I Miss Perth

Haniza is off to Perth for 5 days today..

I AM SO JEALOUS!!

I miss the slow-paced living there...
The great weather, the beautiful scenery everywhere!
That great quiche too... Man..

SIGH.
Can't even re-live my days there through my blogpost since all the photos can't be displayed. -.-

T_T

I WANNA GO PERTH AGAIN!

ⒽⒿ 8 Days In Western Australia - Last Day : Kings' Park and Fremantle

ⒽⒿ 8 Days In Western Australia - Last Day : Kings' Park and Fremantle

Arrival + Day 1: Magaret River, Winery and Chocolate
Day 2: Jewel Cave, Lighthouses and Sugarloaf
Day 3: Movie, Animals and Almost Homeless
Day 4: Busselton Jetty, Voyager Estate Winery and Hamelin Bay
Day 5: Whale Sighting, Aqua and Caversham Wildlife Park
Day 6: Cycling & Snorkeling @ Rottnest Island and A Ballet Show
Day 7: Dolphins, Penguin Island and Ciao Italian

Last day of our trip. Last entry about this trip.

Bittersweet...


BUT FINALLY!!! I never thought I'd actually complete this in 2016. It's been too long! I actually started on 28 July, but has only completed it 100 days later. Hahahaha. Exactly 100 days later. Procrastination at its' best. But at least, I never gave up and actually completed this! One down and another trip to update for the year 2015 before I can start on 2016 updates. Woohoo~~ &We are already reaching 2017 in 2 months time. Man... Time flies.

(ps: Don't think you'll see Korea's post anytime soon, Shan. If ever. LOL)

Last day is easy to update though... We took a brief stroll around 'Kings Park and Botanic Garden' (X) before returning the car, then we had a little tough time traveling back from the rental shop to our apartment by foot, rested just a bit back home, then headed out again to an area nearby before continuing to Fremantle Market in their public transport. It's such a different experience...... Slightly inconvenient. :X But we made it!

After exploring Fremantle Market, we had a good dinner along the harbor before heading back to our apartment to wrap up our trip. We caught the sunset!!!! Felt like it was a nice way to end our 8 days together - The sunset was gorgeous... Sadly I didn't manage to capture the full beauty through my lens. :(









The weather was good... Sunny, but not hot. Breezy, but not too cold. It was a perfect day to take pictures because the lighting was very good too!


"Carry Your Sorrow Away" - It was written on the glass.
I have supersonic memory, don't I? Hahahha. Not. I obviously cannot remember what was on the glass and I couldn't find the answer on google, so I played with the settings of the image to figure it out. A+ for effort. ;)

Anyway, there were memorials around the park. Here in this area and several other parts of the park. There were trees with plagues planted infront of them with names and reasons why they were remembered. It was touching yet a tiny wee bit creepy? There were just so many lined up......


The view you'll see above the glass.


Daytime view of their Skyline.
I wish we have less tall buildings and more big green areas for such sights.



The walk was quiet. We just walked around exploring the park on our own, and took a few shots together and of each other. I felt sad going around on our last day.... It's always sad knowing that your vacation has come to an end. An inevitable end, but so sad so sad. :(

So after this walk, as mentioned, we drove to return our car. Owww... The convenience.

I suddenly recalled..... The night before our last day, Haniza and I spent a good hour trying to clean the car.. Not because we are nice people, but because we realize our car looked extremely dirty!!! Hahaha. Unimaginable! We were traveling around Margaret River so much and it is so near the grass and whatnot... Then there were our drives to the harbors... We didn't want the people in the shop to think we were filthy... So we took expensive mineral water, that we obviously won't finish over the night, to splash clean the dirtied spots and made sure it smelled good. LOL!! When we returned the cars, we saw them just using their hose washing other cars with a straight face though. Dangit. Hahaha.

Anyway, they sell this really nice smelling freshener.. I can remember that! Some kind of Lily fragrance. Haniza loved it and bought a few home... I enjoyed smelling it so much back then too. No use for fresheners in my place, we smell good. Hahaha. A very calming smell. It's not found in Singapore though. Bummer. Haniza and I also bought bottles of body soap - This particular smell that is not found in Singapore. Madness right? Haha. I only got 1 la.. Haniza got 2. And when she headed back to Perth during the Lunar New Year this year, she got me another bottle! I like it so much that I'm using it very slowly and I still have it. :X

After sending our baby for a few days back home, we walked back to our accommodation. It's not near. I think we were mad. Lol. But there weren't public transport that was arriving soon or easily accessible.... There were buses with 30 minutes interval, might as well walk back, really. So our feet were the best mode of transport considering our the time available.

Got back to our apartment for a last check on our luggage and then off we go to the train station for our final stop in Perth - Fremantle Market.

We stopped by this stretch of malls and departmental store near the station... Just to explore.


Got this and a few other random food. Lol.
This German sausage was good! So much garnish.

And sigh... this blue watch I'm wearing in this shot has spoiled. RIP my friend.


The train station!!!!
We missed one train because Haniza's transit card was low on credit and it wasn't exactly a straightforward way to top-up. She had to queue to get it done over the counter.... We just service ourselves here in Singapore with the automated machines... So advanced we are. :X To be fair, there were machines lined up outside the station la... But I guess Haniza didn't know how to work it? I couldn't help because I tapped in first. Gave her my moral support. /bestfriendquality LOL


Waited about 20 minutes for the next train - feeling already exhausted from the walking around earlier...

Perth Station to Fremantle Station took about 30 minutes. We both dozed off ever so often during the ride..... It's a wonder how we managed to not miss the stop.

After alighting, it's another distance to walk from the station to Fremantle Market.

On the way, there were streets of small boutiques. I liked it... Not big big malls we have here, but individual shops all around selling a variety of stuffs.


Bought a slurpee because we were thirsty and it started to feel warm.

I miss those Primary school days where these were so popular and we bought them ever so often!


AND WE ARE HERE!!!
Slightly later than we should have arrived. :( Most of the stalls were already closing.... Bummer. But it's like a big market of food and other random stuffs. Not many nice pictures taken there because the place was not in their full fledged activity.


Levi's Doughnut! YUMS!
Good recommendation by Xin Hui. ♥
That's the last picture taken at Fremantle Market.... :( There after, we continued shopping and Haniza got some truffle oil, while I bought some candles and lavender pillow spray for my sister. They were not exceptionally cheap, or even cheap at all, despite being sold in a 'market'. But I suppose their 'market' is just a place with plenty of small stores mainly selling ingredients for cooking. There were also coffee beans sold! Some of them smelled so good.

After our relatively quick shopping at Fremantle Market, we proceed to find one of the recommended Fish & Chips places in town! Walked for about... 30 minutes? :)


Such big beautiful trees.


Tadaaaah!







Ordered and settled outside to watch the harbor and many seagulls fly around. The weather was good to be out people watching...


Random shot of our surrounding and a lady seemingly posing for the picture. Lol.


Last dinner at Western Australia! :(

I miss how we can pick the type of fish to be served for our Fish & Chips...... Not the common Dory fish served here. The seafood chowder was so good too!


Within minutes...




Look at the color of the sky. This is not filtered!
The layering of colors........................
I wished we actually had more time to spare in Fremantle. It looks like a town that has more to offer than just Fremantle Market and the very good Fish & Chips. I enjoyed the Fish & Chips served here than the one at Seascapes (read here!). There was a lot more meat in this fish and a little bit less oily than the one sold at Seascapes.




The sunset we spotted...

There was a group of tourist nearby, and we saw these group of people suddenly crowding to watch the sunset. We followed and tried to find the best spot for a picture... It was gorgeous!

And with that, I'm coming to the end of this entry.

Finally? :)


Got a new backpack from Perth too.
Changed my life because now I'm so in love with backpacks! Lol. Just dump everything and anything inside.


Haniza's crazy buys! Check out the bottles of soap! HAHAHAHA


& Here are mine!
I love the shortbread so much that I didn't share it with anyone as I had intended...
I also got those pink salt because they looked so pretty. Hahaha.
ps: The bottle of water is not part of my buy home. No idea why it got captured. Lol.






Till the next vacation entry! :)

ⒽⒿ 8 Days In Western Australia - Day 7: Dolphins, Penguin Island and Ciao Italian

✋ Hello hello...
I am taking too damn long to complete my Perth trip last year, aren't I?
Lol. This down and one more to go!

ⒽⒿ 8 Days In Western Australia - Day 7:
Dolphins, Penguin Island and Ciao Italian
Arrival + Day 1: Magaret River, Winery and Chocolate
Day 2: Jewel Cave, Lighthouses and Sugarloaf
Day 3: Movie, Animals and Almost Homeless
Day 4: Busselton Jetty, Voyager Estate Winery and Hamelin Bay
Day 5: Whale Sighting, Aqua and Caversham Wildlife Park
Day 6: Cycling & Snorkeling @ Rottnest Island and A Ballet Show

On a random side note before I start...
Ciao Italian (X) is a popular restaurant (mostly among Asians I heard) in Perth that was recommended by a few friends. Had to try it and didn't regret the drive there. It was a little out of the way, but we saw Perth's skyline nearby, and met our Primary School friend. :)

It's a funny thing - When everyone's in Singapore, no one arranges a meetup or even find time to get together. But once you know you'll be in the same place outside Singapore, you try your best to make time and meet. Lol!

Better than nothing laaaa... ♥


The JJA! Missing R. Lol.
We used to call ourselves 'JJAR' back in Primary School - taking the initials of our names and arranging them according to our birthdays from the oldest to the youngest. (Just to be clear, I am NOT the oldest ah! hahaha.)

Oh man. Those were the days. The 3 of us love singing and had a thick file of lyrics to flip through! Our song book file. Lol. I actually kept that file for a really long time until a few years ago. I also remember watching the Taiwan drama "My MVP Valentine" with Xin Hui ('Jamie') back then over the phone! Lol. We had to make sure we're playing the episode at the same time! Has to be sync so we could imagine we were watching it together at one location. Lol. So much memories. Best years in Primary School - because I can't really remember the earlier days, to be honest. :X




Before meeting Xin Hui in the evening, Haniza and I had an almost boring morning in Penguin Island.
The ferry there was nothing boring though - WE SIGHTED DOLPHINS!! 🐬🐬

WAS SO DAMN CLOSE TO THEM!!! ♥🐬


Already dressed in our swimwear for more snorkeling!
We only got our ferry tickets at the harbor itself. Fairly simple, and we were lucky to be the first few! Early bird catches the worm... Lol. Less than an hour later, people started coming in and a queue was formed - I hate queuing. We also did a little shopping while waiting for the ferry to takeoff!

AH! Just recalled, we bumped into a few fellow Singaporeans as well. I thought it would be exciting when you meet people from your home country overseas, but this experience WAS DAMN AWKWARD!! :X One of them peeped into the name-list and saw that we were Singaporeans, came up to us asked if we were from Singapore, mentioned they were too and then..... uh... yeah. Lol. That was it. I'm not quite sure what I'd expected to happen, but it was extremely awkward. Lol. Haniza just answered "Yeah."

Not even sure if that's worth mentioning at all. LOL.


And then we were offfff!


Getting further from the shore....
One reason why this entry took so damn long to publish is me being lazy to combine the videos I took. I already had all the photos up on Photobucket and in the draft, but I was so lazy to edit the video. So.much.effort!


DOLPHIN!!!
Wild ones!

So gorgeous.. The skin looks so smooth! So clear... Not like those that I've seen on the internet, where Aquariums and Zoos don't treat them the way they should. Some animals really belong only in the wild!


The mama and the baby going around us together, circling their food - the stingray.
It was an amazing experience! Enjoyed it more than Whale Watching (read here!). Probably because we saw them upclose...






See that bird at the left of the picture (I cannot remember what it's called), wings all spread out like it's a batman logo!


Our hot guide! Explaining the types of dolphins, birds and seals, and telling us what they were doing and their habits.
So educational - but I've since returned all the information and knowledege back to her. Lol.
One thing to confess, I accidentally stole took a bracelet from their shop. I really liked it and was wearing it while shopping around, but when we exited, I totally forgot it was still on my wrist and happily brought it around Penguin Island. Was suppose to return it when we get back to the harbour, but I took it off and kept it in my bag when we snorkeled. Completely forgetting about it, we left the harbour after coming back from Penguin Island. :X

It's a nice bracelet that I'm still wearing, but I accidentally gave it a bath in the washing machine weeks after my Perth trip, totally washing out the purple color. :(


Birds, birds and more birds!
Here, we were still touring around the vicinity of Penguin Island, but dammit, Penguin Island has SO MANY birds! Seagulls! It was a little annoying because they were just everywhere... Their poop too. Geez.


Can you spot what we were looking at?


SEALS!!!
So lazy, so fat.
They were just there, lying and enjoying the sun.





Ah.. Such is life. How I wish I can do that more often. Lol.


&here we arrived!
It was about an hour later? Sighting dolphins and checking out the other animals first - so worth the money.
There are many other activities you could do around the island too! We saw people kayaking there! (their site here) So cool.

Followed the crowd and waited at this space infront of this small Discovery Centre set up... Waited for the next feeding time of the penguins! That was the only time we saw the penguins though.. The name of the island is so misleading! I actually thought we could see plenty of wild penguins around. Lol.


THEY ARE SO CUTE SO TINY!!!
Apparently, they are the smallest penguin species in the world! :O And there's many of them in Penguin Island, just that you don't get to see them out in the wild. Cheh.




There was a short and quick feeding session while the keeper explain a whole lot about them.

And then we were off! To explore other parts of the bird Penguin Island.


A whole lot of seagulls welcome you.


Even though it's no longer the first time seeing crystal clear water, I was still in awe.
SO NICE ONE!!!!!
Sigh. I miss my birks.


There were plenty of kelps too! So difficult to walk around.




Check out the platform, full of poop. Bird poop. These seagulls!


The views were great though.
After going up that stairs, we continued our quick exploration around the island. Not as big as Rottnest Island (I love that place, read here!) and there was nothing much to see.. It was a pretty place, yes. But there's really nothing much to see or do. Maybe we didn't work hard enough on researching, but we went snorkeling at 2 spots and there weren't much to see. Lol. Emphasizing too much on "there's nothing much to see". I think we were there for less than 3 hours(?).

The second and last area we went snorkeling had very rough waves.. Very! Gave me a little scare. We were at least 20% out in the sea when we were swept back onshore. Easily. Multiple times! We couldn't control at all. I am so glad we were just swept onshore and not out in the sea, it could have been so bad! The experience was a tiny bit frightening, but a whole lot funnier. Everyone who was there and tried to swim out to snorkel, but got carried back onshore by the waves were ALL laughing. Lol. Quite a moment to remember, all of us would just look at each other struggling to survive. hahahha. Struggling to not look stupid being moved around by the waves, really... lol.

I bet everyone had plenty of sand in their swimwear. Lol. At least Haniza and I were packing sand in ours! It was so bad! Because we were wet, not all of them came out. When we dried up a bit and I flipped up my pants, you could hear them all dropping. A whole lot of them!

Anyway, no other photos taken for the rest of the day or of us snorkeling. After our trip to the island, I believe we went shopping......

To be honest, among the 8 days, this is the one day I cannot recall what we did after Penguin Island. Lol. There were no photos to remind me, but I believe it was shopping! We didn't take any pictures while shopping, but there were no time gaps in the other days we could have shopped..............

So yes, after Penguin Island, we went shopping at Watertown Outlet Centre (X)! :D

It's a really huge place and things were sold at relatively cheap prices, because outlet! We only had about 2 hours to shop, and I didn't really get as much stuff as I'd wanted.. Got a skirt, a skort (OMG GOT MY SIZE), a pair of flats and a bag. It was such a joy shopping there, because 90% of the shops had clothes MY SIZE!!! Muahhahaha. It was also my first time shopping alone. We had to split up to save time, so we explored the huge mall on our own. It was almost therapeutic... :3


Here's all my loot for the entire trip - see that few black items on the top right hand corner?
Those were from the Outlet Centre. So happy there were clothes I could buy. Heh. So should have gotten more of the bottoms.

Anyway, after shopping, I believe we headed back to our apartment to rest and then head out again for dinner.


Ghostly picture hahaha.
Met up with Xin Hui because she happened to be in Perth studying! Saw her instagram video fixing up a cabinet (hahaha) and started chatting her up months before our trip. It feels good to catch up with a good friend from school days. :) Got good tips and recommendation from her too.

So anyway, we picked her up and headed to our dinner place!


There was a mini queue when we arrived, but got seated pretty quickly.
The place is small and a little cramp. There were hardly any walking space and tables were placed quite close each other. It's like they are fitted just enough for people to pull their chair and sit. The service staffs had to squeeze in a bit when they serve tables inbetween... tables. Lol. But I guess, it made the environment slightly cozy? And could fit more guests... Looking around, there were really quite a handful of Asians dining there. hahaha. The experience was good. The service staffs were all very friendly, happy and nice! Food was very tasty too! No wonder they were recommended by many. A pity we all went for pasta and didn't try their pizza. :( I'm always craving for pizza these days. Urg.


Garlic bread to start the meal.
It's almost like a must this trip, Haniza ordered garlic bread so often la! LOL.


Each a pasta.
Throughout our trip, Haniza and I always shared a dish for every meal... Except this.
The squid ink pasta was good!

I had their carbonara. Tsk. Typical choice, but it was so good! Very thick and flavourful.


&The meal ended with a tiramisu.
So good.

I remember we were too full for more food though. Such a waste! I would really want to try their pizza.......

Had to go for a walk after dinner because we were so stuffed. But we caught Perth's skyline!




So nice!
Looked more beautiful in real life! I started noticing our night views in Singapore after this.
We have good views too. ♥



So after that night, we never met up anymore. HAHAHHAA. Even when Xin Hui came back to Singapore for Christmas. :X Life is such. hahahah. Till next time!


♥ It was nonetheless a great night.
Last Day : Kings' Park and Fremantle