0600 - 0845 hours : Day 2 began sleepily and rather slowly. One thing you'll notice in Perth is how slow time seems to crawl by. We awoke at 6 am and the sun was already shining beautifully in Perth. After much deliberation and procrastination in preparations, we were rather shocked to find that it was still only 730 am. By then, we'd gotten ready and left the room for our first taste of breakfast in Australia, or rather Sullivan's Hotel for that matter.
Breakfast @ Sullivan's Hotel
Now, the hotel offers continental breakfast in a buffet style for an all-you-can-eat experience. The spread includes 3 to 4 different types of bread with various spreads from honey, peanut butter to butter and chocolate. Then there's the cereal corner which has about 5 to 6 choices of cereals, nuts, dried fruits and muesli which can be mixed and matched to your liking before being filled with either pasteurized or non pasteurized milk. There are also scones, which is basically Popeye's biscuit albeit a little less flaky. Then there's the fruit themselves if you feel so inclined and there's 2 kinds of ham you can indulge in. Finally, its the fruit juices, coffee and tea to round up the entire package. A very healthy breakfast if i should say so myself. The catch is that this breakfast costs AUD 18 per person. I'm not saying its a bad breakfast of course, its the healthiest i've had in a while and a refreshing change. AUD 18 is pushing it a little but hey, its still enjoyable.
0845 - 0935 hours : After a rather extended breakfast and being slightly alarmed that it was only 8.45 am, we decided to hoof it all the way down to town along Adelaide Terrace street to find our car rental company. Our choice is also a recommendation from Alvin who happens to live on the other side of Australia. Bayswater car rentals.
The journey was actually rather long, taking us 45 minutes and across multiple streets till we finally arrived at the rental joint but the excellent weather, interesting sights and sounds just blew all our tiredness away. Its also worth noting how much space there was on the streets, no packing in corners, no shunning away from pedestrians and in fact, not much noise. It was a walk unlike any that i've experienced in Singapore in that i actually, honestly and truthfully enjoyed the journey instead of just trying to get to a destination. It was a wonderful feeling.
Car Rental: www.bayswatercarrental.com.au
Choice of Vehicle: Toyota Corolla Hatch
Total Rental for 6 days: AUD 260 + AUD 50(for having shrapnel lodged in the windscreen) + AUD 80 (for petrol for 6 days)
Total Kilometers traveled in 6 days: 750 km
Breakfast @ Sullivan's Hotel
Now, the hotel offers continental breakfast in a buffet style for an all-you-can-eat experience. The spread includes 3 to 4 different types of bread with various spreads from honey, peanut butter to butter and chocolate. Then there's the cereal corner which has about 5 to 6 choices of cereals, nuts, dried fruits and muesli which can be mixed and matched to your liking before being filled with either pasteurized or non pasteurized milk. There are also scones, which is basically Popeye's biscuit albeit a little less flaky. Then there's the fruit themselves if you feel so inclined and there's 2 kinds of ham you can indulge in. Finally, its the fruit juices, coffee and tea to round up the entire package. A very healthy breakfast if i should say so myself. The catch is that this breakfast costs AUD 18 per person. I'm not saying its a bad breakfast of course, its the healthiest i've had in a while and a refreshing change. AUD 18 is pushing it a little but hey, its still enjoyable.
0845 - 0935 hours : After a rather extended breakfast and being slightly alarmed that it was only 8.45 am, we decided to hoof it all the way down to town along Adelaide Terrace street to find our car rental company. Our choice is also a recommendation from Alvin who happens to live on the other side of Australia. Bayswater car rentals.
The journey was actually rather long, taking us 45 minutes and across multiple streets till we finally arrived at the rental joint but the excellent weather, interesting sights and sounds just blew all our tiredness away. Its also worth noting how much space there was on the streets, no packing in corners, no shunning away from pedestrians and in fact, not much noise. It was a walk unlike any that i've experienced in Singapore in that i actually, honestly and truthfully enjoyed the journey instead of just trying to get to a destination. It was a wonderful feeling.
Car Rental: www.bayswatercarrental.com.au
Choice of Vehicle: Toyota Corolla Hatch
Total Rental for 6 days: AUD 260 + AUD 50(for having shrapnel lodged in the windscreen) + AUD 80 (for petrol for 6 days)
Total Kilometers traveled in 6 days: 750 km
Conclusion on Bayswater Car Rental:
Its a necessity. Being in a town and a country as huge as Australia, its definitely a must to have a rental vehicle. It helps that the car rental is no frills, easy to understand and has no hidden costs. Add the fact that it happens to be one of the more affordable car rentals and i heartily recommend renting from this company.
Short note on the vehicle: Its a great vehicle to have! Stronger then a Toyota Altis, smooth as silk handling and effortless acceleration. To give you a sense of it, imagine accelerating to 100 km per hour and not feeling it at all. Its comparable to a Mercedez in terms of smooth driving. Space wise, its generous in the front seats and despite the small looking boot, managed to accomodate 4 huge luggages and around 3 more bags of additional loads. The backseat seemed spacious enough but we never tried it. All in all, if it were available in Singapore, i'd buy it flat out. Its a pretty decent vehicle and i am sold for it.
Back to my experience: The rental went well if not for one small thing. I opted online for the GPS (global positioning system) so that i could easily get around WA but sadly, they ran out of the systems. We got maps of the region instead and basically, after i've gotten over the shock of having to actually find my way around instead of following an emotionless voice coming from a million dollar satelite system, we eventually got on our way. Our first stop with the vehicle is a direct shopping outlet called Harbour Town Brand Direct Shopping outlet. More information on it below on the website here (http://www.harbourtownperth.com.au/)
1000 - 1300 hours: A little fumbling, getting horned at and simply driving around aimlessly later, we managed to get to our location at Harbour Town shopping outlet. Its a 2 storey mall covering a fair bit of space. Outlets range between 50 to 80 in terms ofdifferent brands and shops. Items range from jewellry to clothes to food and games. All are apparently at a heavily discounted price.
We spent quite a fair bit of time walking around the place and checking out all the prices and shops. However, to our dismay, the prices still seem to be beyond our reach even at the discounted prices and we found it hard to decide or buy anything after our 3 hour shopping trip. In the end, we bought a pen (AUD 2) and some food from Croissont Express that we brought to our next location. We had a mocha and a smoked salmon sandwich from Croissont Express for around AUD 15 while we purchased another chocolate cake, chilli cheese hotdog and a beef burger from an unknown bread shop for about AUD 18. We then paid AUD 6 for the parking and was on our way to King's Park for a picnic lunch.
1300 - 1630 hours: Travelling to King's Park from Harbour Town was easy as it was only 3 streets away. And this was a place of beauty that must be experienced to be understood. I apologise for not having a better camera to capture the feeling of the place but do enjoy the photos from our exploration below.
Short note on the vehicle: Its a great vehicle to have! Stronger then a Toyota Altis, smooth as silk handling and effortless acceleration. To give you a sense of it, imagine accelerating to 100 km per hour and not feeling it at all. Its comparable to a Mercedez in terms of smooth driving. Space wise, its generous in the front seats and despite the small looking boot, managed to accomodate 4 huge luggages and around 3 more bags of additional loads. The backseat seemed spacious enough but we never tried it. All in all, if it were available in Singapore, i'd buy it flat out. Its a pretty decent vehicle and i am sold for it.
Back to my experience: The rental went well if not for one small thing. I opted online for the GPS (global positioning system) so that i could easily get around WA but sadly, they ran out of the systems. We got maps of the region instead and basically, after i've gotten over the shock of having to actually find my way around instead of following an emotionless voice coming from a million dollar satelite system, we eventually got on our way. Our first stop with the vehicle is a direct shopping outlet called Harbour Town Brand Direct Shopping outlet. More information on it below on the website here (http://www.harbourtownperth.com.au/)
1000 - 1300 hours: A little fumbling, getting horned at and simply driving around aimlessly later, we managed to get to our location at Harbour Town shopping outlet. Its a 2 storey mall covering a fair bit of space. Outlets range between 50 to 80 in terms ofdifferent brands and shops. Items range from jewellry to clothes to food and games. All are apparently at a heavily discounted price.
We spent quite a fair bit of time walking around the place and checking out all the prices and shops. However, to our dismay, the prices still seem to be beyond our reach even at the discounted prices and we found it hard to decide or buy anything after our 3 hour shopping trip. In the end, we bought a pen (AUD 2) and some food from Croissont Express that we brought to our next location. We had a mocha and a smoked salmon sandwich from Croissont Express for around AUD 15 while we purchased another chocolate cake, chilli cheese hotdog and a beef burger from an unknown bread shop for about AUD 18. We then paid AUD 6 for the parking and was on our way to King's Park for a picnic lunch.
1300 - 1630 hours: Travelling to King's Park from Harbour Town was easy as it was only 3 streets away. And this was a place of beauty that must be experienced to be understood. I apologise for not having a better camera to capture the feeling of the place but do enjoy the photos from our exploration below.
View from the top
South Perth Across the Bridge
Beautiful Flowers
Huge Trees
View Of Swan River
Close Up
View of the Park
Bridge and South Perth again
More Wildflowers
Kangaroo Paw
Captain Cook Cruises
The Glass Bridge
Bed Of Flowers
More
Desert Rose
Park View
Fountain
Carefree Ducks
More on the Fountain
One Happy Family
Memorial
Beautiful Memorial in its entirety
Awesome Flowers
Needless to say, the environment, the view and the flowers were nothing short of excellent. And having a picnic here is an indulgence not to be missed. The park premises is huge as well, which means walking the park is going to take a long long time. As for me and my gf, we loved it there. The air is wonderful, view and flowers got us walking the park for hours while the glass bridge gave us some jitters while walking past it. It was all in all, a wonderfully relaxing and happy experience. It was so good that the last thing we did before returning the vehicle and going to the airport, is to return here again for one last look. It is that good.
Conclusion: King's Park is a must visit. Try visiting between June to early October to catch the flowers in bloom.
1630 - rest of the day : As most shops in Australia closes at 5 pm, we retired back to our hotel and went out on foot again to some convenience stores to grab some drinks and food. Partially because we had no idea where to go for dinner and because we were a little worried about security after dark.
Conclusion: King's Park is a must visit. Try visiting between June to early October to catch the flowers in bloom.
1630 - rest of the day : As most shops in Australia closes at 5 pm, we retired back to our hotel and went out on foot again to some convenience stores to grab some drinks and food. Partially because we had no idea where to go for dinner and because we were a little worried about security after dark.
Chardonnay (AUD 5)
Chips and Instant Noodles (AUD 12)
Dinner: As it turned out, dinner was a rather humbling and simple affair that night. The wine was excellent though and only cost AUD 5 bucks. Simply superb. Lightly sweet with a hint of sour and little spice. Its good enough to drink everyday for me. Instant noodles were overpriced though but filled us up nonetheless.
With that ends our first full day in Perth. It was a wonderful day and something i'll remember for a long time. The views and experience were priceless. Still, there's more to come. And day 3 turned out to be as interesting as this day as well for us. Do await my next post. Cheers!
With that ends our first full day in Perth. It was a wonderful day and something i'll remember for a long time. The views and experience were priceless. Still, there's more to come. And day 3 turned out to be as interesting as this day as well for us. Do await my next post. Cheers!
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