Strewth!

I am sitting in a convenience store, eating a packet of Twisties and drinking a Diet Coke. Which can mean only one thing- I am in Australia! Perth to be precise. I arrived into the cold last night-- about 30 degrees lower than when I woke up in Saigon- shivered for a bit and got the shuttle bus to the hostel. Arriving at 2am is not recommended but I rang the guy and woke him up and in I went.

Today I have been wandering around Kings Park which sits on Mount Eliza overlooking the city of Perth. In fact, I walked around the park twice because I didn't have any batteries in my camera the first time. I finally found a place that sold them and promptly dropped one of them into the bin as I was trying to change them. Weirdly, no-one gave me a second glance as I fished around elbow deep in the rubbish trying to find it. I couldn't but managed to get one of the old ones back out.

It is very clean here and the skies are fresh and blue. It is much quieter than Vietnam and no-one has tried to sell me postcards or offered me a motorbike in hours now. But it is good. I feel quite relaxed.

I plan to go to Fremantle tomorrow and see the port and the beach. Maybe even watch the sunset from the beach. Then I have to plan my escape from WA and find my way over to the East Coast- easier said than done, I think.

It is very odd to be in an English speaking country once more. I am sure that I am the one that looks like a moron as I can't talk properly as I keep thinking that people don't understand me. There was a group of teenagers on the plane on their way back from Canada with their teacher. They had such strong Aussie accents that it made me chuckle. But not nearly as much as them hearing other people speak Aussie for the first time in months- they kept asking their teacher if they sounded like that and commented on how 'ocker' their accents were.

Right, had better go- internet is not nearly as cheap as in Asia and I have run over the 15 minutes mark and am determined not to fall into the 1 hour category.