I arrived at the Perth City backpackers yesterday around 16:00 Perth time. My booking was indeed made properly and I got a bed in a 8 male dorm. After I put my stuff in the locker and put on my shorts I walked around town. Perth actually is smaller than I would have expected. There are only two main -pedestrian only- shopping streets but it feels a bit American due to the high rise buildings. The Perth river is a short walk away and it’s a very broad river (twice the Schelde in Antwerpen). I tried searching a open WiFi access point as internet access is paid and often occupied and I cannot really use my laptop here. I found one access point in the center (outside London Court to be precise) and sent a quick e-mail home. As I didn’t get any sleep on my way over to Perth I went to bed early (21:00).

Today I walked around town again an my mission was to score:
1. my YHA card
2. a iPod charger (I cannot really use my laptop here and my TomTom charger does not seem to work for my iPod)
3. a GSM card
4. a car

As the main GPO (general post office) is under construction the Poste Restante is handled elsewhere. It took me quite a while (about 2hrs) to find the Post Store that handled the Poste Restante mail and they indeed had an envelope with my YHA membership card for me. It seems like Poste Restante indeed works

Mission 2 is also accomplished as I found a $ 28,- iPod charger, a good thing as my iPod is almost out of juice.

I checked out three mobile companies, Vodafone, Telstra and Optus and it seems like Optus has the most interesting plan for me. The other two only offer Pre-paid plans that only last a month and cost at least $ 25,-. That’s different from Telfort in NL as my Telfort pre-paid lasts a year. Optus also offered a 186 day Pre-paid plan for people who don’t call that often. Seems like my kind of plan so I’ll go pick up a simcard from them later on today.

Below at the reception there is a couple of adverts by people trying to sell their car. I found three interesting cars; two Ford Falcons and one For Econovan. One of the falcons is owned by ‘Nathalie’ who had it checked and serviced every 5000 kms. Also, the rego expires in August so that will buy me some time. Unfortunately it does not say of which state the rego is. As only WA rego can be renewed by mail, you will have to drop by a local office for other states. I also saw a QLD registed car expiring in may; no use at all because then you can’t see the west coast because you will have to drive straight to QLD to renew your rego :S

Ah well… I’m off in to the city again… I kinda fancy a beer