Snippets of Western Australia

Twas the time when I bought return tickets to Perth, Australia without telling my parents; which made them went berserk.👀

But it was worth it!

I had just returned from my 8 days of holiday from Western Australia and just like the previous posts about the countries I travelled to, I figure it would be more convenient for me to compress the whole 8 days trip into one blog post.

So here it is!

First of all, let me briefly explain about the several states of Australia. This head-shaped country, also known as the Land Down Under, is divided into several states- New South Wales, Western Australia, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania.

Perth, the oh-so-peaceful city that I went to with my friends, is located in the state of Western Australia (WA). We did not just venture around Perth City throughout whole 8 days, but rather, we travelled 6 hours down south to Albany, shivering in the cold and occasionally splashed by the salty seawater while witnessing the spectacular geographical formation of the Gap and Natural Bridge. We then moved up to the quiet town of Augusta before passing through Denmark (yes!), Walpole and Dunsborough, relishing my childhood dream of climbing up the lighthouse for the first time after reading Enid Blyton’s ‘At Demons Rock’ when I was eight. We went spelunking in the beautiful Jewel Cave in Margaret River, before heading back to Perth and spending 5 full days there, shopping at the famous Fremantle Market, also learning about the gruesome and bestial crimes committed by the prisoners of the World Heritage Site of Fremantle Prison. We took pictures with the koalas and wombats, fed the kangaroos at Caversham Wildlife Park and (I) went on a book-buying and shopping sprees (them) at the Hay and Murray Streets of Perth CBD.

 From Fremantle, we boarded the ferry and crossed the choppy waves of the Indian Ocean to get to Rottnest Island, where we successfully managed to take selfies with the Quokkas there after numerous attempts! 

Sounds interesting? Hahaha let’s begin!

Day 1 Perth and Albany

We arrived in Perth at 5.35 am. The local time is the same as Malaysia time. Bought simcards from Opus, collected our car and we were ready for a 6 hours journey to Albany!

The views by the roadside were really stunning. We could see huge fields of Canola, and of sheep grazing at the lush, green, wide expanse of land. Stopped by several gas stations for toilet breaks.  There were other small towns with churches, schools and diners along the way to Albany. We were very careful with the speed limits. When it was stated that the speed limit is 80 km/hr, we would be very obedient (as contrast to when we were in Malaysia) and drove at 80 km/hr. 😂

Eventually, we arrived at our hotel in Albany, the Emu Point Hotel. Our room is so comfortable and spacious for the four of us! There is a kitchen, complete with pots, pans and cutlery, of which we first washed using the clay soap. The surrounding was very serene and peaceful. You could see rabbits and hares (can’t differentiate, seriously. Are they actually the same?) hopping around the hotel backyard. Strangely, there were no stray cats. In fact, we had not seen a single cat during our stay in Western Australia.

Our room. My bed is the single one at the end. 

Our first destination for the day was The Gap and Natural Bridge, which is a part of Torndirrup National Park. We arrived quite late at about 5 pm, and it was getting dark. Parked our car and when we went out, the wind was so strong, almost blowing us away, with the heavy trickles of seawater from the Southern Ocean splashing over us. Still, the view was, Subhanallah, spectacular! We spent about an hour taking pictures there.

UIA Friends! 💓💗💗

 Natural Bridge

 The Gap 

Got hungry and shared a huge plate of Fish and Chips and kebab at a Turkish restaurant, as the food  there are expensive! LOL we tried to be as prudent as possible. And no, we did not bring any food from Malaysia. 

Still, we got satiated after eating them, Alhamdulillah. Most of the shops are closed by 5 pm, even big supermarkets like Woolworths and Coles. With the help of Google, we managed to locate a supermarket called IGA, which is closed at 10 pm. Bought a 1kg packet of rice, vegetables, eggs, bread, a carton of mineral water and others as we intended to cook the next day. The workers there were also very friendly! Always happy to help us and showed us what we needed.

Day 2: From Albany to Denmark, Walpole and finally Augusta

Woke up and had breads for breakfast. We packed the fried rice in plastic containers so that we could eat them on our way to Augusta. The rice is the sticky, starchy kind like sushi rice, which makes you feel satiated even after you took a mouthful of rice.

Goodbye Emu Point Hotel! 

Who's the most excited of them all? 😎

Thus goodbye Albany, the beautiful, serene town! Our first destination for the day was Greens Pool and Elephant Cove at Denmark, WA.

Greens Pool was so mesmerizing. The weather was really chilly, and yet we caught about 3 Mat and Minah Sallehs swimming across the sea! As for Elephant Cove, the rock formations resemble a herd of elephants.

Greens Pool 

 Elephant Rocks 

Made our way to Valley of the Giants, Walpole. We did not get into the Treetop Walk, a construction whereby you could walk and see from the top of the trees. Instead, we opted for the free 30 minutes tour of the ‘Ancient Empire’, whereby the Tour Guide explained to us about the karri trees, tingle trees and many other trees with the distinctive hollows at their bases.  Suddenly regretting not going for the Treetop Walk. I want the experience of walking on treetops!

Reached Augusta at about 4 pm, passing through a really small town of Pemberton. Also, so difficult to find a gas station for a toilet break. Finally found an old toilet located next to a gas station slash diner but as primitive as it looked like, it was rather clean, to my delight! Spotted two kangaroos crossing the road by hopping from one side to the other! Wild kangaroos, checked! The route to Augusta was quite quiet, with only forest on each side of the road (thus explaining the sudden appearance of the kangaroos).

 I was tasked to book the accommodation in Augusta and oh, did I mention I was the one in charge of the itinerary? *proud* and oh, I was in charge of the South Korea, Cambodia and Japan itinerary too! I love making itineraries! It gives me a sense of control, LOL.  Anyway, Baywatch Manor in Augusta is sooo beautiful! And I found out that the owner was in the same plane as we were from KL to Perth! LOL.

We had to share the bathroom (with 2 shower stalls and 2 toilet cubicles) but since there were not many guests in the house, I had the whole bathroom to myself! Yaay!

One of the first things I discover about this country is that they always minimize the usage of plastic bags. So most Australians would bring their own box or bags to carry their groceries. As for us, we just carried those items on our arms. Haha. In the case of Baywatch Manor, the owner had installed this energy saving switch or something. So the lights in the hall and staircase will only light up if we passed through those areas. Also in the bathroom, to prevent yourself from taking too much of your own sweet time bathing and daydreaming in the shower stalls, thus wasting more electricity and water, there is this switch that will turn off the lights every 30 minutes. So you need to keep the time in check. Or just pressing it again and again. I should have taken a picture of it. Also, the toilet flush. Two options, minimal flushing or maximum flushing to minimize usage of water.

The kitchen is so spacious, it’s like the kitchen in Hell’s Kitchen, only no Ramsay screaming at your ears, Thank God.

We were so hungry and searched for a halal eatery there. Google showed the Blue Ocean Fish and Chips. Went there and I asked the worker what type of oil did they use to fry the fish? And the man, looking quite uncomfortable, said he used the oil from the cow fats, and even took the initiative to show us the bottle of oil. We got disappointed, said thank you and went back to our house, cooking Maggi mee for dinner. LOL. No energy to wait for the rice to cook.

I love this! There's 'WHO', 'WHAT', 'WHEN' and 'WHERE'. Not sure whether there's also 'HOW'. 

Day 3- From Augusta to Margaret River, Dunsborough and Perth

The next day, we checked out, and headed out early to our next destination, Hamelin Bay where we could allegedly see the stingrays lapping away on the sea but no, perhaps the super cold weather made the stingrays too cold to come out and play. Still, the view was spectacular. Made our way to the Jewel Cave Tour in Margaret River. There is actually a number of caves, but based on the reviews I read, Jewel Cave Tour is highly recommended. The Australian Tourism is very good in preserving those caves, complete with lightings, staircases and all. (Just checked that Malaysia has our own beautiful caves too! Gotta check them out!)

Little Jellyfishies 

Hamelin Bay Beach. LOL excuse my finger at the top edge of this photo 

The Jewel Cave is named so not because of the existence of real jewels like diamonds or whatnots, but it is figuratively named so because it is so jewel-like beautiful with the crystal formations of stalactites (up) and stalagmites (below). There was a moment when Rusty the tour guide told us to stay still, not to look at our phones, and he turned off the lights in the cave. It was pitch dark, there was this silence for about one minute that felt so long. He said this was what the cave was like when the explorer first came. Pitch dark. Silence. Every nook and corner unexplored. What If there’s something sinister in it? (LOL I made this up myself). And yet, I admire their determination and courage to explore the cave.

The camel-shaped crystal formation. 

Next, off to Sugarloaf Rock and Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse at Dunsborough.

Again, subhanallah, the view of Sugarloaf Rock is so spectacular. I have no idea why is it named Sugarloaf. No explanation given. Still, the name sounds sweet, isn’t it? It is the place where birds came to mate and build their nests there among the crevices of the rock. Took pictures and off to Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse, located about 10 minutes away. In fact, from Sugarloaf Rock, you could see the lighthouse at a far distance. 

I couldn't get enough of this beauty! It's like a painting! Captured using my RM800 (or less) 2016's Huawei Phone. 

Can you spot the lighthouse? Me neither. 

Paid 15 dollars for a tour around the Cape Naturaliste area, where there was a lighthouse, a café with foods we couldn’t eat (obviously) and a maritime museum. Having read Famous Five’s ‘At the Demon Rocks’ countlessly when I was young, I couldn’t help but to contain my excitement of finally entering a lighthouse and climbing up to the top. In my mind, I could imagine the scenes depicted in the book. I did not pay much attention to what the tour guide was saying. I was lost in my own thought, picturing the characters from that beloved series spending their days in the lighthouse.

It was getting late, and we headed north to Perth, passing through Busselton. Oh, we could see lots of kangaroos playing in the field. I guess we were the only ones who were amazed. The Australians had probably gotten used to such sightings.

Went to eat at Ihsan Café, a Malaysian owned café. Bought Nasi Goreng Kampung for 15 AUD which is the most expensive nasi goreng kampong I have ever bought, LOL.

Still, the portion is big. Then, moved on to Spudshed to buy groceries. 

Checked in to Perth City Stay Apartment Hotel, which is the biggest accommodation out of the ones in Albany and Augusta, with 2 bedrooms, living room, kitchen, but sadly only one toilet and shower.

But there are washing machine and dryer so we fully utilized both equipment by putting our clothes into the machine each time we returned home from the trip of the day throughout our 5 days stay there. In this post you could see pictures of me recycling the same clothes. Well, you got the answer! HAHA. 

Day 4- From Perth to Lancelin and Cervantes

This time, we headed north to Lancelin and Cervantes. I notice that the temperature increased as you went to the northern part of WA, as opposed to the chilly weather down in the south.

Rented two sand boards for the sand boarding activity at the Lancelin Sand Dunes, which in my opinion, is just a collection of hills made of sand, like construction sites or something, LOL.

I was initially scared of sliding down from the top! But well, too much friction between the sand and the board prevented me to slide down rapidly. It’s not a matter of technique, in my opinion. Other factors, especially your weight contributes to how fast you went down.

Enough playing at the Sand Dunes. We arrived there early so there were about 2 groups of people, including us. By the time it was approaching midday, more and more people came to play. Our pants and boots were filled with sand. The same goes with the mats of our car.

So we headed further north to Cervantes, discovering the national heritage site called The Pinnacles, whereby the limestones just emerged from the ground mysteriously, with all shapes and sizes. The exact cause of how it happened is still being debated. We were required to drive along the 4km route.

 It was quite a rocky journey, and we stopped here and there to take pictures.

Spot the girl in Baju Kurung, semangat! 

Went to the Cervantes town to Lobster Shack, whereby we shared a plate of lobster and rice, plus fish and chips (again!). Oh, it closes at 3 pm by the way. So we couldn't get another order, to the chagrin of our stomachs. Hahaha. 

Spent 2 hours journey to return the car in Perth, and we went home, threw our clothes into the washing machine and ate spaghetti for dinner.

Day 5 From Perth to Fremantle

No more car. We had to rely on the public transport. There’s the CAT buses of various colours (Blue, Red, Yellow, Green) where you can hop on and off to get around Perth CBD for free. But they only ran until 7 pm. And there was also the ordinary bus where you’d have to pay for the fares. There’s also the train, which we used to get to Fremantle from City West- the nearest train station to our hotel.

The journey to Fremantle was 30 minutes. Our main purpose here was to visit and shop till we drop at the famous Fremantle Market, which is only opens from Friday to Sunday.

Went to a handmade jewellery store called Coco and Honey. Bought for myself and my sister two silver-plated necklaces with Swarovski stones and freshwater pearls from the very accommodating shop owner. Each costs AUD15. She even gave me a free gift of a silver-plated bangle+Swarovski stones as she said I had been very patient with her, LOL. My friends wanted the same gift too but they didn’t get it. HAHA.

Many shopped at Megabes, a shop owned by a Malaysian. I did my shopping there, my friends shopped a lot, LOL. While waiting for them, I explored the market on my own, and as my stomach was begging to be fed, I settled on a halal kebab shop. Worthy of its price for 10 dollars, It was the best kebab I’ve ever tasted.

Took my own sweet time savouring the kebab and when I returned to Megabes, my friends still have not finished shopping. HAHA.

Went out and saw that Rawi, one of my friends already finished shopping. We crossed the road to sit by the long chair under the shade of the tree, and began eating the fruits we brought from home, while waiting for the other two to finish shopping.

Then walked a bit to Fremantle Prison, a World Heritage Site. Over here, you could choose from 3 tours The Convict Prison, Behind Bars or True Crime or all three .Seeing as the ‘True Crime Tour’ is the next available tour, and that each tour would take 1 and a half hour. And also because I’m this weird person who is always interested to hear stories about gruesome crimes, we decided to join this tour. Did you know that Fremantle Prison also conducts a Night Tour available on Wednesday and Friday night? Too bad that we came there on Sunday. But my friends joked that they would just leave me at the prison for me to join the tour by myself.

So, the tour guide dressed as a prison warden brought us beyond the gates and walls of Fremantle Prison, and began by telling about the ghost of a woman named Martha, who was unjustly accused for killing children. He brought out a picture of Martha and passed it all around to us. And he said you could see Martha’s ghost there- showing to an old front building with tall glass windows. Moving on, he told more stories about the brutal killers.

The place where he told us the story about Martha 

Prison Timetable. I wake up earlier and sleep later than the convicts. 💁

The original painting 

The remake(?)

The murals 

One of them, I can’t remember his name, killed people without reasons. And hid the body by putting a carcass of kangaroo over it, so that people would think the rotten smell came from the decaying kangaroo.

Another one, a guy called Peg Leg is a rapist, but he had great talents in art, painting the walls of the cells with beautiful murals and sceneries.

He told us stories about other criminals, some gruesome, some sad, like, the aboriginal guy who obtained his Masters in Health Science when he was in prison, and died from a heart attack a few hours after he was released.

But two names struck my mind- Sydney Hutton who is a paedophile with mental problems (Of course, ALL paedophiles have mental problems) and the notorious couple David and Catherine Birnie, who kidnapped young women, kept them captive in their house, raped, tortured and killed those girls.

I can conclude that all of the convicts suffered from undiagnosed mental problems as no people in their right minds would commit such acts of bestiality and brutality.

Tour was over. Walked to the Fremantle Fishing Harbour to eat this enormous Seafood Platter at Kailis’ Fish and Chips. There were 4 pieces of batter-fried fish, calamari, shrimps, mussels in delicious tomato condiment and heaps of French Fries. We struggled to finish off the French Fries but as we constantly reminded ourselves that the platter costs more than 50 dollars, we just forced ourselves to shove them down our throats.

What a beautiful sight! Captured using my RM800 (or less) 2016's Huawei Phone 

The oh-so-sedap Seafood platter

Walked to E-Shed Market where my friends did more shopping, LOL. Caught a train back to Perth and we stayed in our hotel room for the rest of the night.

Day 6 Caversham and Perth CBD

Kick-started our day by taking the free yellow CAT bus off Wellington Street to Perth Station. It was a rainy day, and we had to run, crossing the road to the bus stop. Bought a train ticket to Bassendean. Saw a guy smoking weed in the train. At least that’s what the Malaysian girl who moved away from him to sit closer to us told me. He looked kind of 'high', and I saw him sniffing something. Weed. The smell was like fresh leaves burning, kind of.  I finally know how weed smells like!! Arrived at Bassendean Station, and took a bus to Lord Street. And together with a middle aged Malay Malaysian couple, we had a short walk to a bus stand where the wife called the Caversham Wildlife Park to pick the seven of us at the bus stand.

Went to see the Animal Farm show, which includes how they sheared the wool off the sheep. Also, I had a first-time experience of milking the cow by pressing the udder. There is a technique on how to do that, not easy as it looked, and I must say I do not have this talent. One of the funny things that happened was, when we were waiting for our turns to milk the cow, a huge spray of liquid suddenly littered the floor. Guess what it was? The cow’s urine! LOL! I was laughing out loud, half amused and half relieved that I was standing quite far from the scene.

Shearing the wool of the sheep 

Noted. 

So difficult okay! Maybe only for me.

The wool of the sheep contains lanolin, which has excellent moisturizing properties! 

Then, we got to take pictures with the sheep and goats. You could just hug any of those animals but no, I am scared of animals. LOL

The goat kept on coming towards us! I was hiding behind my friend as I was scared of it! LOL

Animal Farm 

I was scared and yet I was smiling from ear to ear until my eyes got all sepet!

The four of us are 28 years old you know. 

Next, moving on to the meet and greet session with the wombat, olive python and several other animals.

I have this fear towards snakes and reptiles. Especially snakes. But I kind of forced myself to touch and hold the slithery, scaly skin of the python and just grinned happily at the camera, praying that the moment would pass quickly. I chose to hold the tail, obviously. And it was not limp. It has muscles and it wriggles here and there. Eeww.

Muka kegelian. 

Then, I touched the giant lizard which looks so cute. Okay, by now you probably know that the reptile I’m most scared to touch is snakes. Also, there were owls and several other animals.

Moving on to the moment I’ve been waiting for, meeting the koalas! When my grandmother was still around, there was this picture on the cabinet, of her holding a koala to her chest. She looked so happy! Both she and the koala looked so cute! That is one of my favourite pictures of her.

But alas, we’re not allowed to carry the koala and just hug it hard. We’re only allowed to touch the koala legs and took pictures with it while it just carried on eating the shoots and leaves like nobody’s business. Apparently, someone told me that the koalas are predisposed towards getting diseases from the humans. Thus, minimal human contacts are necessary to keep them healthy.

But they’re just so cute!

I want to kidnap one and keep it as a pet!!!

Then, we moved on to feed the kangaroos. I had doubts of feeding the kangaroos directly from my hand as I am scared of animals. But I kind of forced myself to pet the somnolent, inactive kangaroos lying around the vicinity of the kangaroo farm (?) and let them lick and eat from my palm. *shudder*.

Look at my facial expression! 

It looks kind of emaciated, to tell the truth. 

Right after we finished feeding those kangaroos, we explored the rest of the park before it was time to go back, to which we took the same shuttle bus back to the bus stand.

Green katak 

This animal looks unique, kind of like an ostrich? 

Our next destinations were Hay Street and Murray Street, which are both popular shopping streets in the Perth Central Business District.

I went to Boffins Books located at Williams Street first, which intersects Hay Street and Murray Street, so all three streets are next to each other. I was so excited as I took an elevator down to the bookshop. Wished I had more time to explore the bookshop. But no, I was there with the only aim of collecting four books I had pre-ordered 3 weeks ago. Those books are by Australian YA Author Sarah Ayoub and Melina Marchetta and trust me, those books are NOT AVAILABLE IN MALAYSIA! Especially Sarah Ayoub’s ‘The Yearbook Committee’! I mean, those books are not even available in Boffins Books, Perth in the first place. I think they had to order those books from Sydney.  I had to make a special request to pre-order the books from the website, to which Boffins Books consistently updated me with the book-ordering progress from time to time. Kudos to them! Marvellous service!

I was so happy to get those books.

Then, we went to a very popular pharmacy chain store in Australia- the Chemist Warehouse, where my friends wanted to buy perfumes. I was not that interested in perfumes (until something happened on my last day, carry on) but I found Elizabeth’s Bookshop, a second-hand bookshop that is the original home to blinddatewithabook program! Of course I bought two books! The packaging are so pretty that I forced myself to meticulously unwrap each book revealing ‘The Haunting of Hill House’! - I squealed in delight as I’ve always wanted to read this! And ‘Naomi’s Room’- still haven’t read it.

My friends bought a perfume each I guess. Then, moving on to Hay Street. I needed to go to Pandora as I needed to get a gift for my mother- like I promised her.

So I made my way to Pandora as my friends went to other shops. Over there, there was this cute Asian-Caucasian guy who helped me to pick up and wrap those charms for my mother. I bought three charms for myself (a Koala, a Kangaroo and an Australian flag charms) and two charms for my mother (a Southern Cross and Australian flag charms which according to him, are only available in Australia). So, a perfect souvenir, isn’t it? His name is Tony by the way. He’s training to become a high school teacher and he’s 23. LOL, same age as my younger sister. And how did I know so much in such a short time? xD

You couldn't spot Tony from here. But he was talking to one of his friends- the one in blue blazer. 

The Pandora charms are cheaper in Australia, I kid you not! 5 sterling silver charms for less than RM900. Yupp! 

My friends spotted me going out of the shop and together, we went to another Chemist Warehouse shop. They bought more perfumes there while I bought myself a Blackmores Vitamin E cream and a tube of Burt’s Bees lip balm.

Thinking of exploring King’s Park and Botanic Gardens after that but it was getting dark and plus, it was raining. So, we headed back home where we had spaghetti for dinner and booked our ferry tickets to Rottnest Island online.

Day 7 Kings Park, Rottnest Island, Fremantle, Bell Tower

Woke up early and took a bus to the Blue Boathouse as we were afraid that it will get crowded later on. Sure enough, there wasn’t a single soul there. We took about 30 minutes to pose for pictures there and whadddya know, two groups of people started coming towards the jetty, patiently or perhaps impatiently waiting for us to finish our photo shoot. LOL.

Then, moving on to Kings Park where we just wandered around and took some pictures. Didn’t have time to go to the Botanic Gardens though. We needed to take the train to Fremantle by 10.30 am so that we could board the ferry to Rottnest Island which departed at 11.30 from B-Shed jetty.

I was sleeping for the first 20 minutes of journey to Rottnest Island, only awakened by the rough waves of the Indian Ocean buoying the ferry up and down. 

We arrived in Rottnest Island at 12 pm and went to the Visitor Centre to ask for the staff’s recommendation on which route to take around the island, as we would be taking the next ferry back to Fremantle at 2.30 pm, so we only had two hours to explore the island.

As our main intention was to see and take selfies with the Quokkas, she recommended us to go on a short trail that leads to a number of shops and eateries, where sure enough, we spotted those cute quokkas, as large as a cat, having the hybrid appearance of a rat and a kangaroo. LOL.

Is it a giant rat? Is it a baby kangaroo? 

No, it's a QUOKKA! 

So vain la you! 

We failed to take a selfie with the quokkas, but decided to just walk along the route where a peacock was parading itself, then walking along the beach, where we spotted a big stork by the jetty. Our destination was the Bathurst Lighthouse (Can’t get enough of lighthouses, can’t we?) and we actually wanted to go to The Basin, but due to time constraint, we decided to forgo that mission and instead, turning back, making our way to the jetty and to take selfies with the quokkas, which are sometimes hard to find.

We spotted rows of old quarters belonging to the Australian marines, which had now been converted into chalets and hotels. The sea was blue-ish, the weather sunny, overall, it is a beautiful island. It was said that throughout the entire world, you could only find quokkas in Rottnest Island. Amazing, isn’t it? Just like how koalas and kangaroos are synonymous with Australia.

We spotted some quokkas along the way and successfully took a number of selfies with the quokkas after an uncountable number of attempts! Mission accomplished! Now, it’s time to return to Fremantle. I slept throughout the 30 minutes journey to Fremantle.

Arrived in Fremantle, went to Kailis’ Fish and Chips, ate Fish and Chips (what else?),  shared several scoops of gelato ice-cream (we checked that they did not contain any animal-based nor alcohol-based ingredients) that tasted heavenly!

Then my friends went to another shop while I made my way to the Fremantle Post Office, where I wrote and sent a postcard to my friend in Terengganu.

Took pictures at the Fremantle Rainbow Containers, waiting for the bus for 30 minutes at the bus stand, freezing in the cold. Struck a conversation with a very friendly bus driver there, who had been so kind to drop us at the station nearest to the Bell Tower.

Then, we went home and just slept soundly as our heads hit the pillow. That was our last night at the Perth City Stay Apartment.

Day 8 Watertown and Perth CBD

Woke up, packed our stuff, ate breakfast, checked out of the hotel, kept our luggage and belongings in the store room and we made our way to the Watertown Premium Outlet, located across the street. I did not have any intention to buy any more stuff as my bags are densely packed and stuffed (whatever did I buy?) but I bought two children books for my friend, and also Berocca for my parents.

I got a headache and decided to walk back to the hotel and stayed at the lounge while waiting for my friends to finish shopping. Asked the receptionist whether I could play the piano, and she said “Sure, play good songs!” and I gave a mediocre performance of Canon in D. 

My friend called me, asking whether I wanted to follow them to Hay Street and I said, yes! Anything to escape this boredom.

So I crossed the street and met them at the Wellington Street Bus Stand, took a CAT bus to Perth Station and walked to the shopping district of Perth CBD. Went into H&M and bought a beautiful winter coat on sale for my upcoming trip to…ahem. It shall not be revealed yet.

I got so happy and my headache disappeared.  Really, retail therapy is an EFFECTIVE form of therapy. I suddenly wanted to buy a perfume as well and whaddya know, I bought THREE perfumes from THREE different Chemist Warehouse pharmacies. Those perfumes are really affordable. How on earth could you get the classic purple Anna Sui perfume for less than RM100?

We ate halal Nando’s Chicken in Williams Street. The one in Hay Street is bigger, but it’s not Halal. Then, it was time to return to our hotel, to rearrange our stuff in bag, and then, to make our way to the Perth Airport via bus.

Slept at the Perth Airport for the night, as our flight to Malaysia was at 5.30 am. Arrived in KLIA2 at 12.30 pm and I missed Perth already.

Even at this time of writing, I couldn’t help but to miss the memories made in Perth. I miss everything about it, I miss those road trips with my friends, those shopping sprees, and the nice and friendly people that we met there.

I want to come here again. But there are other countries waiting to be checked off my list! But, who knows, right?

That’s all from me. This 9 pages entry took 8 full weekends to complete, LOL.

Hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for reading!