Free public transport and no tipping!

Perth is not as cool as Brisbane, that’s my opinion. Brisbane has much better food, haha…. Maybe that’s why I’m thinking that! I thought Brisbane was a little more “grand”. Everything was done bigger. The water taxis, the beautiful views. Though I took a lovely walk through the botanical gardens tonight which provided some really nice views of the city, once I was able to find them. I walked for an hour before I finally found signs for the botanical gardens.

Security is beefed up around here like crazy for the CHOGM, cops in regular and in plainclothes all over the place. Sniffer dogs, they are even closing the city down next Friday; no one can enter or leave the city. (Well, that’s what some taxi drivers told me today, but I think they were exaggerating a little….) The queen is arriving the day after I leave, of course. I suppose, it wouldn’t really make sense for me to be here when all that is going down anyways…. But the city is having a BBQ on Thursday night and the whole city is invited to come and meet the Queen. How cool is that? I would have loved to have an opportunity to meet her!

Can you imagine a city having FREE public transport? Ya I couldn’t either. But Perth does! I was amazed. It centers all around the downtown area (called the CBD in all of the Australian cities – “Central Business District”). I used it quite a few times, it was very handy getting around. Aside from walking (miles and miles and miles… ) I took taxis all over. It seemed common here to sit in the front with the driver, so that’s exactly what I did, once I remembered that as a passenger I sit on the LEFT. The drivers were all very friendly, I had great conversations with all of them. Many of them Indian, there was a Sri Lankan, a Somali guy, a Bulgarian guy… maybe even more multi-cultural than our Haitian Boston cab drivers.

You know what’s great about Australia? You’re NOT expected to tip! Not even like Europe, where you round up. No, here…. You don’t even need to tip anyone. Not waiters, not cab drivers, no one. Just pay what you owe and go on your merry way. This is good and bad, I suppose. The level of service is not as good, mostly when speaking about waiters/waitresses. Rarely is it actually a problem though. And instead of thank you’s? There are “Cheers!!” How positive.