Thanks Jode - will do. With that said I will start with the easy one and also our first stop in W.AU — Perth.
I did have some tanks loaded that I took on the flights over to Perth and they did leak. I had read about tanks leaking when flying but I took a chance. Some of you may recall my mentioning that vaping products are banned in W.AU so no vape stores. I knew this before leaving and thus ensured I had everything with me plus some extras — everything came back home with me. Perth was my first attempt to vape and I did get the dirty looks. No one, and I mean no one in Perth was vaping. I did not encounter anything ecig related until we got up to Darwin in the Northern Territory. I accidentally came by one vape store so I had to stop. Everything they carried was so-so however for anyone who wanted to vape, this was the place to buy products. The gal running the store told me that the majority of their customers are military personnel for a couple of reasons. First analogs are extremely expensive and secondly they can buy more eliquids to carry that do not take space that analogs do as well as being substantial cheaper. BTW the analogs range from 20 cigs up to 50 in one pack. At the Darwin airport I saw a guy from Melbourne vaping so I couldn’t resist going up to him to talk about ecigs. I mentioned the W.AU ban on ecigs and he felt this would get reversed in due time. He mentioned that even in Sydney everyone is still smoking and I found this to be true on my way home. I was surprised to see so many cig butts on the sidewalks even though there were disposals for them. All the AiV eliquids I buy I get the glass bottles however for my trip I bought the 17 ml plastic bottles. Ones such as Hot Waffle, Call Me Vanilla, etc. turned a very dark brown and almost bordering on black-brown. I also took with me a 15 ml glass bottle of 15FF that did not change color. I am assuming it was the plastic bottles that made the liquids turn color.
We booked an apartment through
https://www.airbnb.com as we had 6 nights before our tour started. Trying to coordinate air and tour dates was a challenge as we were travelling on airline reward miles. The apartment was centrally located and of course much cheaper than staying in a hotel. The apartment was great. We each had our own bedroom and bathroom plus we we were able to do laundry prior to starting the tour. The weather was cold and raining the first few days after our arrival so I ended up having to buy a long sleeve top. I knew the weather was going to get hot once we started our tour so I took all short sleeves and shorts plus a couple of long pants. Because of the weather we saw two movies almost back-to-back — 13 Minutes (an international film and supposedly true story) and Unity (a documentary
https://unitythemovement.com). I can say that I could not eat beef (although I don’t eat much of it) for a good couple of weeks after I saw Unity. We went to Sneaky Tony’s, a rum bar with over 300 rums in between the two movies (
Sneaky Tony's) more out of curiosity than anything else. It is very difficult to find and we had to knock on an unmarked door to get in as the set up is like a speak easy. On the weekend you need a password to get in which is available on their Facebook page. Chinese food (Hong Kong style) was absolutely delicious.
We took a bus about an hour’s ride to Fremantle one day. Once there we took a tour around Fremantle. For those who like the UGG brand, one of the stores had true Australian UGG products unlike what we have here in the US. The prices were terrific plus the exchange rate throughout our time in AU was anywhere from $0.70 to $0.75 USD to one Aussie dollar. Sadly I did not buy any UGGs however my friend did and now I am jealous.
From this point forward it will take me some time so please bear with me.
Thanks so much for that heads up @wolandepiphanius.
