up with old friends from Glasgow. The stadium where their skate competion was being held had just burned to the ground and they were moving it to Eindoven. He recommended the Dampkring but I never made it there. We stopped at the Greenhouse where Charlie was budmastering ... I met him last year when he was working in a seed shop. Here I got some nice Trainwreck for E20. We then stopped into Twede Kamer and I bought 1 gr of LA Confidential and 1 gr. of Malana Creme hash for E25. We decided to stay here, but had to strip all outer wear off due to the extreme heat. Fortunately it was busy and the door was right by our table so we did get air. We vaped the LA Con & Malana and also smoked a joint David rolled, though I missed what was in it.

The next morning, I met my sole roomate, Andy, from Oklamhoma. He was traveling for a month in Europe with his first stop Amsterdam. It seems every time I come I meet someone under these circumstance. Invariably, these people delay or even postpone indefinitely their other travel plans. For fun, there is no better place.



After breakfast, I met a Dominican named Luca who was visiting from Germany. I know we got high, but my notes do not say what I smoked. I was meeting Milehigh from ACD for a GanjaTour at 10:30 so I had to get upstairs and shower. At about 10:20, I was almost all together in my room and the front desk clerk came up to tell me Bret was there. I came down, we met, and then met the other member of our party, EngineRod, also from ACD. This was Rod's first trip, he seemed to really enjoy it. We walked out across the dam, and Bret was great at concentrating a lot of interesting and pertinent cannabis information with direct path walking. We took photo's in front of Homegrown Fantasy which is sadly closing. It was rainy and snowy, but our dodges in and out of spots along the way to Anyday kept us mostly dry. Inside this fine coffeeshop, Bret delivered on his promised use of vaporizors. Bret broke out some intense Ganjatours weed in the form a huge bud of Venus, which he topped off with a layer of Isolator (like cake icing, he said). My lack of notes are a testament to the haze I found myself in.



We left and dodged rain at The Hemp Store for all thing cannabis that you don't smoke, nice store. At Siberia we vaped some special GanjaTours Swazi South African a Sativa, and were then motivated to move onto Amnesia were Rod bought some Utopia Haze, which we sampled. On the way to Katsu, we passed a shop of Kabouter

immediately adjacent to a row of whores. God how I love Amsterdam.

They had really good hash, so I bought a gram of Moroccan Isolator for 10E. This was definatley the 'high' light of my day because when Bret met his friend (the owner), he shared some wicked hash chocolates with us.

It was after this that our GanjaTour ended, and I 'highly' recommend it. I don't think it would be possible to pack in so many spots and so much cannabis in such a short period alone. Besides, Bret is a great guy and it was great to meet him, and Rod too!

By this time, it was after 4 pm, so I headed back toward my hotel. I hung out around there for the rest of the night, having walked all day. It was cool to meet Carmella and Joel from the Smart shop next door, as well as Lilia and Victor, Brazilians visiting from their jobs in Angola. I have largely incomprehensible notes for the rest of the night. Though much cannabis was consumed, I can offer no detail, other than 'Brazilian' was on my mind, writing it three times.

On the next day, I wanted to meet up with SoulRider (Andy) from ACD. Luca came with me, and we found the waffle shop right next to 420 had banana-chocolate waffles - WOW.



420's Blueberry is fantastic to the point of ridiculous. It was great to put Andys face to the name, we burned a couple, vaped one or two, and then made our way to Mellow Yellow. Andy got some Super Silver Haze (I think) but my notes also say Diesel so at this point, who really knows, its becoming a solid haze. At 3:50 I have a note that says 'OH YEAH!' because I was supposed to meet Joel for shrooms at 5:!5 and I wanted to be there early. Its funny how time in Amsterdam is timeless, especially when your on a new clock. We left and only bumped into two people on the way, admirable considering what we'd been through. I made it back to the bar, but Joel never did, so I was disappointed, though not as much as Luca seemed to be. Much to my surprise, I'd eaten virtually nothing during the day, and the munchies hit hard now. I got some noodles with roast pork for E5.90 and a piece of apple pie for E3. After these munchies, I noted rolling a White Widow ... funny thing is, I am not even sure where this came from. I tried to take notes, but what can I say. To the best of my memory (practically non existent) it was from 420.

It was near impossible to make conversation with Lilia, she spoke no English, I, no Portugese. I wish now that I had taken a photo, but my batteries had died. She took my business card, I hope to hear from her. More notes now of the Beautiful Brazilan girl, time distortion, audio augmentation and a numb face.

I went upstairs to take a short nap and wound up sleeping till 3:30, and the fun was just beginning.

It was really hopping when I got back downstairs. The 'bar' was now closed (supposed to have closed at 2?) but the chain wasn't yet up between the lounge and the bar. (Oklahoma) Andy followed me downstairs, and we met the young man from Argentina (whose name I forgot to note). He was leaving in a few hours, we popped out and bought some liquids and sat at a table in the bar. Thinking wakefulness was in order, I rolled a pure (no tobacco) Super Silver Haze and we smoked it together. The Argentine told us about his truffles trip. 'Did you like it?' I asked. 'Yes, very much. I, ah, like to color, and I had a, ah, blue pencil, and I was, ah drawing with the blue pencil, and I saw many many deeferent co-lors, ha ha ha'. We laughed together, but Lilia was again on my mind, I mentioned to them about how ageless she was at 40, how she could pass for late 20s easy.

She appeared

I've read a school of thought that the mind creates the reality around you. Did I will her there It really didn't matter because, there she was

Although I learned quite emphatically from SoulRider (Andy) that time is meaningless in Amsterdam, it was getting late for the overnight cleanup crew. At about 4:30 Lilia laid down on the lounge bench, face up sleeping. Victor took his evil weed (tobacco cigarette) outside. The Haze I smoked had heightened and augmented my senses, and I watched her sleeping. Her closed eyelids covered the deep, dark and inviting pools that are her eyes, and so my eyes could better see the beautiful symmetry of her face. The beautiful bronze tone of her skin. Victor returned and we talked some more, Lilia sleeping until 5:00 am, when the cleanup man evicted us.

Their evening spent, my Brazilian friends retired to their room, but not without long and treasured embraces. With the head working and my day beginning, I saw no comfort in a dark room full of 10 smelly drunks sleeping. I went for a walk.

It was very cold this evening, but not so cold as to require going back to add a layer. My head was quite sharp, and I noticed a few things that I didn't know before. If you're hungry at 5 am and you see a shop open, get your munchies. I was up by the Dam Square and the Fries Guys AND the Hallal Guys were both still open. 15 minutes later when I passed by again, closed. I figure they stay open as late as 5-ish.

The ONLY other place open I could find was McDonalds (though I was told later by a Dutchman that Burger King is also 24 hr.). I had a coffee and warmed up. Being from America, I didn't know what a Croquette was. I could tell it was popular, everyone was ordering and eating them. I figured out later they are a 'meat' croquette ... I left it at that, I don't really want the meat details of a hot dog either.

I wandered back now through the Olde Kirk and took a piss in one of the 4 stall portable, plastic urinals around town. It was a wicked long stream, and as I am looking around I notice one of the old, fat hookers watching me. I continued walking around and discovered another little tidbit that I am very thankful to have run across. Earlier in the day Milehigh had mentioned to me to be careful of the bluelights in the red light district because they're trannies. I'd been through the RLD now 5 times and I had never noticed a blue light. There I stumbled on a street between Niew Market and the canal where another alley made a tee, and at this intersection were three doors with blue lights. It was surprisingly busy at this intersection, with pedestrians and bicycles passing regularly. I found as inconspicuous a spot as I could and leisurely rolled a tobacco cigarette, then smoked it. On the left was a beautiful dark skinned girl in a bikini, she looked Pakistani or Indian. Next, in the middle, a tall dark haired girl, very fair skinned, also in a bikini. All the way to the right, a heavy, black girl with very large breasts in lingerie. They were all blue lights, and I could see the black 'girl' and center 'girl' being trannies. I kept staring at the girl on the left, and I am ashamed to admit I studied her jank, because I couldn't believe a girl this beautiful could actually be a guy. Anyway, about halfway through my cigarette, two drunken young Brits wander up and start talking to the 'girl' in the middle. The one I figured was the 'John' was pretty geeky, pretty young. Thick glasses and a silly grin. I was too far to hear, but it seemed they were discussing price, I think 'she' asked him what he wanted. He answered, and she was taking him in. In the doorway, she said something to him and pulled down her panties and low and behold, there was her boner. I had to contain myself at this point because it would be impolite to laugh out loud. His head did a combination shake and wobble, very rapidly, it seemed his glasses actually bounced on his nose as he shuttered. His eyes blinked like pistons misfiring and I could almost see his brain short circuiting. Then, he hurried out and joined his friend. I guess his buddy had to see it, cause they went back, and the friend went halfway in, saw the dick and burst out of the place laughing. And away they went. I finished my cigarette, wildly amused and feeling a bit wiser and richer for the experience. I stood in awe at the 'girl' on the left. I checked my wallet, 40 Euros. I had to see if I could find out if she was a he without losing my Euros so I walked up to the door. She mustered a smile and opened the door, freezing cold air streaming inside 'Do you want to come in?', she asked. 'How many Euro?' I said to her knowing her reply would be '50 Euro'. I opened my mouth and it said of its own will 'I only have 40 Euro, but I can come back tomorrow after I get my allowance from Mother'. This caught her off guard and she couldn't mask her perplexed face, so I asked 'Are you a lady boy?'. Her shock now quadrupled and I saw a look of disgust in her face, 'Why, do I LOOK like a lady-boy?' she demanded. Realizing now that she was indeed a girl, I softened my approach, very amused that I had managed to offend a hooker, and said 'Oh no, in fact, I couldn't believe you were a lady-boy when I saw you here in the blue lights. The girls right next to you are all lady-boys you know.' She said 'They ARE?!? I am going to KILL him!!' and then she laughed, thanked me with a hug and kiss, and off I went.

It was now 6 am and I was feeling like another joint, so I went back to the Bulldog, and the front door was fucking locked WTF I waited 5 minutes for the same guy who kicked me out an hour before opened the door. 'You can't come in now I'm cleaning.' he said. 'What?!' I replied, '"You kicked me out in the cold an HOUR ago to clean and you STILL haven't done it? I'm coming inside and going to my room!' he stood aside. I went to the elevator, but not to my room. I searched floor by floor looking for a bathroom and found one on the 3rd floor. In I go, sit down and roll special breakfast blend of Blueberry and Super Polm, then back to the elevator and up to the 4th floor roof deck. It was still an hour before dawn, and it was cold, but at least it was dry. I took out my PC and figured I would try it one more time, what with the Internet connection being so shitty so far. I got an unbelievably good strong signal, almost no noise and super fast connection. So I sparked up the joint, put my hat and hood over my ear buds and tuned into Radio Paradise. They had a great stoner mix going and I finally got caught up on emails. I even synced up to work and ALMOST got everything caught up before I bounced. I had to relog in via the free internet web page once more, and resumed the surfing but abandoned the rest of the work related syncing, fuck em. I listed to some more tunes and then after a while, got cold and went to the lobby where I lost my Internet stream. Lami was now in and breakfast was being served, so I ate.

After breakfast, I sat in the lobby and Lami came to join me. He insisted on bringing me a fresh coffee and then brought one in a nice porcelain cup, not the cheap paper crap I had just finished. He was very supportive of the Super Polm cigarette I rolled, and reminisced about the days when he smoked also.

It was early and cold, but light so I walked again around Niew Market. It was covered now with snow and I found a tourist trap shop willing to part with 4 AA batteries for 7 Euros, OUCH! I got some nice shots of the square and the canal. I took a photo of Green Place and Basjoes though they were both closed. Next time, God willing.





I walked across the Dam taking photographs and then stopped outside Abraxas. They were closed, but someone was in there. I mimed I was going to photograph the outside, he gave me a thumbs up. They allowed me in a few minutes beofre opening but the bar was still closed. I went upstairs to their excellent 2nds floor hang room and checked the 3rd floor grow room door ... locked. I settled in a corner spot and rolled Blueberry joint and entered another time out of time situation.


First, there were two guys from Israel, then a big contingent from Italy. I was feeling over locked so I rolled another Super Silver Haze joint. Definitive enhanced visuals, awareness levels and energy. My departure was somewhat delayed by a super hot young German girl who came in with an extremely low cut sweater barely covering huge breasts.

I eventually made my way to 420 , buying the banana-chocolate waffle I had been dreaming of, and met up with Andy at the bar.

By this time, the timeless time must have taken over because I don't have any notes about what we did .... smoking and vaping cannabis was involved

After a while I returned to the hotel and showered. Ahhhhh. We were now down to two in the room of twelve, unmade beds everywhere. I was leaving in 24 hours. Downstairs, I saw Lilia and Victor once more, and we ate a quick dinner before the had to go I wandered back up for a sweet from the bakery and then took an hour nap. When I woke up I went back to Abraxas. There I rolled a Moroccan Isolator joint with an Orangina Mmmmm. Taking inspiration from a cute 20-something traveling alone, I later got a hash brownie and a hot chocolate. Beavis the bartender put a piece of the hash in the chocolate milk when he steamed it for that little extra touch. This really sent me into a nose numbing, deeply introspective stone, but in a very good way. I cheerfully stayed and bantered with anyone near me till nearly closing time again.

I was asleep by 1:30 and at 7:30 I woke up. Downstairs, Stuart and Jade asked if I knew where a bar was open. I love this place. We chatted a bit, they shared a rather nasty tasting cone joint and eventually went their way.

I nodded to a guy passing that I'd seen around the last few days. He sat down and we started talking, and as is the case every time I come here, I am sorry I didn't start talking to him sooner. Casey was giving himself a holiday after being let go in Dubai. He had a great attitude about it all, was very well read and interesting. He was a writer, a reporter. We were talking, and he said something, and I said 'Wait a minute, that was good shit, write that down' and I handed him my note book. Here is what he wrote:

Don't fall victim to patrician bullshit one way or the other. The system is designed to divide.

International bankers run the world. So do groups like the Bilderbergs, Club of Rome, Kissinger & Associates, James Baker III Institute.

These are the real 'policy makers'

We chatted some more, and I was feeling perfectly at peace with my head full of cannabis enjoying fully each instant. We polished off both of our remaining weed, mine the Haze and Trainwreck into a Clint Eastwood like cigar, and exchanged cards. He went his way, leaving me to enjoy my last hour at the bar with Remko. My last beer was on the house, but then I insisted on paying for just one more LaCouffe to go with my last Super Polm joint.



Having successfully consumed all my weed, I walked to Central Station and left my beloved Mekka once more.

[ed the head]

Good report, thanks for taking the time and effort, i look forward to chapter 2.

(At Siberia we vaped some special GanjaTours Swazi South African)
Was this Swazi South African weed, Skunk weed or regular out door weed ? Plus is this bud on the menu at Siberia ? It sounds interesting

Yikes, I realize I am about 7 years late to reply, but ...

The Venus was the South African predominant Sativa strain, don't recall if it was outdoor or indoor, but I suspect indoor as it was grown by the tour leader Milehile who was himself an accomplished grower. Not from Siberia or any other CS that I know of.