Welcome to Western Australia

We booked another flight with Malaysia Airlines departing Kuala Lumpur at 9 o’clock in the morning. Since we didnt want to wake up and leave Melaka around 4 or 5 o’clock in the night we decided to stay in a cheap hotel (<25$ a night for a room) near the airport in Sepang. If you ever gonna fly from KLIA International Terminal M be prepared for inefficiency (We have never queued for ~1hour for a baggage drop-off). After a convenient 5:30 hrs flight with MAS (this time unfortunately quite booked) we arrived in Perth.

Customs are somewhat different in Australia. After filling out three forms and answering numerous questions at passport control we finally got our luggage which was checked again for any kind of seeds, fruits, plants, foods, soils (…and everything you’d imagine) by dogs. the dog was so adorable! we both wondered if the dog liked his job actually..imagine sniffing luggages all day long. hmm…. After completing all the formalities and finally being free to move in Australia we took a cab to our hotel for the first two nights in Perth before picking up our Campervan for the next two weeks (45$ for a 30mins cab ride!! damn we have to get used to non-asian prices).

Australia was conventient fromresized_IMG_0658 the very first minute we arrived (once you made it thorugh the customs!): conventient 30 degrees with a constant refreshing breeze, plenty of sunshine, free buse rides within the city of Perth, no language barriers, whatever goods you need to buy are available and there are hippies and weird people to watch everywhere. We got a bit suprised that supermarkets and businesses all close around 5pm (6 or 7 is really the expection) and resized_IMG_0671also by the fact that theres such a big proportion of asians here (maybe 30 to 50%? we dont know). We spent the first evening    wandering around the city center and the esplanade fooling around at their open fitness in the park with Perth city in background. After a few hours of exercise we were exhausted (okay maybe not that long).

In search for Yin Ru’s first kangaroos we walked around Heirisson island for about 2hrs and yet failed to spot one. However we were compensated with a beautiful sunset over Perth, viewed from the Kings Park. Theresized_IMG_1428 rest of the time we spent buying some necessities like a local SIM-card with data plan (otherwise we wouldnt be able to post this blog from bush in the middle of nowhere), some roadmaps and enjoying some good food. Korean, Indian, Chinese, name any asian cuisine you could think of, and you’d probably get it in Perth, no problemo.

On Monday we went to pick-up our campervan, our „moving home“ for the next two weeks to discover South Western Australia more idependently on our own wheels. We prebooked a Hitop Campervan with Apollo (a midrange-priced rental with a more modern fleet). Apollos camper rental station is located about 20km out of the city center- really out of nowhere. It claims to be „near“ the airport but is still a 8km walk from the terminal. We finally found a bus from the city center bringing us as close as 1km (yes, that means you only need to walk 1km by foot, with backpacks. haha ). Once we arrived we were told we were number 3 or 4 in line to pick-up our car. The entire process took about an hour so we sat there a while together with 3 or 4 other Swiss families/couples waiting for their vehicle. Thank you, our very strong Swiss Francs. We got a very new Apollo campervan. The guy told us Swiss tend to get better cars as they take better care of cars. Hah! First stop with campervan: supermarket. After getting food and groceries, off we go, our South West Australia Adventure! Endless roads, nature and discoveries to be made. Stay tuned!resized_IMG_1455