Western Australia : Perth & Fremantle

I bought the ticket to Perth back in 2008, can you believe it? There was free seats promotion going on that time, so I snapped up the ticket without thinking twice. A lot of people disapproved of my choice going to Perth. It is a dead boring city, as they said. But the ticket was so cheap I couldn't resist ;p and I thought if I never go, I'll never know. 

The trip was supposed to be last year, in August, with a stranger from the travel forum that I joined. O_o

But then, H1N1 decided to outbreak, causing chaos around the world. And I just came back from another trip not long before that. Shortage of annual leaves, travel fund and the pandemic virus made me changed my ticket to this year. 

But, my supposed-to-be travelmate decided to stick to the original date, so yeah, another solo trip for me then. However, I wasn't alone most of the time, as I was surrounded by new friends and was 'adopted' by a Malay Singaporean family who migrated there. I was actually hosted by a Malaysian student and they were her friends and foster family. She then brought me to meet them, and stayed at their houses for a few nights. All those times when I was there, I couldn't believe my lucky stars and kept thinking what good deed had I done in the past to deserve such hospitality. T_T 

My flight arrived at 5.20am and after clearing the immigration and custom, I thought I'd just wandered around the airport before meeting up with my host, Nadia. I felt it was unappropriate to go to someone's house too early in the morning. Plus, it was her foster family's house! Segan ok. But Nadia insisted I took a cab and came straight away.  

So we met up, and after a brief chat, she took me to my room and asked me to have a rest and sleep. What a nice host! 

 

Fresh from a good sleep, we were ready to start the day! Nadia and I felt that it would be fun to have more companies so we set up a date with another CSer, Emily from Taiwan. We met up in Fremantle or Freo as it's locally called. 

The city has a lot of picturesque old buildings and other heritage features. And with the cappuccino strip, I felt like I was brought back to the 50's. It's like a cowboy town.

Anyway, come to the Fremantle harbour on the weekends and you'll find the E-Shed market here. It's a famous place to hunt for cheap souvenirs. For example, you can get the small koalas and kangaroos for AUD3 per packet, but I saw the same item being sold in the city centre for AUD8!

There's also a nearby Fremantle Markets, but I found that the souvenirs there were slightly expensive compared to E-Shed's.

 

buskers in front of Fremantle Markets

After a fun day out exploring the city, we headed to the wharf for lunch. Freo is famous for it's fish n chips, so I wouldn't wanna miss tasting it. We were spoilt for choice, Cicerello's, Kailis, Joe's Fish Shack and many more but Nadia suggested that we went to Cicerello's.

I ordered their original Fish n Chips, which costed me AUD12.60. By original, it meant the serving was very basic. If you want sauces or mayonnaise, pay for it. 

 

Luckily, the serving was big! What I liked about the system there was you got a pager when you placed an order. The pager then would beep once your order was ready. Nice eh? We could chit chat at the comfort of our own table, no need to waste time waiting at the counter.

with Nadia and Emily

Coincidentally, there were a small gathering of Malaysian students that day in Matilda Bay. So, Nadia brought me there to meet up with her friends.

Matilda Bay

We had BBQ party!

My first day in Perth and I've already felt the warmth of the people and the place...