24th of Jan to 21st of Feb – Perth, Australia
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Early in the morning of the 24th of January I flew out of Indonesia.
3 hours and 40 min later I landed in Perth…it is so close.
The heat welcomed me, 41°C in the shadow but different from the humid Indonesia, here now a dry heat. Back to civilization :-), well organized bus transfer into the city but for approx. 12 km 18 AUS$ (~15 Euro) . IT IS expensive here: Pizza between 20 and 30 $, a beer for 10 $ (!), pack of cigarettes for 16 $ (!!), my single room in my backpacker (semi ensuite they call it if you have a washing basin + shower in it but no toilet) cost 80 $ a day!!
On the entire trip I did not spend such a lot of money. Every morning I prepare my own breakfast and also cook sometimes my lunch/dinner but this sucks here…
Perth is the most expensive place in Australia, THE boom town because of all the mining in a close distance. Everyone exploits here the minerals and leading the charge is of course China. One Australian told me yesterday that it looks “out there” like a Swiss cheese.
The lifestyle here is “purely American” which of course you shouldn’t mention to any Australian. Everything is on loans, leasing and credit card. The wages are paid every 2 weeks and not monthly which provides already some insight…I was told that most of the people would not be able to retrieve 500 $ from an ATM after day 10 after pay out. That means many people live from hand to mouth or worse.
One third of the male population I see here is under anabolic steroids and pump in a studio. Nearly everyone has tattoos - also the women - partially all over. I saw one guy who had a green spider web on half of his face…unbelievable.
And I was a bit shocked by the aggression on the street, but this is mostly related to the Aborigines who prowl around on the streets the whole day. Very often one can hear them screaming in anger while the frustration gets out…it seems to me (as an absolute outsider) that they don’t want to integrate since I see also young aborigines in the daytime on the street.
Of course this problem has already a long and sad history and certainly the settlers and the government made a lot of mistakes…but one day one has to be also willing to change and integrate.
I wondered why I was shocked: because in all the countries I travelled before I didn’t encounter this open anger.
The people drink like hell here. If the guys order their drinks at the bar (btw, there is no service. All food and drinks must be ordered at the bar…I mean for your 10 Dollar beer you must queue up at the bar, pay, wait and carry the stuff back to your table) most of them order 3 Whiskey Cokes or 3 beers at once for themselves. Half an hour later they are back again.
Due to a Bali specific holiday (Bali has the most holiday in Indonesia) the shipment of my motor bike was delayed further…every day I communicated with Indonesia about the shipment, the customs clearance and the papers.
Finally my bike left Denpasar on Wednesday night, the 1st of Feb to Sydney and from there the next morning to Perth. That is how it goes nowadays. There are a minimum of 10 direct flights per day between Denpasar and Perth but freight goes a big detour over Sydney. With my documents which were sent by DHL it was even worse. They went first to Singapore, then to Sydney and then to Perth. Actually they arrived one day after my bike.
However, since we didn’t get an AQIS inspection (the Australian quarantine inspection) time slot on Friday the whole clearance was scheduled for Monday early morning. Grrrr….again waiting another weekend. The AQIS was a joke, the 2 officers, one guy, one woman, very friendly had a quick look on the bike, let me the read the chassis number for them + ok, done. I cleaned the bike for 3.5 days in Indonesia and now they didn’t scrutinize and “honored” :-) my work?! But better like this than the other way round. Because it all costs money: 650 $ I had to pay the customs broker, incl. the inspection, customs clearance and transport of the crate from the airport warehouse to the KTM dealer in Perth.
All fuel and oils, also the brake fluid, I had to drain before the air transportation. A motorbike is classified as dangerous goods. I discovered later at the dealer when we took the plastic cover off, that they took the battery out which I had already disconnected + isolated back in Denpasar.
Also somebody on the airport must have checked once more if there is really no fuel inside, because the pipe between the 2 tanks was disconnected and hang lose.
On Monday late afternoon we had the bike at the dealer and finally on Tuesday the 7th of Feb they started to work on the bike.
My time is filled with the repair of all my other things, my Sony camera has dirt in between the lenses + was send from Sony Perth to Sydney for repair: 345 $ and the guarantee is only valid within Europe, a no go. But with my Sony laptop I was more lucky, they exchanged my screen and a new battery pack will come next week. And the worldwide guarantee will expire within the next 6 weeks. This is the very first time I have luck with a guarantee on something. Nice.
I visited the 3 main beaches here around Perth: Scarborough, City beach and Cottesloe all in approx. 1 hours distance with public transport.
Also there American style with lifesavers in their beach uniform, training of them in military style on the beach, big guys throwing rugby balls, surfers, kite surfers…in the restaurants junk food for not under 20 $, smoking forbidden in most of the places (also outside) same like in the inner city. So, no relaxing Cappuccino with a cigarette together unless you take it away.
In between I was busy with the tracking of my moto and papers and with the customs broker here in Australia. I had to write as well a comprehensive report/ summary of the symptoms of the motorbike and what we had done, checked and worked on so far on the bike. In between those “actions” I had to seek for an internet spot which is for free…not really the strength of Australia. In Asia for example internet is nearly everywhere available. Here you really have to search for it. Internet Cafes still have their earnings.
Yesterday I changed my location to cut on my expenses. I mean I never stayed in my life somewhere for 2000 Euro a month, not at home and not anywhere in a holiday. This is nuts. Now I stay in a so called “lodge” which prison like rooms are mostly rented by miners and drillers or other staff for whom it doesn’t make sense to rent an apartment (2 weeks out in the desert, 1 week off in Perth), some work & holiday travelers (here they work) + some Swiss English students.
In my backpacker before, besides the backpacker people from all over the world, we had some Australian long term unemployed sleeping in the dorm, some desperate people from UK and Ireland seeking for a new future and a job in Australia. These are the effects of the Europe crisis. Also some work & holiday people…this one year visa you can only obtain under the age of 30. Those people work as cleaners, fruit pickers and whatever.
Poorness…this is the “other world” again. I never realized this before, it only became now obvious to me after this long term travel in Asia: for example, many people in Indonesia are very poor (though some are also f____ rich) but they still have their community and their family ties + food is normally always available and will be shared. But in countries like Australia, Germany, US it is the opposite: if you are poor, you lost your job and home, you are alone and you try to survive on the street. In comparison the amount of people might be by far lower but their destinies seem to be worse if I look into those broken faces and if I see their suffering bodies.
Today, the 14th of Feb, shall be the “big day”. They sent in a part from Austria for fixing my bike. The “heart” of the motor they want to change or maybe I should better call it the "lung" of the motor: the throttle body. This device holds the injector and regulates as well the air intake + carries also some sensors. The TB shall arrive today at 11am by airfreight…let’s see. I cross my fingers.
Bike in the crate...the guys liked it, different from normal day-to-day routine.
Perth beaches
Australia Day on the 26th of January.
Arrival of the bike at dealer's premises...naa, undamaged and still all parts & clothes there??
Yes. But later I found out that the customs/ police (?) in Indonesia did a thorough job. All plastic bags were in a different order and the locks of the alumnium boxes were broken. Everything inside was in disorder but after a quick check I would say that nothing misses. One of the locks I can throw away. If that is all...great! :-)
My "jail" for 17 days. Here the prison cell :-)
For 45 AUS$ a day...but all "inmates" and also the "guards" are very friendly. :-))
Perfect world...
Finally, they found the error: one broken wire and two other wires with the isolation rubbed off in the wire harness connecting the injection control unit. However, also the throttle body had a problem. One of the sensors did not communicate with the analysis tool. But they made the original one working again. Altogether it took them 10 days to fix the bike.
Mobile again I made a test run on Saturday and after 20km the police stopped me. I was told that I was illegally riding on Australian roads. The police officer (an a__hole) told me that I have to change the number plate and to register my bike in Australia. I told him that he was wrong and that I never heard from foreigners riding their vehicles in Australia changing their number plate on a temporarily import permit.
I insisted again on this and he went back in his car and was on the phone for the next 15 min. Then he came out and "built himself up in front of me" with his nice sunglasses and told me: “you accused me of being wrong, now I tell you that you are wrong. I tell you now what I gonna do: I will arrest you for 24h and put you into court on Monday, we will get a tow truck here and confiscate your bike for 28 days.”
Great. What a f____. So I pardoned and told him that I understood what he said and that I will apply for a permit on Monday morning…blablabla. In the end he let me drive home…oh man.
On Monday it took me 2.5 hours on the phone to find out where to go for what. All this nice service numbers (dial 1 for, dial 2 for…hate). In the end I got a temporarily permit for driving to Welshpool. After applying for an inspection and paying the same I had to line up for 3.5h to get my moto inspected.
After that again lining up for the paperwork of the registration (but NO number plate change). Done. And I was also done from all this waiting in the breeding heat.
My transit permits for crossing the Aborigine land/ communities I have in my pocket as well. However the stated entry dates I won’t meet because I lost another day here in Perth. But I won’t apply for new permits…let’s see who will put me in custody out there.
Tomorrow I will go East, 1000km right into Central Australia and in about 2 days I should be at the point where the asphalt stops…the Great Central Road from Laverton to Ayers Rock is my target: 1200km offroad. I cross my fingers, again...
3 hours and 40 min later I landed in Perth…it is so close.
The heat welcomed me, 41°C in the shadow but different from the humid Indonesia, here now a dry heat. Back to civilization :-), well organized bus transfer into the city but for approx. 12 km 18 AUS$ (~15 Euro) . IT IS expensive here: Pizza between 20 and 30 $, a beer for 10 $ (!), pack of cigarettes for 16 $ (!!), my single room in my backpacker (semi ensuite they call it if you have a washing basin + shower in it but no toilet) cost 80 $ a day!!
On the entire trip I did not spend such a lot of money. Every morning I prepare my own breakfast and also cook sometimes my lunch/dinner but this sucks here…
Perth is the most expensive place in Australia, THE boom town because of all the mining in a close distance. Everyone exploits here the minerals and leading the charge is of course China. One Australian told me yesterday that it looks “out there” like a Swiss cheese.
The lifestyle here is “purely American” which of course you shouldn’t mention to any Australian. Everything is on loans, leasing and credit card. The wages are paid every 2 weeks and not monthly which provides already some insight…I was told that most of the people would not be able to retrieve 500 $ from an ATM after day 10 after pay out. That means many people live from hand to mouth or worse.
One third of the male population I see here is under anabolic steroids and pump in a studio. Nearly everyone has tattoos - also the women - partially all over. I saw one guy who had a green spider web on half of his face…unbelievable.
And I was a bit shocked by the aggression on the street, but this is mostly related to the Aborigines who prowl around on the streets the whole day. Very often one can hear them screaming in anger while the frustration gets out…it seems to me (as an absolute outsider) that they don’t want to integrate since I see also young aborigines in the daytime on the street.
Of course this problem has already a long and sad history and certainly the settlers and the government made a lot of mistakes…but one day one has to be also willing to change and integrate.
I wondered why I was shocked: because in all the countries I travelled before I didn’t encounter this open anger.
The people drink like hell here. If the guys order their drinks at the bar (btw, there is no service. All food and drinks must be ordered at the bar…I mean for your 10 Dollar beer you must queue up at the bar, pay, wait and carry the stuff back to your table) most of them order 3 Whiskey Cokes or 3 beers at once for themselves. Half an hour later they are back again.
Due to a Bali specific holiday (Bali has the most holiday in Indonesia) the shipment of my motor bike was delayed further…every day I communicated with Indonesia about the shipment, the customs clearance and the papers.
Finally my bike left Denpasar on Wednesday night, the 1st of Feb to Sydney and from there the next morning to Perth. That is how it goes nowadays. There are a minimum of 10 direct flights per day between Denpasar and Perth but freight goes a big detour over Sydney. With my documents which were sent by DHL it was even worse. They went first to Singapore, then to Sydney and then to Perth. Actually they arrived one day after my bike.
However, since we didn’t get an AQIS inspection (the Australian quarantine inspection) time slot on Friday the whole clearance was scheduled for Monday early morning. Grrrr….again waiting another weekend. The AQIS was a joke, the 2 officers, one guy, one woman, very friendly had a quick look on the bike, let me the read the chassis number for them + ok, done. I cleaned the bike for 3.5 days in Indonesia and now they didn’t scrutinize and “honored” :-) my work?! But better like this than the other way round. Because it all costs money: 650 $ I had to pay the customs broker, incl. the inspection, customs clearance and transport of the crate from the airport warehouse to the KTM dealer in Perth.
All fuel and oils, also the brake fluid, I had to drain before the air transportation. A motorbike is classified as dangerous goods. I discovered later at the dealer when we took the plastic cover off, that they took the battery out which I had already disconnected + isolated back in Denpasar.
Also somebody on the airport must have checked once more if there is really no fuel inside, because the pipe between the 2 tanks was disconnected and hang lose.
On Monday late afternoon we had the bike at the dealer and finally on Tuesday the 7th of Feb they started to work on the bike.
My time is filled with the repair of all my other things, my Sony camera has dirt in between the lenses + was send from Sony Perth to Sydney for repair: 345 $ and the guarantee is only valid within Europe, a no go. But with my Sony laptop I was more lucky, they exchanged my screen and a new battery pack will come next week. And the worldwide guarantee will expire within the next 6 weeks. This is the very first time I have luck with a guarantee on something. Nice.
I visited the 3 main beaches here around Perth: Scarborough, City beach and Cottesloe all in approx. 1 hours distance with public transport.
Also there American style with lifesavers in their beach uniform, training of them in military style on the beach, big guys throwing rugby balls, surfers, kite surfers…in the restaurants junk food for not under 20 $, smoking forbidden in most of the places (also outside) same like in the inner city. So, no relaxing Cappuccino with a cigarette together unless you take it away.
In between I was busy with the tracking of my moto and papers and with the customs broker here in Australia. I had to write as well a comprehensive report/ summary of the symptoms of the motorbike and what we had done, checked and worked on so far on the bike. In between those “actions” I had to seek for an internet spot which is for free…not really the strength of Australia. In Asia for example internet is nearly everywhere available. Here you really have to search for it. Internet Cafes still have their earnings.
Yesterday I changed my location to cut on my expenses. I mean I never stayed in my life somewhere for 2000 Euro a month, not at home and not anywhere in a holiday. This is nuts. Now I stay in a so called “lodge” which prison like rooms are mostly rented by miners and drillers or other staff for whom it doesn’t make sense to rent an apartment (2 weeks out in the desert, 1 week off in Perth), some work & holiday travelers (here they work) + some Swiss English students.
In my backpacker before, besides the backpacker people from all over the world, we had some Australian long term unemployed sleeping in the dorm, some desperate people from UK and Ireland seeking for a new future and a job in Australia. These are the effects of the Europe crisis. Also some work & holiday people…this one year visa you can only obtain under the age of 30. Those people work as cleaners, fruit pickers and whatever.
Poorness…this is the “other world” again. I never realized this before, it only became now obvious to me after this long term travel in Asia: for example, many people in Indonesia are very poor (though some are also f____ rich) but they still have their community and their family ties + food is normally always available and will be shared. But in countries like Australia, Germany, US it is the opposite: if you are poor, you lost your job and home, you are alone and you try to survive on the street. In comparison the amount of people might be by far lower but their destinies seem to be worse if I look into those broken faces and if I see their suffering bodies.
Today, the 14th of Feb, shall be the “big day”. They sent in a part from Austria for fixing my bike. The “heart” of the motor they want to change or maybe I should better call it the "lung" of the motor: the throttle body. This device holds the injector and regulates as well the air intake + carries also some sensors. The TB shall arrive today at 11am by airfreight…let’s see. I cross my fingers.
Bike in the crate...the guys liked it, different from normal day-to-day routine.
Perth beaches
Australia Day on the 26th of January.
Arrival of the bike at dealer's premises...naa, undamaged and still all parts & clothes there??
Yes. But later I found out that the customs/ police (?) in Indonesia did a thorough job. All plastic bags were in a different order and the locks of the alumnium boxes were broken. Everything inside was in disorder but after a quick check I would say that nothing misses. One of the locks I can throw away. If that is all...great! :-)
My "jail" for 17 days. Here the prison cell :-)
For 45 AUS$ a day...but all "inmates" and also the "guards" are very friendly. :-))
Perfect world...
Finally, they found the error: one broken wire and two other wires with the isolation rubbed off in the wire harness connecting the injection control unit. However, also the throttle body had a problem. One of the sensors did not communicate with the analysis tool. But they made the original one working again. Altogether it took them 10 days to fix the bike.
Mobile again I made a test run on Saturday and after 20km the police stopped me. I was told that I was illegally riding on Australian roads. The police officer (an a__hole) told me that I have to change the number plate and to register my bike in Australia. I told him that he was wrong and that I never heard from foreigners riding their vehicles in Australia changing their number plate on a temporarily import permit.
I insisted again on this and he went back in his car and was on the phone for the next 15 min. Then he came out and "built himself up in front of me" with his nice sunglasses and told me: “you accused me of being wrong, now I tell you that you are wrong. I tell you now what I gonna do: I will arrest you for 24h and put you into court on Monday, we will get a tow truck here and confiscate your bike for 28 days.”
Great. What a f____. So I pardoned and told him that I understood what he said and that I will apply for a permit on Monday morning…blablabla. In the end he let me drive home…oh man.
On Monday it took me 2.5 hours on the phone to find out where to go for what. All this nice service numbers (dial 1 for, dial 2 for…hate). In the end I got a temporarily permit for driving to Welshpool. After applying for an inspection and paying the same I had to line up for 3.5h to get my moto inspected.
After that again lining up for the paperwork of the registration (but NO number plate change). Done. And I was also done from all this waiting in the breeding heat.
My transit permits for crossing the Aborigine land/ communities I have in my pocket as well. However the stated entry dates I won’t meet because I lost another day here in Perth. But I won’t apply for new permits…let’s see who will put me in custody out there.
Tomorrow I will go East, 1000km right into Central Australia and in about 2 days I should be at the point where the asphalt stops…the Great Central Road from Laverton to Ayers Rock is my target: 1200km offroad. I cross my fingers, again...
