Browsing Broome "101"
Trip Start
Sep 04, 2007
1
95
123
Trip End
Sep 01, 2008
Where I stayed
Broome,
Australia
Saturday, May 17, 2008
This morning, our Outlander rental was picked up at 9am and we were checked out of the Broome Beach Resort by 10am. Since our Virgin Blue flight wasn't scheduled to depart until 8pm, we planned to use this opportunity to take the local bus downtown for some local browsing and shopping! Given our situation, the resort was willing to store our luggage.
The bus stop, just 100 meters from our resort, makes round trips from Cable Beach to Broome's Chinatown! Chinatown was once a bustling hub of pearl shells, billiard saloons, entertainment houses and Chinese eateries! Today, the finest pearl showrooms, retail outlets, galleries and cafes provide a great shopping experience and an opportunity to soak up the charm of old and new Broome!
The first lesson in browsing around downtown Broome is to ensure your primary credit card is not already at it's limit
Broome Beach Resort Pool !
! If so, then take your secondary credit card! If both credit cards are at their limit, then enquire about lay-away plans! With so many pearl shops and galleries situated in the downtown core, diversion tactics such as "look honey, up there in the sky" (while you safely guide your wife past the pearl store) will become overwhelming after the first few stores! The second lesson is try to place thoughts such as "Pearls R NOT Us" in your wife's mind! Raise thoughts such as, "you already have a beautiful necklace, set of earrings and rings! You only have one neck, two ears and ten fingers! Where would you wear others?"
A third lesson is to place much more emphasis on board shorts and t-shirts! One can never have enough of either. They are very colorful and can accent the beach lovers fashion scene. On the other hand, pearls are often small and hard to see. Thus, would you rather spend lots of money on something hard to see or spend very little to be noticed on the beach!
After a couple hours of browsing retail stores and pearl shops of Broome's Chinatown section, our hunger got the best of us! A fish & chips lunch at Lustre's Restaurant would more than satisfy our appetite
Dampier Tce in Downtown Broome !
. The afternoon had us slowly browse the unique retail shops and pearl galleries along Carnarvon St, Short St, Napier Tce and Dampier Tce - the streets that border Chinatown! Stopping in the Pearl Luggers Museum to view one of Broome's former Pearl Lugger Boats offered some history of the regions pearl industry!By 4pm, we caught the local bus back to Cable Beach to view this internationally re-known beach for one last time. We decided to stroll through Broome's premier 5 star resort, Cable Beach Club! This month, Cable Beach Club Resort happened to be celebrating their 20th Anniversary since establishing in Broome! For those who enjoy the lap of luxury, then this resort is for you!
As time neared 5pm, we returned to the Broome Beach Resort to retrieve our luggage! We decided to say our good-bye to Broome with a couple brews down the street at Divers Tavern before catching a taxi to the airport for the plane back to Perth.
Although we came to Broome with little expectation, it easily exceeded all our expectations! "Broome promises to reward travellers with a holiday experience like no other, so relax, enjoy and ...........let yourself go!" We did just that and had a great time!
Cheers, Rick & Elsie!
