Perth is the capital city of West Australia. Even though West Australia is the biggest region of Australia but central city of Perth is smaller than Jakarta. You can visit most of Perth’s place of interest in one day using all kind of transportations, but if you add shopping and picture hunting to your to-do-list, even a whole week wouldn’t be enough as for most of Indonesians, it will take ages to do that (* cheers).
There are many places that are very different from what you can find in Indonesia. There are zoos with kangaroos and koalas, desert, savanna, beaches, harbors, museums and etc. Since I have been to Perth twice and visited many place there, I’ll try to show all of those places on my next post. In this post, I will only focus on how to minimize your budget when you go to Perth.
Travelling abroad would not be as easy as travelling to other Island in Indonesia. First thing I had to prepare was Visa. For Australian Visa, you can apply it in representative embassy office of Australian in ABDA building 22th floor on Sudirman Street, Jakarta. It is quite near from Indonesia Stock Exchange Building. It will only take 3-7 days to process all of your documents. However, don't risk your chance of travelling by applying in the last 3 days. Even though I was able to do that, you may not be always lucky as I was. If you have to attend a ceremony event, surgery, business meeting, or another important thing that require immediate response from the embassy, you will likely to get your visa in three days. Just tell the staffs about your reason and its urgency since they will be very happy to assist you. It wasn’t just about how many days you should prepare for applying visa; you have to prepare all documents that you will need as well.
1. Your passport, which is still valid at least 6 month before your departure date.
2. Photocopy of Identity card (KTP)
3. Photocopy of family card (Kartu Keluarga)
4. Color Picture of yourself with White Background (4x6)
5. Birth Certificate (Akta Lahir)
6. Bank Statement (Rekening Koran). The Australia Government needs to know how you are going to pay for all of your expenses while in Australia. If you have bank statement with minimum balance of Rp. 30.000.000 in the last 3 months, you can use it. If you don't have it, you can use your parents’ bank statement to support you.
7. Recommendation Letter. If you go to Australia to attend meeting, ceremony or meet your friend, you should ask your partner in Australia to send you this letter. This letter will contain reason of your travel. Do not worry if you don't have this letter, as it is only additional information for Australia embassy.
8. The important thing is please make sure that all of your documents have EXACTLY same details such as name, signature, description and etc. If there is a difference between a document to the other, you should make another guarantee letter which is signed by person in charge.
9. If you could buy ticket and book hotel before you apply your visa, it’ll ease your visa application process.
10. Don't forget to pay 1.060.000 IDR for the visa application fee.
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After finishing the visa application process, you have to prepare three other things about how to go to there, where you will live and what you can do there.
You can go to Perth by using airplane. There are many airlines that provide low price for route Jakarta-Perth-Jakarta such as Jetstar Airlines http://www.jetstar.com/gx/en/index.aspx and AirAsia Airlines http://www.airasia.com/my/en/home.html. If you are lucky, you can get price between 1.800.000-3.500.000 IDR for return ticket. You can search for your ticket a few months before you go there, you probably get lower price by booking early.
After get your airplane ticket, next will be to book the hotel. It will be better for you if you already book your hotel room before you go to Perth. If you travel by budget airline, you are likely to arrive in Perth on 02.00 AM. Don't perceive that you can find taxi and hotel easily because most of restaurants, offices and shops are closed on 05.00 p.m. Buying hotel voucher earlier can save your time. You can book by online on http://www.agoda.com/. I have tried one hotel from this site. I booked for Kings Perth hotel with price about 970.000idr/ night. I got one king size bed, one bathroom with hair-dryer and hot-cold water, television as well as air conditioner.
On the other hand, if you’re on a trip with 5-8 people, I suggest you to take hotel apartment such as Madina Hotel by paying 2.500.000 IDR/ night. You can get 2 bedrooms, a bathroom, a living and a dining room, kitchen, washing machine and television.
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The last but not least is about local transportation and food. There are many kinds of transportations in Perth. If you want to get around the city, you can use red, yellow and blue cat. These are free bus that stops on many locations in Perth and Suburbs near from the central city. Besides those cat buses, you also can use Transperth to visit suburbs that are far away from Perth such as museum, zoo and etc. Mostly, you only have to pay 2-2.5 AUD. May be this price is expensive enough for 15-30 minutes trip because for Indonesian, we always pay 2.000 IDR for 2 hours in traffic (*wink). Moreover, you can buy all day ticket buy paying 6 AUD only on weekend. It will be effective if you plan to use the bus more than 2 times. Don't worry because it is valid in all Transperth wherever you are.
Another cheap alternative is City Sightseeing Perth tour. This bus will only stop at tourism spots all around Perth (kings park, burswood complex, city shopping malls, perth mint, harbour town, museum and art gallery, northbridge and barrack st jetty. You can catch this bus at Bell Tower. Before using these facilities, you have to pay 25 AUD which is valid for two days. For early booking you can visit its website on http://www.citysightseeingperth.com/.
Although Australian food has never been my favorite but it's still important to talk about it. I will suggest you some tips about some places to get cheap food. The best way to save your money for food in Perth is by bring instant noodles (pop mie), abon, and all instant food as many as you can put in your baggage. Don't worry about airport check, as long as your foods are manufactured by factory, Australia immigration staff will slip those off. All these instant food will be very helpful not only for cheap breakfast but also to prevent you from midnight hunger. Most of restaurants and mini markets are close after 06.00 p.m. Even though there are few restaurants and mini markets which still open, you only can find it in China Town behind Transperth Station. Most of Chinese restaurants will open all night because these restaurants are started from 06.00 p.m. You also can find 24 hours McDonalds and 24- hours mini market near city center. Generally, you will only spend 3-15 AUD for every meals. For junk food, you only pay 3-9 AUD for one packet food and drink but for traditional food such as Indonesian food or Chinese food you have to pay 10-20 AUD for one meal.
Story By: Tenri Ake
Edited By: Cita Nursyadzaly
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