After all the anticipation and waiting, we finally found our way to Perth, Western Australia.
We started from the Penang Airport at 9 pm on the 6th of August 2009, transit at the KL Airport at around midnight and reached our destination at around 5 am the next day. As soon as we stepped out of the airport, we were greeted by the near-freezing winter morning of Western Australia. We made our way to Trafalgar Retreat, a holiday home that we will call home for the next 5 days - as soon as Kee and Choy figured out how to release the hand brake of the Kia Grand Carnival that we will rented as our mode of transport throughout the stay.
And eventually they did. With the help of a map, the GPS and a little luck, we managed to find our way "home". Trafalgar Retreat is located near Joondalup which is about 30 km north of Perth City. It is a lovely bungalow house that comes complete with a swimming pool and a cozy backyard with BBQ facilities.
It was a beautiful neighbourhood. The neighbours were quite friendly, it was rather peaceful and quiet here and it is located near the coast.
Everyone settled in quite well. The house came complete with all the necessary facilities and utensils. The rooms were comfortable and clean. There was a huge heater in the living room (thank God for that) and a complete kitchen.
After breakfast, everyone decided to take a rest after the tiring journey. Everyone except Choy. Lake Joondalup is about 10 minutes drive from our house and it is a good birding site. The temptation of doing some birding and bird photography in a foreign land is just too great for him to resist. He had a quite a hard time trying to juggle his time between the birds and us (especially since his wife is also here with us) but eventually he managed to.
And we couldn't really blame him because Australia is filled with striking and beautiful birds like this Galah...
And these Rainbow Lorikeets (no rewards for guessing how it got its name)...
The cost of living in Australia is reasonably high and with the current exchange rate, we were really feeling the pinch. There is one thing we simply cannot save money on was food. Everyone needs to eat. Throughout our stay, we tried quite a variety of food. Occasionally, we will buy food back to the house...
But most of time, we had our meal outside...
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