March 2015 – w w w . x e .s . c x

Perth, Australia 2014 – Penguin Island

On the 1st day of 2015, we visited Penguin Island. It’s just 15 minutes drive from Melvin and Tania’s place.

We also met up with wife’s friend Lisa who married a local here. They brought along their 2 kids.

Penguin Island is just few minutes away from the mainland. It’s so near that you can actually walk there through the sandbank. However, walking is not recommended as some have lost their life using the sandbank.

The boat ride to the island costs us AUD23 + entry to the penguin feeding show.

The main attraction of this island is the penguins. They usually live by the beach. The little penguins can be seen on the left.

Frankly the penguin feeding show is a little bit boring.

Highlight of this island to me is the crystal clear water and beach. We could see fishes swimming by the shore.

#LiviaFoong’s first time at the beach! She loved it. She even crawled towards the water and started tapping on it.

The island was inhibited by a person in 1917. He turned the caves into his home.

More info about the first settler.

This is how the caves look like. At some point, the settler had visitors and turned the island into some form of a resort. He even had a shop and library here.

The caves from afar. I wonder if they ever get flooded.

Seems that some people decided to follow Seaforth’s footsteps and stayed here in the 1930s.

The island is relative flat. You can walk up to the look out point. It takes about an hour to explore around the island. Loads of vegetation here. The penguins live and travel underneath this vegetation.

The other side of the island. Seas more choppy here.

There’s a basic toilet here. There’s no flush and all “deposits” are left to be decomposed.

Facilities are scarce here. There’s no rubbish bins and visitors are required to carry their rubbish back. There’s even a table of rubbish found for anyone to take back to the mainland for disposal. I took some back.

Also there are no shops in the island. Everyone has to bring their own supplies.

We had super late lunch at 530pm. Mel cooked tomyam fried noodles.

We got hungry later at night. Mel made kangaroo and beef burgers!

Perth, Australia 2014 – Burrington and Canal Rocks

We made a road trip to Burrington and Canal Rocks on our 4th day. It took us about 2 1/2 hours to get to Burrington which is another city with a very lovely beach.

We had lunch at a place called Zen at Burrington. #LiviaFoong slept half of the journey.

The food at Zen was not bad and the coffee is alright. They even have piccolo latte. The place is a little bit dirty though. Food was scattered all around the floor.

The gang all smiles at Zen.

Some local business cards at the cashier. I guess it’s a way to support your mates.

First time seeing a chimney cleaning card. Amused that such business still exists.

Simmo’s ice cream was the only recommendation on Wikitravel. It has many interesting flavours. I had the Old English Toffee and wife had the Rum and Raisins. William got the licorice flavour and it was black in colour.

The portion was huge. But I think this is the fastest melting ice cream I’ve tried. Probably due to the hot weather. I had ice cream all over my hands.

William’s licorice ice cream melted on his hands and his hands turned black. He looked like he just fixed a car.

Another attraction is the 2km pier. You can take a train to the end of the pier and enter their underwater centre. We were late and we missed the last train.

The end of the pier on the right. It was extremely hot and sunny. Also there were flies everywhere. They always attack our faces.

#LiviaFoong was asleep by the time we got into the car.

Canal Rocks was the highlight of the day. Water was crystal clear and there were no flies! I guess it was because of the strong wind.

#LiviaFoong drove us there. We got there in one piece.

This is the actual Canal Rocks. It’s a formation of rocks. You can actually walk on it and explore the small rock formations. But don’t expect to be saved if anything goes wrong. One wrong step could send you off to the seas.

One dude snorkeled around the rocks. He was fishing there too.

Yada yada. Background about the rocks..

This is where we parked our car. I hiked up the highest rock to get a panaromic view of the place.

The other side of the rocks.

Crystal clear water. I didn’t see any fishes though.

At the small and shallow strait between the rocks

Water was extremely cold. I wonder how could the guy snorkel in such cold water.

Violent seas on the left.

Pier to catch a boat.

This is how the Canal Rocks look like from the top.

Looks like a flattened lizard.

Perth, Australia 2014 – Fremantle

Melvin and Tania picked us up with the rented 7-seater Kia Van on our third day. Our first stop was Fremantle, another city nearby Perth city. I only know the place for being well known for seafood. I must say that the seafood was awesome.

Mel and Tania bought the famous Corica Apple Strudels at the city and brought it to Fremantle. The pastry was soft and the cream was nice.

We explored the beach a bit and even visited the museum.

Large ship uncovered

Thereafter, we headed to the famous Little Creatures brewery for drinks. The brewery is open to the public and contains a café/restaurant.

Melvin ordered a tester (FOC!). The tester comes in numerous glasses with different type of beers. Each beer has two small glasses and hence Melvin and I got one each. I like the cider the best whereas the rest was just so-so. Some tasted horrible to me.

Livia at the brewery.

Uncle Mel clearly doesn’t like kids and have no idea how to carry one.

All sorts of beer here.

The drive back home took us 40 minutes. We even shopped at Woolies for a bit for our BBQ dinner. We reached their home about 9pm. Mel cooked lamb, beef, salmon, trout, portobello mushrooms, corn and chicken.

One of Mel and Tania’s neighbours is into Xmas deco.

Livia would love to be here to destroy everything here.

Perth, Australia 2014 – Perth City

We spent some time in the city before meeting up with Melvin and Tania. We didn’t want Livia to travel too much (she can’t sit still!). Instead, we met up with Wui Ling and her husband for the first 2 days.

Wui Ling picked us up from the airport and had dinner with her, her husband and their kids at a place called Viet Ho.

Beef is quite tender and soup is nice. Noodles was a bit tough though.

We roamed around the city to find most shops closed. One of the rare places that was open was Koko Black. I used to love this place when I was in Melbourne. Their iced chocolate is probably the best I’ve tried.

Spent the whole day at Garden City shopping. Wui Ling, Edward and their 2 kids brought us there. I think the kids got a long well.

The picture was taken at the baby changing room. This is the other side of the room. Quite comfortable. Even the soap dispenser is automatic. Mummy and daddies would know that one of their hands would be busy.