October 2016
Our 3rd day itinerary is a trip to Fremantle by train. We caught the train on platform 7 at Perth train station and the journey is just a tad over an hour with 15 stops along the way. Arriving Fremantle train station, our first business of the day is to head over to E-Shed market just across the station. This is a favorite place for Malaysian to buy souvenirs as the price is much, much cheaper compared to Perth. The same sweater costing $19-29 in Perth is only $9.90 here.
If two adults are taking the train, purchase a ‘Family Rider‘ ticket for $12.40. It entitles you to a group of up to seven people unlimited travel on the day of purchase, provided no more than two of them normally pay full fare. You save $6 if you would have bought the normal 2 zones ticket ($4.60 X 2pax X rtd) plus the ability to go to other places within the day.
The ‘Family Rider’ ticket.
The E-Shed market is only opened Friday to Sunday. You walk a couple of minutes from Fremantle railway station across to E-Shed. The two favorite outlets are Megabes owned by a Singaporean and Aussin owned by an Indonesian. Get your souvenirs here or you’ll regret having to pay at a much higher price back in Perth.
From E-Shed, we walked over to B-Shed & A-Shed where nearby is the Western Australian Maritime museum. What is of interest to me is the display of a decommissioned Oberon class Submarine HMAS Ovens. The museum provides tour inside the submarine but unfortunately were fully booked for the next few hours and we haven’t had time to wait. However, you can get a glimpse of the submarine from outside the museum compound.
From the maritime museum, we walked over to J-Shed and onwards to Bathers Beach. The wind was strong, water chilly … definitely not a time for a swim. From across the bay, you can see the Royal Perth Yacht Club.
A few minutes walk from the beach, we arrive at Mews Road where two famous seafood restaurants, Cicerello’s and Kailis’ are located. A favorite among Malaysian is Kailis’ and that’s where we headed for lunch. To our surprise, there were so many Malaysian, it feels like just having a meal back home.
We ordered fish & chips and 1kg of chilli mussels. We tought we made a mistake ordering too much mussels but in the end everything was finished by two of us. The chilli mussels, to Malaysian standard, isn’t hot. The fish & chips were as good as those we’ve had in Britain.
After lunch, we took the free Blue CAT (Central Area Transit) bus at Fishing Boat Harbour (stop 10450) nearby the Western Australian Museum a few minutes walk from Kailis’ and headed to Fremantle Markets. You would want to get off at Fremantle Markets (stop 16980). The Fremantle Markets are housed in a Victorian era building. With over 150 stalls, it offers products of all kinds including handicrafts, health and beauty, jewellery, fashion and accessories, specialty foods, fish, vegetables and much more.

A Malaysian cafe in the Market. Easy to remember, stall No. 1. The Blue CAT bus stops right in-front.