Perth bound

When I originally booked my flight back in the UK I knew that I had a couple of free flights in Asutralia and decided that I may as well use them to go and see Perth as its the only capital I hadn't seen (if you excuse Hobart of course!). So I re-arranged my flight and left on Wednesday last week.

You know its weird that in the same country you can fly for over three hours to reach another major capital city. Aside from Hawaii Perth is called the 'lone Capital' as it is so far from every other main Australian city. In fact its so far away that it has its own time-zone and is 3 hours behind Sydney and Melbourne!

The Airport Con
You know I have noticed something interesting on my travels. At most airports I arrive into the authorities seem to make it more difficult and COSTLY for you to get to the city. Usually this takes the form of either not supplying a bus route or making it extremely hard to find the damn thing! I am afraid Perth is no exception to that rule. Walking out the domestic terminal I found a bunch of backpackers, all of whom where English (no surprise there!) who were equally as lost. Eventually they found the hostel notice board and poceeded to phone hostels as many offered to come and pick you up if you stayed with them. Unfortunately it turns out a) you have to commit yourself to stay somewhere you havn't seen and b) stay 3 nights which I wasn't sure I was doing! So with that option gone I proceeded to enquire about the 'Shuttle Bus'. Well it turns out the shuttle bus isn't much of a bus, its a large taxi and all for the 'tiny' fare of $11! Well I wasn't prepare to part with that much cash, hey I needed to be able to feed myself, so that option was gone!

So what was I left with? Well my 11 year old Lonely Planet travel book, which by the way still contained info on Ansett describing it has having the 'monopoly of WA flights' (who went out of business a few years back to those who don't know), said the 200 and 201 run to the city. So I proceeded to walk around asking various people where this bus went from. Eventually it dawned on me that the 200 and 201 no longer existed! Guess thats what happens when you use a book which is just a tiny bit out of date! Lesson to be learned from that experience I can tell you! Eventually I found the 37 ran from the airport and proceeded to pay the $3 fare to the city.

Central Perth
The CBD of Perth is, in many ways, similar to Adelaide. Whilst it has its fair share of skycrappers with very odd designs, it feels very small and down-to-earth. It really doesn't feel like a large city and like Adelaide everything shuts down at 5.30pm. Hostels and hotels are scattered around the city with the area of the North, called Northbridge, the home for most of the hostels.

Globe Backpackers
Eventually I stumbled into Globe Backpackers which cost me $21 a night. Now the interesting thing about backpackers in Australia is that they tend to be on the whole either 'a) English, b) German and Swiss or c) Asian and each have their own style. This hostel had heaps of style and character.

The Asian Guests
Everytime I went downstairs to the kitchen I would find the an Asian girl (Japanese I think) there with two Asian guys either cooking or chatting at the tables. Whatever the time of the day they would be there. However, in the evening they would move outside and during the three nights I was there they seemed to cut each others hair every night! It was like they were professional barbers!

The Brits
Well the Brits tended to be somewhat drunk! Most evenings they would congregate around the outside tables and proceed to sing loudly to typically British music. After a while I became somewhat dulled to the sound of British folk songs and realised quickly again how much I hate travelling around Australia as a backpacker!

The Germans
The Germans and the Swiss always tended to avoid the British so that when the English went out the Germans stayed in and then when the Englosh came back at midnight-ish the Germans would then head out. I personally got on with the German guests quite well and tended to avoid the Brits as they seemed to spend most their time drunk anyway!

Room Guests
I have to say despite what I said about the majority of the guests I had some rather interesting room mates. I was sleeping a dorm room of 6 and had four very different room-mates. In the corner I had Raji who was from the south of India and was looking for work. He seemed to be constantly sleepy and always wearing a suit which I didn't understand. On the other ground bunk I got to know a Canadian guy who was even balder than me and was quite a laugh to talk to. Underneath me I had one of the weirdist people I have ever met. This guy seemed to be living permanently in hostel and was an Australian I think. He was over 6 foot 5 and seemed to have the weirdest sleep patterns. He would fall into the room as pissed as a newt at 3 in the morning, and then get up and leave the room at 6am and he did this every morning! Whenever I saw him downstairs he would be drinking and seemed to be constantly in a state of alcohol induced consciousness. He was even balder than me and the Canadian and frankly scared me rather a lot as he seemed to resemble a bloody big wall!

As you can imagine my time in Perth was shaping up to be an interesting experience!