What I Learnt from My Solo Trip to Perth

/ June 23, 2015
rottnest island

Rottnest Island in Perth

So, if you can remember, I was quite busy in October travelling around Perth, Penang and Seoul. I’ve had a few busy months but there’s nothing like reliving my trips to motivate me for my upcoming ones. I’m going to be continue putting out my travel stories here, with a few bonuses, so be forewarned and join me in wanderlusting (if there is such a word…haha) away till my next adventures. I start off with Perth because I had quite a number of memorable misadventures that I did not foresee in Perth that I still think about, laugh about, pine about and lust over for more. There’s nothing better to sum it up than these.

1. Be attentive walking at night. I had planned out my route to the hostel which included taking the shuttle out from the airport to a stop near my hostel. The hostel is supposedly 10mins away from there but in reality, it took me around 20mins of walking instead. By then, it was dark, all the shops were closed and there was hardly anyone around on the streets. It was only then that I got reminded of the one safety rule to follow when travelling solo. There has been countless warnings about walking alone at night in unfamiliar areas. Yet, I still ended up walking to my hostel in the dark on unfamiliar streets, with a vague sense of direction. As I was staying in the suburbs, I found out the hard way that this may not be such a wise thing to walk around in the dark alone. I even saw a few people trying to break into cars parked by the road while walking down the streets!

Beach in Rottnest

Perth is so pretty when the weather was good.

2. Perth has good weather, well, MOSTLY. I was told that weather in Perth is usually sunny. I just had the bad luck though because my week there was tempered with the occasional downpour and strong winds. I got sick from the cold but then, I usually do when the weather is less favourable. The weirdest thing was that people would tell me that it was bright and sunny just the week before, no rain and no winds pushing you around. What I got instead was rain. Well, there were days when it was bright and sunny but oh, the winds were no joke then too!

3. Injuries should not be ignored. I sprained my ankle in the middle of my trip but I delayed treatment until my second last day there. I could hardly put any weight on my ankle in the first few days but I was also stubborn and determined to carry on with my planned activities that I endured the pain instead of seeking out treatment. I suppose if I were travelling with a friend, I would have already been dragged to the doctor but I made the decision myself since I was alone. It made for some uncomfortable and slow exploring since I was travelling solo and I imagined I stressed it even more rather than giving it the proper rest that it deserved. Well, the outcome of my stubbornness was that the muscle was tender still 2 weeks after my trip and I have trouble with my ankle even now so this should serve me as a good lesson.

Sand dunes in Australia

Climbing the sanddunes with a sprained ankle was not a fun thing to do.

4. I’m still a scaredy-cat on my own. Travelling alone seems to bring out these fears. Fear of deep waters threw me off my first encounter with wild dolphins. My fear of cycling made me return the bicycle back to the vendor on Rottnest Island because I was not confident enough to ride alone. I let my fear stop me from sliding down the sand dunes although I would say that I shouldn’t be thinking of doing it with a sprained ankle. I still have that awkward fear of making conversations with others in the hostel, especially when you are one of the minorities. I once froze during dinner because I was the only Asian at the one dining table in the room. Since everyone around me was talking to someone else, it made for a very awkward dinner for me.

5. Bus drivers in Perth are the most awesomeness people ever! Well, these may be generalising them but of those that I’ve met during my trip there, they were easy to talk to, to ask for directions, cheerful while chatting away and I’ve been left with very good impressions of them. There was the one who shouted to me to get off when I didn’t do so after I had enquired about a stop at the beginning of the journey. There was the one who let me on the bus first even though he was not ready for passengers and he initiated the conversation with me then.

View of Perth

View of the city from Kings’ Park

6. Perth is huge and vast outside the city area. Okay, I’ve got to admit it. The city of Perth was absolutely awesome for a solo traveller. There was free wifi at the city centre, there were free shuttle buses that runs regularly within the city area, there were trains that went to other parts of Perth. My problem was that there were places that I wanted to get to outside of Perth that takes too long by public transport and is better off by renting a car or by tour. So, this limits a solo traveller, like me, who can’t drive to get to many other places outside of the city area. I managed to find a way around it this time though, luckily. 🙂

7. Never underestimate a place. I loved it there! Enough said! 🙂

lancelin sand dunes

playing with sand at the lancelin sand dunes

How about you? Have you had any awkward experience while overseas? Or do you agree with any of the above? Please do share! 😉

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29 thoughts on “What I Learnt from My Solo Trip to Perth”

  3. fantastic glad you loved perth – I’ve never been there but always wanted to! In summer it is very very hot and sunny pretty much every day – rain is almost unheard of. I know what it’s like with injuries. In one trip I walked around with a bad knee for 2 months waiting for it to get better. It did actually!

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    • Wow, that’s quite long to be walking on that bad knee but good thing it got better, I totally understand going on with it though, just glad that it didn’t cause any permanent damage…😁

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  4. Things don’t always go our way but I am glad to hear you made the best of it!

    I think I would have been pretty alert and attentive too if I was walking in an area I wasn’t familiar with at night. I’m glad to hear you arrived safe and sound. And I feel kind of awkward starting conversations with people I don’t know as well. However, once the conversation is started, I feel at ease. I think the initial interaction is hard because you may be interrupting or maybe the person wants to be left alone.

    Happy to see you back blogging! 🙂

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  8. I get a little more afraid when I travel solo. I’m a total extrovert, so the biggest problem is not being able to talk about EVERY little thing that pops into my head, haha. That sucks about your ankle, hope it’s all healed now. I agree, don’t ignore those things, health should be #1. 🙂 The beach looks gorgeous!!

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    • Hahaha…that’s funny! It’s the opposite of me..haha..but at least you can be reassured that you will make friends..😆 And I find that it’s hard not to find anywhere in Australia that is not beautiful..😁😎😍😆

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  9. What an experience Sha! Great that you shared this 🙂 My solo travel always related to work, it was incomparable to yours..but I do have fear to start conversations with strangers….I am afraid I will be bit lonely when doing a solo trip for holiday 🙂

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  12. that must have been tough not putting weight on one foot and I hope it heals 100% – and the bus drivers sound so nice – ha – and helpful –
    also – I have been a frozen scaredy-cat on some of my trips.
    back in 93 I missed some free scuba dives because i was afraid to drive in Miami alone …. and I would normally drive everywhere alone

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