Hi everybody from Perth! After several months lazing around on the east coast of oz, we finally made it over to the west coast. In Perth, we are staying with my friend Darron Freegard and his family. It's great to see them and a welcome luxury compared to some of the hostels we have been used to staying in. Just before we had arrived in Perth we had been in Sydney and had a really hectic time as we tried to do all the touristy things. We had been staying in the rather dodgy kings cross area of the city - home to some of the oldest and roughest looking hookers I had ever seen! The train ride out to our hostel had been an experience - this woman in her 20's sat across from me in the carriage and repeatedly crossed and uncrossed her legs a la Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct!! Kinda sums up the classiness of the residents in the area. Luckily, our hostel was excellent with views of the opera house and the harbour bridge from our room. Sydney was a great city and we saw loads of stuff. We came across this street which was all cornered off whilst they filmed scenes for the new Superman movie - it was really cool to watch them do all the stunts and filming. At the opera house we sat through a live dress rehearsal for the finale of Australian Pop Idol - which was nice. Sad plane spotter moment but I also saw the new A380 super jumbo on approach for its landing test at Sydney airport - only saw it from a distance but it is bloody huge!! We did all the usual touristy stuff in the city as well as taking a day trip out to the Blue Mountains, which was good. Our time in Perth has been excellent. It's a really cool city with a great outdoor lifestyle. We managed to meet up with Emily and Hailey who we met way back in January on our Trek America tour. They live in Perth and had just come back home after completing their round the world tour. It was great seeing them again and catching up. A big thank you to Darron, Phillipa and baby Henry for letting us stay in their home in Perth. Henry is only 18 months and he is the cutest and most well behaved baby ever! Amy and I will miss you all. Finally, it is time to leave Australia and move on to Singapore! Best wishes Paul