Ok so I've actually been back for some time le... since tuesday morning. But of ocurse, everyone knows I can get really lazy sometimes and it happened to kick in after my trip (you know the routine, jet lag, unpacking, getting things back on track, catching up on things you missed etc) and so I didn't come over to blogger to share my trip heh heh.

Anyway I will try to post some pics. Apparently the previous time I tried to post some pics about my phuket trip the photos failed to appear in my post (WTH is wrong with blogger?! FIX IT!) so lets keep my fingers crossed (a la the double T in the word LOTTO, which is very very obviously strewn across so many public betting outlets in Perth) and hope the photos appear this time.

Ok so I'll just highlight the really fun things. I actually kept a diary of the first few days of my trip but got lazy and tired nearing the end. I'll just take excerpts from there la hor. I dun want to bore the daylights out of everyone. You know how long-winded I can get haha.

Day 1 14 May Monday

So we left singapore at 1.20 in the morning, yes a very odd timing, but since it was SIA's promotion, they only limited the outgoing flights (and the incoming flights too for that matters) to the midnight flights. And so I was watching "Music and Lyrics" starring Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore during the flight and I just have to squeeze this in: I thought the movie was fabulous. I missed it when it was showing in Singapore in March and I was so so glad to able to catch it on the SIA flight.

Yup, that and also the 2 meals we had (well actually it was one main meal where I chose the nasi lemak option and one snack item where I had this hot minced chicken pastry roll thingy) actually took up a big portion of the 5 hour flight where I remember telling myself to get a little bit of sleep to prepare myself for the upcoming day but whcih I did not do. Well I tried to get some sleep, but you know the drill: crying babies, cabin lights, the noise of people shuffling their way to the toilets etc. It just wasn't working for me. So I ended up with no sleep. Zilch. Maybe ard an hour where I did close my eyes and TRIED to sleep, but actual sleep.... none.

And boy did that kick it later when we arrived in Perth. Ok, the airport was disappointingly small, but as Lionel pointed out, not many ppl fly to Perth anywayz so why the need for a big airport right? I mean it's only like one building compared to Changi's 2 (and in a few years time, 3).

So we got onto an airport bus shuttle service costing us A$15 each (ouch) to take us to our hostel. We bunked at the Billabong's Backpackers Resort, which received rather rave reviews from most of it previous customers (but of course there are a few very very bad ones too la) so I was expecting a very good stay there. But the lady at the reception, Yolanda, who received us in the morning was really rude to us. She took on a very condescending tone and was very tactless in telling us we couldn't check in early. It really left a very sour tatse in my mout, that short encounter with her. i tried to be really friendly and was constantly smiling, but she did not reciprocate once.

So anyway, after dumping our (very heavy) backpacks since we couldn't do early check in, we headed out towards the city at ard 8am. Went to the visitor's centre to grab a few maps and brochures, and we pit-stopped at a nearby Mac's to map out what we were going to do for the day. But sitting there (at ard 10 plus by now) we were all feeling so sleepy and I just wanted to lie down on the uncomfortable plastic seats and just doze my butt and whole body off. I was serious. But of course that would have been too unglam, so we just pulled ourselves together and dragged our lifeless bodies around town trying to do some shopping and stuff. And it was quite surprising really. The mroe we walked around town the more energetic we felt. Maybe it's the cold wind that perked us up? Who knows. But we managed to walk around thier main shopping streets of Hay and Murray Streets and also visit the Swan Tower which is supposed to be a landmark along the Swan River which flows through town. We also booked ourselves 2 day tours to the Wave Rock and the Pinnacles Desert respectively.

And at around 2 plus we headed back to the hotel, via their free city shuttle service. Yes Perth is great in that it has 3 free bus services running through the town area where u can hop on anf off for free, so that really helped save a lot on transport fees. Our hostel was only a short 5 mins or so from the nearest CAT (City Area Transit) Bus stop so it helped shave ard 15 mins walk otherwise.

And we were so exhausted when we got back, we slacked around and lay ard for ard 2 hours, before heading back out to town expecting to have a good dinner and do a bit more shopping. But *gasp* when we arrived back in town at ard 5.30pm, almost all the shops were already closed! And the reamining ones were closing soon. Plus the sky was getting dark, and there were groups of ppl gathering that made the streets look not too safe (they looked like hooligans of some sort) which was really freaky. I was like so used to popping over to Holland V for sme late night coffee or supper but over here that would never materialise. Which was a shame really.

So Ly and I settled for Hungry Jack's takeaway and headed back to the hotel for a very early night. Which was just as well since our bodies needed that extra rest.

Day 2 15 May Tuesday

Ok so the day started early cuz we had to get ready for the tour pickup at 7.10am. And after that we were brought to our tour bus where we set off for the Wave Rock day tour. First stop, York, a small quaint town with fab architecture. Very colonial in a way and quaint. It has a certain old charm to it... thanks to the european influences. But it wasn't as much as I expected it to be, so actually the short 1/2 stop was all that was needed to get a feel of it.

This was the York Town Hall. Cool aye? Below is the York Post Office.