Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate !!!

Margaret River Chocolate Company - A very touristy place which sells chocolate..

Apart from the usual chocolate liquor, chocolate snacks, chocolate biscuit,
you can also find weird things like chocolate SOAP, chocolate PERFUME etc etc.....



A bunch of pple queueing near the entrence for FREE chocolate "samples"
Dark chocolate, white chocolate and milk chocolate, supposedly for "tasting only"
It comes in the form of small bite-size chocolate coins.
This is what happens to "kiasu" pple who take too much. They end up melting in your palm. hahaha
Its quite amusing to see that SG pple are not the most cheapskate ones around. There was a bunch of PRCs in front of me who shamelessly packed the chocolate coins into a huge zip-lock bag. Hmmm, maybe they are planning to slowly savor it back in their tour bus.... Faintz... Didnt manage to snap a photo of them, but judging from the size of the bag, it probably can last for quite a few days...

Bells Rapids - A dry version

I got these images from a tour itinerary. Bell's Rapids is a scenic river...


with many water activities such as white water rafting and canoeing.

You see the bridge on the left of the pic above? I visited that exact same bridge.
(From left to right: AK, me, ET, Jed's gf, Jed)

Now, Let me zoom out a little more....

The whole river is dry!!!


the whole place looks like a desert...

Spotted a small puddle of water at a corner...
Bad choice to visit this place i summer. Will make another trip back here again in autumn or winter to take more photos.

On the Roads

With transport now available, its time to make some road trips.
4 pple can seat comfortably in one car, and we take turns to be the driver.

We pass by cities centres...

... pass by the commercial district...

... pass by small roads in the suburbs ...

... pass by giant human statues on building tops ...

... pass by quiet neighborhoods ...


... caught a glimpse of a familiar airplane landing at Perth airport (SQ223 touching down at abt 2pm) ...

... pass by bush fires in the hot Summer ...

How to choose a good car

A simple checklist on what to look out for:

• Nice exterior with good paint-job ---- CHECKED
  

• New 17-inch tyres ---- CHECKED
  

• Sporty-looking Spoilers ---- CHECKED
  

• Auto-transmission with Cruise Control, Climate control etc..... ---- CHECKED
  

• Clean engine, 2.4 litre. ---- CHECKED
  

• 

• Low mileage. Only 120,000kms ---- CHECKED

• Spacious interior with clean cloth seat covers ---- CHECKED
  

• And the MOST MOST important feature: a SUN-ROOF ---- CHECKED
  

Now i can cruise down the road with the wind in my hair(literally) !!

• A good (bargained) price of abt AUD3000+ ---- CHECKED
  

Presenting:: Our 2nd car. A Red Nissan BlueBird
(Yup, kinda contradicting, the car is not Blue in color despite its name)
Although not registered under my name, but its a good 2nd car to share among 3 pple. Haha.


Car-shopping is fun. perhaps we should go look for a 3rd car...
My motto goes: cars are cheap here. The more you buy, the more you save...

OMG - Its so expensive!

Things here are generally more expensive...
Movies here cost AUD18
A decent meal here cost AUD20
McDonalds Happy meal cost abt AUD4.90

Saw this familiar brand down at the supermarket.

Yeo's 6-packet Chrysanthemum Tea drink


Selling for AUD $4.72, anyone keen?? (That is almost SGD$6 )

Prices of imported food is crazy. this would have only cost $2.50 back home


One of the few things that is DEFINITELY cheaper here are CARS.
So, in order to SAVE more money and reap the benefits of the "cheap" things here, off I go to car-shopping again. The more you buy, the more you save.

Car Accessories

Visited a car accessories mart today... bought some cleaning equipment... tempted to (but did not) buy a big race-car look-alike muffler to *ZHNG the car.

I also bought THIS:


A pair of white dice to hand at the front mirror. Looks kinda cool rite?


However, the general comment I got from the rest was "it looks damn *BENG !"



*(from Wikipedia)
Ah Beng is a stereotype applied to a certain group of young Chinese men in Southeast Asia, particularly Singapore and Malaysia. The stereotypical view of an Ah Beng is a young Chinese man or teenager who lacks cultural refinement or indulges in criminal activity or is involved in brawls or arguments out of disagreements with other people. Ah Bengs are also sometimes associated with extensively-modified or zhng-ed cars, and are stereotypically seen as excessively flashy and show-offish.

My First Car

- 1994 Honda Civic Hatchback model.
- 5-speed Manual
- 170,000km
- Only AUD2600

Good engine and clean interior. Quite a good buy!



... with powerful speakers at the rear....

Now to take it out for a spin...




Okie, purchasing DONE.
now to start sorting out all the other paperwork...
-- Motor Insurance
-- Transfer Documents & Fees
-- Registration
-- Maintenance

Out and Around Town

Perth shopping district is just a few clusters around Murray Street. Many shops around the around, but sadly, they all close at night.
Typical shopping hours are:
Mon-Sat: 10am to 5pm
Sunday: 11am to 3pm (some shops are just closed on sundays)


Whatever you wanna buy, whatever you wanna do, better hurry, cos these pple close shop early.
Boy do i miss all the late night shopping back home....


At another corner of the city lies this majestic building. Guess what... its just a post office!!


For lunch that day, we decided to stick with some familiar food - KFC.

(actually, we are on a budget, haha, and fastfood is comparatively cheaper than other restaurants)
The chicken pieces here are smaller, but the meat is more tender. coleslaw taste better and fresher. Whipped potato, fries, chicken's seasoning etc taste the same...

Car-Hunting

Made a few appointments with private sellers to view their cars on Sat, but those we saw werent very good. Sad...

Mid-day, we ended up at King's Park
Looks like a great place to picnic... and a great view of Perth city too!

From left to right: my course-mates ET, PK, AK and me. Slacking at a bench at the top of King's Park. Tired, but still surfing our iPhones to look for more car sellers nearby.

Clear Blue Sky

Arrived in Perth, on 9th March 2010. Greeted by the summer blue sky.

Pics taken at Jandakot, a suburb 5 miles south of Perth city at about 3pm.

A few clouds spotted at at distance...



In contrast, it would have been a thunderstorm back in Singapore at this time of the day.