A Great Book with Great Tips to Live Your Life!

A year ago, i read a very good book - a No.1 New York Best-Seller on Self-Improvement known as "The 4-Hour Work Week" by Timothy Ferriss.

Really an awesome book. It empowers us on escaping the 9-5, Live Anywhere and Join the New Rich, where we live everyday to the fullest. We do not believe in Retirements when we are so rich at 5o years old. Instead, we believe in having many many mini-retirements throughout our life.

Who wants that? Highly recommended book for those that want more life than the 9-5 work week, especially for those that aspire to become an entrepreneur.



I seldom recommend books to others, but this one is really special!

Go Get The Book Now! You will be as happy as me. =)

Backpacking Holidays in Perth, Western Australia - Part 4

This post will be the fourth one (i.e. Part 4) of my Backpacking Holiday trip to Perth, Western Australia. You can check out Part 3 HERE. This series will serve as a mini-travelogue for people that are searching for information on Perth Backpacking and Free-&-Easy Holidays.

Day 3: APT Tours to 4WD Pinnacles + Caversham Wildlife Park + Sandboarding Adventure

As per Day 2, we went early to wait for the day coach and was sad to realise that the driver (cum Day Tour Guide) is a different person. We understand that the drivers were given rotating schedule and destination in order to keep them excited and fresh. But we were all gear up mentally to have another exciting day with the new driver. Oh, the tourists group were also different, thought we met a couple that was on same coach with us on Day 2 tour.

Hot drinks are a comfort in the chilling morning

We left the city limits and crossed over the Swan River and headed north through the Swan Valley to Caversham Wildlife Park where we stopped to view and photographed koalas and hand feed kangaroos. It is a shame that the wildlife park tour was in a rush. Everyone was enjoying ourselves here and was so reluctant to leave those animals.

Caversham Wildlife Park

They are so gentle and cute =)

So nice to touch..opps..not suppose to?

We then continued with the thrilling experience of 4-wheel driving in our giant 4WD over massive Lancelin sand dunes and the chance to try sand boarding. It was the first in my life and i was enjoying myself with many rounds of sandboarding!

4WD Drive was scary at first

Getting ready for sandboarding

I am good with Sandboarding

We then continued on to the Nambung National Park, home of the amazing Pinnacles Desert. Here our driver guide took us for an easy paced walk through parts of this fascinating landscape covering some 404 hectares. It is such an amazing structure! Full of Chemistry - limestone formation and Geogrpahy - sand and wind erosion! Another thing to add: the day tour guide is damn good! Seemed to be a chemist or geologist or what. Technical terms were made so simple for many laymen to understand the possible reasons that Pinnacles are formed.

Day tour guide explaining the possible formation of Pinnacles

Posing with the awesome Pinnacles

Later enjoy a sunset journey back to Perth and arrived back in Perth at approximately 7.30 pm. We bought pizza back from a cafe in Perth City Central, and to our disappointment - the pizza taste like stone - rough, hard and almost tasteless.

Now, we were exhausted from 2 days of Day Tours to National Parks. But we still need to get up early the next morning cos we are going free and easy walk of Perth City and famous Cottesloe Beach.

PS: Do drop me a comment. Would love to hear from you.

PSS: This blogpost is part of a series titled: "Backpacking Holidays in Perth, Western Australia". Click on "Holiday Tips" for whole series.

Backpacking Holidays in Perth, Western Australia - Part 3

This post will be the third one (i.e. Part 3) of my Backpacking Holiday trip to Perth, Western Australia. You can check out Part 2 HERE. This series will serve as a mini-travelogue for people that are searching for information on Perth Backpacking and Free-&-Easy Holidays.

Day 2: APT Tours to WaveRock + Historic York + Wild Flowers Viewing

Early in morning of 7.15am, we waited for day coach at the office area of Australian Pinnacle Tours office. Realised through my conversation with the driver (cum day tour guide) that Australian Pinnacle Tours is the official service provider for many other day tour agencies/companies in Perth. I.e. we booked and paid for the day tours with APT Touring but they have no offices in Perth, only Melbourne / Victoria area.

At about 8am when everyone (other tourists) have arrived, we headed east through the scenic Darling Ranges where we stopped to enjoy some morning tea & pastry at historic York, the first township founded in the Avon Valley. We were given about 30mins to take some pictures of the old Victorian buildings and enjoy the pastries on our own expense.

Surprised with the selections in this Old-Fashion Candy Shop in York

We then continue heading east where we passed through wheat belt plains and stop en route at the famous Dog Cemetery, a tribute to Australian working sheep dogs.

Our comfortable Day Tour Coach

Dog Cemetry Signage

Dog Cemetry @ Corrigin

Later we reach the small town of Hyden, home of Wave Rock. Before lunch we visit Hippos Yawn an unusual natural rock formation shaped like a yawning hippopotamus, regarded by the local Aboriginal people as a special place. We then went to the Wave Rock Wildflower Shop to take our Picnic lunch, prepared by the driver (cum tour guide).

After lunch we went for the tour of Wave Rock. Estimated at being an incredible 2,700 million years old, the rock has over time been sculptured by nature into the form of a huge breaking wave. It was an awesome sight! It is so high up from the ground that you enjoyed the consistent breeze blowing towards you.

Posing at the bottom of Wave Rock structure

Water found on Peak of Wave Rock structure

Leaving Wave Rock, we head off to view some other intriguing rock formations of the area including the Humps, a camel hump like granite rock and finally Mulkas Cave. Our guide explained the ancient Aboriginal cave paintings featured within it, telling the legend of the outcast Aboriginal, Mulka the Terrible. It was a mysterious tour i must say!

Our return journey took us along back roads through the heart of the Western Australian wheat belt to the small farming town of Babakin. Here we enjoy some country hospitality over an afternoon tea (own expense. we dint order any food due to the heavy lunch) with local town folk.

The only thing we missed was the supposedly wild flowers that should be covering the roadside. We dint see any. According to the day guide, the wild flowers has wilted a week ago before we arrived.

We ended Day 2 with arrival in Perth at approximately 8.30 pm, but not without our dinner at McDonald's. We were all excited about Day 3 as we went to bed.

PS: Do drop me a comment. Would love to hear from you.

PSS: This blogpost is part of a series titled: "Backpacking Holidays in Perth, Western Australia". Click on "Holiday Tips" for whole series.

Backpacking Holidays in Perth, Western Australia - Part 2

This post will be the second one (i.e. Part 2) of my Backpacking Holiday trip to Perth, Western Australia. You can check out Part 1 HERE. This series will serve as a mini-travelogue for people that are searching for information on Perth Backpacking and Free-&-Easy Holidays.

From today, we will start to discuss on the 8 days i spent my time in Perth holidaying. Hope this serves as a possible itinerary for your planning.

Day 1: Reach Perth + Perth City Self-Tour + Fremantle

From Singapore Airport, we took Jetstar Asia budget airline and reached Perth International Airport on Friday morning, 13th November 2009 at about 3am in the morning. We took a nap in the airport before we took the airport city shuttle at about 7.45am to Perth City where our backpackers hostel is located.

Reached Perth International Airport

The trip was fast and we reached Globe Backpackers Hostel with a pleasant surprise - the hostel has a very good geographic location in Wellington Street. We were greeted and received at the check-in counter by one of their permanent staff, Trish, which starts our 1st day in Perth. She is so helpful and friendly - told us to check with her on anything to make our stay in Perth an enjoyable one. Since we can only check in at about 10am, we left our backpacks in the Baggage Room and proceed to our quick Perth City foot tour which is around our hostel.

At about noon time, we proceed to take the train to Fremantle - the port city of Perth, with the aim of visiting Western Australia Maritime Museum and sampling seafood at the Fishing Boat Harbour.

Western Australia Maritime Museum in Fremantle

Fremantle is a beautiful place and was packed with lots of locals as well as tourists on a friday afternoon. We went to Cicerello - known for as "Western Australia's No. 1 Fish & Chips" and ordered two set meals: Famous Fish-&-Chips as well as their Seafood Basket. We were glad we were there. The fish and the seafood basket is awesome and their fries are damn tasty! I would vote for them to be World's No.1 Fish-&-Chips!!!

Best Fish-&-Chips in the World! Oh my, the fries is damn good also!

We then proceed to the reknown Fremantle Markets which is opened only from Fri-Sun.

Fremantle Markets - reknown market in Perth

It is a pleasure to walk through the market and looking at the products offered by each stall owners. We did not pick up any items or gifts since we felt nothing was really special and items are over-priced (obviously since this is a tourist attractions). We did stop by a Pastry-serving cafe (one and only) for some servings. The food was great! Recommended!

Lovely pastries in the Pastry-Cafe in Fremantle Markets

We then proceed to the Fremantle Coastline to enjoy the sea breeze. Lovely scenery!

Sean posing at coastline of Fremantle

With that, we took a trip back to Perth City where we checked into our room and was shocked by the condition of it! It was way too good for that price! I have never stayed in a hostel that is so clean and comfortable. I knew i was going to enjoy my time in Perth. The savings we had for the hostel (instead of extravagant posh hotel) is going to be used for food and other entertainment/activities!

After a quick shower, we proceed out to check out the night life and scene in Perth City. It seemed like they prefer home-based activities in Perth. Most of the shops are closed by 7.30pm, including shopping centres and shops. The only ones still open are Fast-Food Restaurants such as McDonald's and Hungry Jacks (Burger King) as well as Kebab and Pizza serving shops. Most of the people on streets are tourists and young adults / teenagers.

More activities (Pubs and life-bands) can be found at Northbridge Area where queues to enter entertainment premises can be seen. In general, it felt safe for tourists. We did not really see any commotions, except one black sheep - a small group of youngsters taunting each other for fights. Do note that this particular scene is not common.

So Day 1 ended with us walking back to our hostel safely and feeling excited about Day 2.

PS: Do drop me a comment. Would love to hear from you.

PSS: This blogpost is part of a series titled: "Backpacking Holidays in Perth, Western Australia". Click on "Holiday Tips" for whole series.

Backpacking Holidays in Perth, Western Australia - Part 1

I just came back from Perth, Western Australia about 3 weeks ago from a backpacking holiday.

We decided to go for a free & easy backpacking holiday due to 2 reasons:

1) Cover places of attraction that we really are keen to see, rather then being lead to places by tour guides (many are to commercial places/shops that the tourist guide has a commission) that we dislike

2) We can control the pace. Normally if you follow tour groups, the time spend at each location is very short - with just a few photo shots and you need to move on. With backpacking, we can control our own pace

3) Most tours agency in Singapore will only cover Perth City Central and maybe the Pinnacles. We would love to visit others Western Australia's awesome National Parks - oh by the way, if you go to places like Australia and New Zealand - it seemed like you have never been there if you have not visited their National Parks.

4) We love to interact with the people on the ground. Nothing beats chatting and knowing more about the lifestyle of the aussies living in Perth.

As usual for a backpacking holidays, you would need to check out 4 things:

1) Air-tickets - we went for budget airline Jetstar Asia as the deal was good when we bought the tickets 6 months earlier

2) Lodgings - we chose backpackers hostel (Globe Backpackers in Wellington Street - we will talk more about it later) rather than posh hotel in Perth as we would love to mingle more with the people, rather than enjoying the comfort but soloist lifestyle in the hotel

3) Travel Insurance - this is a must especially if you doing Backpacking

4) Search for Information on Places of Interest + How to travel around + Recommended food

1 and 3 was pretty easy during the planning stage.

No. 4 (Backpackers Hostel) search was relatively easy as you will find many listings on the web which consolidates the list of backpacking hostels. Just check out the ratings and testimonials by others and you will be able to distill down to a few choices to make a final decision. Once again, risk are involved since the testimonials may not be 100% accurate. One trick is to consider testimonials that are nearer to you. Overall, we would like to give a Thumbs Up for Globe Backpackers Hostel (4.5 / 5 ratings), based on the following:

My room in Globebackpackers

1. Staff: Super friendly & Helpful (Sarah and Tracey - you are brilliant in Customer Service!)
2. Accessibility: Very accessible. Train & Bus stations just opposite. Free Shuttle (CATs service) also 2-3 mins away. 3 mins walk to the major shopping area of Perth City.
3. Safety: Located along the main road. Felt safe when we went back to hostel late in night
4. Room: Clean, Comfortable, Private, Nice Linen. (Pillow maybe change to thicker ones?)
5. Toilet: Clean, Well Maintained. Private. Can't complain!
6. Price: Excellent from what i got! Felt comfortable in my 8 days stay there!

Posing with Sarah

Sean posing with Sarah

It is No. 4 (Information on Places of Interest + How to travel around + Recommended food) that we face challenges. There isn't much travel guidebooks about Perth (and outlying National Parks) in the library or bookstores. We did many nights of internet surfing for information but there was just very little information on the web. The one that always comes up is Tourism Perth Australia which, as we know shows you the "so-call" attractions. These information are usually suited for those going for standard tour activities - we were looking for more information on heartland activities and food.

It seemed like not many blog about Perth - there wasn't much travelogue or blogs to help backpackers like me. Alot was based on asking around when we were physically there in Perth. Are you one of them facing this problem like us???

As such, i promise myself to blog about Perth and Western Australia when i am back into Singapore, in order to assist other backpackers that are looking out for information on Perth. I hope google and yahoo! search engines would be able to display this blogpost for people to pick up and plan their backpacking holidays.

Let's get started with the Introduction of Perth!

Perth is the capital & largest city of Western Australia. The pace of living over there is so much slower and relaxing as compared to other Australia Cities such as Melbourne and Sydney. Most of the shops & eateries in Perth City Central are closed after 6pm and the streets will be quiet at about 8pm.

Perth International Airport

If you are a tourist looking for food in the streets, you can either go for fast-food chains such as McDonalds and Hungry Jacks (equivalent of Burger Kings). You can also find shops selling Pizza and Kebabs until late in the night - this are usually operated by asians. Alternatively, you can walk to Northbridge area where Chinese restaurants are waiting for you for late night / supper meals.

Cup of hot coffee in the early morning in Perth City

In the next few blogposts, i will share with you on the day tours that we took to outlying areas surrounding Perth City Central - many are the amazing National Parks in Western Australia. I will also give an overview of the economical food you can find in Perth City. Stay tuned for the next post!

PS: Drop me a comment. I would love to hear from you.

PPS: This blogpost is part of a series know as "Backpacking Holidays in Perth, Western Australia". Click on "Holiday Tips" for whole series.

Suprise Google Adsense Cheque

It has been sometime since i last check my google account due to work commitments, and i am surprised to see another cheque posted to me by Google Adsense!


Is nice to receive cheques in your mailbox, rather than credit card bills.... =)

Isn't it?

What do you think?

Singapore 44th National Day Celebration

Hi everyone,

Just want to share with you on my trip to watch the Singapore 44th National Day Celebration at Marina Bay Singapore.

This is my first time to attend the National Day Parade, and definitely the first time at the temporary Floating Platform at Marina Bay.

It was all excitement as we (my meow and myself) waiting towards such an celebration event. On the day, we pack some bread and chips and head towards the Marina Bay via public transport of MRT. We have to walk pretty far and go through 1-2 police security checks before we can proceed nearer to the floating platform.

(just got pass the police check)

(we are near the floating platform where the parade will be conducted)

(Of course i am happy. It was a long walk)

(Floating platform at 4.30pm when we reached)

(It is full house at about 5.30pm)

(We heard of Kallang Wave at the defunc National Stadium. How about Marina Wave Roar at Marina Bay Floating Platform?)

(Yeah..That's Me!)

Last but not least, i must stand up for my national flag fly-pass.