Perth Day 1 - Arrival at Perth

This entry is a little bit late. In exact, one year late.

It has been one year since I went to Perth for the Sec 4 Annual Camp.

Had fun times and great memories at Perth.

I should chronicle it down before the memories fade. =D

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20050821 Sunday
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Early in the morning. SQ 223, was an early flight to Perth, Western Australia. It was actually my first flight on an airplane since the furthest country I have ever went was to Malaysia.


Not an earthquake, just to show where Perth is on the map.

We met with our friends at the airport. Everyone was apparently drowsy in the morning. But as the sky brightens, its obvious everyone started becoming excited for whats to come for the 7days stay at Perth.


Tugging huge luggages as if we are going overseas. :]


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I still kept the air ticket

Singapore Airline is a good airline. I am lucky to sit on a SIA plane for my first flight.
The cabin is spacious and new and clean.
The food is quite tasty.
The service is prompt.
(I rmb we spammed the "call" button and Lily chai came.. Lol, to ask us why, cause she was slightly pissed)
Most importantly, the stewardesses are professional and "looks like" air stewardess.
(Compared to other airlines with old and ugly attendants :X)

The suaku me was playing with the inflight entertainment like it was a toy. lol.
But it actually is indeed a toy cause can play gameboy games.
So zai, it helped us passed alot of time.

My first plane flight was fascinating for me and I fell in love with taking a plane. I will constantly be looking out of the window, looking at the view above the clouds and below to see things on the ground. I remembered Indonesia looked brown and barren, but Australia had colourful, organised crop fields. =D


my souvenir from SIA. :D

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Perth International Airport

After 5 hours of flight, we finally touched down at Perth.

Perth was experiencing winter during that time, and the weather was really cold, about 5-20 degrees.

Go flip open The Straits Times now and you can see the temperature is 6/19... I want to fly there now to escape Singapore's hotness.

When we boarded the bus, i asked yutse: 外面是不是很冷啊?
Then he say: 对hor..
We walked a short distance from the exit of the airport to board our coach. I did not realise that the temperature was actually cold outside. Then along the way on the coach we touched the window of the coach and realised it was indeed cold. lol
So amazed by the coldness at Perth. =)

Bus trips at Perth were extremely long. We were usually not told exactly where we will be going. We will be constantly guessing that we are reaching soon, then we fall asleep and realise that we are still on the way.
Then, we fall asleep again.

Alot of our time was spent on travelling. Perth and any other countries are just so large. They have abundant land of forests, fields, parks etc, unlike in Singapore where everywhere is packed with buildings.

We played alot of bridge on the shaky bus. (bridge suddenly became a popular game during the Perth trip)
I spent most of the time watching at Perth's road sceneries through the bus window.



On the bus.. Look at cute eugene there. haha


Still on the bus..


Eugene don't want to be photographed. Or maybe because the sun was shining at him?


Everyone can't sit still. -_-

I remembered our coach driver was quite pissed that everyone does not sit still. For the following coach trips, he will be reminding us to sit down, else if the bus brakes suddenly everyone will fall. He even tried a sudden brake to show us how dangerous it will be. >(

He was a good coach driver still i think. He will be talking about stuffs along the way and introduce to us more about Perth. However, most of the time none of us were listening. :p


Er, those were GEPpers on the same bus. Look at the road signs instead. =)


Zhexi's unglam look. -_- I think yanzhi wants to take his own photo.


Perth-style road signs


View through the bus window

Perth is quite a quiet city. That is probably why it is call the "most isolated city in the world".
And probably because it was a Sunday, the city was quiet and felt remote.
Its definitely not what everyone calls a 'bustling' city.


Beautiful Perth city skyline~!

Obviously this photo wasnt taken by one of us.. lol

Our first destination was Kings Park, and it was planned as a "teaser preview" to Perth i suppose.
There was a panaromic view over the Swan River and Perth city skyline.

The Swan River is a river right at Perth's doorstep. It was named so because of the many black swans on the waters. (Really, there was alot) The Swan River and Perth are inextricably bound together. After meandering down, it narrows into the busy port of Fremantle. (Which we went too) The river continues further on its way to the Indian Ocean.

Its something like Singapore River, but just much larger. And I think swans will be choked to death by the litter we throw into Singapore River. Or they may be caught by aunties to become 烧鹅.


City Perth~


HDB flats at Perth..




Flame of Rememberance - Let Silent Contemplation Be Your Offering

Look at the shadows - so many people taking photos. haha.




Swan River - calm and serene.


Perth busy road~

By then, we haven really entered the city and most probably wasn't tt amazed by the buildings on the other side of the river.

It must be so, thats why none of the photos taken were on the prominent buildings of city Perth. -_-

I remembered we laid on the grass and thought it was wet cause it was cold. But its not wet and muddy at all, just cooling due to the low temperature. (Still fascinated by the cold =D)

By then, the sky was already getting dark. It gets dark early at Perth during September, around 4-5pm i think. We proceeded to our hotel, Goodearth Hotel.



Number 2 house at the bottom right side is Goodearth Hotel!

Ok, im just lazy to edit the picture


Goodearth Hotel


Really basic..


The lobby. Trust me, they did something to make the lobby looks so class and spacious.

The hotel setting was simple. Rooms were basic, not luxurious. Lobby was actually no larger than my living room. I shared room with Zhexi, KaiKeat and Jonathan, and we were fighting for the queen size bed. In the end, me and Kaikeat slept together :X. Just sleeping plus some chats, nothing extra =)

The hotel was where we spent a couple of nights. We ran from rooms to rooms to play bridge, sharing the food we bought etc. It was fun.

That night, the teachers say that no one is to leave the hotel without permission. But we felt it will be damn wasted to be kept inside the hotel. Bingcheng asked for permission and before we knew it, we have gathered the whole class to leave the hotel for an exciting trip to the.. supermarket. Everyone was jumping around outside the hotel because it was cold. We were kept warm by our thick sweaters and jackets. The city becomes isolated at night. We met few people along the streets and traffic was low too.

I remember that night, we ran down Adelaide Terrace. The weather was cold and everyone was draped in their sweaters. The streets were empty. Our face and palms were freezing, but deep inside everyone was warm and sweaty.

The feeling was great, running down the streets of a totally unfamiliar city...

When will we ever get another chance to do that, like young innocent kids?