Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Perth Trip Day 4 & 5

And the 4th day was a day of beaches. There were stories on the beauty of the Australian beaches and so we made it into our itinerary.

 Sample beach...

 What was surprising to me was the availability of such things for people. If this were in Malaysia, the bags + the box would be long gone...

 Beach 2...

 Beach 3...

 This is the AQWA... otherwise known to us as the underwater aquarium... did not go in... should have cancelled the dolphin event and go to this instead...

 The Boulevard... quite famous woh...

 Finally... had the first meal of the day, which was technically lunch... hot chocolate...

 My friend had this BLTA... bacon, lettuce, tomatoes, avocado...

 Another view of BLTA...

 Pizza... so so kua... don't really like the brown thingy... forgot what it's called... very sour...

 I had pasta... quite nice... though my personal preference would be the cream based sauce... but this is the only pasta on the set lunch menu :(

 Another friend has a lamb thingy...

 After lunch, we went boat shopping...

 But was quickly distracted by this Cold Rock ice-cream... over a thousand combinations woh... and the ice-cream were mixed with toppings of your choice on a slab of cold rock... true...

 My ferrero rocher + honeycomb ice-cream..
.
 And we notice this nice sign shows the distance to various major cities in the world... KL is in... unfortunately it's spelt wrongly :(

 Continue boat shopping...

 Boat shopping...

 Autumn leaves...

 Then, it's off to the beaches again... this time, it's beach for animals, not humans... in this case, it's a horse beach...

 And a beach for dogs...

 Too bad it was a cold day and there were no horses taking bath in the sea... it would've been a sight... the beach for animals is surprisingly in a very good state.

 Dog beach is just next to the horse beach... and this dog came dangerously close to us... technically, the owner of the dog would have been fined since his dog crossed over to the horse's beach... I can't imagine the chaos if the dogs were chasing the horses in the water...

 Some dogs in the dog beach... dog owners stayed on land...

 At night, it's of to one of the posh place for dinner... Kaili's Market... you can buy the fish at the market next door and give it to the restaurant for them to cook for you... surcharges applicable of course....

 Me with my hot chocolate... again...

 My friend had a glass of Sprite... and he kept on complaining he's cold...

 Another had tea... cute tea pieces...

 I had this seafood chowder for starters... while the texture is creamy enough... the ingredients were not as nice as I had expected...

 Don't remember what's the name of this dish... but it's the same fish that the penguins ate yesterday! Those were non-fried of course... it's quite nice... a little bit like ikan bilis... but a little bit more meat.

 My main dish is the Rock Lobster! And frankly, it's overrated. This is only half lobster and it's AUS$34++ and I liked the cheese more than the lobster meat itself... still, it's an experience one should try... but I know enough that I will not order lobster in the near future... not that the lobster is not fresh... it is in fact, very fresh... I just think that it's same as an oversized prawn. :P

 Another friend ordered grilled lobster...

 And another ordered some indian food... which looks nicer than my "big prawn" :P

 And another ordered burger... I think...

And this my dears, is my first proper breakfast in Australia... which is taken at the airport... in day 5 of Perth...

And thus ends my 4/5 day short trip to Perth. Total expenses, inclusive of air tickets, baggage, food, taxis, souvenirs ~RM3000++, which could have reach RM5000++ if I had to stay in a hotel... but then again, I don't think I would visit Australia if I had to spend RM2000++ on accomodation :P

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Perth Trip Day 3

Day 3 in Perth was particularly uneventful. The only event we had for the day was a trip to the Penguin Island to watch dolphins and penguins... there's sea lion watch too, but we did not opt for that package.

 Breakfast... first time I had in Perth... was in McD... their breakfast set were slightly different from Malaysia's being that their sets mainly consists of pork bacon and the drink is cappuccino

 Bacon burger! With avocado sauce too...

 We reached the meeting point early in the morning... early being ~9am

 And got on a boat that's surprisingly quite full despite it's Monday.

 Then, for those who opted for the dolphin watch package, we were transfered to another boat...

This so-called swimming with the dolphins package does not guarantee a sighting of dolphins. We basically have to sail around and hope that we're lucky... that and plus the experience of the guides and the speaker that's immersed in water, letting out dolphin's sounds. So the pics caught were quite scarce... all pics of dolphins are caught by my friend.

Dolphin...

Dolphin...

 After about 2 hours (I think) of chasing dolphins, we were finally let off the Penguin Island. This island is a protected reserve... the guide said something about level 7 or something to that effect. Even the toilet is the natural ones... no water flush...

The island is a nesting ground for pelicans... and the female ones were quite protective of their nests... we were continuousness harried by this particularly annoying bird.

 And the island is filled with them!

 Close-up of the bird... I'm not sure if this is how female pelicans look like... or it's another bird altogether...

 This is a pelican, but it's nowhere on the island...

Picture if the egg the birds were protecting...

 The scenery is okay i supposed, if you can ignore the shit that's everywhere...

 Next, we went into a showroom to watch penguins... which is rather disappointing...

 Penguin swimming...

 Penguin feeding...

In conclusion, I would not really recommend joining this adventure as the thrills are quite short and at a high price... to watch the penguins and dolphins, it was ~AUS$85... and it peaks more than AUS$100 if you want to watch the sea lion as well... at least for the sea lions, you watch it in the sea in a boat/ship that has a glass underbelly... the penguins watch was totally so "duh".

Anyhow, after this "adventure" we were back at home, do a little shopping to buy nougats and chocolates... and that is a must buy. However, I was in one shop that's selling 250g of nougats for AUS$27 while another shop that's selling 1kg nougat at the same price! Not sure if they accidentally put up the wrong price or what.

And oh, the supplements here are super cheap even after the currency conversion. So, if you have any vitamins, omega, calcium you want to buy, you can buy over here as well!

Well, that's all for a short uneventful third day in Perth.