Welcome to Oz!

Around midnight on Saturday night, we finally fulfilled a dream of ours - we arrived in Australia! Perth to be exact, and at first it was all a bit of a culture shock.

Firstly after the super-quick arrival and departure at Singapore, not to mention the pristine airport, we arrived to long queues at a woefully under-staffed Perth airport. Baggage claim was also a scene of chaos, with customs queues snaking around quite a small baggage claim carousel area and basically making it impossible to move!

Once we got outside, the initial sight of palm trees through the terminal doors was tempered somewhat as we were given a little reminder that summer isn't in full swing in Australia just yet! After the heat and humidity of Singapore, we were met with a bracing wind and a queue for a taxi!

The taxi ride was simple enough and the driver polite. Rich inquired as to how big Perth was as a city, and the driver referred to it as a "small town in the country".

As we arrived at the hostel we found out there was a Metallica concert on in the city, and so crowds of around 20,000 had headed to that, leaving a shortage of taxis and extremely quiet streets for a Saturday night in a city.

In Singapore, we had been spoilt by our rather luxurious hostel. For the first two nights in Perth, we were staying in the city itself at Perth City YHA, part of a worldwide chain of hostels. We were soon checked in to our simple but adequate room, and over the next couple of days here, we really grew to like it.

When morning broke the next day, we headed out in to the city to explore. With it being a Sunday, many shops were closed as the locals headed to the bars around the city for what is a local culture - the Perth Sunday Sesh! It basically involves them sitting in the sun outside one of their many watering holes enjoying their day, socializing and watching whatever sport was on TV! The guide books state that for the perfect Sunday Sesh, you should head for a bar by the waterfront.

We stumbled upon some sort of parade in a tiny square of what looked to be young cadets of some sort. We weren't really sure what was going on and there didn't appear to be anyone around to ask. So as the wind picked up a little, we continued to explore the city.

It must be said that, although it is really small for a city, it is a really beautiful place. Clear blue skies in every direction, so clear and deep that they were more of a rich purple colour. With the bright green trees and fresh modern skyscrapers in front of them, it looked pretty spectacular.

The mix of old and new architecture is everywhere and looks really impressive. It seems to be a really clean city with quite a laidback attitude.

We ventured out towards the Swan River which presented wide open green spaces and some superb windsurfing action out on the water. There was also a small dock area with gift shops, ferry trips and restaurants.

The waterfront is also the site of the ultra-modern city bell tower, the Swan Bells. The bells are rung twice daily by volunteers for the sole reason so that the people of Perth and tourist can hear them. Several of the bells actually started life in a Church in Trafalgar Square in London. Around the tower are lovely colourful mosaics and the names of school children from around the region written in to stone, flanked by palm trees and fountains. It's a really nice setting.

After exploring further, we headed back to the hostel for a breather. It was now around 6pm and so we decided to go for a quick drink in the hostel bar. It was small, but nice and friendly, and had a good food menu. We had a couple of drinks with an Australian man who told us of his travels around the world during the last 40 years with his work, and he showed us brochures of the apartments he hopes to retire to in Thailand, against his family's wishes! It was quite a random story, but as he was a Perth native, it was good to hear about how things have changed here, and across Australia. Strangely, the bar man and licensee of the bar then popped over and put another beer on the table for us. It was a nice gesture, although we're still not quite sure why we got it!

As this hostel was only for two nights, the next morning we had to be up sharpish to check out. After a quick breakfast at the hostel, we decided to make our way to our next port of call - Cottesloe Beach - using public transport.

We caught the bus out there which was quite reasonably priced and took around 20 minutes. Unfortunately, we ended up nursing our giant backpacks on our knees as the bus was really busy for the first 10 minutes or so!

Ocean Beach Backpackers was the next hostel we would be staying at, and after spending the final minutes of our bus journey staring out of the window at the stunning views of the Indian Ocean and the amazing modern houses and beachfront hideaways, we were relieved that the bus stop was pretty much outside the hostel.

Our room was a lot more basic than the ones we had had up to this point. A tiled floor, a single-glazed window which rattled constantly thanks to the wind from the ocean, not to mention a bed that wobbled and squeaked every time you brushed against it! That said, it was adequate, and we did at least get our own full-size fridge in the room!

We quickly dumped our bags in the room and as it was only early afternoon, we headed to the beach which was pretty much on our doorstep. We had a quick walk on the sand, but the wind made it impossible to do any kind of sunbathing, so we joined the locals on some grass slopes just up from the sand which was a lot more sheltered and soaked up our first clear sun of the trip.

Later in the day, we decided to go to Fremantle, a town we had heard so much about. We decided we would begin walking while waiting for the bus which was due around half an hour later, but after around an hour we figured we had left the bus route behind and so opted to continue the walk, not knowing how far the town would be.

As we were walking on the front just above the beach, the blazing sunshine was cooled by the wind, so it was a pleasant walk. After two or three hours of walking in flip-flops and sandals, it was becoming tiring! It was pretty good going though considering the cut Rach picked up on her foot in Singapore had now turned in to a full-blown foot infection!

The first part of Fremantle we reached was the shipping port, which was totally the wrong side of town! We were blown about by the huge two and three trailer wagons as they flew out of the port no doubt on their way across Australia. These were only a fraction of the size of the ones we are likely to see later in our trip.

Finally, we found a bus stop and waited a few minutes to complete our journey in to the town centre. By this time, it was early evening and so we had a brief explore before heading for some dinner at an Italian restaurant. We shared a giant "Aussie Pizza" which was lovely. For drinks, Rach had a vanilla milkshake which was served in a huge silver beaker while Rich was made up to see Ginger Beer on the menu!

After dinner we opted to head back to the hostel (by bus!), with the ocean breeze no longer backed up with sunlight meaning it had become quite chilly. We look forward to exploring the area further in the coming days!

See you soon
Rich and Rach
xxxx