here's a pic from the night we all went out.
MONDAY 1ST JUNE
Happy Birthday to meee!
We woke up about 5.30 to get all packed up for our flight. We'd not booked a shuttle, so we were just kinda hoping for a taxi to be available outside the World Tower. As it happenend, a shuttle was out there waiting. "can we get on?" I asked. So we got a unbooked shuttle, nifty huh?
Was quite alot of fun and games at the airport. - remember how my luggage was 25kg from Melbourne? I'd collected a few more items. I'd actually sent a few boxes of stuff home via Sea mail so i thought maybe it wouldnt be too bad. It was actually 26kg and we were allowed 23. Luckily, Anna had only 20k as she'd downgraded to a backpack... so they put them through together. "happy birthday dan!" Anna said.
Then was Sarah's turn. Sarah likes to shop, and also not to throw ANYTHING away. luggage rung up as 44KG!!!! - so double...
"yeh, that's WAY to heavy" said the woman. She then gave sarah a plastic bag to put stuff in so that each item was less than 32kg. So we went off to the side, where Sarah was forced to throw stuff away and put stuff in the plastic bag. I was dreading the price that it would be for the extra weight, considering they charged me $50 for 5kg over.
When we got back to the Qantas woman, she asked Sarah if she wanted to take the plastic bag of stuff as hand luggage, to which Sarah replied
"nah it's fine I'll pay for it to be checked luggage"
"no.... take it on the plane" the Qantas woman said
"...or it'll be $90 extra.
She then checked it all through and sent us on our way.
I enlightened Sarah that she'd just gotten away with ALOT. i.e. they should've charged her extra for the main luggage which was 32kg, so 2 lots of $90 she got away with!!! - whose Birthday was it?!
The scanning section was slightly traumatic, as I realised I'd left my trusty nailfile in my backpack (had it for like 15 years) so they had to throw it away... but he let me keep the pen knife that was in the front.... how ludicrous. He even commented how stupid it was. On the way to the plane... I started feeling a little ill... but i couldnt really understand why.. I mean.. what it was? weird. Anyway I guess that was the start of the 2 bouts of tonsilitus I'd have over the next week :(
The flight was fine, other than the most BORING movie we have ever, EVER seen, called "two lovers". I actually fell asleep right near the end, it was so bad. We've since seen reviews for this film, giving it glowing reviews? WHAT?
Unfortunately my left ear had some issues with the altitude, and was cloudy for a good 3 days after.
Before getting to Perth we were warned that it wouldn't be that much better weather than Sydney. However as soon as we got out of the Airport, it was ALOT more sunny, peaceful and... pleasant than Sydney.
We were all smiles as the taxi took us to the YHA.
Perth is alot more relaxed than the East Coast and walking around the town it was practically deserted. We found out later that it was a bank holiday, but it's still not that much busier on a normal day. We walked around the gardens of the Supreme Court of Justice, then down to the bay and piers (with the funnily named "Lucky shag bar", past "the Bullet" - which is a bell tower and the Perth Eye. (like london Eye). The weather was glorious, just the type of weather that makes you smile to yourself. In the evening we went into the town to have a birthday meal in a pub called "Bar138" and had a really nice seafood basket and chips.
TUESDAY 2nd JUNE
While we were in the YHA we'd been looking at the notice board, and saw various offers of lifts (none that suited us) and quite a few cars and 4WDs for sale. One of them was going for $900, as the owners were leaving very soon, so we decided to take a look at it. The car seemed to have anything that we'd want and more. Not too many miles, everything in take, new tyres, new break pads, aircon, large boot (actually classed as a wagon). The 2 German girls let me have a test drive and it felt like a really comfortable drive. We said we'd let them know by 12 o'clock.
We'd decided to move hostels as for some reason the YHA was quite a pricey. We'd found a very swish looking one with a very fancy website www.bambu.net.au/
- it turned out that the website was put up over 5 years ago... and it didnt seem as though anything had been updated, or even cleaned since then. The place stunk of wee, the lighting was very dark, and it was situated behind a club... with the toilets being behind all the rooms...
we were there for less than 10 minutes when we decided to ask if we left, would be get our deposit back "yeh sure" the lady at the desk said. Clearly this happens alot. The staff and pretty much everyone in there was really unfriendly and it just DIDNT feel like a nice place to stay.
Instead we hauled our bags up the road a little to Brittania Hostel, which was clean and the staff were friendly. The rooms were also pretty spacious and we got on well with the cheeky guys in our room.
we then headed to town for coffee, and to discuss the purchase of a car!! Anna it turned out, had decided to go do some WWOOF-ing - willing work out on farms (i think) as she didnt have much money and wanted the experience, so the 'road trip' would be just me and Sarah. We discussed it alot and came to the conclusion that even if the car got us as far as Broome, then it's still cheaper than doing the driving tour, and also we may even get some money for it when we get there.
So... big decision, we decided to buy it!
On the way back, we went to the London Court - a little alleyway in the style of olde worlde London.
WEDNESDAY 3RD JUNE
At midday, we bought the car, checked through everything, paperwork, fuel, under the bonnet tyres etc etc, didnt find anything wrong with it at all.
The German girls seemed very sad to say goodbye to it and even insisted on having a picture of us with the car. We drove around a little bit and put some petrol in the car. In the evening we found this great little restaurant that 50% off on Wednesdays and Thursdays. I thought I'd give Kangaroo another try and had a kangaroo steak with bacon and mushroom sauce. Still not that sold on it really... tastes like a cross between liver and lamb... 2 of my LEAST favourite meats.
We then went down to the pub "The Brass Monkeys" for a few drinks with our crazy roomates.
We almost went along to *black betty's* but you had to pay to get in, so it didnt really seem worth it. It was also VERY cold at night in Perth.
THURSDAY 4TH JUNE
Drove to Fremo (Freemantle) and walked around Bathers Bay, through the import tunnel and around the town.
Got shouted by a rude aboriginy woman (stereotype?). We saw many 'magical' themed shops with crystals and all things wicken. We also walked a LONG way to the Freemantle Chocolate factory... with the promise of free testing.
What we didnt realise was that they meant a small basket of sample chocolate.. i.e. tiny tiny little blobs of chocolate. In the evening, Anna and I decided to take a run... to Dominos haha. Then watched Housebunny and Wall-E.
FRIDAY 5TH JUNE
We took Anna off to Skippers Airfield, to catch her flight to the 100,000 acre odd ranch she'd be working on. We've sinced heard from her and she's doing well and enjoying herself. We came home and spent the rest of the day planning the next few days.
SATURDAY 6TH JUNE
After a night of at least 3 people snoring, no - not me.... neither me nor Sarah had had much sleep. Getting to the car, we noticed that some arsehole had reversed in the back light. I'd even parked it much to far forward, so someone had to have really gone out of their way to smash it. :( We went to the ford garage down the road and were told that a replacement would be $350 :O - there was a large bit of the red glass, so we just fixed that in place and hoped that'd be enough. We then drove around in vain trying to get to Cottesloe, which seemed to not be signposted at ALL. Eventually got there 2 hours later. It's probably 30 minutes away? lol. Once we got there and checked in we walked down the main esplanade and I replaced my stolen thongs (flip flops). I still miss my red gap ones, which had practiaclly moulded to my feet and were very comfortable. I bought some blue and white Havianias which are apparently a good make. I chose the ones with the little aussie flag on, so if I managed to hold onto them, they'd remind me of my trip.
We walked a bit further to have a posh dinner... as nothing cheap was open and I started feeling quite ill and feverish - the 2nd bout of tonsilitus. I then finished the 4th of the Twilight books - very good.
SAZ & DAN'S BEASTWAGON ADVENTURE TOUR..... SOOON
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