Perth/Freemantle/Rottnest Island

Let me start off by saying that Perth is an interesting place to visit.  It is definitely different from the other major cities in Australia that I have been to so far (Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide) because of its laid-back attitude and unique location.  Perth is the only major city in the state of Western Australia, and in fact, the closest city is on another continent - Singapore.

On the first day in Perth, we checked into our hostel after the train ride to discover that the pipes were being repaired and we would have to wait until 3PM to shower.  After 3 days of waiting, a few more hours wouldn’t be too bad...  To kill time, we walked around to check out the other hostels to see if we would want to book in one of them for another night and ate brekky (or breakfast).  If anyone is interested in visiting Perth, I can definitely give you my take on pretty much all of the hostels located there.

After showering, we did a walking tour of the Perth City Centre that was recommended by the Lonely Planet guide.  It was interesting to see some of the architecture and interesting fact - the Town Hall in Perth was actually built by convicts.

By coincidence, one of the guys who I had met at my hostel in Melbourne was staying at the Britannia (our hostel in Perth).  He is from the Netherlands and very social, so he was able to introduce us to a lot of fun people.  One of the people was an American (Marlon from Florida, ha!) which I thought was interesting because I have not met many American travelers so far.  Most of the people I have met have been from Europe, especially the Netherlands and Germany, and Canada.  They taught us a drinking game called “Not up in here!” which is apparently named after the scene in The Hangover at the police station.  Very fun...

On the second day, we decided to explore around King’s Park which is on a hill overlooking Perth.  The park is enormous and we were tired after walking around just a bit, but we got to see a few of the major attractions there, including the Lotterywest Walkway (yes, it is sponsored by the state lottery) and the DNA Tower, which had 101 steps!  After King’s Park, we took the bus to Scarborough Beach because we wanted to go swimming in the Indian Ocean.  However, by the time we got there it was too windy and cold to actually go in the water, so we just watched the kite boarders for awhile.

I officially became a backpacker on the second night in Perth when we went to Mustang Bar for the $5 Backpackers’ Special.  It included 2 sausages on a roll, a piece of steak, potato salad, a Tooheys New beer, (basically equivalent of a Coors Light) and a drawing into a $100 raffle that would be drawn later in the night.  We later learned that the $100 raffle was a scam, but that is a different story.

Side story - we had heard that we should make it a point to visit Rottnest Island for a day which is off the coast of Freemantle, a nearby town to Perth.  After going to a few different places to inquire about Rottnest Island tickets, we booked with the cheapest place.  Our tickets included a ferry ride to the island and bike and snorkel hire once we got there.  However, at the time we were booking, there was a queue ahead of us with the reservation center, so we were given a receipt (we paid cash!) with no booking number.  We were told that we would get a call later that night with a reservation number, however that call never came.  When we checked out of our hostel the next morning and headed to Freemantle for the day, the shop where we had booked our tickets was closed.  This was not too shady yet though, because the hours posted on the door were 11:30AM - 5PM and it was 10AM.  However, the phone number that they provided on the receipt was non-working which made us suspicious.

Since we were not going to be going back to Perth (we booked a hostel for the night in Freemantle), we had our friend’s aunt who lives in Perth go by the store during their “working hours,” but the door remained closed.  We started to worry that we had fallen into a tourist trap, but then we had our friend from our hostel also walk by.  At this point, a sign had been hung on the door saying, “We are temporarily closed due to renovations needed after damage from a hail storm” - when this hail storm happened, we don’t know! - but there was a name and number to call.  Of course I called the number from the sign, but after getting through and explaining my problem, the call was cut short and then the number was non-working.  Since we thought maybe they were using caller ID to screen my number, Jack used his phone and was able to get through.  He was told that the reservation was still in the process of being made (keep in mind this was the next day!) and we would be called when it was completed, in about an hour.

Instead of waiting because we were growing ever more suspicious, we decided to go directly to the Rottnest Ferry office and see if they could give us actual tickets.  Surprisingly, they printed us tickets (not sure if they took pity on us after we told them the above story or there was actually a reservation made) and we were so relieved that we did not fall prey to some tourist trap - phew!

In the meantime though, we were in Freemantle (add Liora, Jack’s friend from Bondi who was in Perth visiting her aunt) and decided to do a brewery tour.  Freemantle is a very cool place - it is known for its live music and breweries as well as having an artsy vibe.  Little Creatures, one of the breweries we went to, was on the water and reminded me of Sam’s in Tiburon (fond memories!)  We also tried chili mussels which is the specialty of Perth.

On the third day, we also went to Cottlesloe Beach from Freemantle and watched the sunset from the Ocean Beach Hotel (definitely recommended!) then headed back to our hostel.  The hostel where we were staying in Freemantle was built in what used to be a fire station and it had a unique personality.  Apparently, you are not allowed to slide down the fire pole although they do make an exception at Christmas.

We did make it to Rottnest Island on our last day in Western Australia, and it was definitely worth all of the trouble.  The bike ride (22km in total) boasted spectacular views, and we stopped at a few beaches along the way to snorkel.  We spent the entire day circling the island and even ventured to the farthest west point before completing the loop. Rottnest Island is actually named Rottnest because when explorers first went there, they mistook the quokkas that lived there as rats (Rat’s Nest).  They look a little like big rats but they are marsupials, or have pouches, like kangaroos.

After such a great day we were exhausted, and good thing, at 1AM we would be flying from Perth to our next stop, Hobart in the state of Tasmania.  Tasmania is an island off the southern coast of Australia, and is the only thing between mainland Australia and Antarctica.  We will be spending 10 days in “Tazzy,” as it is commonly called and are excited because we have been hearing great things...