Perth!

Hello all!

It's 1221am now and I'm so sleepy.. But I gotta post up this Perth entry before I push it to the warehouse.. Guess it'll be 2am by the time I'm done with this entry.. Haha..

Anyway. HSM 3 finally came out in cinemas today! Headed to watch it right after lunch.. Bad choice of timing.. Some school was having a field trip and the whole cinema was full of kids.. Haha.. But the movie was so great! Now, just waiting for Beilin to come home from her camp to start discussing with her! Haha..


And, Sylvester finally posted up this picture of Marian's birthday surprise from the beginning of November.. Haha.. The pictures take from his camera makes me want to buy a good one as well..
Ok.. Let's start with the Perth entry..

Day 1- 30 Nov 2008

Got a call the night before from Virgin Blue to inform me that the flight the next morning was cancelled! Argh! I panicked and spent the whole night solving this problem.. Didn't even managed to research the places to visit in Perth.. Well, we eventually managed to leave on the same day and even got a refund for that flight but it was a long journey to Perth.. We had to head to Melbourne first and then fly to Perth from there.. -.-'

Melbourne Airport..

Breakfast at Burger King.. Oops! Hungry Jacks I meant..

Well, the whole journey took long enough.. Left Adelaide at 7am, reached Melbourne at 8am, transitted for 1 hour +, left Melbourne at 10am and finally reached at 1230pm.. With all the time differences and daylight saving between the 3 cities, we spent a total of 8 hours on this crazy flight when we could have taken only 4 hours.. -.-'

Perth Airport at last! Headed out to catch our Airport- City shuttle..

Checked in.. And embarked on our discovery of the city.. Our little neighbourhood for the next 3 days..

Stopped over at Subway to satisfy our hungry stomachs.. Took this picture outside the store..

Dome restaurants can be found everywhere in Perth.. Oh, and I have no idea who the bronze guy is.. Haha..

Some empty park we discovered on our way..

Swan River..

Even the palm trees are huge in Perth..

Swan Bells AKA The Perth Bell Tower..

On the 6th story observatory..

If Perth is a city for old people, then Adelaide would be a city for dead people.. Look at all the skycrapers; you can never find that in Adelaide! Seriously..

Taken before going in.. We were left with only 20 mins before the tower.. Chiong ah!

Camera check! Map check! Typical tourist look.. Haha..

Dunno why but this picture reminds me of "Singing in the rain".. So weird.. Haha..

Walking down to somewhere..

Talen after exiting the tower.. Another tall building conquered.. =) Probably another 100+ more to go.. Haha..

Headed to the city after that.. Shopping! But the shops all close by 5pm on Sundays and the streets were so empty..

Some alley with pretty Christmas decorations..

It looks like a building set for a fairytale story.. Haha.. As if Snow White would open one of windows suddenly and start singing with birds suddenly flying to her.. Haha..

Headed for dinner after that.. Initially wanted to eat buffet at a restaurant called Miss Maud but it was fully booked that night.. So we headed to dine at some Korean joint..

Pretty menu they had..

Delicious Korean food!

And with friendly staff to help us take a picture.. =) I rate the place 5 stars!

A picture of us back in the room.. The place was pretty decent.. 1 queen bed and 1 single bed with nice toilet.. Haha..

Day 2- 1 Dec 2008

Woke up bright and early.. Bought tickets for the train ride down to a small town in Perth called Fremantle (pronounced it as free-mental).. And I must it was pretty easy.. Perth has a good train system compared to Adelaide..

And they have nice train stations as well.. Haha..

Our plan initially was to visit the popular Fremantle Market.. But we read the pamphlet wrongly and thought they were open on Mondays.. Turned out they were only opened on Mondays that are public holidays.. =(

Gelare! They didn't have waffles at half price on Tuedays.. =(

Back to Perth city.. The train still had 10 mins before it departed so take picture first.. Haha..

See? Almost similar to Singapore's right? Haha..

And they had little train tickets that cost rather cheap for the ride..

With comfy seats too.. Haha..

O.o So many cars! Haha.. Oh.. Forgot to mention.. Fremantle is a port city so they deal with sea freight etc.

There were 3 Angmoh ladies sitting opposite of us and one of them was talking about her recent trip to Singapore and Hong Kong.. "The tranport system in both countries were fantastic!" Vienna and I beamed immediately.. So nice to hear people complementing our own countries.. Haha..

Reached our second destination of the day- Harbourtown! Cheap bargain shopping!

Had lunch at some cafe owned by a Singaporean.. Haha.. Tried the curry chicken rice which was simply fantastic.. And I just realised that the design on this plate is exactly the same as the one I have back home!

Splitted up to do our own shopping later on.. Bought a pair of boots (dirt cheap!), new jeans, sports shirt and something else.. And there were so many Singaporeans in Harbourtown that day! All the "lahs", "lehs" and "lors" flying all over the place.. Then it dawned on me- School Holidays.. Shucks.. Haha.. Hung out at Gloria Jeans for a while before heading back to the hotel..

Rested.. And it was time for our evening tour that we had signed up the day before.. There were only the three of us for this tour because it was a Monday but the tour guide who was also the GM of the company said he liked small groups better.. Haha..

First stop was a sunset ferry ride across Swan River..

I like this picture! Nice shot Vienna! Again, look at all the tall skyscapers!

Inside the ferry..

Upon reaching the shore, we saw this whole hoard of teenagers.. I think it was schoolies week or something.. And a cute little bus.. Haha..

Next stop was a long scenic drive.. Yacht club on Swan River..

And our Tour Guide stopped at this lookout for us to take picture of the entire Swan River..

Simply breathtaking!

And along the walls that fenced the lookout were these little remembrance plaques..

Nice eh?

Haha.. Adelaide St in Perth? So wrong..

Dinner at Cicerello's which is said to serve the best Fish & Chips in Australia..

Er.. Vienna said I had to a picture with the fishes.. Haha.. Our tour was inclusive of dinner..

And this was it! F&C! Tradition was to dump it all together in the middle and use your hands to eat! Haha.. I just had to post this picture to show you the large amount we had!

A pager thing that alerted you when it was time to collect your food..

Ordered additional stuff.. Grilled Sardine with Greek Salad.. Shiok Shiok Shiok..

Oysters! Ooh-la-la..

Happy Diners! With our TG, Ron..

The surrounding restaurants.. Seaside dining.. Definitely my kind of dining anyday.. Haha..

Twilight! So beautiful! Next stop was to some bay where shark attacks happened in recent times.. And we also passed the place where they held Heath Ledger's funeral service..

And it was up to Roe's lookup at Kings' Park.. It took so much effort to take this pretty picture; from kneeling on the ground to balancing my camera on my head and finally to finding a ledge to put it on.. But you gotta admit, it is indeed pretty..

And I swear this picture was not doctored.. It really is the moon with Venus and Jupiter.. Smiley Face!

And we made a special request for Ron to head to Swan Bells to take picture of it.. So pretty!

Met a couple who was lost and Ron offered them a lift back to the main city area for them to take a taxi.. So nice.. After that it was off to Chinatown! Well, I really wouldn't call it Chinatown since there were so many different ethnic groups represented in that area..

And it was the last stop of the day before we headed back to our hotel and with one last shot of Ron and our faithful van of the day.. =)

Day 3- 2 Dec 2008

Had some time before our flight home so we decided to head back to Chinatown for Yum Cha.. Oh, and this is where I stayed at..

Perth CAT bus. These buses provided free transportation around Perth City.. =)

The main restaurants were still closed so we wandered further into Chinatown and spotted this quaint little stall in a food court..

Pictures are always helpful if you have no idea what the menu is saying.. Haha..

Celine was kinda lost too so she let me and Vienna choose the items.. Haha.. We practically ordered all our favourites..

I love love love this picture! The colour, position etc are just right for a perfect picture! =) And for the record, I think we still had about 4 more Dim Sum that haven't arrived.. Haha..

Satay Stall! The Singapore word is not lighted up yet.. Haha..

The Dim Sum was so fresh and delicious! Probably cos it was only made and steamed upon ordering.. And the lady boss was so nice to help us take a picture too.. Haha..

Went into the city for more shopping.. Bought a blazer at Cotton On.. Rushed back to the hotel for our shuttle to the airport.. Good bye Perth!

Conclusion: I really really love Perth! I think it's such a great city to live in.. Part city part countryside area, good transportation, friendly people etc. And another nice thing about this trip was that the food was simply great.. Haha.. And of cos the company, Celine and Vienna.. So glad I have them on this trip with me to source for nice food and go to visit those places.. =)

And I've got back part of my exam results.. Erm.. I'm actually quite pleased with all my results even though ALL of them jsut need between 1- 4 marks to get Distinction.. I seriously mean ALL.. Haha.. But there was something else that made me really happy..

I scored 89/100 for my Strategic Management Exam! It is my weakest subject out of the 7 subjects I'm taking now.. And to add on to my happiness, I've actually topped the entire Degree cohort for this subject for the exam! =)

*Sorry for being so BHB, but this one of the proudest moment of my life! Hehe..

Ok.. Finally the end of the this entry.. It's 140am.. Haha.. Time for bed! Night!