Two museums in Amsterdam, the Van Gogh Museum and the Museum of Sex, cover completely different topics.

The way they present their collections deserves a thumbs-up, as they both cover their subject matter admirably. It's just that the Sex Museum is much more attractive!

Most people will recall certain things when they talk about the Dutch capital, Amsterdam: the museums, the bicycles, the red light district and the coffee shops that legally provide marijuana.

However, this article will focus on two museums that have quite a different flavor, the Van Gogh Museum and the Sex Museum.

The Van Gogh Museum is clearly the more popular of the two and it is in first place of the seven museums that feature on the official website of the Netherlands, www.holland.com. In addition to the Van Gogh museum, Amsterdam is home to the Anne Frank Museum, Madame Tussauds, the Amsterdam Historical Museum and the Rembrandt House Museum.

This museum, located on Paul Pottlerstraat (Paul Pottler Street) in the area of Museumplein, Amsterdam, is not far from the Rijks Museum and the Stedelijk Museum, which are also popular. From Amsterdam's Centrum Station, the museum can be reached by tram or bus that stop not far from the building, a building designed by different generations of architects, Gerrit Rietveld and Kisho Kurokawa.

There are always lines of people at the museum entrance, a sure sign of its popularity. And why? Because there is no other place that holds so many of Vincent van Gogh's paintings and information about van Gogh. Approximately 200 van Gogh paintings, 500 drawings and 700 documents written about the artist, many commenting on his mental illness, and all held within the three-storey building.

They are divided into the different periods of van Gogh's life, starting with the Netherlands, and on to Paris, Arles, Saint R*my and finally Auvers-sur-Oise (a small town in France).

When The Jakarta Post visited the museum recently, there was already a queue from the entrance that snaked 50 meters along the sidewalk. However, after just a short, 15-minute wait, I paid the entrance fee of 14 (Rp 170,000 or US$ 18) and was directed to the baggage locker.

"Take your bag over there, please," the doorman said, pointing to the baggage locker. "You can bring your camera, but you are not allowed to use it," he said. To enter the main building, every visitor must be willing go through a metal detector, like those at airports.

Just in side the entrance, I was greeted by a large version of van Gogh's painting titled Self-Portrait. Here, visitors strike a pose for their memento photographs.

The first of van Gogh's collection of paintings can be enjoyed on the ground floor, mixed in with the work of other painters such as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

The painting The Potato Eaters (1885) is located in this area. This image of four women and one man attracted the attention of visitors. They could see how van Gogh had played with shadows in this painting with the short brushstrokes that became his trademark.

The exhibition is being held on the first floor, where the original Self-Portrait is located. There are exhibits featuring the life journey of van Gogh, who died at the young age of 37, including a time of mental instability in France when the painter cut off his own ear.

Other van Gogh paintings are being exhibited on this floor, such as Still Life: Vase with Twelve Sunflowers (which was painted in August 1888 at the Neue Pinakothek art museum in Munich), Bedroom in Arles (1888), Courtesan (after Eisen in 1887) and View of Arles with Irises (1888).

The Sex Museum is a completely different experience, and best viewed as part of a tour of the famous red light district in Amsterdam. The Sex Museum is not mentioned, however, on the official website of the Netherlands, nor is it on the widely circulated map; only the more famous Erotic Museum, also not far from the red light district, is named.

But the Sex Museum, located only 200 meters from Amsterdam Centrum Station, has become a favourite destination for tourists coming to Amsterdam and visiting the largest red light district in this, the country of the windmill.

As can be imagined, this three-storey building, which has been built to look like rooms over shops, is always crowded with visitors. It has a very different atmosphere to that of the Van Gogh Museum, which is stiff and formal while the Sex Museum is very relaxed.

There are no baggage lockers or metal detectors; in fact, there isn't even a guard at this museum. By paying an entrance fee of 4 (Rp 48,000, $5) visitors are treated to a variety of displays all about sex from all different orientations, including heterosexual, gay and lesbian sex. The display on the subject of masochism is amazing.

Although the impression is that this is not an intellectual exhibition because it is only about sex, the Sex Museum, with its complete collections, is still serious. It is not just a collection of pictures and statues of sexual activity, but covers everything to do with sex from all around the world.

It includes a statue from the 17th century, which shows a love scene featuring a Tibetan woman and a Chinese man. In one of its collections, there is a statue shaped like a penis, which was made during the Roman era.

The statue is 50-centimeters tall and made of sandstone and is a major attraction to visitors. There is a similar marble statue, which was made around 500 BC. Information is given on all the sculptures, about the origin of the statues, and where they were made and found.

There is a section on the history of pornographic films, recounted in detail, including when and why the genre was first created, and how it has evolved.

The figure of the legendary sex symbol Marilyn Monroe is a special feature of this museum. Pictures showing Monroe posing nude for a 1955 calendar have been reconstructed using a mannequin. And there is the famous photograph featuring the star, originally named Norma Jean Baker, in a billowing white skirt.

Also of interest is the statue of Mata Hari. She was an erotic dancer, whose real name was Margaretha Geertruida "Grietje" Zelle MacLeod, and was sentenced to death in World War I for allegedly being a German spy in France.

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