Perth Day 2

second day:

supposedly the plan was to wake up really early and head to Kings Park & Botanical Gardens, because Danial says the best time to view Perth CBD ideally would be before 10am. but biasalah, hotel beds and the covers are always very inviting that it's impossible to get out of bed that early, even though sunrise is about 6.15am haha.

darn those blackout curtains.

anyway, after i managed to drag the husband out of bed, we headed to Watertown Brand Outlet first, since it was walking distance from the hotel, barely a kilometer away.

Watertown Brand Outlet

i didn't do much shopping here, mostly available were Australian brands that i wasn't familiar with. oh, they had Smiggle here, for the Smiggle-lovers. i wouldn't say that the prices were dirt cheap here, but they were still slightly cheaper than prices in Malaysia (later when i got back to KL i compared the price of the bag that we purchased for the kids, it was indeed cheaper by 20-30 ringgit).

at Adidas waiting for the husband

souvenirs

Lindt!!!

we came across a luggage store that sold Samsonite laptop bags at reasonable prices, so the husband bought each of us one, since i'm in dire need of a laptop bag (the buckles of the previous bag that i had kept breaking, even after i had them replaced), and the husband's current laptop bag had been with us for so long, i've even sent the bag to have its straps repaired a couple of times before. the new bag that he got for himself had an extra zippered compartment where you could stash an extra set of clothing just in case you end up stranded on an island or get stuck in some similar situation (hence, his bag was much more expensive than mine =P).

thank you Dear, love you to the moon and never come back =*

we headed back to the hotel to stash our purchases and proceeded to the bus station to for our next destination: to find lunch at Charcoal Chicken - Dianella Plaza. don't be an idiot like me and mistake it as 'DAN-ee-yella'. it's actually 'DAYA-nella'. hahah. i only realized my mistake when i went to ask for directions at the hotel reception. the easiest way is to ask for directions from Googlemaps, i'm not kidding. trust Googlemaps! since i wasn't sure which bus to take and from which bus stop, we headed to the bus station itself to get a ride from there.

directions to Charcoal Chicken from the hotel

from Perth Busport, you have a few choices of buses that you can take to get there: Bus #360, 361, #362 and #960 since all buses will pass by the same stop that you're going to: Alexander Dr After Grand Prom (Stop #12800). we hopped on the first bus that arrived, Bus #360. a bus ticket costs $3.10 for Standard 1 Zone, also valid for 2 hours.

taking the bus like the locals

now, when i asked around  about what was there to do/eat in Perth, practically everyone told me that I had to try Charcoal Chicken. as soon as we got down at the bus stop and arrived in front of the restaurant, the husband was like, errr did we get the right place? rupa macam tak nak niaga je. on the outside the place looked partially abandoned, with the sign 'Charcoal Chicken Express' erected on its front.

Charcoal Chicken
Alexander Dr & Grand Promenade, Dianella WA 6059, Australia
opens daily 10.30am-9pm, closes on Sunday

abandoned-looking, seriously

but amaigad, do not dilly dally and ask so many questions, just go inside and order. LAMB RIBS DIA IS DA BOMB i tell you. unless you tamak and don't want to share, i recommend that you share a set between the two of you because the portion served is big, which costs $17.90 *tutup mata at exchange rate lagi*. it comes with a generous helping of salad, and they have alot of salads to choose from.

so that's why they call it 'express' i guess

lamb ribs set. yummeh!

there were a bunch of other Malays customers there (or Indonesians? i dunno but i could understand what they were saying hahahahah) who ordered and shared between them because the portion was quite big. my friend says boleh makan ni hari2. sorang lagi kawan mintak tolong bungkus bawak balik. hahahahhaha. can we open an outlet here in Malaysia? =D.

selepas kekenyangan macam ular sawa, we took the bus back to town using the same bus ticket we purchased since it was still valid *kedekut gila hahahahah*.

we did a bit of random wandering in the city before the husband had to go back to the hotel to sleep. he was going to operate that night and needed at least 6 hours of sleep to function properly (so he says lah, lol).

jalan-jalan in the streets of Perth

the alleyway of Harry Potter, or what looks like it

this BB-8 is seriously cute, can be controlled from your phone

who wants an iphoneX?

the leftovers of Autumn in Perth

but before heading back to the hotel, we went to buy that famous Corica apple strudel pastry to bring home. the previous day, just before Arif went back to the hotel he showed us one store in town that sold a mean apple strudel, but i forgot where the store was *sweat*. Corica Pastries was situated not too far from the hotel, so exercise it is.

Corica Pastries
106 Aberdeen St, Northbridge WA 6003, Australia
opens daily 8am-5.30pm, Saturday 8am-12.30pm, closes on Sunday

i'm a fan of walking (the husband is more into jogging as a form of exercise) so i had to drag him all the way to the store for one last kopek adventure, which also looked half-abandoned on the inside (you know, like how sometimes you see bakery stores in KL half empty sbb stock roti tak masuk lagi). i half expected her to say they were sold out when i asked the lady at the counter if they still had any apple strudels left. luckily they did, kept in the chiller behind her, phew. one box costs you $24.

so. after sending the husband back to the hotel for his beauty sleep, i headed out on my own to continue exploring Perth, because the day was still young and i wasn't even sure when would be the next time i'd get to go back to this place again.

the last place i intended to visit what with the limited time i had here (orang lain pergi 5-7 hari, i pergi 2 hari je gila express nak explore semua huh) was the Blue Boathouse. you know, that sebijik boathouse blue in color that noone can tell you why it's there but people go visit it anyway to take photographs of it just because everyone's doing it? (i think there is a history behind the boathouse but you go Google about it yourself lah).

at this time i'm relying solely on offline Googlemaps to get around; only the husband has internet, and he's in the room snoring.

now, please listen to me when i say you should board Bus #950 to get to the Blue Boathouse, no matter how you think it looks near when you examine Googlemaps, because it will take you a FREAKING 1 hour 30 minutes by foot to get there. tak tipu. i missed exploring the Botanical gardens because by the time i arrived at the boathouse, dusk was setting in. the only consolation i got despite arriving at the spot at almost sundown was that the weather was seriously gorgeous, and you got a spectacular view of Perth CBD as you walk by the riverside. the birds in Perth were very colorful too, not those boring black and brown ones you'd usually see. i would've posted a video of them birds in my ig, only that the app keeps hanging when i try to do so, grrrr.

breathtaking view

sunset

i passed by the Eliza Sculpture on the way to the boathouse. I didn't know the significance of the statue at the time; the sculpture is 2.2m high and it depicts a woman about to dive off a wooden platform. it commemorates the old Crawley Baths which were a prominent Perth landmark during the early to mid 20th century.

Eliza Sculpture in the Swan River

Blue Boathouse is also known as Crawley Edge Boatshed, which is situated at the other end of the riverside T____T. when i arrived huffing and puffing at the boathouse, there were two people taking photographs of the boatshed, with tripods and everything. so i got the guy to take a photo of me and the boathouse as proof that I made it to the freaking boathouse haha. i asked him if he knew how the boathouse ended up here; he didnt know either. he told me that some rich guy had so much money that he decided to build that little boathouse. ehh betul ke hahahahha.

the Blue Boathouse

Crawley Edge Boatshed

milestone checked! - take photo with blue boathouse hahahahah

a selfie with the boathouse, hee~

although, i would like to come here again with someone else. tak best pergi and selfie sorang2 with the boathouse =(.

i say take the freaking bus because the bus stop is directly beside the boathouse, so tak payah sesat2 cari the landmark after you get off the bus, janji you get off the correct stop lah. you save alot of time and energy ok. hahahhahahahhaha.

bus routes and where they stop

since i still had time to explore beside the sun already setting, i decided to make a pitstop and hop off the bus at Elizabeth Quay station. the Captain's wife said that the place was relatively new, officated in 2016. the Bell Tower was also located here, so i wanted to go and see for the sake of seeing it.

by this time, the Bell Tower was already closed, obviously. and this is the time where all Ostolians gather at pubs to have a drink after work, their form of lepak and unwinding i guess you could say. what else can they do, most of the stores here closes at 5.30pm. bosan betul ok =P. probably after hours the local here continue shopping online, hahahahhaha.

the Bell Tower

after taking random photos and selfie failures because there just wasn't enough lighting, i made my way back to the hotel.

there were two more things i did before going back to the hotel though: (i) i had to try Ispa Kebab because my friend said the chicken kebab was nice, the portion was big enough to share; and (ii) they told me i had to try the iced coffee from Double Dare and Barista Bros. i wasn't a fan of coffee, so i went to Woolworths and purchased Double Dare's Mocha. Arif had already purchased Barista Bro's Iced Chocolate yesterday, tu pun sedap jugak.

Ispa Kebab

chicken & egg kebab

Barista Bros

Double Dare

hani told me to try Devondale Milkshake. ok putting that into future bucket list.

only then did i head back home, because i had to figure out how to sumbat TEN boxes into THREE bags. oh, did i mention the weather at night was glorious? =D. made the walk back twice the enjoyment, you didn't even feel that you were tired (kalau dekat Malaysia dah start menyumpah2 dah with regards to the hot and humid weather hahahahahah).

Perth weather. sapa tak suka??

all prepared to go home =(

Perth airport

and as usual, the flight back home was delayed. i'm used to all this delay already, haha.

flight delayed

i almost forgot that when i was passing through international departures, one of the guards managed to strike a conversation with me about the strudel i was lugging along with me onflight. haha. even he says the strudel is nice, lol.

i'm going to list here places that i want to visit next time in Perth if i ever get the chance:
- Rotness Island
- Penguin Island! becuase you don't find em in Malaysia hahahahhaha
- Cottesloe Beach
- Pinnacles Desert - sandboarding. you game?
- caversham wildlife park
- westfield carousel - shopping of course. cuci mata pun jadilah. oh someone mentioned there's a Kikki K store here =D
- another shot at Kings Park & Botanical gardens of course =P

now... maybe next time we bring a kid or two so that we can go to the zoo? =P