... By a guy who had never flew more than 5 hours away from Singapore until now.
Day 4 are still not done yet, stay tuned for more updates.
The smoking gunUsing my graduation ceremony as an excuse to burn the last 4 days of leave with
Axiant Consulting (my contract with them was ending at the end of March), I decided to organise a quick tour of
Perth from 22nd March to 26th March. This also signals the end of my engagement with APMI Kaplan for good which wasn't a very nice experience.
The master planThe concept was simple. Round up as many course mates who were interested as possible and google for the itinerary. As usual, the execution wasn't as straight forward as initially thought. Throughout the last few months, the number of interested parties went down from 8 to 4 course mates. A good friend of mine from my Secondary school days, Jia Lun decided to join in as our driver cum photographer after we bribed him with free
hotel hostel stay.
My fellow course mates, Hui Ming and Mark joined us for the trip. Lian Ping went ahead on his own and would later meet us at the graduation ceremony and on the flight back to Singapore.
Using various combination of the keyword "Perth" with "attractions", "itinerary" etc in Google searches didn't quite net us quite the expected number of quality results. Perth is the world most isolated city, the only city in Western Australia hence causing considerably difficulties in finding tourist traps. After
procrastinating for weeks before trying really hard to line up as many die die also must-do things as possible for the trip, we finally decided to do a quick ninja 3 days 3 night trip.
TransportationTiger Airways was selected as our flying partner because
we cannot afford to fly on the premium airlines they were the cheapest to fly. A return ticket with 15kg check-in luggage allowance, insurance and seats selection cost only SGD$401 all inclusive. As the only budget airline operating out of the budget terminal, there were some compromises though, which I will come to later.
The Micra only consumed AU$27.40 worth of fuel in 3 days with Jia Lun as our transporter.With Jia Lun as our experienced non-drinking driver who had survived a previous trip in Adelaide in tow for our trip, we rented a Nissan Micra from
M2000 for $132 so we didn't have to experience the free network of public buses in Perth.
Day -1, Saturday 21 March: Preparing for the inevitableI went to the
Bishan Junction 8 (
Map) to change some Aussie dollars. When I saw the exchange rates, I was virtually kicking my self in the nuts and slapping myself silly for not changing earlier 2 month ago when the Aussie dollars was weaker. It was SGD$0.94 then and SGD$1.045 now.
An exempt from the
National Library Board Website:
Policy Changes from 1 April 2009: All library members who have any unpaid library fines and fees in their accounts will NOT be able to borrow any library materials until the charges have been paid/settled.
(http://www.nlb.gov.sg/page/PlMicrositeContent/LibraryGuideFines)
After paying off the library fines reluctantly (I had ignored a friendly reminder mail previously sent to me) which would otherwise prevent me from borrowing another book (I blame the recession for such a harsh rule. Hey, we are talking about only a $1.40 fine here !!), I got myself a guide published by Lonely Planet: Perth & Western Australia from the Bishan Library (
Map).
Day 1, Sunday 22 March: Flying off in a jet planeI woke up at 8am to pack my luggage when I was suppose to meet Jia Lun to share a cab down to the Budget Terminal (
Map) at 12 noon. Yes, it's kind of late because I was too lazy to pack my stuff earlier. After 1 hour of frenzied action, which included a last minute decision to pick up a camera for the trip from my father, I went back to sleep again, probably exhausted from trying to start the fire my buddy's BBQ at East Coast Park (
Map) the night before for hours. Trying to get a BBQ fire up in light rain is serious business. At noon, I pulled myself together, took a bath before riding a cab down to the budget terminal. The taxi driver tried to be smart and took a slightly longer route by ignoring the road signs that screams "<- Budget Terminal" and continued down the road instead. If it wasn't for Jia Lun insistence, I would have proceed to ruin the taxi uncle's day for him. The budget terminal is truly built on a horse string budget and made to look like a warehouse. It had a cartoonish looking sign at the road entrance leading to the main building which looked really out of place. There was only a Hans outlet and an uncompleted MacDonalds that are accessible to the public. Fortunately, after checking-in, plenty of more stores and cafes were available...something that we found out after going to MacDonalds for lunch at Terminal 2.
I never dreamed that I would be having a Big Mac for lunch at T2.
More eateries are available after checking-in.
This was my ride to Perth.
Being dumb and native, I chose the seats on last row of the plane. It was not a good decision as you cannot decline the seat and there was a continuous stream of people with a full bladder charging into the toilet at all times. The vacuum flushing system which sounded like a blender went on and on, whirling for the entire 5 hours of the trip. The problems stemming from this bad decision also plague us on our return trip as I had selected exactly the same seats.
Before the plane could take off, it had to taxi all the way from the Budget Terminal to the runways which took close to 10 minutes. I guessed we didn't have any more land to build any more runways. Tiger Airways is currently the only airline operating out of the Budget Terminal currently.
This is how a rain cloud (the grey clouds) looks from high up in the air. Rain cloud=Air turbulence. Our flight path lead our plane to punch through almost half a dozen of these clouds, giving us a rocky flight to Perth.
My fellow passenger in front of me shown me that if you got enough seats to yourself, you can do a "3-chair".
Perth International airport's duty free shops were an utter disappointment.We arrived at 10.20pm (+1 hour due to daylights saving) at Perth airport (
Map). The hostel which we were staying in has a free transport service to and from the airport, with a toll-free number to call to as well. Our 3 days stay at
Comfort Hostel (
Map) only cost us a total of AU$420 for 4 guys. That's a seriously hard price to beat. The weather was excellent. It was Autumn in Perth and the temperature was just above 20 degrees Celsius. The buildings were heated instead of cooled. It was as if the outdoors was "air-con" in Singaporean terms. This made walking outdoors a very pleasant experience. No longer do I had the urge to run into a building to escape the heat.
A red post box.
We were to wait 20 minutes for the transport from Comfort Hostel by the "red post box". It also says "no waiting" on the post box, which was clearly ineffectively in deterring from waiting for our free transport to our hostel. There was only 1 cafe open and the sandwiches wasn't appealing.
The drink vending machine was no help either in quenching our thirst as we only had 50 dollars bills on us thanks to our money changers in Singapore. Something interesting to take note of is that their AU$2 coin is smaller than their AU$1 coin.
Free transport to the hostel on arrival and back to the airport on departure. Good deal ! The vehicle arrived ahead of the 20 minutes waiting time promised.
Many vehicles have a towing friendly fixture at the rear.
Fairly basic but comfortable. (and cheap too)
Burger King = Hungry Jack's. In Australia, BK is franchised as Hungry Jack's.
This is THE MONSTER meal ! Double beef, melting cheese, bacon and BBQ sauce!There were several eateries in the vicinity of Comfort Hostel (
Map).
KFC and
Hungry Jack's are open 24 hours and are 5 minutes away on foot. We came to learn that fast food was the cheapest form of food available in Australia. In fact, fast food in Australia is slightly cheaper than their counterparts in Singapore! The food courts there easily will set you back for AU$13 ($10 main dish + $3 drink) while a complete meal at a fast food joint can be obtained for AU$7 to AU$10. Our hawker centres and food courts are truly a blessing! The vending machines sold bottled drinks starting from AU$3, which is quite steep compared to our familiar SGD$1.40 canned drinks. After the meal, we retreated to the hostel for a hot shower and a good night's sleep.
Day 2, Monday 23 March: The City of FremantleThe day was started at 7am, which I had set in order to be able to set off for Fremantle by 8am. I awoke to the sight of a Collex garbage truck in the carpark, emptying the bin.
Fierce looking garbage trunk.
Fremantle has a old-town look to it. (Map)
Parking ticket vending machine. (Map)Parking in Fremantle requires the buying of tickets from machines like this. AU$6 will buy you the privilege to park for the whole day. The plan was to park the car here and visit the various attractions in the area by foot. The parking charges differs depending on locations. We had parked at the carpark near The Esplanade (Map) (There is no durian here) which was the cheapest coincidentally. We did just like any Singaporeans do, we just follow the rules. Apparently our lack of guts paid off when we later spotted a Wilson Parking truck driving pass as we approach Kaili's cafe. It seems that our dear Certis Cisco-powered parking warrens had met their match. 
The coastline at South beach, looking towards the south-west, facing the Indian Ocean. (
Map)
My tolerance for McDonalds was tested yet again.
My breakfast was at MacDonalds as every other restaurant were close in the morning. The default coffee tasted just like drain water, which is just as bad as back in Singapore. They are practically forcing us to buy their premium range of McCafe coffee. As soon as I snapped the photograph above, a drizzle started to add to my sorrow of having to eat at McDonalds again.
The Maritime Museum Shipwreck Galleries featuring the Batavia which sunk off the coast of Western Australia in 1629. Entry is by donation. (Map) (Streetview)
The Round House is the oldest building in Western Australia. We didn't want to pay to enter the small building. It was built as a goal to hold convicts from Britain in 1850. (Map)(Streetview)
The seafood platter is consisted mostly fried food.
Other than the usual fish and chips, Kaili's also sported a section featuring even more seafood ranging from oysters to lobsters..
Fanta which is similar to our F&N Orange Crush and a Kaili's pager.Kaili's Fish Market Cafe has an interesting way of getting us to self-serving our meals. After queuing up to get our orders taken, we will have to pay for our meals and receive a pager. Once our good is ready, the pager will flash and make some noise, prompting us to go back to the counter to get our food.
The view of the waterfront from Kaili's Fish Market Cafe
Western Australia Maritime Musuem (Map)We paid AU$8 which is the prevailing student rate thanks to Hui Ming's Murdoch student card each to get into the Western Australian Maritime Museum. This is packaged with a guided submarine tour.
The HMAS Ovens. (1969~1995)As part of the package, we had a guided tour of the HMAS Ovens, an Oberon class submarine decommissioned in 1995 for an hour. This submarine is much bigger and advance than the small greenish submarine that I had visited in Surabaya. The guide was quite experienced and gave us an interesting and informative tour.
There is a area near the Maritime Museum featuring steam engines.While the rest of the group went into the post office to grab stuff, I wondered off into the vicinity. Jia Lun sent himself a post card while Hui Ming and Mark got some stamps.
We thought that the
Fremantle Markets is open on Mondays but only on public holidays. It's kind of a disappointment. It seems odd to us that a market only opens on weekends and public holidays. I was expecting to see a wet market style operation but alas, maybe next time.
This was the "uniform" worn by convicts and prisoners.
Gloomily looking cell blocks which once hold men, women and children.
That bucket was the toilet which the prisoners had to wash spotlessly clean at 7am everyday.
The church inside the prison is known as the "Church of England" aka CoE (spun intended).
Solitary cell where the naughty people spend their days.
The garrows had a kill count of 44 condemned criminals.The tour guide gave us an idea of the life of the prisoners as we travel from area to area of the prison. He had certainly missed the death penalty much as he said that the crime rate had risen ever since the death penalty was abolished. The nights in Perth is no longer as safe as before.
Death by hanging was the preferred way to kill 43 men and 1 women until 1964. Most were of the condemned were hanged on Monday 8am and left dangling for 20 minutes before the doctor certified the death. The ropes used to hang the condemned were always used only once, so the one you saw in the picture above is a virgin innocent rope.
And by the way, the Fremantle prison was a high security prison that is supposedly haunted by a number of ghosts. Check out some of the proof of haunting at
Whispers From Beyond.
After this, we went to
Cole (
Map)(
Streetview) to pick up some fruits and water, and later went to the nearby Fremantle railway station (
Map) to take a look. As it was passed five, most of the shops in the area were already closed. That effectively drove us to the great depths of boredom and so we decided to take a spin around the city in the car. We went back to the area near Western Australia Maritime Museum to snap a few more photos before proceeding to the lighthouse at Fleet street for the sunset.
Dinner was at Kaili's Fish Market Cafe again.
After getting really seriously sick and tired of fries over the last few days, I decided to order grilled fish with salad . Wine was cheap so we shared a bottle of red.
After dinner, we decided to pay a visit to the Intercontinental Burswood Resort (
Map)(
Streetview) aka the only casino in the Perth as it was along the route back to our hostel from Fremantle. Alas, the place is smaller than Genting Highlands and absolutely boring in comparison. After a walk around the casino, we exited the premises without winning or losing a single cent. I guess no one was interested in gambling. Compared to Gentings, there wasn't any non-gambling activity to keep us interested. Let's just hope that the upcoming integrated resorts in Singapore will be better than this lackluster casino. We made our way back to the hostel and take a break for the day.
This is my supply of fruits from Coles that was tasked to be my anti-constipation weaponry.
The rusty electric kettle and the weird taste of the tap water were the reasons why we bought water from Cole since on the previous photograph. (bottom left)The day started at 7am, as the day before, we set off to the campus of Murdoch University. We had made arrangement previously with Mr Danny Toohey, who helped us to sort out many of our troubles with APMI Kaplan (
Map) for close to 16 months, for a guided tour of the South Street campus (
Map)(
Streetview) in the morning. It would been a real shame not to have been able to step foot into the campus of your own Alma Mater.
Finally, we have stepped foot at Murdoch University. This was take next to carpark C, outside the Chancellery building where are the "important people" hang out.
The bush court is surrounded by the majority of the facilities and shops in the campus. Later on in the day, students could be seen sitting under the trees.
This is where staff at the school of IT hang out.Mr Danny Toohey brought us to the School of IT, and introduced us to the dean of School of IT, Associate Professor Peter Cole. We had a light hearted chat before we proceeded with the campus tour. We were all so curious of what we had missed out when we were studying from a distance at APMI Kaplan, Singaopore. Something interesting is that they have a home for the aged on campus grounds for commercial reasons.
This horse will someday win the race at Turf Club though it's kind of skinny now.Murdoch University offers many courses that are not available in Singapore such as extractive metallurgy, midwifery, veterinary science and animal science. Here is a list of offerings for
undergraduates and
postgraduates. It's kind of mind boggling to see such a wide variety of courses. However for city bound kids like I am, some of these courses would not be useful back here in Singapore.
This is the original look of the land before the University was built.
The computer lab is located under the library. It's better than being forced to bring our own laptops at APMI Kaplan.
I was thinking of ditching my crazy job in Singapore and look for a job in Australia but the recession didn't help to increase my chances of doing so. Instead, we collected our Regalia and I bought a Murdoch tie.
Mr Danny Toohey on behalf of Murdoch University bought us coffee at the Club Murdoch. He also invited us to the staff area at the convention center after the graduation ceremony is over.
Tavern, a pub on the campus.
This is the food court in the campus.
Roasted lamb meal with a Pumped mandarin orange drink.I knew that food courts in Australia are a really expensive lot but I was expecting campus food to be cheaper but well I was dead wrong. The meal that I had cost me close to AU$14. Singapore's
Food Republic food courts looked tame comparison. After the meal, we set of for a day of shopping in Perth city.
Our first our first stop in Perth City. It is a 2 floor open air shopping mall consisted of mostly shoes and apparels shops. I got some souvenirs for my office folks and 2 bottles of calcium supplements for my sister. Pill for pill, it was half the price in Australia. There wasn't any diet pills to be found strangely, but plenty of body builder's proteins everywhere. I also wanted to get a pair of business shoes for the graduation ceremony later in the night, but the Betts and Wilsons stores were terrible. Betts shop assistants were nowhere to be found and Wilsons range of shoes was small.
Having more time to spare, we proceeded and move on to the shopping district at Hay Street and Murray Street. We parked the car at Perth Convention Center and made our way from there.
Perth has 3 main taxi companies. These are from Swan Taxis. 
Shopping district at Hay Street and Murray's Street. (Map)
And so I bought myself something healthy which I can't even name. Oh yes, I placed the knife wrongly in the photograph above,The Betts outlet at Hay Street fare better. They managed to sell me nice pair of shoes at AU$89.90. (
Map)(
Streetview) We went to the food court in one of the shopping center's basement to get lunch. I placed my bet on Pure and Natural which turned out pretty well. After the meal, we went on to explore the area independently before gathering again at 5pm. Our next destination was Perth Convention Center (
Map), where we would have our graduation ceremony.
My ticket for the graduation.
Finally, I got to collect my degree from the Chancellor.
And finally, the ceremony ended with a dazzling display of blinding lights.
The Wheel of Perth just opened recently on 7th Jan 2009. It is visible from the VIP gallery where we were invited for a drink. (Map)(Streetview)
Mark loves beer while everyone else went for the wines.
We are the only bachelors in the VIP area.This is the first graduation ceremony that I have attended. I was quite surprised that there wasn't as many Asians as I thought, having heard so many stories about Asians flooding the cities of Australia. Perhaps the reason could be Perth wasn't as popular as an Asian destination compared with Sydney and Melbourne. Jia Lun was our photographer at the graduation ceremony. Lian Ping's friend whom I had forgotten his name was also there.
The ceremony went smoothly and frankly, so smoothly that I could not recall much about it. Pity that we didn't bring a video camera along. At the ceremony ended, we went to the VIP area where we met up with Mr Peter Cole and Mr Danny Toohey to have a drink. And yeah, we were the people who were had the least qualifications in the VIP area. There were staff, masters, professors and PhDs holders everywhere. I guessed the staff at the School of IT knew me as the "blogger" since Mr Danny Toohey introduced me to his colleagues that way. I must have became notorious. After hanging around for a while more, we returned our regalia which we had rented for AU$80, and went for dinner before heading back to the hostel.
Dinner was pizza and clams at an Italian restaurant. It was recommended by Lian Ping's friend whom I had forgotten his name.
Day 4, Wednesday 25 March: Swan ValleyDay 4 was reserved for a day at
Swan Valley, which we expected to get to drink ourselves silly. Swan Valley is a wine making region which has 23 wineries, 2 distilleries and some 5 breweries. Not to forgot, we also have 1 chocolate factory and 1 ice cream cafe to visit as well.
The information we wanted from the Swan Valley visitor center was where could we find our breakfast fix. The cafes and restaurants that we came across were all close as it was properly too early in the morning at 9am.
The cows were really shy. The moment that they saw us approach on foot, they walked off and kept staring at us.
As it was autumn, there were no grapes to be seen. Well on the bright side, in 3 months, we would not even get to see any leaves.
What a sight for sore eyes.
Finding a store which opens for 7 days is considered an achievement!
My breakfast is steakburger with bacon, egg, onion, cheese and BBQ sauce.
Grape = winery, fork and spoon = food.
Our first stop was at Sandalford Wines.
The obligatory wine themed displays.
Getting our daily intake of resveratrol.
AU$2.50 for 10 samples.
The Margaret River Chocolate Company.
Chocolate everywhere !
The red plum and port jam on the left was sweet, and the roasted tomato mustard on the right was spicy.
Free dark, white and milk chocolate for tasting.
These machinery generate more calories per hour than you can burn on the treadmill.
More sinful stuff.
Playgroup activity at Whiteman's park.
Travelling Old Macdonld's Farms : We bring baby animals to your place! (Before landing on your plate later)
Elmar's in the Valley is a micro brewery.
An brewery employee with fermentation tanks behind him.
Our stopover at Oggies icecream cafe was well timed as it was getting hotter.
Choosing the flavor is a really hard question to answer.
I can't remember what I had ordered but ... Haagen Daz 1, Oggies Ice Cream cafe 0 !!!
Lamount's winery was guarded by 2 fierce bitches.
To summaries the above signs, if you are drunk, get the hell out of here.
This bastard saved the best port, Lamont's Nivera for the end.
Belmont Forum Shopping Mall.
A Lotterywest outlet, the West Australia version of the Singapore Pools.
To check your ticket, just scan the ticket with the Checker. Singapore Pools should be ashamed.
I didn't win AU$7 million but AU$34.45. I can't quit my job yet. Sob.
My investment was AU$13.10, and the ticket was bought at Hay Street in Perth city.
With Easter around the corner, Easter theme chocolates and candies were flooding the shops.
Fuel cost was a measly AU$27.40 over 3 days.
The loot were mostly chocolate and wine.
KFC 2 piece meal and hot & spicy kebab.
Toohey's white stag beer had nothing to do with Mr Danny Toohey, sadly.
Having our last drink and filling the departure card at Perth airport.
Perth's duty free continued to be lackluster.
5 hours ride on this baby to get back to Sngapore.
Freshly air flew degree from West Australia !
Cheap chocolate should never be missed.
Cheap calcium supplements, MSG laden snacks from Coles, long banned chewing gum and a Lipton intense that I have not seen in Singapore.
KFC condom hands wipe.
Sandleford Chardorray and Chivas Regal 18 years.Coming soon...
Here is a slide show of the photos taken by me :)
Revision history26/3/09 1819h : Day -1 and Day 1
27/3/09 1715h : Added Google maps and streetview to Day 0 and 1.
27/3/09 1855h : Day 2
28/3/09 ????h : Day 3
02/4/09 ????h: Day 4 pictures
