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Randy Roy's Redlight Tours

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Carmen
Carmen
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5 out of 5
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Randy Roy's Tour Turned Us On - To Amsterdam!

  • April 27, 2009
  • Rated 5 of 5 by Carmen from Fairfax, Virginia
Randy Roy's Tour Turned Us On - To Amsterdam!

Warning. Journal may be offensive. Rated PG-13. There’s something in the Red Light District to offend everyone. I’m just taking one for the team to report back to you. ;)

Randy Roy is not a Roy at all, he is a she - an American expat named Kimberly. The name of her company is derived in part, from Randy Savage, the wrestler - so she tells us - and part, I think, from her slightly warped (in a good way) sense of humor.

The tour is a great way to explore the infamous Red Light District of Amsterdam. Especially if you are like me, and a little nervous to be wandering the area on your own. During the day it wouldn’t be so bad (but the things that make it "red light" are there all the time - Kimberly tells us that a quickie as the businessmen are on their way to work in the morning is a booming business), but the area really comes to life in the evenings. That’s when the lights glow the brightest, the glow-in-the-dark bikinis on the prostitutes actually glow and the buildings light up signs like "Sex Shop", "Condomerie" and announcements for various live sex shows.

There’s definitely a seedy side to the Red Light District, but there are some stunning things here as well. Canals lit up at night, hundreds of years old churches (ironic, isn’t it?) and really cool bars. That’s why you take Randy Roy’s tour - Kimberly knows her way around, she knows what’s what, and she guides you like a pro.

The tour started us out easy with the rather tame things. An introduction to the Victoria Hotel, where the tour meets every day at 8 p.m. and also at 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. (Reservations are recommended at http://randyroysredlighttours.com but you can also just show up.) Then we moved down the Damrak, past the Sex Museum, which she recommends for a mere 3 Euro, and on to the Stock Exchange Building. After that, we head into the heart of the Red Light District, past the hotel where Quentin Tarantino holed up to write "Pulp Fiction" (clearly taking advantage of the pot decriminalization here). She also gives an intro into the "coffee shop culture," how to introduce yourself into the world of marijuana. (Ie: wait a full 2 hours for an "infused" brownie to take effect before eating another one.)

Kimberly takes you past a few more stops of the rich and famous before you hit the highlight of any tour to the Red Light District - the prostitutes themselves. Oddly enough, it didn’t offend me, it didn’t make me a proponent of women’s rights, it didn’t turn me on. Mostly, it fascinated me and made me sad for these women. (They probably wouldn’t like that.) The red light windows cost between 75-100 Euro an hour to rent, so you can imagine the rates for their services. The red lights indicate women, the blue lights indicate transvestites. No pictures allowed.

The tour ends in a bar, where Kimberly buys you a drink (which, in reality, is included in the tour price of 12.5 Euro.) I’m not sure if it’s the same bar on each tour, but we ended up in a famous one called Cafe Mandje. Apparently, in its heyday, it was a swingin’ gay bar - the first in Amsterdam and one of the first in the world. Cut-off ties adorn the ceiling, as the original owner made everyone leave something behind. :)

What was great about our tour is that there were about 10 of us total, and each pair of two was from another part of the world. Germany, Istanbul, Singapore, etc. But we all meshed nicely (I think, thanks in part to the new outlook on American government, with the 2008 elections.) So the drink at the end was like hanging out with friends for a bit.

I would highly recommend Kimberly’s (a.k.a. Randy Roy’s) tour for a "virgin’s view" of the Red Light District.

From journal Amster-DAM That Was Fun!

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