Warning: Intensive photo loading

Day 1

It was pouring when we left Singapore

We reached Perth at night. This is where we stayed for the next 6 days … at Perth Ambassador Hotel. The room was quite spacious. I had a single bed and my parents got a king bed.

Relax corner

Day 2

Day 2 was our full  day touring on the 4-Wheel Drive to The Pinnacle Desert, Caversham Wildlife park and some sand boarding adventure. Total distance traveled was 600 km!

We awoke at 0600 and ate breakfast. The hotel’s buffet breakfast was pretty simple — more or less the same food everyday – either fried rice or fried noodle, steamed tomatoes, hash brown, pork bacon, sausages, muffins, bread, cheese,  fruits, cereals, yoghurt, coffee, milk, tea, hotcakes etc. etc

The following was my typical breakfast for the next 6 days.

Their hotcakes were soft and fluffy. I always topped mine with maple syrup hehe :)

And then we were off. We headed North through Swan Valley to Caversham Wildlife Park where we stopped to view and photograph koalas and hand feed kangaroos. It was fun to be surrounded by so many kangaroos!

Can you see that cute baby kangaroo? :)  SO  adorable!

We could also touch koalas

White kangaroo

Lush greens

We stopped for our picnic lunch before heading to The Pinnacle Desert.

Food is spread on a table

My plate

Then headed to The Pinnacle desert. With mum inside the bus

At the Pinnacle Desert

Beautiful scenery

We then experienced 4-wheel driving in the giant 4WD over massive Lancelin sand dunes and the chance to try sand boarding. It was awesome and super fun!

Gorgeous sunset

We reached the hotel at 2000 hrs. I was dead tired! Here are some of things that we ate that night. The first is an entree … some Turkish food …

This was my main … Roasted chicken with couscous

And dessert which we packed because we were too full

The husband called me later that night but I don’t remember having talked to him because I was way too tired I think. He said that I mumbled for 50 secs. LOL.

Day 3

Day 3 was our Free & Easy day. Good thing we didn’t have to wake up that early! Breakfast was first thing in the morning. Then we were off to Perth’s shopping area. We had buffet lunch at Miss Maud, a Swedish restaurant. Food was good, especially their Swedish meat balls … ooooo so good! Love the sauce! I forgot to take a picture :P  The restaurant setting was cozy and colourful. I was able to meet my 2 ex-colleagues and my cousins on the same day. I was also able to bring my parents to Edith Cowan University — my university at Joondalup.

With dad

In the evening we met my cousin, ate at a Chinese restaurant and visited their house

Day 4

Day four was a full day touring at Margaret River, Mammoth Caves & Xanadu Winery.

The weather was lovely

We visited Xanadu where we tasted couple of wines. My favourite was the sweet wine :)

After that we headed to South West Hunting and Conservation

Had Picnic lunch there

And this

After that we headed to Mammoth Cave

All my pictures came out like this

And finally we visited the  Lighthouse

Awesome view behind

And on our last day in Perth, we attended my convocation :)

I came back with a few extra things!

Doritos, Twisties (I like OZ cheese twisties because they are more cheesy than the ones here), Shapes biscuits (which were all on sale), macadamia nuts, dried Kangaroo meat (I have never tried this before!) and couple of other food goodies. As for drinks … well I bought some wines and liquors.

A 6 piece bar set going for $25 at Target

A few things for the kitchen …

Ice cream makers which were less than $3 I think …

I will blog about my trip next time …

Well I had a good time in Western Australia (Perth / Joondalup). I already miss their cool spring weather, the beautiful houses and yards, the non-crowded-places and empty lands and the beautiful parks and lakes. But I am glad to be back in Singapore — Familiar territory. Back into my man’s arms. My cat. My bed. My TV. My house. I’ve missed the convenience of going to the nearby supermarket anytime hehe.

On the last day of school, we went clubbing. Then on my last 2 days in Perth, my cousins brought me to Hillarys Boat Harbour, Wanneroo Park and Swan Valley, where we tasted cheese & wine, chocolate and nougat. Bought a bottle of sweet wine (yeah I like wine that has some sweetness in it) and Mondo nougat. I also wanted to buy some strawberries and bring back to SG but I was worried that I’d exceed my 20kg luggage allowance — In the end my luggage was exactly 20kg and my hand back exactly 7kg — just nice! I didn’t shop much. I think I mostly shopped for food — 2.5kg of nougat, 1kg of salami (it was cheap! only $10 for 1 kg), 1.5kg of mixed chocolates, 1 bottle of wine and some souvenirs from Perth.

At Swan Valley

At a park .. I love this view.

With my tutor and lecturer

During Biomechanics and Exercise physiology

This is the apartment that we are renting — AUD$1200 for 2 weeks. We are on the ground floor. There are 2 bedrooms and 2 bathroms, a kitchen which is well equipped (together with a Jamie Oliver recipe book hehe) and a living room. There’s the Lakeside mall nearby too.

The inside:

The backyard:

Yesterday I went to Kings Park again for the wild flower festival. At night I visited the Casino.

A view of Perth City from Kings Park

This morning we jogged in the neighbourhood

At the lake

London Court:

Bell Tower:

Swan River:

Met my 2 ex-colleagues:

My friend is cat sitting this adorable bengal cat:

Had dinner at Catalano’s:

A view of the city from King’s Park:

Sadly many of the pictures that I took were auto deleted!!

Anyway, my luggage is done — I think I’ve brought enough warm clothes. According to the weather forecast, it’ll be Min 13 and Max 17 on Thursday. I’ll be staying with my cousin for the first two nights. On Friday I plan to hang around Perth city on my own before meeting up with two friends in the afternoon. On Saturday morning I’m meeting the rest of my course mates at the airport and then we are heading together to Joondalup where our scool and apartment is located.