A brief getaway to Perth, Western Australia:Part 1

The trip has not been a very happy one but it feels good that I have experienced another late fall-early winter, a season that I start to love. The weather in late May was cold in the morning but quickly followed by quite warm weather as the day progressed (between 10 and 22 degrees). When the dark set in, the temperature dropped to a point that we had to put on our thin jackets. It did not rain the three days we were there except in the early morning when we depart for Kuala Lumpur. Significant rainfall in winter is one of the  characteristics of the mediterranean climate after a dry summer. When we went to Istanbul in late fall last year, it rained almost every day we were there but the vacation has been wonderfully great.


As usual, my other half did all the booking and logistics and I, the itinerary. We departed  immediately past midnight and after almost 5 hours, we landed at Perth International Airport at 5.25 am. We do not have to change the time on our watch because Malaysia and Australia experience the same standard greenwich time. The temprature was 16 degrees celcius. The immigration went through a few screenings and in one of them, a dog came sniffing around us and immediately I became a little stiff. :)) The officer in charge seemed to understand.

There is this cream colored form in which we have to declare foodstuff, medicines, money and so forth, which we brought in. Please do not take this lightly. Just be honest or else you shall pay greatly. If we bring any medicine for example, tell the officer so, when he asks. No need to show him the thing unless he asks you.

ETA is another thing we Australian visitors need to have. ETA is Electronic Travel Authority which we can get online or from any travel agencies. It costs RM30 or 50% cheaper when you get them from easyETA the travel agents, at the exchange rate of AUD1=RM3.

We hired a large KIA van to accomodate the 8 of us, including my 4-month old grandson and came equipped with a car-seat which fortunately was too big for Mursyid. We took it off and stored it at the back and there, we have enough seats for all of us. :)). The car rental company that we used is Hertz which is located at the airport. This is so convenient for us as I have read other bloggers have to take taxis to get their rental vehicles. They have also installed a gps equipment which helps smoothen out our journey. However, a few might want to use the google map on their smart phones which is also fine. My son was a great co-pilot to his father. He set up all our destinations in the gps thingy.

In this era of borderless world, planning for a great vacation can just be done at the finger tips. There are many travel blogs and articles on the internet to help you plan your vacation. In fact, we can contact the bloggers if we need further help and they are very helpful indeed.


Thank you for reading and visit me again.