Perth Trip 21 - 27 Sep 2006

Have not been posting very long. Been busy with work. (Actually my life has been a bore so nothing to post lah ;)) Anyway, just got back from Perth. My close friend, Jonathan, has been posted there to be a fighter pilot instructor and so he invited us over. As he has also just gotten the fishing poison, so he has been tempting me with all his fishing reports. Since my wife are in-between jobs the past week, so we decided to make a trip over to check out all his tales. And in order to prepare for my trip there, I actually went to stock up on my fishing equipment. Went to KL 2 days before and bought myself a Shimano TLD30 and a 1-piece Lemax rod (max. 150lbs). These are power equipment man! I'm quite ready for the big game fishing that is to come in the Indian Ocean.

We were taking a 1.20am flight. Boy, it was quite a bad experience. Not so much for me but for my wife as she can never sleep on a plane even if it is a 12-15 hr flight. Man, that must be frustrating. We arrived at Perth Int'l Airport at 6.30am. For me I slept all the way to the extent I was quite pissed with the stewardess as she kept waking me up either for drinks, meals, etc. Can't she see I have my eye mask on???!!! It was quite irritating. Luckily the customs and immigation was quite smooth. I was quite surprised that the moment I step out, it was not as crowded or noisy as I expect from all the other asian airports I've been too. It was quite calm and quiet throughout. We boarded a cab and headed to Jon's place. His place is a Mindarie, a supposedly 2nd highest class of estates in Perth. The trip took us almost an hour and the fare costs us AUD$85!! Talking about expensive cab fare..... what is another 1 or 2 cent increase in out public transport fares. (Quit whining....)

We reach his place and holy sh*t! It is really damn solid man. It is actually a 4 unit apartments, with 2 units on the 2nd floor and 2 on the ground floor. And behind they have private jetty and also 4 covered garages. It was quite cool. Check out the view from Jon's balcony. This pic is the view from the left side.

Jon's place is directly opposite this bungalow. Imagine staying there? That is what I call LIFE! Apparently, such a unit 2 years ago only costs AUD$500K but now it is almost 2-3million!

And this view is from the right side of his balcony.


We were quite jet lag on the first day so we crashed for a couple of hours. Anyway, Jon's wife, Agnes needs to prepare her son so she can bring us out for some shopping. Our first stop is Harbour Town. It is an open air concept shopping mall / outlet. The clothes are direct from factory so the prices are quite reasonable. We had lunch there at a place called Noodle Hut. It was one of the worst Chinese food I've ever tried. And worse still, a bowl of noodles cost at least AUD$8. So why are Singaporeans complaining about Food Court food costing $4-5 per bowl???

This is the view of Perth City, as you can see there are not much tall buildings. What I can say is that the feel I get during my time in Perth is damn relac man! Everyone doesn't seem to be working. Even the shopping malls closed at 5pm everyday except on Thursday where they have night shopping til 9pm.

Jon was working on our first day. So he can only meet us during dinner. He brought us to Hog's Breath. I believe Singapore has one but I've not tried it yet. Since Hog's Breath came from Australia, I should be trying the original. The steak was good but humongous! And they still have another special order for a bigger steak portion!!! The meal is damn unhealthy man. Almost feel that the beef is choking my arteries!

Oh ya, forgot to mention the weather as well. It is Spring there so weather is still quite chilly. The day temperature ranges about 18-25 degrees celsius but when night falls, it can go below 10 degrees celsius. Especially when the wind blows.

Jon was very hospitable as he allows us to use his car so we can drive around. As he still needs to work so he could not bring us around. We were quite adventurous and as long we have the street directory, we decided to just whack and try our luck.

Our itinery for 2nd day is to visit Station St Market, Subiaco Market and Fremantle.

First stop, Station St, quite an interesting market with a lot of small shops. We didn't get much except there is this shop selling snacks for dogs. They have pig ears, kangaroo snacks, etc. So we stop by and bought some for our buggers.

This is a shot of Subiaco Market.

As we were browsing the shops along Subiaco Centre, we came across this Shar Pei. Apparently the owner needs to run some errands in the bank and brought the dog along. Since animals are not allowed in the bank, this poor bugger has to wait outside. Oh and he is unleashed! Now that's something!

Next stop, Fremantle. I have admit our recce was not all smooth sailing. We did a couple of wrong turns and U-turns but eventually we found our way. At Femantle, we parked just outside of the Bulldogs stadium. Quite a nice logo, or maybe just because we have a bull dog so no choice must take a photo.

Anyway, the Australian Football League (AFL) is on and the semis are playing. West Coast Eagles vs Adelaide. I was quite confused cos the rules of AFL are a mixture of Rugby, Soccer, Volleyball and Basketball. Just a brief description from what I gather when I watched the semis, it is played in a Rugby field with tackling done in Rugby style and played with a rugby ball, however, passing is done via Volleyball style using the hands to hit the ball to their team-mates, as a player is running across the field, after a certain number of distance, the player has to bounce the ball on the field before he can carry on holding on to the ball to run, like basketball. And to score, there are four poles at the centre of the opponent's side. The ball must be kicked in between the inner 2 poles to score a full goal of 6 points like soccer. If the ball is kicked across the outer 2 poles, then it is only a point. Sounds confusing right? Anyway, it is a big thing over there.

Basically, there is nothing much at Fremantle. A lot of cafes and restaurants.

We were recommended by Jon to eat at Kaili's. A famous Fish n Chips place. here is the pic of the logo.

We had whiting fish n chips and the meat is good. We also ordered chilled prawns and oysters. It was fresh and sweet. Gave me the memories of having seafood at San Francisco, Fisherman's Wharf.

This is a pic of the whiting that we caught behind Jon's Place.

And this is the finished product... hehe.

Basically, there are a lot of places in Perth with a view like this. Can you imagine? With the temperature at 20+ degrees, you can just sit alfresco all day and drink beer.....

As we were making our way back, we saw this humongous bird thing that might be a stork or something. Check out his size. And this bugger is just walking around as if he is one of us. He even entered one of the restaurant's entrace as if trying to get a table for one!

Oh ya, that reminds me, one bad thing about eating alfresco in this kinda place, the seagulls are damn irritating. They will just stand on the railing next to you. The moment you are not looking, they will swoop in to have a go at your food!

On our 3rd day, we headed to Scraborough Beach. I was quite surprised to see a few surfers around. The temp is still cold and these guys can actually take it. We had fish and chips again. But this time, man the food is damn salty!! They asked if we wanted to add anything on our food, we had a choice of pepper, salt, etc. I asked for salt and my fish burger was covered in salt, literally! Well, Jon did mention that the people in Australia likes their food salty.

Here is a pic of some people having some kite surfing session.

Here is the road sign of Scarborough Beach. It was stated on the web that the market here is bustling. But when we were there, it was quite quiet. I guess that only reason is that it is lively only during summer as it is a popular sea side sports area.

Now on the 4th day was the day that I've been awaiting. The fishing day! We had a charter with the captain Don. A scottish guy born in Australia. His son is with him as well. This is his boat and it is called Too Ezy. Hopefully, this trip is gonna be really too ezy man.

The swells are about 1-2m and is considered pretty calm. On some days, it can reach 4-5m. The trip to our first stop took about 40mins with a lot of bumping and rocking but was fun. Luckily no one was sea-sick except the boatman's son. But I have to give him credit, his only 12.

Althogether, there were 6 of us excluding the boatman and his son. Jon, Shamu, Sydney, Nicholas, myself and my wife.

We had a bet going to see who will land the first fish, the biggest, and the longest. Lucky me, I had the first one! A flathead. The thing about Australia anglers are that they have rules on all fishes and what is the minimum length before you can keep the fish. As for this flathead, it is below the min so I had to let it go after some photo taking.

I was hoping to get Samson and tuna. Don was saying last week he went out and the trip produced 11 bluefin tuna!!! What a catch! I was crossing my fingers for that. After dropping my line again, Don was telling us to anticipate a group of fish he has detected through his echo finder. Within a minute, I felt a tug and immediately I gave it a strike. We were fishing at about 40m so it took me a while to bring it. What a beauty! It is a pink snapper or pinkie as the locals will call it. This one is definitely within limits. It is way over 50cm and I think the weight is about 3kg.
I think it is a school of pinkies cos after my first one, everyone else started having multiple hook ups. However, only a few are keepers as the rest are below limit.
This is at our second spot. Shamu with his 1st catch. A sea bream. Not a keeper though. Then my wife's rod got a hook up. She immediately passed to me. I was shocked once I handled the rod. The line is just peeling off the TLD 15! I tried reeling back but though I'm reeling back, the line is going the other way!!! It was a full 10 mins before I decided to let Jon have a go. Jon could also not get any line back so Don decided to try to chase the fish. Meanwhile, Sdyney took over, he managed to get some line back but still not enough to pull in the fish. Just look at the pics and you will understand.

In the end, the line snapped. :( What a pity. It must be a big bugger of at least 20kg. We were trying to deduce what fish it could be. Maybe a ray? Anway, with this episode, it has gotten our adrenaline pumping. We headed to our 3rd and final spot. This is the spot for the biggies. We are at depths of 100m.

The moment we put our lines in, we had multiple hookups again. But this time, it is a school of china-man juveniles. It is poisonous so we can only take some photos and back to the sea they go.

Next I got another hookup and up came a grouper looking thing. It believe it is a estuary cod.

This is a pic of another sea bream.

One of the coral fishes being caught. Definitely can't keep so back to the sea again.

Then again, my wife's rod got a hook up again together with Nicholas. They started reeling back and to their dismay, found their lines are tangled. It was quite a bad tangle so the boatman decided to bring in both lines onto the boat to distangle. To our surprise, there are 2 flatheads at the end of each line. And boy it is a giant flathead! It turns out to be the longest fish of the day at over 1m and weighing at over 2kg!.

After a short while, Shamu got a hookup as well. As he is reeling in, he kept saying damn big damn heavy. So Don got the net ready and we were all anxiously anticipating what fish it could be. And guess what? The highlight of the day. a 11 kg Dhufish!!! Check out the size man. And Shamu is at least 1.8m tall!

Are we excited or what after that giant! I had 1 more hookup and it turned out to be this bright red fish. No one can really identify it. Once I can identify the fish, I will put the name in or maybe you can let me know by leaving a comment.
Finally, Shamu got his final hookup. Another dhufish, though not as big but still coming in at about 5kg. Check out its eyes, Shamu was pulling this guy up so fast that it suffered Decompression Illness. So bear in mind, if you are diving at depths of more than 50m do not attempt to come up within 5 mins, this will happen to your eyes!

As we are preparing to pack up, I had one more hookup. This time it is on my TLD30 which should be accustomed to big game. My rod literally bended into a perfect U shape. All I can do is to just hold my both hands on the rod to try and pull this guy up. My line is peeling off even faster than the previous one. I dun even dare to free one of my hand to start reeling. I was in this position for about 15 mins and then the line just snapped. Man what a bummer, twice and either the reel is not strong enough or the angler is not strong enough. With this in mind, I will definitely go back and pump some iron and head back here again!!!

On our way back, we had a surprise visitor. A loner seal sun bathing in the middle of Indian Ocean!
This is the pic of our total catch from 8am - 3pm.

• Dhufish - 2 (11kg, 5kg)
• Pink Snapper - 4 (3-5 kg)
• Flathead - 2 (1-2+kg)
• Estuary Cod - 1 (2+kg)
• Red Snapper - 1 (1+kg)
• Unknown - 2 red fishes
• Breaksea Cod - 1 (1+kg)
• Golden Spotted Trevally - 1 (1+kg)

Check out our happy faces!
On our 5th day, just did a bit of shopping at Karrinyup Shopping Centre. What I like about the shopping here is that the malls closed at 5pm. And due to that, it was still bearable for me to accompany my wife as normally we only will be able to start our shopping after lunch about 2pm so that's only about 2+hrs. heehee....

This is a view of Jon's apartment from his jetty. his unit is on the second floor.
On our sixth and final day, we headed to the Canine Association of Western Australia to get some show accessories for our friend Carole and ourselves.

This is a pic of the show ground. You can imagine how busy it will be on show days.

One thing I noticed, the signs here are kinda funny.

I was sitting down at the pavement and looking at this sign wondering, for how long? How am I supposed to pass this place without standing up to walk away? I am a law abiding Singaporean, you know?(Just kidding)

Go back? To where? How? (Salah, Balek!)

This is one of the best pie place. The pies here are absolutely incredible. Especially the Bacon, Egg and cheese pie. Slurp!
Maybe I am a kampung but I sure didn't know that Burger King is called Hungry Jack's everywhere else except in Asia!
Jon took us for a walk at Perth's richest and most expensive estate, the Hillary's.
Where is my boat? I remember I parked it here last nite!
Now this is called living. How can Sentosa Cove compare to this? For one, the weather is already a bummer in Singapore.

Our final destination was this Chinese restaurant. It is famous for its Snow Crab with salted eggs. Finally, chinese food acceptable to my tastebuds! It was good food.
The funny thing about Perth is that though pubs are rare except in the city, they have this drive-in places where you can buy beer, wine or spirits. You can actually drive thru, tell them what you want, they pass it to you, you pay and get your liqour without stepping out of the car! The other weird thing is that with this, you might be wondering that there should be a lot of drink driving cases but the law on this is very strict. As long as you are stopped over with a open bottle or can, you are automatically charged with DUI (Driving Under Influence) even if the bottle / can belongs to your companion.

It was a sad time for my wife and I as we bid farewell and thank yous to Jon and family for all his hospitality throughout. It has been an enjoyable trip. So much so that I would definitely be making a trip back as soon as I can as I have unfinished business with regards to the fishing. I like this place. The policies here are weird at times but generally is beneficial to the citizens. Like for example, there is policy for minimum wages, a waitress is earning about $20-25 an hour. Macdonalds pay at least $15 an hour. Those man who hold road signs at pedestrain crossing for students to cross are considered hazardous job and thus the minimum wage is at least $40-50 an hour!!! But end of the day, tax is high to from a min. of 20% - 40% for high wage earners. Cars are cheap though, a new CRV only costs AUD39,900. Even the pickups are heavy duty, 5.7litre V6 engine ones man! It costs only about 30+K and is quite cool also. Check it out!

Road tax only cost AUD200 per year irregardless of engine capacity. This trip is really an eye opener as I really experienced living in Perth and not just touring. We were driving everywhere ourselves armed with just the street directory. We actually experienced the actual lifestyle instead of the normal tour groups.

Given a chance, it would be good to really live there for several weeks to a month as it really slows down a person's pace and really find time to do things in a relaxing environment. Til then, take care mates!