Hiya there!

Hope you're all ok! We've just arrived in Perth, Western Australia after 6 weeks travelling across Indonesia. It feels so odd to be in a westernised country for the first time in 3 months.

What hit us immediately (apart from all the signs are in English) is that everything is so clean, airy, spacious and organised. The streets here seem so pristine (no rubbish build-up or smelly open drains), graceful tree-lined roads, clean newly painted buildings (don't look like they should have been condemned or could topple over at any moment), lack of people on the streets (no street sellers or roadside stalls, no beggars) the overall feeling that everyone is well-fed and well-kept.

The weather is also a relief - despite temperatures close to 40c, there's no humidity and a wonderful sea breeze. Got so used to feeling wet damp and sticky and it's such a relief to be able to go outside without your clothes being drenched in sweat within minutes.

Mind you, one shock is the prices (I guess what pays for all organisation etc). We've got so used to referring to everything as "cheap" or a "real bargain". For 3 months, we've felt we could afford to stay in any hotel (almost) and eat out every night. Now, we're confronted with UK prices for accommodation, food and transport, we're in for some real penny pinching now!

Along with Westernisation comes boring rules and regulations...we went to hire a camper van and were told that we must have a 4 berth deluxe to comply with restraining seats for the children (we wanted to go for the 3 berth standard). It doesn't mean a thing that for the past 3 months the kids have been travelling in the back of pick-up trucks, unrestrained in Bangkok tuk-tuks, on overcrowded buses and trains with livestock flying about and in hired jeeps with not a seat belt in sight! That's just one reminder of the bureaucracy of western sociesties...come back South East Asia all is forgiven!

Anyway..what we've seen so far of Australia (not a great deal) is pretty impressive. I'm supposed to be looking for accommodation on the net rather than wittering on, so I'll say bye for now

Lots of love Jill, Paul, Leala and Benxxxxxxxxx