Perth vacation

Our family had just been on a 5 days 4 nights holiday to Perth. It was my first visit to the continent and my wife's 2nd visit there (I think). Somehow I had mixed feelings about our just-finished vacation to the city.

Firstly, as we are so used to the hustle and bustle of SG life, living for a few days in Perth where it is more laid back seemed "not normal" for us. Shops starting to close at 5 pm onwards? And by 6pm, all of the shops are closed and we had to resort to our shopping during the daylight period. That was some serious blow for us who are so used to the evening / night shopping activity in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. The people just disappear after 6pm to the comforts of their suburb homes leaving the streets with the bar-hopping crowd.

The cost of living is quite steep as compared to SG... My colleague told me that it's not enough to just change to 500 AuD for all 5 days and she was right. Bulk of the money was spent on food / drinks and public transport. And I gasped at the taxi fare from the airport to our hotel (amounts to slightly above 50AUD). OK so I guess the public transport costs are more expensive in other cities like London, New York, Paris, etc. But I think it takes time to get used to it. So that makes me wonder what is the cost of living like for citizens there, what amounts to a decent pay package for professionals like me (if I intend to work in / migrate to Australia).


So that leaves both me and my wife confirming each other that life in Australia is not for us. Even when we know of 2 other people who are intending to migrate there with their families. We rather be citizens in our homeland than be migrants in another country. As what the malay proverb proclaim (after translating), "Even the grass is greener on the other side, it is still better on our homes"