Our 1st day in Perth

We woke up at 7:45 to check out of the hostel by 10 and grabbed a delicious big breakfast at the Packaz café in the YHA hostel. When we left it was raining and very windy, and then not even 10 minutes later the clouds parted and the sun came through. This is how the weather acted all day long, it was the strangest thing. The weather comes in and out very quickly and it’s not uncommon to have 70km an hour gusts in a small shower during the day. The people from Perth are obviously very accustomed to this type of weather as they will either carry umbrellas and charge through the weather or just wait it out under whatever cover they can find as they know it will pass quickly.

We were able to buy a cheap pay as you go cell phone today and in case you don’t have the number and feel like calling two lonely travelers the number to contact us from Canada is (international calling code) 61 4 02 173 185. For the international calling code, just search it on google but we think it is 011. If you have difficulties email us and we’ll figure it out for you. As of right now the time difference is an even 12 hours but will change shortly with daylight savings time. Anyways, after we got our cell phone, we focused on finding accommodation by checking out local travel shops and hostels. We realized very quickly that our digital camera would come in handy as we could simply take a picture of the ad and keep moving. We also bought the local newspaper (The West Australian) and sifted through the hundreds of ads for rented accommodation. We can’t tell you how many people we have called inquiring about their ads but it‘s enough to know that we aren’t looking forward to doing it in Canada when we return.

Arrived in Perth!

We successfully went through Immigration and security and we’re now truly in Australia! We had already booked a room at a hostel in downtown Perth and just had to find the city shuttle. We figured it would be quicker if we just asked two police officers who were in the airport where it was. They politely pointed us in the right direction and warned us that it was a cool 14 degrees outside, noticing that we were in our shorts and t-shirts. We thanked them for the advice and then headed towards the direction of the shuttle exposing our Canadian flag patch on our backpacks. A moment later we heard one of the officers say, oh you’re from Canada, it’s not cold out you’ll be fine! As we stepped out of the airport we were amazed that there were palm trees standing all around the property. We noticed that it was cool out but we were so glad to be off the stuffy plane that we relished the cool night air. We must have looked hilarious, because the people in charge of traffic enforcement were dressed as if it was minus 20! No word of a lie, they were wearing winter jackets, touques, gloves, pants and boots and then their traffic vest on top, haha and we wearing shorts and our t-shirts! Shortly after we hopped on the shuttle and it whisked us away to the CBD or Central Business District (what we call downtown) where our hostel was. We checked in and entered our room, a double sized bed, our own private bathroom, an air conditioner/heater…we were in heaven. We wanted to call home to let our parents know we arrived safe and sound in Perth. A quick phone call home turned into a half hour ordeal, with us struggling to use Australian payphones! LOL we must have looked ridiculous to the man at the counter as we asked him so many funny questions, this was our first taste of culture shock. We had a hot shower, brushed our teeth and were asleep by 1 AM, unfortunately we had to be checked out by 10 AM. We didn’t really care at the time, all we wanted was a sound 8 hours of uninterrupted comfortable sleep as we had to hit the ground running in the morning.

Our day in Hong Kong

Well we made it, we’re in Perth and there are palm trees! It was such a welcoming sign when we left the airport. Let’s start at the beginning, the flight was long. Our flight from Toronto to Anchorage was about 7 hours and fairly uneventful. The airplane food was mediocre to say the least but we were hungry so it was tolerable. Unfortunately the entertainment was pretty marginal too, there was a choice of about 50 channels but 30 of those channels were Chinese movies and the rest were crappy North American movies. If that wasn’t enough the seats were small and cramped, but when you’re spending a year traveling you find a way to cope. When we arrived in Anchorage we were disappointed that we couldn’t leave the plane but we didn’t have to go through U.S. customs so it was actually worth it. We stayed in Anchorage for about an hour while the crew changed and the washrooms were cleaned. When we left Toronto it was dark, when we arrived in Anchorage it was dark and as we flew to Hong Kong it was still dark. It felt like the longest night of our lives, not just because we were excited that we had finally commenced our ozzie adventure but because it was so dark. The flight to Hong Kong was okay, it was really long but pretty cool when we flew over Japan. The illuminated cities were beautiful at 40 000 ft. We were able to sleep maybe 6 hours total during the flight and were anxiously waiting to arrive in Hong Kong. When we arrived, we were really looking forward to getting off the plane and getting some real food. Before we could eat we had a few things to do first. We realized we didn’t have any Hong Kong dollars so we quickly found a place to exchange our Canadian money without any fee or surcharge. $20 CAD turned into $137 HKD and now had enough money to get some eats. We managed to find the food court and were unsure as to what kind of food we were going to eat for breakfast as there were primarily Chinese fast food restaurants. Fortunately we saw the familiar red and yellow sign that we all know so well as Burger King. We were so excited to eat familiar food, well kind of familiar. We don’t remember the last time we actually ate at Burger King but we didn’t care at the time. All we wanted was some cheap, fast and familiar breakfast. Well $67 HKD later and we had our food, and it tasted so good. We spent the rest of the day in the Hong Kong airport, relaxing, exploring and eating. Our flight was at 3:00 PM and the flight went great. I slept for 6 of the 7 hour flight so as I opened my eyes I was pleasantly surprised that we were already landing in Perth. After we got off the plane we had to go through immigration and then security. The Australian officials checked our passports and asked us if we had anything to declare and then soon after we were free, free to explore the land down under.

Welcome to our blog

First of all welcome to our blog and our very first entry! We’re going to do our best to keep you all updated on the progress of our trip and we hope that you’ll travel along with us. Feel free to drop a comment at any point along the way.

Well it’s 10:35 PM on September 15, 2008 at Pearson International Airport and we have exactly 1 hour until we board our flight to Hong Kong. We just finished having a pint or two with my parents, Allana and Shannon and are now officially on our own after successfully going through security - minus one tube of toothpaste! We’re definitely getting excited now and are preparing ourselves for the 7 hour flight to Anchorage Alaska. We’ll then be flying to Hong Kong which will arrive at 6:30 AM local time only a mere 11 hours later, total flight time approximately 18 hours! The plan is to get our bearings in Hong Kong and decide whether we should stay in the airport for the 9 hours before our flight to Perth or too be adventurous and explore Hong Kong. Anyways we’ll save that for another entry, as for now we have to board our flight. Next time you read our blog we’ll be in Perth!