There's a saying here, that Bali is the capital city of perth. We can get return flights for under $300 on a regular basis (this is less than it costs to go to most other Australian cities), and many people take advantage of this.
Quote: (06-30-2013 10:06 AM)scotian Wrote:
Seadog I spent a week in Perth, Australia last month and thought that it was a really nice city, great weather, nice beaches, very clean and well organized. There should be plenty of work for you in Oz, you could have a pretty good lifestyle there and not ever freeze your ass off like we do in Canada.
WA has some of the best beaches in the world. Our coast line consists of lovely white sand as far as the eye can see, with clean water, and bad ass waves if you know where to look. However, the already shitty nightlife is suffering even more of late. It's a lovely place to live, but the general level of stupidity of our police system, and their overcompensating presense make it really difficult to do anything mildly fun without constant paranoia that you'll get thrown in lock up for the night, while actual law breakers often slip by, completely unnoticed. I'm amazed I've escaped so many times. I literally got breath tested, taken back to a booze bus for further testing, blew another 2 times (this is all over the space of about an hour), blew well over the limit every time, and got dropped
back at my car, while I was
still over the limit, because they "calculated my blood alcohol back to when I was first tested and it was under." I didn't even get a fine. How and why they did this is beyond me, but they literally let a drunk 20 something, who was off face on mushrooms, dexies, and high as shit, back onto the road. I'm not exactly complaining that I got let off, but seriously, that's straight up incompetence, especially considering they had every reason to lock me up, and none to release me.
As for the weather, it's about 5°c here at the moment. Not cold compared to the temperatures you guys get, but compared to our summers it sucks a little.
In terms of work, you're right, there's a lot, but most require experience in areas that no one has experience in, or in areas where everyone is already employed. If you can get a job up north, it's a gold mine, but you generally need to know someone in the industry, or be very qualified for the position you're chasing. It's an annoying catch 20 - nobody can get experience working in whatever area, because every company wants people that already have experience. Even more annoying is that the wages these guys get paid brings up the cost of living for everyone - including those who aren't on double or even triple what your average Joe earns. Rent prices, for example, are up around $400+/wk for a shitty 3/1 house on average, and it's a scramble just to get hold of one of them - the landlords tend to try hold the houses out for people who earn enough that they wouldn't want to live in such a shit hole anyway. A lot of greedy people without much sense in them.
On the surface, it is an excellent city, indeed, to live in. When you're actually stuck here, not so much. At least we don't have the ginger minister anymore...
EDIT: If you're already a baller, and earning huge passive incomes, it would be a nice place to set up a base for when you need a break from tearing up SEA, otherwise, I'd avoid living here.