Perth Day 3

Assalammualaikum wbt,

Friday, 4th May 2018

So today is Friday and our third day in Perth. We’re planning to go to Freemantle to do souvenir shopping and eating the famous Fish & Chips at Kailis. Had our breakfast at home first before leaving because shopping will consume lots of energy lol! But before that, we gotta fill our petrol tank at nearby petrol station. The petrol price is different everyday following the daily fuel price. Here, they are really trust on their customers, we fill the tank first then only we pay at the counter on how much we have filled. Such integrity. If this implemented in Malaysia, surely the fuel station will go bankrupt! Haha. Freemantle from Cannington is about 45 minutes drive, taking into consideration the low speed limit. Freemantle is the famous main Western Australia port. Just like our Port Klang in comparison. We went to Freemantle E-Shed market to buy souvenir from the famous shop among Malaysians, Megabes. Buying parking tickets could be pretty confusing. I used the machine to buy tickets and good thing they can accept credit card. I don’t know what I press luckily there’s one mat salleh helped me out. But it still stupid of me to buy a one day parking fee, it’s not like we’re gonna do shopping whole day there. And the tickets can’t be used anywhere else as different parking areas run by different parking services company. 

Megabes has two outlets, one in Freemantle market and another one is at E-Shed. The owner told me that they’re closing down the one at E-Shed and gonna move everything to Freemantle market which currently run by their son. The owner is Singaporean Chinese. Here, there are two famous souvenir shops among Asians, Megabes and the Australia souvenir shop opposite each other. The other one is belong to Indonesian and Kathy told me that you can actually bargain with the owners by telling them the other shop selling with cheaper price. They seem like competing with each other but they are actually good friends outside. Well, that is one weird friendship I must say. The owner told me, sooner or later, they’re gonna close down the E-Shed markets because there aren’t many people visit here anymore except for foreigner. Ahh, no wonder I’ve seen many closed shops. The Freemantle E-Shed is only open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. 

After the shopping, we went to Kailis to have lunch. We just walked from the E-Shed to fully utilize our parking fee earlier. We bumped to Kathy while at E-Shed as she bringing other tour group there and told me the direction. Although with the direction and GPS navigation, we still got lost. It’s pretty confusing because all buildings in Perth look the same. Plus, I got annoyed and losing focus because everything is on my shoulder; handling Hanif Aiden, pushing his stroller, alert on the surrounding, finding the place, and navigating.

Anway, after the climbing up and down the stairs, u-turn and crossing, we finally got there. It’s not that far actually, but it’s pretty confusing. But we wouldn’t mind it because the walkway to go there is beautiful along the beach. There are soooo many people at Kailis, probably because of lunch hour. At Freemantle, there are two famous restaurant for Fish & Chips; Kailis and Cicerello. So, you can opt for any two although Kailis are more favorable among Muslims because they don’t serve bacon. Mak and I ordered a Family set instead of individual set as the individual portion is large and I don’t think we can finish them all. This family set consist of fish, scallop, calamari and prawn, all battered and deep fried on the bed of crispy french fries. Be careful when you eat here because there are many birds flying around and they either gonna poop or steal your food!! (-___-) We wanted to go to Freemantle Markets too but time is quite limited to us plus I want to go to Perth city as well. H

After the hearty and filling lunch, we went to Perth city because I wanted to buy Swarovski and Pandora at Hay St. It’s pretty confusing driving in town because there are so many junctions and the road signs are small. The other part of Perth seems like calm and peaceful with friendly people but the city is just like any other city. Busy, with many cars and people minding their own business. Finding parkings are extremely a challenge here and expensive. That’s why it is best to go to the city by train or bus. Luckily by using Waze, it can show us the nearest parking place, which mostly is inside the building. I bought few bracelets for myself and friends as I’ve been eyeing them back home. Too bad, the sale just ended here and I’m few days late. The normal price item aren’t as much different from Malaysia, about RM50-70 difference giving conversion rate at AUD1 = RM3. I wanted to go to Pandora too to buy any Australia-themed charm but my family rushing me as they wanted to go back as there are no things they find it interest there. *rolls eyes*. It’s kind of frustrating really where I need to wait for everybody to do their thing they like but when it’s finally my turn, I have to do it in rush?! The perks of travelling in large group.. really, LOL. So, at the end, luckily my colleague’s daughter is working in Australia, so I asked her favour to buy for me then. Hay St & Murray St malls are street of stores, international brand like Levis, Pandora, yada yada. There are not much of price difference here compared to Malaysia. 

After dinner, that night we went to Chemist Warehouse in Cannington area. Only few minutes drive from our stay. Chemist Warehouse is the famous store selling medicines, vitamins, supplements and Malaysians favorite, perfume at much cheaper price. There are many Chemist Warehouse branches in all over Perth, in fact, Australia and the one in Cannington is among that open until 10pm. Most of the shops here closed early as 5pm, sometimes 9pm on the weekend. So, it’s better to check from Google their operating hours. I went crazy buying the perfumes. They are seriously cheap!! But those high-end brand and the most sought after perfume, aren’t as cheap but still cheaper about RM100-200 difference from Malaysia. The cheap items are like Elizabeth Arden where they are all prices at $10-$15 each whereby back here they can cost up to RM100+! I bought Sarah Jessica Parker perfume at $9 each.. Whattttttt. I also bought few boxes of Vicks lozenges because I’ve read they are good for sore throat and it’s difficult to find a good lozenges that suits me.

That night, we packed our bags for our next journey to South Western Australia the next day. It’s our last day staying at Mak Long’s Homestay. Initially, I’ve made plans with Pak Jubaidi, the car rental owner for luggage storage plus the car rental. We ain’t gonna bring all our big luggages and shopping stuff all the way to Albany. However, Pak Jubaidi sub it to his staff to contact with me and he seemed like has no idea on all the arrangements I made directly with Pak Jubaidi. I got pissed and having some trust issue leaving these luggages with someone who barely taking this seriously. Plus, all of these luggages contained our shopping stuff worth thousands of dollars (6 of us combined all). At last, I had to seek favour from Kathy to leave our luggages at her house. I’m glad Kathy willing to help us although it was such last minute plan, so kind of her. So that night, we cleaned a bit of the house before checking out for our next day trip.