jus little thoughts

Thursday, March 30, 2006
perth

Yupz, it's another family vacation to Australia for me, this time to Perth. This was the best time to have it since I'm just out of NS waiting to enter uni and my bro is waiting to start school in poly. A week before we went there, temperatures in Perth even soared to a high of 37 degrees and all of us decided to bring 'summer clothing', leaving behind our jackets, windbreakers, sweaters etc in Singapore. A terrible decision. Throughout my stay, temperatures hovered between just 20 to 24 degrees except our last day there when the bright sun raised the temperature to something more bearable. There were even drizzles occasionally. Luckily it all turned out well in the end and the wierd climate did not affect our visit very much.

Perth is in the same time zone as Singapore so there was no time difference when we made the trip. Coupled wif a morning flight, there was no jet-lag to handle which was excellent. But our first day, supposedly a free aftnoon was all taken up by a slow clearance at the customs and a late transport to our hotel. It was kinda disappointing when we reached our hotel cos it was on the side of the city that was 'lifeless'. Aussies lead a good working life lorz, their working day ends at 5pm. By 7+pm, the streets near our hotel is almost like streets in Singapore at midnight. On one of the days, our day trip ended early and we explored further from our hotel and found a pretty big shopping mall of some sort (cos it's jus lotsa shophouses along a pedestrian street wif a few slightly taller buildings owned by big departmental stores). We only managed to shop there on our free day cos we got there at around 8pm the first time and all shops were closed.

The places of interest we went were the Pinnacles, the Wave Rock and a cruise to see dolphins at a bay I can't remember it's name. We went on our own by train to Frementle which was famous for its market, though I'd say the market at Sydney was better. On the last day before returning to Singapore, we had a free morn and decided to go find the 'legendary' shop called Corica which apparently sells the best apple strudels in the world. We bought 2 long ones(they don't sell small pieces, one long piece for A$14) and only ate it when we got back to Singapore. Well, I don't eat much apple strudels to compare it wif others but it's definitely very very very good. My mum's colleague said it's a die-die-must-try thing if we go to Perth or we'll regret it. I agree...

Ultimately, the best memories of Perth left in me aren't any of the photos I had taken. The freedom that was felt along the way to the places of interest, seeing the cattle, sheep or horses grazing on vast pastures set wif a backdrop of blue sky wif thin clouds... The friendly Aussies you can meet anywhere along the streets... Really envy the people that live there...

Well, they say a picture say a thousand words, so here are some pics I took...