I booked my accomodation via agoda.com
and Booking.com
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Kings Park, Perth, Western Australia and Perth’s accomodation
I finally made my firs
t trip to Perth on 5th Sept 2010, after hearing so much nice things about this mining state in Western Australia. I flew by Virgin airlines and it cost me Aud$355 for a return flight. I 
happened to be in Melbourne, one of the eastern state of Australia this time so travelling to Perth is only a short hop away. It took me 4 hours to get from Melbourne to Perth. I was meeting up with friends from Malaysia so we decided to catch up half way, thus the reason for me being in Perth. I arrived in Perth domestic airport at 10.30pm Perth time. The international travellers arrived at 9pm and waited for us at the international terminal. I actually thought I can walk across the airport from domestic to international side of the airport. How wrong was I ! It is a 20 minutes drive from domestic to international. Lucky I had prearr
anged my accommodation and car in advance as it was very late when we all arrived at our apartment. After being picked up at the domestic airport by Mr Drake, the owner of the apartment, he drove me to the international airport and picked the rest of the
group. It was a very chilly night. Lucky I brought my parker from Melbourne. (Melbourne was freezing when I depart late in the night)
I was a bit concern about milk and breakfast essentials for the next day as there were 2 small children with the other overseas visitors. I had previously searched the internet and had not found any informatio
n on where to get emergency food supplies. Infact I even brought 2 packet of UHT milk, ration of coffee with me from Melbourne. (for emergency). I need not have 
worried as Dr Drake pointed out to us that there were 2 convenience stores open 24 hours. It was on our way towards the apartment. Sorry… cannot remember where exactly it was now…. We were shown the 24 hours McDonald Store, a shell petrol station that open late into the night and they sell a variety of food products and drinks as well. Looks like wee were not going to be starved.
What a lot of worry for nothing. My friends from Malaysia came over with instant noodle and 3 in 1 coffee sachets but they were confiscated at customs as the coffee powder contain dairy products and the noodle… not sure why…so beware, overseas travellers, forget about bringing instant noodles or coffee sachets.
Dr Drake seems a
very nice fellow. Made us feel very welcome. I was a bit apprehensive as I had read in the various reports from Trip Advisor that travellers were not made to feel very welcome and some even had altercations with Mr Drake. Well, I was most relieved that I didn’t feel the same way as the other visitors. I had also read in Trip Advisor that the rooms were very crappy and were no more that an upgrade version of a caravan. You can imagine how stress I felt after reading theses comments in Trip Advisor. I read the comments after I had booked and paid the deposit and made all the arrangement with my ove
rseas friends, thus it was far too alte amd inconvenient to cancel everything and re arrange flights & accommodation. I didn’t even mention to any of the overseas visitors my concern on the apartment. I was praying that the apartment would be al least decent. I had even found an even better and cheaper house for weekly rental through another website, owner’s rental. 
Unfortunate
ly, as mentioned previously, I had already prearranged everything prior finding this other website.
The price for our standard 3 bedroom apartment cost me for 6 nights at $265per night with car and an extra $25 for the extra person even though the child sleeps with the mum and with taking the car past 10am cost me an extra 1 day car hire of $85. Total Aud$1,825 for the six days accommodation and 7 days car hire.
Anyway, I stepped into the Drakes apartment, expecting the worse.I peered into the lounge room and rushed in to quickly check the 3 bedrooms and bathroom/toilets. (We had the standard 3 bedrooms 
apartment). You should have seen the relief look on my face. It was like what the photos on their website shows you, down to even the same colour bedspreads! Infact we had 3 bedrooms that had a double and a single bed in each room and a very reasonable large lounge/dining room and kitchen. I felt the tension leaving my body. Thanks Dr Drake for not letting me down. They even help us out by lending us power adaptors for electrical plugs req
uired for charging mobile phones etc. Overseas visitors, please remember to return the adaptors back to them so that other visitors like us can have access to emergency adaptors without having to buy them. Karen, the manager mentioned 
that they used to have 10 of these monsters but the tourists who borrowed them never remembered to return them. I certainly slept like a log that night as I always feel exhausted after any night fights.
We all woke up late on our first day in Perth and decided to just visit Kings Park and drive around the city area to get our bearings. We walked to the “Federation Treetop Boardw
alk” under the beautiful Perth 20 degree centigrade weather and checked out the beautiful flowers at the Botanical gardens. Kings Park is not a highlight for me as I had seen many beautiful botanic gardens all over the world. Even though I went during the ‘Wildflower festival’, I was a bit 
disappointed. The board walk above the treetop is a bit of a let down as well, short walk and not a very tall structure. But if you had nothing better to do, by all means visit the Kings Parks to see the 400 hectares of natural bush and parkland. Pictures on these website for this article are taken that day from Kings Park. You can enjoy a walk or bike ride along one of the walking trails, pet a few friendly dogs ( if their owners let you), chase some wild ducks ( if your parents let you !), visit the State War Memorial, check out the colourful birdlife and the wildflowers in bloom in spring time. Kings Park is very wheelchair friendly. The treetop board walk is set up for the disabled as well as pets. Kings Park is home to Western Australian Botanic garden, featuring a beautiful refurnished Water Garden and a Banksia garden and remember to smell the flowers and relax and reflect upon your busy life as you sit and 
contemplate in this tranquil environment. Kids normally watch the ducks and birds fly pass them and laugh happily with glee. Kings Park also has BBQ facilities, a picnic area kiosk and a restaurant. By all means go to Perth, if you haven’t been there before. A much quieter place than any other states of Australia.
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Continuing on with the trials and tribulations of being a smoker whilst traveling around certain parts of the world, I was most pleasantly surprised to discover how wonderful it was to travel on Eurail if you are a smoker. On my recent trip to Europe, I took the train from Wiesbaden to Frankfurt and then to Annecy in France. From Annecy, I then trained across to Interlaken ending up in Grindelwald in Switzerland for a bit of skiing. During this whole journey, I had no problems in indulging in a quick smoke throughout the trip. It was great especially since you are allowed to smoke in designated areas on the train platforms in those countries. Smoking is not allowed on the trains though – which is reasonable enough. Nonetheless, I did not have to endure not being able to smoke for more than 1 or 2 hours between train stops.
Eat pasta with only red sauce, not white creamy ones.
