Perth, Western Australia - Fremantle

I had always wanted to re-visit Perth after my undergraduate study. So, we travelled to Perth in Dec 2013 for our year end family trip. The most common comment I hear from the people is, " What a boring and dull city, and there is nothing to do". Well, why not? Is a great getaway from the daily hectic lifestyle with so much to see and do in and around this beautiful city.

The flight time from Singapore to Perth is only 5 hours 20 minutes. Perfect for families with young children, as compared to flight time of 8 hours to Melbourne or Sydney. I have a 14 months old baby and a 3 years old plus child travelling together.

One would often relates Australia travel with self-drive road trips. With a 14 month old baby, we decided to shelf the idea of self-drive for long distance road trips and rely on the public transport. Public transport is safe, efficient and easy to get around.

Getting around Perth by buses and trains are pretty straight-forward. The tickets/fares are calculated by the number of zones you travel through on your journey. If you travel within the one zone, you will be charged a 1-zone fare. If you travel over a zone boundary into another zone, you will be charged a 2-zone fare and so on. Click here to download the zone map. When in doubt of where to alight, speak to the friendly bus driver.

Source: http://www.transperth.wa.gov.au

A visit to Perth would be incomplete without a trip Fremantle (also known as "Freo"). There are a lot of restaurants to choose from along Cappuccino Strip, but we headed towards the Fishing Boat Harbour for WA No. 1 Fish 'n' Chips, Cicerello's for a sumptuous lunch.

 

 

Next, is to walk around in Fremantle Market. This area (at the entrance of Fremantle Market and along Cappucino Strip) is a place with abundance of quality street performers, and you never need to watch Australia's Got Talent ever again. I am not sure if is a custom to tip if you stop to take photo or pause to watch/listen to their performance. Nonetheless, my girl tipped "Elvis Presley".

 

For those looking to shop for souvenir, a visit to E-shed market is a must. You can get Australia native animals stuff toys at 3 for AUD10, and the very unique cork hat. By the way, if you visit Perth during the summer, the cork hat is a very useful head gear to ward off the insects, mainly the flies during this period: the movement of the head causes the corks to swing, discouraging insects from swarming around the wearer's face.

 

 

Last, but not least, we also visited one of the main tourist attraction, the Round House, the oldest building in Western Australia. The children were running around or nearby the Round House, and to our surprise, they found the dandelion. This is like fairy tales comes alive, the children were busy making wishes by blowing off the seeds of a dandelion. Cool, this is definitely an unexpected bonus on this trip!

 

 

Make a wish on a dandelion! The children wished for happy family. (Feeling blessed!)

 

 

That round up our trip to Fremantle.

 

How to get to Fremantle:

By bus

- From Murdoch station, take bus route 98 and alight along Cappuccino Strip or the Fremantle Railway Station

By train

- From Murdoch station, take train to Perth city, transfer and alight at Fremantle

 

Explore Fremantle by foot or free CAT (City Area Transport) bus service.

Tips: Visit Fremantle on the weekend.