King's Park, Point Walter in Perth

Today my god son is doing his altar boy duties in Church so we need to get to church by 7.30 in the morning. After church, we joined my god sister and some of her friends to have breakfast in Northbridge. So it is dim sum in one of the many Chinese restaurants. We just ate a bit since we had a lunch appointment with my wife's friend, Angeline, who has also migrated to Perth from Melaka.

We met up with Angeline and guess what, we had dim sum for lunch as well! So you can tell that dim sum is a favourite choice not only for Asians here in Perth but also for the Australians as well. They even bring their own wine to eat dim sum. It is quite common to bring your own wine to dine and it is known here as BYO or "bring your own".

After lunch, Angeline took us for shopping at Harbour Town, which is their factory outlet so prices are generally cheaper that the normal shops in the city. From here we went to King's Park, one of the must see in Perth. You do get a good view of the city and the Swan River from atop the hill in King's Park.


What is more interesting is the garden where you can see a variety of flowers, many of which are unique to Western Australia. See if you can name the flowers in the photos below.

The Park is so big that we nearly could not locate her car. She then took us to Point Walter, another point to have a scenic view of the Swan River and the city.After enjoying the view and each other's company, she dropped us at the city and we took a bus home.

Ronald Kwok
http://cbpirate.com/s/cbp/ronaldkwok

Confirmation and Subiaco in Perth

Today, 22 August is my day 7 in Perth and today is the climax of my stay in Perth. This is the day of Confirmation for my godson and is the main reason why I am in Perth. So there is no tour today and we just went to Centro Galleria for a little window shopping followed by lunch.


As god parents, my wife and I had to be in the Church a bit earlier for the instructions of what to do during the confirmation. There were official photography sessions for all the confirmants with their sponsors or god parents. There were 30 children to be confirmed today so the parish was a hive of activities. (There would be another 60 tomorrow evening.) At 6.30pm the Mass promptly started with the Archbishop presiding. We made our entrance and sat at our appointed places. Thankfully, when our turn came we did not put a foot (or hand, actually) wrong and the whole thing was over without incidents.


To celebrate the occasion, we went to Sizzler for dinner. There was already a long queue when we arrived, maybe because it was a Friday. After what seemed to be a very long time, as we were hungry, we were able to place our orders. My god sister had planned earlier to visit King's Park after dinner but since it was rather late and getting very chilly, the trip was cancelled and we went home after a very satisfying dinner.


Day 8
Today my god parents came in the morning and took us out for lunch. We went to Northbridge where the Chinatown of Perth is located. We had beef noodle at one of the many Vietnamese restaurants there. As usual, the portion is big (for me at least) and we chatted and caught up with past time. Then it was time to part ways again and we walked to town to spend our afternoon there.

We passed the cultural part of Perth where the Art Gallery and Museum were located. There was a small flea market near the Art Gallery where my wife did some browsing and purchase.

From the city centre, we made our way to the suburb of Subiaco which is supposed to be a trendy part of Perth. It was a bit like our Bangsar in Kuala Lumpur. The markets was a disappointment, maybe we did not go at the right time. As we were too tired (lazy?) to walk, we took the train back to the city centre and this was my first experience of the Perth train. There was an interesting art work by some children at Forrest Place.


I visited all the bookshops in the city centre (the biggest and with the best selection is Borders) while my wife did her normal window shopping in the many shops at the malls until it was time to take the bus home for dinner.


Ronald Kwok
http://cbpirate.com/s/cbp/ronaldkwok

Rottnest Island, Perth

Today's tour is the island of Rottnest, half an hour boat ride from Fremantle. We arrived at the Perth Jetty in the morning just in time to board the Oceanic cruise down the Swan River to Fremantle. We had a good view of the Perth skyline, the buildings and the many yacht clubs along the Swan River as we make our way to Fremantle.




From the jetty in Fremantle we took another ferry and was on our way to Rottnest Island, crossing the Indian Ocean. The island derived its name from 'rat nest' when the native animal quokkas (same family as the kangaroo) were mistaken as giant rats. It does look like a rat as the photo below shows.

Rottnest Island is an island of natural beauty with unspoilt beaches with abundant marine life. There are very little vehicles on the island and the best means of transport to explore the island is the bicycle. The are whale watching activities during the right time of the year.

We did a walk around on our own while waiting for lunch time. There was an old church and a modern one nearby where my wife did a little prayer.

We had buffet lunch at the Rottnest Lodge which was included in our package trip. The food was very good and the fish (actually the batter) and chips was even better than what I tasted at Cicerello's in Fremantle!

After lunch, we went on a coach tour round the island. It was rather windy that day and so it was quite chilly and I would rather stay indoor than out though there was a very deceiving clear blue sky.

At the appointed time, we took the ferry back to Fremantle and changed to the cruise ship back to Perth. We rushed back to Morley since today is Thursday and is the late night shopping day in the suburbs. My god sister picked us up from the Morley bus station and we went to the shopping centre at Mirrabooka, another suburb of Perth, and shopped till closing time at 9.00pm.

Ronald Kwok

http://cbpirate.com/s/cbp/ronaldkwok