LAST 10 DAYS in PERTH (II)

We met up with Celestina, a hometown friend of Peters’. She is so good, bringing us to top eats of Perth. And coincidently, her friends who are hairdressers from Singapore came for visit and we had our haircut! Just in time, before going to New Zealand. So here we are at Ciao Italia$$, very famous for its pasta and wood fired pizza. Long queue at the front, but its really worth the wait!

Savouring the true Italian wood fired pizza and pasta at Ciao Italia$$, East Perth. Their tiramisu is quite good too. Sicilian Pizza and Chilli King Prawn Pizza. Both also very tasty! $26 each..

Tiramisu...

San Churros, at James St.. Spanish Doughnuts and chocolate drinks..

The churros are slightly overpriced, 6 churros and 2 choco dip for $14! for a dessert...

Crema de Fresa milkshake is quite good too, not too sweet. Blend of yummy strawberries with white chocolate. Paying that much money for dessert, we savour this doughnuts and milkshake real slowly.. LOL. Surely they are heavenly good when dipped in the milk choc and caramel dipping!

BIG soft comfy shoes.... found at Harbourtown shopping center.. Ideal for winter! 

Snack of Gelare's waffle, half price on tuesday!

Nao Japanese Ramen @ Murray St... Yums but not as good as Freo's market Ramen... =P

Little Caesar Restaurant$ at Leederville. Selling their famous dessert pizza. This is Choc Mudhoney, which is chocolate mud cake and honey on top of a pizza, with white and milk choc tablets.

Medicating the sweet tooth!!!

At Fremantle Market*****, open from fri-sun...

So we are back at Fremantle, a city just 30mins from Perth. Come here during fri-sun cause that's when the shops opens!

Dokusoi Ramen$ shop at Fremantle Market. The best full flavour ramen in PErth and Freo so far! Priced from $7.50-$9.. YUMS!!!

Macaroons at Freo Market...

Many street performers in front of the Freo market.. If there's nothing to do you can always stand and watch whole day =P

The fishing boat harbour @ FREO

Dare to try this gelato?

E-SHED Markets*** Place to get souvenirs.. The prices here for nougats and macadamia nuts are a bit more expensive than those in Chinatown (william street)..

Coffee time @ Fremantle Bakery.. Kahlua and hazelnut cake, a big piece for $6.50..

Beautiful sunset... This may be our last sunset in OZ...

The eating continues @ Cicerello's Fish & Chips$$.. Oh and Chilli Mussels! The food is good but not as good as the first time we had one year ago... WHy??? The fish got soggy and mussels cold... probably we took quite a long time taking photos.. LOL.. The chilli mussels at Bella Roma (also in Fremantle) are said to be YUMMY too.. but we haven't got that big a stomach after a whole day eating spree in FREO.. lol...

NEXT: The very last day =)

LAST 10 DAYS in PERTH....

Perth City

The city that P&A begins their backpacking life and the city we end our trip in Australia, lots of memories and great feeling fills our heart now. We have the last 10 days in Perth, let's check out what we done in the last 10 days!

At Perth, we manage to book accommodation at North Lodge Travellers Accommodation which the aunty there gave us a really good deal. $180 (per week) for private ensuite per person. She is so kind, and she is the only one person handling the property! Geng… We have considered staying at Billabong Backpackers (which is just further down of North Lodge) but their rates are so high. It would costs $217 per week for a 4 bed dorm per person! They no longer have a weekly rate (stay 7, pay 6). So luckily we found this North Lodge. It is a quieter hostel, not many people around. Unlike Billabong!

So we had packed all our stuff in this small but comfy private room. Besides Koala (the car), we also put an ad on Gumtree to sell our tent, sleeping bags, gas stove, fishing rod, crab net, storage box & fan heater. So many stuff! And we got a buyer for our tent and stove after a day! This is great; we are slowly clearing all the stuff…

St Mary Cathedral*****, very beautiful cathedral, with modern touch in its architecture...

This is the only mass that Peter had attended after he started his backpacking life, really feels peaceful and comfort in that church.

So the only other things to do in Perth (besides updating our blog) would be EAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ooohh, and meet up with friends =)

Bak Kut Teh... Always at the top of our favourite Malaysian Cuisine list.

We met Jenny back in Malaysia when we were applying for the work holiday visa, and now we meet her for the first time in Perth =) She brought us to this Indian restaurant at Swan Bell Tower, Annalakshmi which runs like a charity, so we pay what we can afford to eat this 'all you can eat' vegetarian meal with coffee/tea and orange juice. Many backpackers come to eat here for free or cheap price =P

Looks great and it taste really good!

US at King's Park.. picnicking... 

The cheapest and yummy Japanese food in Perth, TAKA restaurant @ Barrack Street.. 

Angie always miss TAKA food after our first visit to this restaurant last year.

Katsu Don

MORE GOOD EATS @ FREO AND PERTH

Lancelin & BACK to PERTH to complete one round of AUSTRALIA

So nice driving back to Perth, stopping once in a while to view the beautiful spring flowers. We are getting nearer to Perth, few hours to go... Leaving Australia so soon, going New Zealand so soon too!

Pandani plant..

Western Australia's Kangaroo Paw plant..

Lancelin.. Wanted to do some sand boarding here, but unfortunately it rained yesterday so the sand is quite damp... so we just gave up the hope to sand board...

Arrive Perth FINALLY!!

Stayed at the central caravan park for $39 power site since we need to wash our car. Staying in the caravan park is much more convenient because there is water supply just beside our tent site and we can put all our stuff out at the camp. With only 11 days left in Australia, hopefully we can sell all our stuff very soon and have time to update our blog!

FULL of stuff...

We took about 2 hours to wash Koala inside out! All the dirt and sand accumulated for a year have now gone! The first time Koala had a 'spa treatment' from us! Wow, looks new still, despite the large crack in the windscreen  :p So we took the latest photo of Koala to post on the net for sale.

So the next day, we went to the state library and encounter the same problem again, where to park our car? It is always a trouble to bring the car to city, but we need to in case somebody wants to view the car after we post it online. Well, the only way is to pay!

We post our ad on gumtree (the most popular website in OZ) and received many calls immediately. The first two interested buyer came and is quite detailed at viewing the car. After seeing the crack on the mirror and hail storm damage, they didn't bother to test drive Koala.

Well, our Koala had done a good job for us, accompanying us for the last one year, doing more than 30,000kms, bringing us through dirt road (that's how it got a crack) and the beautiful country of Oz. We had replaced 3 new tyres and our selling price is $2200. Negotiable =)

Later in the evening few people arranged to view Koala at the caravan park. The first buyer got lost and couldn't find our place. He's from Africa and don't speak fluent english, really hard to understand him. So the second appointment came and test drive the car, everything went well and we sold the car at $2000. Wow, that was quick. After half an hour, the African guy sms us that he arrived our place. But too bad, we just sold the car. He was so desperate to buy the car that he offered $2500. Gosh, we let him come in to view the car (we feel so bad because he had lost his way here and came only after an hour which we thought he had given up coming, so we let him view the car, and also because we’re attracted at $2500). But once he saw the hail damage, he said No. Although he smiled at us when leaving, that poor guy cursed on his way out of the caravan park.

Well…

Back to our car, we have agreed with the buyer to change the vehicle ownership on Monday. So we have two days left with our Koala, it’ll help us the last bit, to move back to the city so we can settle down at a hostel somewhere. 

Meet dolphins@Monkey Mia, Little Lagoon & Shell Beach

Monkey Mia*****

Just 26kms from Denham, we reach the famous Monkey Mia Dolphin feeding interaction. It costs $8 pp for entrance to the park. There are 3 feeding session each day, which all commence before noon. The first session starts at 7.40am.

The dolphins here are wild, only five female dolphins are used to being fed everyday in the morning, but they are given only a small amount of fish each day, so they will continue to hunt naturally. 

This morning, the tide is quite low, so the dolphins are quite slow getting close to us. Normally when it is time for the first feed, they will come quite close to the beach and crowd. But eventually 5 of them turned up and for each dolphin, 4 lucky people get the chance to feed it.

We should have worn something more shiny or attractive that day! No chance in feeding the dolphins!

Fatty pelican had a tough time swallowing the fish after stealing from the dolphins.. HAHA...

Only after an hour from the first feeding, the second feeding commences. We were still around, so we had a look at the dolphins again. This time Angie was chosen to feed Nicky, the oldest female dolphin around! Yay... Nicky is so gentle, picking up the fish slowly from Angie's hand :)

At Monkey Mia (we still don't know why it's named Monkey Mia), there is a resort for the 'wealthier' people. There are also a theatre showing interesting documentaries about Shark Bay which is worth to spent time watching at least one. 

Little Lagoon

Dolphins? Sharks?? We are on a lookout coming back from Monkey Mia and look down to see this beach. About 20 of these are swimming around in the shallow waters. Peter thought they were the cute dolphins, but in fact they were SHARKS!!! Reef sharks.. should be harmless though.. But nobody swims around this beach.. LOL

Shell Beach****

It's one of a kind. Not sandy beaches but made of tiny cockle shells! These shells are actually mined for construction building in the old days, and today, they are used to feed the chickens so their egg shells become harder!

Buried in cockles!

NEXT: Geraldton & Cervantes