Perth Holiday: Day 8 (Final Day) CBD Parks, Korean Food and Bye bye!

Day 8
Saturday, 21st March

Our hotel room did not come with breakfast but that didn't pose much inconvenience to us.  In fact, it was good that we had some leftovers which we needed to finish off, such as instant noodles, milo packets and whatever whatever.  Like I can remember what we ate after two months, right?

Anyway, because we needed to check out at 12noon today, we had planned nothing more than a stroll to the park (literally) a few streets away.

We headed towards Swan River to enjoy the wind and view.

This boy really knows how to enjoy life.  He is contented just holding my hands while chatting and walking the streets 

We sat along Nelson Ave overlooking the beautiful (but nothing to see) Swan River.  The wind was rather strong, and there were some people jogging along this path. 

Admiring the beautiful cumulus clouds decorating the blue skyline

We happen to be chance upon the Memorial Service of former Australian Prime Minister Mr Malcolm Fraser (who passed away the day before), where we saw many hunky, handsome men in uniform paying their respects

When in a park... sit on the grass : )

Vic is being cheeky when taking photos with the kangaroo statues

Flowers that look like what I plant back home - Japanese roses - but these mostly pathetic looking ones signal the end of summer and the beginning of Autumn

Pastor J Son offered to send us to the airport which we gratefully accepted.  But first, let's eat!  Pastor J Son decides, we pay.  He recommended this Korean restaurant called Pal Saik Namoo Korean Restaurant which serves a signature dish of multi flavoured pork bellies!  Mmmmm.... from miso and ginseng to curry!

This place is full all the time, so we were really fortunate to get a table.

                            

Group picture with our Pastor J Son - he's one caring and knowledgeable pastor, and I always loved to hear him speak

                           

Order their set which can easily feed a group.  On the left are 6 flavored pork belly and one must start from the mild flavor to the other end.  We had another pot of seafood noodle soup.  Food was awesome! 

Our flight departed at 4:05pm.  This was a good and relaxing holiday... till the next one.

Perth Holiday: Day 7 WA Museum, Corica, City Center

Day 7
Friday, 20th March

Today was our last day at this apartment we called "home" the last one week.  It's been a good place, spacious and clean and most importantly, we felt comfortable whenever we're back "home."  I have been using the washing machine almost daily since our first trip to the beach, to wash the wet clothes and hang them up to dry.  I can't imagine bringing home a luggage filled with soiled and sandy clothes to greet my helper upon returning!

The only small complain I have was not able to operate the dryer function of the washer dryer.  I tried at least 3-5 times, before I slept, and in the early hours of the morning.  I dug out the manual and read it multiple times, but still couldn't get the heater in the dryer to turn on.  So this last batch of clothes didn't dry totally, and had to be packed up to our next accommodation, which is a hotel in the Central Business District!

The reason why we booked at two accommodations was because our return flight was cancelled in the last minute, and therefore instead of flying home in the next available flight which was in the wee hours of the morning (and still paying for the room which we hardly sleep in!), we decided to get a later flight that departs in the afternoon.

This morning, my princess Victoria cooked us breakkie.

Finishing up all our raw food supplies

We checked into Travelodge Hotel which is strategically located in the CBD along Haystreet.  We were pleasantly surprised to see the free CAT bus stop directly in front of the hotel, which is so, so convenient!

Travelodge Hotel, Haystreet

Our room in the hotel

There were also simple eateries and pharmacies nearby our hotel but we did not patron those areas.  Being in CBD, we were quite spoilt for choices and we discovered later that there was a Twillight Hawkers Market every Friday night.

We headed to the WA Museum after checked in.  The museum was nothing much to shout about, and our main purpose was to expose the kids to museums instead of the usual beach, playground and shops.  The attraction to them was of course the dinosaurs.  However, there wasn't much other exhibits besides stuffed animals depicting wild life, birds and butterflies.  I read somewhere that this was because the museum was in the process of moving or renovation.

Crowd was almost nil.  Besides us, there was probably another family or two.  Some school children on an outing dropped by too.

Fortunately both kids were sporting, and Vic seemed to enjoy seeing the exhibits.

Next stop, was Corica's in Northbridge for their famous apple strudels.  We were told not to succumb to other flavours and to stick to the original.  So we headed this advice and ordered ONE strudel which to my surprise (see how blur I am) was about a foot long!  It didn't come cheap too, pricing at AUD$22 (thereabouts)!  Hubby asked if I wanted to tapau back to Malaysia, but I said no, better enjoy here than to ruin the taste back home!

Corica's along Aberdeen Street, Northbridge.  Disappointed that they sold so many types of pastries and cakes and yet had not a single bench or chair for patrons to enjoy them.

Delicious!

We found an unoccupied bench opposite Corica so we "picniced" there... Malaysian style!  Forget the Italian coffee shop that they recommended we go to.  This was more than fine for us, moreover it's shaded and we loved the company of the doves who also enjoyed the crumbs we shared

My two boys!

Shopped around Murray Street.  Not very exciting but at least we did check the high streets out...

Our dinner at Fast Eddy's which was recommended by dear Pastor J-Son.  This place is popular with night crawlers (not the creepy type but those that normally out from a club or a field) as apparently it's the ONLY place that DOES NOT CLOSE at all.  Not even on weekends or at 3am in the morning!  Something like our mamak (open-air restaurants that serves indian bread and drinks) back home... haha, although I honestly am not sure now which mamaks in KL are open 24 hours.

Burger ordered at Fast Eddy's

I disregarded my motto to eat healthily as I give in to my cravings for seafood - so I ordered their deepfried calamari with chips here.  

William's half foot hot dog came with flag that made he boy very happy!

This is the international crowd at the Twilight Hawker Market

We bought spanish paella for supper - taste so so only but was definitely fun to walk around sharing our room.  Kids really liked this!

The next day is our last day in Perth.  Though I love spending time with my family, the quietness and lack of things to see and do in this place is getting boring.  Can't help comparing with Melbourne although it's unfair because we had good friends there and time flew during that trip.

I'm already thinking that it will be a few years more before we step foot into Perth again, and by then we could go for more adventurous trips like skateboarding on sand dunes, visit the Pinnacles desert, camel rides and feeding dolphins in Monkey Mia, and for old memories' sake... stay in a farm!  Hahaha... looks like I've already planned out the future trip before finishing this one.

Perth Holiday: Day 6 Shenton Park picnic, Watertown and City Centre

Day 6
Thursday, 19th March 

Today we have a relaxed itinerary.  The highlight will be the big discount shopping at Watertown (formerly known as Harbour Town) at 840 Wellington Street in the City Centre. Everything else before and after was more like to feel in the gap, like salads and mashed potatoes on the side of the main course.

Our first stop, was to check out Shenton Park near our apartment.  It was a stone's throw away.  Just like the previous two parks (excluding Caversham, these are Fremantle's and King's), both children were very happy!

We planned and packed our sandwich bags for a picnic lunch at the park.

Shenton Park

Simple packed lunch

My soon-to-be 10 year old girl in this toddler playground ok.. Naturally, she found the equipments there rather boring

Asked them to pose with the big tree and they each had to make funny faces and actions.  Aaahh, this is the age, right?

Admittedly this playground is designed more for toddlers.  We saw many mothers with infants and toddlers there too

I love this scene.  A mother having a picnic with her young children on the green grass with the big tall trees in the backdrop on a cool autumn morning

Happiness

After lunch, we walked back to our apartment for a quick stop (fill up water bottle, update email and messages, pee) then we're off to Watertown Brand Outlet (formerly known as Harbour Town).  We hopped on the free CAT bus that brought us just opposite of the shopping outlet in CBD.

We spent the whole afternoon in retail therapy.  There were many sitting places, and it was not crowded.  Most of the prices (at least for the things we were looking for) were very very reasonble after discount so yea, everyone got something and only our hands and legs (and pockets) were complaining.  : )

We shopped till the very last minute, literally!  After all the shopping, we headed to William Street to find our dinner venue, Viet Hoa for some local pho!

A street name after himself!

William's noodle soup.  He enjoyed everything, so he said

Victoria's rice and stirfry beef - rice came cold and hard so Daddy got them to change it

My pho bo - the beef was too raw and broth was not steaming hot! 

Daddy's broken rice dish and pork chop... he said so-so only

So the verdict on the food here is - no big deal.  Free wifi given, I recall, and service is average.  But come on, we are here for the food and I was initially excited due to some rave reviews I read but the quality of food turned out otherwise.

No, he's not at a disco... but this is the floor of the entrance of the State Theatre 

Waiting for our train back to our apartment

Perth Holiday: Day 5 King's Park, Swan Valley, Westfield Shopping Center

Day 5
Wednesday, 18th March 2015

You must be bored by now and probably thinking when will she stop writing about Perth??  Haha.. well, peeps, I have 3 more days to go not including this one.  I can't even recall the details without first looking at my itinerary and photo folder.  Just bear with me a bit longer while I strive to finish up this travel log and then move on to the birthdays - hopefully before our next holiday.  Yea, you heard me... another holiday?  Haha... we work hard you know?

In Australia, we are spoilt for choices on yogurt too.  I remembered us struggling to finish a container of goat yogurt in original flavour back in Philip Island, November 2013 so this time, we decided to stay "safe" with cow milk yogurt.  Billiions of live cultures? You got me sold now!  Did Vic and William ate this too?  Well, they had no choice!  

Today's itinerary was changed last minute as we needed to cram in King's Park as it was near but NOT within walking distance.  The night before, we did a recce by driving around from our apartment to the park. checking out the best route. If one could get to King's Park by foot, one would still need to walk within the park to Synergy Parkland which is one of the many parks inside King's Park.  

Synergy Parkland, King's Park

Stone birds and my beloveds

Hohohohohoo!!

Aaahhh... he wants to sleep here, but looks like he may slide down

Mummy and the possessive boy

Mummy and my girl

The triumphant kids on top of a gigantic crocodile... or alligator?  Better ask William the difference

Not my fancy... baby dinosaur and eggs

Daddy discovered this mist sprinkler which the kids enjoyed so much until they got their hats and jackets all wet!  Imagine, we were keeping dry from the rain all the time and then get wet deliberately with this!  They had so much fun and laughter

D

A duck sunbathing with the morning sun just out

Ducks cleaning themselves

The weather at King's Park was drizzling and cool when we arrived.  We couldn't stay longer than the 15 minutes we spent there because we needed to get to our next destination, Swan Valley.  Just as we left, the sun came out...

Swan Valley -  first stop, Mondo Nougat and Murish Nuts at 640 Great Northern Highway, Herne Hill.  The place inside is small, and samples were limited to ONE per walk-in visitor.  At first, the store assistant gave us three because he saw only me and the kids.  When William bravely asked for another one, he told him no, that because he already had one, he can have no more.  So I got rather upset because here is a child asking another piece of yummy nougat and come on, how much can that cost?  It's not like we are eating a whole bucket without buying!

So when I heard that, I immediately highlighted that we were given only three earlier, but there were four of us and pointed to my hubby on the phone.  Then we got the 4th nougat!  And to send a message across that we're not here to take advantage of the free tasting (like it's such a big thing?) I bought a packet of mixed flavours.  Later when we bought GB nougats, I felt that Mondo was inferior compared to the former.

The car that daddy drove

and the car that Vic and Will "drove"

Second stop which was just down the road - Whistler's Chocolate Factory along the Great Northern Highway

Inside Whistler's - small and less than a handful of customers when we were there

Same here, the samples were very limited and only 4 flavours were on the table, guarded by a store assistant.  We could not help ourselves freely unlike the Chocolate Factory in Yarra Valley.  Here we had to ask for a sample and was only given ONE each.  Could it be that people here are more stingy, or all Asians have been mistaken to be from a certain nation which has tarnish the image of Asians with their lack of civilization?

So far, nothing really took our interest here in Swan Valley...

Third stop - Sandalford Winery which was the only winery we scheduled in our itinerary.  I was hoping that we could do impromptu stops but we didn't see many other vineyards and non were impressive.  Forget Yarra Valley, we have to lower our standards 10 times for Swan Valley.

The entrance to Sandalford Winery - grand and reminds me of an old series my parents used to watch

Ducks on the loose... but guess who chased them all away!

Boring place, lack of flowers and nothing to see.  We left to hunt for lunch.

Finally, lunch at Homestead Brewery at 10, Harris Road, Caversham.  Ambience was good, and food was average, price was not worth it.  Hubby thinks the Organic Pizza we had on Day 3 was a lot better for the price and value.

Anyway, we didn't have much choice around this place, because Ironbark Brewery was closed and The Vineyard Teahouse was very pricey!

We played UNO whilst waiting for lunch to be served.

We're done with Swan Valley and unfortunately I'd not recommend this place unless you're prepared to see and do nothing.  Better to stay in a farm and pat some kangaroos.

We headed off to Westfield Carousel Shopping Center for a touch and go before driving back to Perth city center to return our rental car.  We took the train first time back to our apartment.  Total cost for the train ride for four of us is around AUD8

I cooked dinner tonight... look at this huge portobello mushroom??  Almost as big as my face!

Dinner - not so yummy as it looks.  Roast chicken (store bought), boiled potatoes, ham and portobello, with fresh strawberries.

That night we had a special visitor - Pastor J-Son who just migrated to Perth a few months back.  It was great chatting up and getting to know his little friend whom he brought a long, and then we went out to this exclusive garden in an exclusive neighborhood (forgotten where) which he wanted to show us, and supper at this Malaysian eating place.  Food the men and kids ordered were maggi mee goreng, nasi with malay dish, fried rice and teh tarik.

Supper at this Malaysian Restaurant