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This final entry of My Perth Diary is especially dedicated to Little Tree who said she nodded off while trying to read my previous blog. "Little Tree, I assure you, this is the shortest one, maybe" LOL. To Sono, "Remember, Rome wasn't built in a day"

Day One : 29th Dec 2013

Day Two : 30th Dec 2013

Day Three : 31st Dec 2013

Day Four : 1st Jan 2014

Day Five : 2nd Jan 2014

Day Six and Day Seven : 3rd Jan 2014 and 4th Jan 2014

Technically today would be the last day of my stay in Perth. As compared to yesterday, we know what to do and where to go. First thing, we will go to Freemantle Market. It is a famous market which sells fresh local produce, souvenirs and other local products. I had to admit, I was looking forward to finally seeing the Freemantle Market. It's the only place that I had been looking forward to visiting since I since I decided to go to Perth. 

Due to the fact that this was our last day in the hotel, we had to check out early. Thank God that our friends were going back on Sunday, so even though we had checked out from our room, we only had to put our bags in our friends' room.

Since we had extended the rent of our car, we decided to drive to Freemantle. Freemantle is only about 22 km from Perth, and in no time at all we reached the Freemantle Market. It has variety of fresh produce, foods, local products and souvenirs. As usual, my nose and stomach dictated the first shop that I had to stop. LOL. After buying some kind of fried whole potato from an Indian shop as my breakfast, we walked through the market.

I had to admit I had gone a bit crazy when I found a small shop specialising in honey. There were all kinds of pure wild honey, and I wish I can buy each and everyone of them. I just bought honey had been bottled in small plastic bottles. Honey that was bottled in glass bottle had to be ignored because my fear that the bottles will break while in my luggage. I also had to refrain myself from buying too much fresh fruits because I only have a few more hours in Perth. I can't buy fresh produce or fruits and packed them in my luggage just in case they will be confiscated and destroyed when entering Malaysia.

After spending some time in the market, we decided to go to another famous market specialising in souvenir, the E-Shed. It's just a few minutes drive from the Freemantle Market. In here, my alter ego, The Crazy Shopaholic emerged. LOL. Well, I put the blame on my extended family members. I had to buy some kind of souvenirs to nearly each and everyone of them. Well, not everyone, but still, it was a big number. 

After that big effort in refraining myself from going bankrupt, we decided to visit the same seafood restaurant that we had visited a few days earlier for our lunch. While enjoying our lunch, we were toying a few ideas on how to spend the rest of the day before returning our car for good.

Basically, we had ticked all the places that we wanted to visit while in Perth, so we decided to return to Kings Park since we did not manage to walk through the glass bridge yesterday. Before driving back to Kings Park, one more stop that we had to do. And, yes, it was because of food. We drove back to Perth City Centre and stopped at its High Street. After walking round and round, we managed to find our next food destination. It was a quaint little cafe specialising in cakes and pastries. Each of us bought one box of apple strudel. My friend's friend swore that it was the best apple strudel in the whole wide world.

After all the excitement, my room mate asked to be dropped off at the hotel. Apparently she had a blinding headache so she won't be joining us back to Kings Park. After dropping off my room mate, we proceed to Kings Park. Even though it was still an early afternoon, there were already a big number of people walking or just sitting around the park. 

We managed to walk through the glass bridge. Though I was a bit scared to walk through the tree tops, but the view was worth the few acceleration of my heart beats. The three of us just decided to enjoy the walk and sit on the grass. After that we drove to the other sides of the park. Over here, there were a few people who were doing Australian favourite past time, barbecuing. 

After taking our fill with the view and atmosphere, we had to drive back to our hotel and send back the car to the car rental company. After taking a short break and trying to pack my things in my luggage, the three of us were on another mission, to hunt some food in the Twilight Hawkers Market at Northbridge, at the City Centre. My room mate was still not feeling too good, so the hunt was only done by the three of us, again. 

The Twilight Hawkers Market was alive with people and music when we arrived. There were a lot of food kiosk selling all kinds of international food. There was Malaysian food kiosk, Spanish, Moroccan, Turkish, Singaporean, Korean, Japanese, to name a few. The smell of various foods really made my mouth water and my stomach rumbled. 

After making a few round of those food kiosks, I decided to taste some Moroccan food, don't ask me what was the name of the food, I can't remember it. Hmm ... then I decided to taste the Spanish seafood paella. Gosh! I know I ate too much, but I just can't help it. They really begged me to eat them up. We managed to secure a table and chairs and gobbled our food. Did I say gobbled? LOL. No, we managed to eat our food in a very polite manner.

Shortly after, we took the Perth CAT back to our hotel. While waiting for the time to go to the airport, I managed to finish my packing. It was roughly about 8.30 pm. My room mate and I decided to go to the airport at about 10.00 pm, because we were not sure at what time we can check in, though our flight was supposed to be at 2.30 am of 4th January 2014.

We managed to flag a taxi in front of the hotel at our first attempt. When we reached the airport, the check in counter was yet to open, and we were told that our flight had been delayed. Now it was rescheduled at 3.30 am. OHMY! I never imagine that I would spend another day in Perth practically sleeping at the airport. 

Let me tell you, sleeping on hard airport seats was really pain in the neck, and body, and everything else. Roughly about 1.00 am, finally the check in counters were opened. After that we decided to have some coffee at one of the cafe that still opened. Finally, we decided to just enter the Departure Lounge and get over with the Security and Border Control matters as soon as possible. 

At the entrance of the Departure Lounge, we were stopped by an officer who was asking whether we have some forms of liquid, aerosol or gel products with us. After giving us a resealable plastic bag each, we went over to a counter to fill in details of our departure. Suddenly, my friend asked me whether honey was allowed to be in a hand carry. OHMY! I told her, no honey was not allowed to be hand carried and must be packed in a luggage.

Apparently she just realised that all her honey was in her handbag, and she did not want them to be confiscated. After reaffirming the situation with the officer at the front of the Departure Lounge, we decided to take our chances and go back to the check in counter and try to check in the bottles of honey in one of our bags. We were lucky that the check in lady was still at the counter. Unfortunately we cannot retrieve our bags, so I decided to check in my knapsack, and my friends put all the bottles of honey into my knapsack. Phew! Disaster averted.

Back to the Departure Lounge. The immigration clearance was as smooth as it can be. Next the security clearance. I did not face any difficulty and was asked to go through the normal screening machine, however, my friend had to go through the full body scanner. While we were waiting for our flight, I remarked the different treatment being enforced to both of us even though we were just next to each other. She said it was because she was wearing a hijab that was why the different treatment.

I don't want my beautiful memories of Perth to be tainted with that small matter, but I do wonder whether it was the truth. But whatever the reason, I still can look back to my little holiday in Perth with satisfaction and overall, Australia and Australians are beautiful.

~~~~~~ The End ~~~~~~

P/S: Thank you to each and everyone of you who had spent your precious time to read this diary. I really appreciate it.