Well we arrived in Perth after rather a bumpy flight...it was a pretty small plane and the descent made us feel pretty sick...its fortunate that we arrived at almost midnight so we did not have to worry about eating! In saying that we decided to be lazy and to get a taxi to our YHA. Perhaps not the best idea. Our taxi driver (from Armenia) said he did not know where the YHA was, he had never heard of the place before and where was it, what was the address? We have never imagined this scenario and afetr looking through our book and remembering that it was not in there we had a slight panic. It was through sheer good fortune that we managed to find a YHA guidebook in one of our bags and tell the driver the address. his response?: "Oh Y.H.A not YHA, its three words Y.H.A, you say YHA its Y.H.A I know the Y.H .A". We thought we were saying YHA!

Anyway we arrived about 12.30 and managed to check in to get some sleep. Our 4 bed dorm had 2 others in it...sleeping in the same bed. They continued to sleep in the same bed the whole time we were there, as well as spread their belongings across the floor as much as possible. Emma resorted to pushing it all in one corner everytime it was in her way. Our hostel also had problem in recognising that there were 2 in our party, only one door key would work at a time and at one point they checked another person into our room by mistake. They took the bed that was supposed to be occupied by one of the couple, who were not happy that someone else was on the bed they did not want to use! Reception even had the cheek to suggest that Emma was the fifth, extra person. She did not comment when they mentioned this for fear of exploding into a ant about inefficiency and general incompetency!

Anyway we have heard some terrific stuff about Perth and Western Australia. We only saw Perth city and we were really in the wrong mood to take it all in. About the time we left Tamara and Brisbane we decided that it really was the time to be moving on from Australia o Indonesia. Therefore we have to say that we did not enjoy Perth as much as we anticipated. This was mainly our own fault as we were no longer experiencing the same pleasure from Australia as we had done in Melbourne and through the Red Centre due to our desire to move on. The city itself though is actually rather expensive anddoes not have as many facilities and amenities that the other capitals have. A distinct lack of funds made much of the activities well beyond our reach and so we contented ourselves with wandering through the city mainly.

Our highlight was Scarborough Beach! A short bus ride took us all the way to the beachfront, where we once more indulged in fish and chips and enjoyed some lovely warm sunshine while watching the waves come crashing into shore. Following our trip to the beach we headed straight for Freemantle, another major attraction in Perth's outskirts. i I am unsure what we expected to find in Freemantle, but we did not find it. To us it appeared to be just another, quite dirty and scary suburb in Perth.

Pretty much I think we had our miserable faces on the entire time we were in Perth. The best part, where we were most active was in the airport enjoying our final moment of Australian hospitality and culture. We have more pictures of us in the airport and scarborough than any others in Perth!

Basically we did not really get much out of Perth other than a crazy taxi driver and Scarborough beach, but that was due to our frame of mind more than anything else in Hindsight. Ah well....next stop Bali...WOOHOO Bali...a new country!