Perth

Trip Start Dec 14, 2007

187

Trip End Mar 16, 2009

Loading Map

Map your own trip!

Map Options

Show trip route

Hide lines

Flag of Australia Perth, Australia
Monday, January 7, 2008

IMH: Lesson one on our trip has been to never ASSUME anything. For example, the fact that a wife and husband check in for a flight together does not mean they will end-up sitting next to each other (luckily we picked-up on the misplacement and they were able to seat us next to each other on the flight). Second example is for a husband to assume his wife, who has been put in charge of packing the medicine, has packed the sleep normalises (bought especially for flights where jet lag could be at play) in the hand luggage. He did forgive me though and apparently got some sleep.
Arriving in Australia, Perth airport has been a "shocker" as my youngest brother would say. Upon arrival and all the way on route to the baggage carousel the "Quarantine matters" and "declare or dispose" with terrible visuals of what you can be bringing into the country. As you wait at the carousel for your insignificant bag to come past, there are 3 dogs running around sniffing you and your hand luggage

Departure - Johannesburg airport

. If the dog picks-up anything, the person and bag are whisked away and presumably 'quarantined'.

I was horrified when the little Beagle (I think) stopped right next to me and would not stop sniffing. I think from the type of sniff the handler probably picked-up that I was not a terrorist or a fruit smuggler and nudged the dog to move-on. Phew!!

I now understand why people warned us that the Australians are so strict with what you bring into their country.

REH: Good news, the rental company did not have the tiny Toyota Yaris we requested so we got upgraded to brand new 6 speed Corolla.

First impressions of Perth, beautiful, clean, flat, friendly and a very relaxed city that is clearly designed around people. Wherever we went in Perth we found running and cycling paths and many people using them. I'm not sure if it's just because it's summer but there seems to be a very big outdoors lifestyle here. Considering that the sun only sets at 8:30 pm you get nice long days with reasonable temperatures all round

.

The one thing we did notice very quickly about Perth is that all the maintenance and gardening is done by an all white labour force (something you don't come across in Dubai nor South Africa) most with long goatees, enough tattoos to make any biker proud, different coloured luminous shirts, shorts and ankle high boots, and you could always tell when one of them had the day off by looking for the guys with the snow white feet.

Perth night life, what night life? The one night we did go out just about every bar was closed by 10pm. Guess everyone is already in bed or maybe we were just in the wrong area?

I must admit the first few days of this trip have caused many mixed feelings. I often found myself wondering if we've made a mistake by taking this holiday, wondering if we'll have enough money to complete the trip. The first few days in Perth we spent much more than our budget allowed and I begun wondering if we only had enough money per day to just get by without any extras or excursion, would it be worth spending the next 12 months this way?

The cost of living in Perth or Australia must be very similar to the UK, a nights accommodation in a 1 or 2 star establishment could cost beteween AU$ 80-100 (R600), beer cost AU$7 (R45), a simple lunch for 2 in a restaurant AU$30 (R200), a Coke costs AU$2.40 (R15) and petrol is a staggering AU$1.40/litre (R10)

.

So needless to say I've have had to make a major mind shift from the typical holidays we were used to where blowing your budget on a few unplanned excursions and luxuries is not a major problem as you always have next months salary to make up for it. This time around there is no next month's salary for us. I've had to realise this is not a holiday but rather an adventure. An opportunity to see the world, meet loads of great people, discovering a large deal about ourselves we most likely never knew, learn to live with less and managing to do all this with limited resources.