Perth & WA Chapter 4 (Caversham & Swan Valley)
We meet again yall! It was a good night sleep that night in Cervantes Lodge :D
You can click here to read about our journey on wheels from Fremantle to Cervantes. :) .This Post is dedicated to Syl cos yesterday (7th January) is his Birthday. Joyeux Anniversaire Syl! :). Je tà ime!
We checked out as early as 8AM that morning of 4th October 2016. Luckily the owner was there. Cos at first we saw the notice, 'check out before 9AM, jus drop the keys in the bag'. We prefer to check out properly. So lucky we, he was already at the counter.
We dropped the key at the counter and the owner asked us whether we leave something in the sink at the kitchen. Of cos not bcos we didn't even go to the kitchen. He said some people left some plates unwashed, hmmm not good peeps. If u eat somethin u better wash it.
So with that, we leave the town of Cervantes. Our plan at first was to eat lobster at this famous lobster shack restaurant here. But then again, we do not feels like eating it and beside it is quite expensive from what the reviews said. We decided to just stop at a convenient store to buy something. Maybe have breakfast near to our next stop. Where is it? Caversham Wildlife Park! .
The drive from Cervantes to Caversham will take almost 2.5 hours, phew. There is 2 roads to Caversham from here. We followed the GPS and it take us back to Indian Ocean Drive route 60. So we just follow it to avoid gettin lost.
It was a long drive and pretty much a one way road. Along the way sometimes there is some space to take over if the vehicles in front of u is driving slow, like trucks maybe. So Sarah was driving slow in the right lane, and suddenly this car drove passed us and showed a middle finger. Wow, it was an old man you know, Australian. I hope not all old aussie's guys are that rude!. We just ignored him. Later he was stuck behind a truck. Ain't karma sweet? :P .
When we were near the Whiteman Park, we searched for Caversham Wildlife Park but the GPS can't find it. It keeps on asking for road name, haish. So we put the name of the road, Lord St. Guess what, GPS took us to someone's house!. For the love of god Garmin GPS, get yourself together!.
Finally Sarah used her phone, open the waze and searched for the roads. The problem with my data is i can't use roaming. Idk why somehow UMobile can't do roaming outside Malaysia. It's really weird. After following the Waze, finally we saw the 'Whiteman Park' signboard and reached Caversham! TIPS: Spend a lil on mobile data (vodafone for example) to not waste time gettin lost!.
From the parking area to the entrance is a small walk, there will be signs. Btw the parking is free. We reached the counter and bought 3 tix. The tix price for Caversham is 27AUD per person.
After the entrance, we saw a cafe on the left and the right side is the trails to the Caversham parks. First thing we saw is a notice in Malay!. Yes, in Malay. I guess the number of visitors from Malaysia is high, even the notice about the food and toilet is here.
We had our breakfast first here, some coffee and sandwiches. Sarah had green curry rice. Bcos we were kinda hungry. Syl just bought some muffin.
We started our walk thru the bird park. Lots of native Australian bird are showed here. The parrots can speak yes, fascinating. Altho honestly for me, i don't prefer bird in cages. But based on reviews, Caversham do have good ethics and treat the animals well. It is basically a wildlife conservation park. It is not a Zoo yall. One of the bird that i feels like cuddling is the owl. hihihi soo cute! TIPS: Do Not feed the animals here, they have their own food.
We walked away from the talking colourful birds, (bye birdiee) and passed by some wallabies. Yep, the Australian wallabies. They were hiding at first, i guess they were like 'meh go away'. hihi. But i saw one hop to the center to eat. Wallabies are small. :) .
A bit further from there, we saw the entrance to the Kangaroo Park! yeayy. TIPS: Once you got the ticket, they will provide you a map/brochure as well. Hold to it as you can maneuver ur way around the park. The roads in the park split into 2 at certain areas, for example it split one to Kangaroo Park and another to Mollys Farm. In the brochure it will state the time for certain shows at Mollys Farm, Koalas etc
The entrance to Kangaroo & Wallabies Park is secured with gates, although no one is there watching you as this is not a Zoo (which is why we chose to come here). When u go in close the 1st gate and then open the 2nd gate. Once you got in, close the 2nd gate. There's no lock and stuff, just close it.
There are lots of Kangaroos & cute lil Wallabies here, homaigerd. Some were resting, eating, some were jumping, toink toink toink. They are tame the Kangaroos here. Syl thought at first the food they eat contains drug and maybe thats why the kangaroos are tame. Guess what, he eat the kangaroo food!! hahaha. Aiyaiyaiii Syl! . He is full of surprises. But he said, no funny feeling means no drug in the food, the kangaroos is really tame naturally. I think maybe they were raised here so they are used to human.
Do u ever see a white wallaby? i saw it for the 1st time!. I never know that there are white one, so i decided to sit between them while they're eating. You can touch the roos here, pet them. But very gently. The park is not resposible if the roos 'hate' you, hihi. No, really when u come in it already stated that these animal are naturally wild, so we have to behave and control our attitude here in the park. There are also sign for us to not touch any Joeys or Mama Kangaroo.
There is one side that we human shall not enter, hihi. It is called the kangaroos resting area. If the roos feels like 'i have enough of this mankind surrounding me!', it will toink toink jump to this side. No one will disturb em here. TIPS: Do not attempt to go inside the resting place, u can be asked to leave the park. Strictly for roos, unless you are one ;) .
We then leave the park and as we walked i saw a fence on the other side. Actually, some of the big adult kangaroos were on that side!. There are no gates, so we are not allowed to enter, i guess it is not safe. Bcos these one were really huge, one kick and you'll faint. But they were quite chill ya.
We continued our walk and reached the Koalas. But these one is not on trees, they were in a big cage. Do u know that Australia was once the country with worst mammals extinction rate?. Yes, which is now everything need to be well taken care of.
The Koalas was sleeping as usual. Sarah was soo excited, of cos me too. One of the fluffy balls move for a while and i got in on Video yeay!! . So fluffy, mmuah! . I called it ChikoaLa bcos i missed my Chika! :P.
We leave the Koalas and headed to the Wombat & Friends area. This is where they show you the well protected species of Australia. One that really caught my attention was the golden possum. My oh my it is so beautiful. But these one u can't touch unless the staff there allowed you too.
Apart from that cute lil possum, u can also see the Wombat of course!, the tiger quoll and endangered birds. All of these got their own 'bodyguards' ehehe. The staffs will explain to you about their habitat and the threat they face.
Syl was so intrigued by the snake, python i think. There were few people queuing to hold the snake. So i asked Syl to queue as well, hihi. Not everyday u can touch a snake ya. But yes, i kinda pity the snake too, being hold by lots of ppl. But from what i read at the entrance, they only show you up close like this for 1 hour a day, so its not the whole day.
Beside that, there are also some sections in Caversham that have reptiles if you are interested. The Farm Animals show (Mollys Farm) is also 1 hour a day, but we didn't go. TIPS: You need one whole day here if you wanna see all.
Sarah wanna go to the 'Meet The Koalas' session. Before that, we go and see the Dingos first.
Dingo is a wild dog breed that is now very rare. The Dingos here have their own space and small shelter house. They don't really come near you. I saw one resting, so cute :).
We then made our way to the 'Meet The Koalas' area. Here, they will let you get close with the Koalas for also one hour (or maybe half i cant remember). But my oh my there were lots of people!. As u know, it is not easy to hold a koalas so that was why there is lots of ppl.
So Sarah decided to not queue as it will take time and also its not a guarantee with that long queue, it might be over an hour and u will lose your turn. Hence, we continued walking out of the park. Beside, i don't know whether it is okay for the Koala to meet that much of people, i guess the Caversham staffs know better about their behavior. TIPS: I do recommend you guys to come here instead for Perth Zoo. also bcos i am not a fan of zoos. For complete info, and schedules on this park for your planning, do visit https://www.cavershamwildlife.com.au/
Our next stop from here is, The Swan Valley! . We get into our car and i turned on the GPS from here, luckily it works. Still Syl use Here app and Sarah prefer waze, hihihi. So what's in Swan Valley?
Swan Valley mostly known for the food and wine trail along the Swan River. You can visit coffee places, chocolates, wines, cheese, nougat and others. Because we don't have lots of time, we chose to visit 2 place which is The Margaret River chocolate company and Lancaster Wine & Cheese. TIPS: If you wanna save time, plan where you wanna go, you can either get the brochures from tour centre or visit http://www.swanvalley.com.au/Home
Swan Valley and Caversham is not that far, its basically the main road from the Whiteman Park. Around 10 minutes of driving and we arrived at our first stop is The Margaret River Chocolate Factory. A house fillled with chocolates! . Lots of Malaysian tourists tho, hahahaha. Beside it is Cowards & Black Vineyards. TIPS: There are more than one Chocolates & Wine factories here, so you may choose which one you prefer. We chose Margaret River cos it's the nearest and the largest in WA and also offers free chocolate tastings, there is also one more that is quite famous called Whistler's Chocolate Company.
There are soooo many chocolates inside here. There are free ones too for tastings! yeay!. The white chocolate chips is the best if you asked me. But the prices is a bit expensive. The dark chocolate chips is pretty much average tho. They have various type of chocolates and candy for you to buy. Also selling inside is ice creams, mmhmm. I saw a group of Japanese women bought ice creams and eat in front of the carpark, there's a green field there, awesome plan girls.
I bought some assorted chocolates for me, u can choose which one you want, the price is around 1-2 AUD each. But to be perfectly honest, i prefer brussels chocolates, much more tasty, sorry! :P . <click here to read bout brussels trip!>
Beside that, i bought a fruits flavoured candy for my office mates, it's a good way to save money as the price is 7AUD for around 30 candies. Sarah bought some chocolates to her Mr. Charming as well :). She told me the cashier is a Malaysian, so that's good news. When i was paying, i asked her and she said yes she is Malaysian, student maybe i think. So i asked her about how to go to Lancaster Vineyards from there in Malay. She replied in this full slang of mixes British-Aussie 'i can give you the map and you can look for it' with an arrogant face like 'i am better than you'. I was like 'wow', never in my travelling experience i meet someone like her, a very cocky Malaysian, she is the first one, congratulations adik. Oh well, watever as long as she is happy behaving that way.
Sarah was like 'rolling eyes, lets go'. So we hop into our orange wheels and find Lancaster Vineyards. Lancaster is famous for it's outdoor tasting shed of Premium wines and Cheese. We saw the signboard not far from the chocolate factory, yeay for us!. TIPS: Swan Valley is the state's oldest wine region and celebrated 180 years of winemaking in 2014. So, if you like wines, take this chance and explore it!. There is also a food and wine tours if you are interested. Beside Lancaster, there are also Oakover ground and Jane brook estates wines, so you choose which one you prefer :).
Syl is quite interested to come here as he lives near vineyards as well. We parked inside, not much cars and people which is good. The concept of the wine and cheese tasting is like an open bar, interesting. I cannot take my eyes off the vineyards, the grapes trees. It is soooo beautiful! . While Syl was eager to taste the wine, me and Sarah was taking pictures of the vineyards! hihihi.
We stayed at the open bar. Dont worry cos they will ask whether you wanna taste it. They pour both white and red wines for Syl. He tasted the white wine and said 'it is really good' in his thick french accent, hihi. Apparently, the wines in Australia now taste better than French, so if you are a wine lover, do buy one to bring home with ya!.
The red wine is not so much of Syl favorite. Then they provide you with cheese. I tried the cheese, there were 2 types, original and chilly. It was good, i prefer the chilly one. It'll be great to eat with salads and bread. Sarah is not a fan of cheese btw hahaha. TIPS: Even if you don't drink (like me), just come to the vineyards, see the fantastic surrounding and taste the cheese! Don't forget to take some eclipse candy to freshen you breath after! :D
My original plan is to visit Mondo Nougat and House of Honey but sadly we didn't have the time as we have to return the car. With that, we leave Swan Valley around 4PM. I searched the GPS for Avis Perth City. It is located at 46 Hill St, so of course u need to find Hill St with the GPS. Syl uses the Here app to ensure we are going in the right direction. In the form, we stated to return the car here at around 5PM. Yup, you can pick the car at another branch and drop it at a different branch.
But we missed the exit and we have to take another road based on the GPS. One big turn until we saw the signboard to Perth Airport already!, Haish. Luckily we got the right direction again and arrived at Avis Perth. Of course my head was moving left right left right to see the Avis signboard. Phew..
We parked the car and a lady came and inspect the car. She said 'everything is okay here, but u did't fill in the petrol back'. I did not know that we need to fill it back. When we got the car the petrol was at full tank and the guy didn' say anything! meh.
But the lady was very polite when we said we was not informed. She just smile and said 'its okay, i will set the GPS for you to the nearest petrol station, you can come back after you fill it, don't worry' . So Syl waited with our bags in Avis, me and Sarah went to the petrol station as routed in the GPS. Full tank is 50AUD btw for this car, so add that to our rental cost, it become 250AUD+ , oh dear. But if you are in a group of 4-5, divide it so its cheaper. TIPS: fill the petrol before returning the car to Avis!.
We drove back to Avis altho we circle the same road twice cos we forgot the landmark, hihihi. We returned everything back at the counter. I almost forgot to give back the GPS, ahhaha, i am such a granny. The Avis lady said, 'oh it's nothing, there was one time i forgot to ask the car keys back from a customer and she has went back to Singapore' . Yaiks! She said, they funded the courier service for the keys to be returned back as the customer also forgot that the keys was in her bag the whole time. Hahaha oh life, full of surprises.
From there, we with our bagpacks made our way to our hostel in Perth City called The Hive. It is located in James St. Sarah bag was heavy you know, can u imagine that little girl walking with 10kg bags. Syl said to her 'are you bringing your house with you', lol. Of course for Syl he just bring one small bagpack, boys. Sarah said maybe it's time we should stop being backpackers, hahahahahah.
We just followed Syl as he was our guide at that time with Here app on his hand. We turn right, we turn left, we turn here and there at Perth's road and finally we reached The Hive hostel! yasss.
We checked in, and unlike Pirates we got our 4 beds room. The staff is friendly, the hostel is okay. I would recommend staying here. The one bed is occupied and based on the stuff I saw in the room, maybe a guy.
Oh well, we got some good rest freshen up. They have one toilet on that floor, but u need to take the stairs. There is another toilet to the left for the 10 dormitory bed room, but accessible to all.
Around 7.30PM we walked around that area. Our first plan is to go to Perth CBD central area called Forrest Place, but the hostel is near Northbridge which is quite happening as well at night. So we decided to explore it.
We walked along the road, lots of asian restaurants btw. Some bars, convenient stores. We had our dinner at an asian-taiwan restaurant as they have some rice. Actually we stopped at a few restaurants first to check the menu especially the price. This one is quite affordable.
Self service and i had myself some hot tea cos the cold wind was quite strong that night. Still not as crazy as Fremantle. I can' finish my plate, idk why i don't have much appetite to eat that night. Syl finished his and my plate as well. One good thing about him is he doesn't like to waste food, which i really love. githuew,
We walked around the area a bit more, i saw a quote painted on a wall. There is few walls here painted with some murals as well.
We then walked to the Perth Cultural Centre near our hostel. Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts is located here as well as Art Gallery of Western Australia. All is closed obviously as its already 9PM. We just sat at a bench there enjoying the night, looking at people walking and cycling around the place. There is this big screen playing blooming flowers video with some soothing music. It was great yeah. TIPS: Northbridge and Perth Cultural Center is a great place to spend time at night!
Until, suddenly we saw some policemen on bike (yep the police here ride bicycles) involve in some arguement with a homeless native. The native Australian was sleeping near the road there and i guess it is not allowed. So they asked him to leave. But he fight back and that sparked the argument between them. The men was later detained and they bring him away. I can't really understand what was he saying but it was something about unfair treatment. That's something real we saw that night. No photo taken as i dont wanna be caught by them!
We then headed back to our hostel, got lost at one road at first, hahaha. But then we managed to find The Hive. Our roommate was there. I smiled at him. He is in his 50's maybe, and i'm pretty sure he work here and live at this hostel as he hang his security jacket by the bed and have lots of stuff at the rack. He didn' say a word and cover his bed with towels. I guess he prefer privacy.
So i went and take my hot shower, hmmm lovely. We talked that night while me and Sarah exchanging photos, hihi. Narcissism always win, lmao!. Bed time :)
See ya in my next entry, Exploring the Perth City!
You can click here to read about our journey on wheels from Fremantle to Cervantes. :) .This Post is dedicated to Syl cos yesterday (7th January) is his Birthday. Joyeux Anniversaire Syl! :). Je tà ime!
We checked out as early as 8AM that morning of 4th October 2016. Luckily the owner was there. Cos at first we saw the notice, 'check out before 9AM, jus drop the keys in the bag'. We prefer to check out properly. So lucky we, he was already at the counter.
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| Morning Cervantes! |
We dropped the key at the counter and the owner asked us whether we leave something in the sink at the kitchen. Of cos not bcos we didn't even go to the kitchen. He said some people left some plates unwashed, hmmm not good peeps. If u eat somethin u better wash it.
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| Cervantes Lodge kitchen, now who didnt wash the dishes ay? |
So with that, we leave the town of Cervantes. Our plan at first was to eat lobster at this famous lobster shack restaurant here. But then again, we do not feels like eating it and beside it is quite expensive from what the reviews said. We decided to just stop at a convenient store to buy something. Maybe have breakfast near to our next stop. Where is it? Caversham Wildlife Park! .
The drive from Cervantes to Caversham will take almost 2.5 hours, phew. There is 2 roads to Caversham from here. We followed the GPS and it take us back to Indian Ocean Drive route 60. So we just follow it to avoid gettin lost.
It was a long drive and pretty much a one way road. Along the way sometimes there is some space to take over if the vehicles in front of u is driving slow, like trucks maybe. So Sarah was driving slow in the right lane, and suddenly this car drove passed us and showed a middle finger. Wow, it was an old man you know, Australian. I hope not all old aussie's guys are that rude!. We just ignored him. Later he was stuck behind a truck. Ain't karma sweet? :P .
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| That is his car in front there |
When we were near the Whiteman Park, we searched for Caversham Wildlife Park but the GPS can't find it. It keeps on asking for road name, haish. So we put the name of the road, Lord St. Guess what, GPS took us to someone's house!. For the love of god Garmin GPS, get yourself together!.
Finally Sarah used her phone, open the waze and searched for the roads. The problem with my data is i can't use roaming. Idk why somehow UMobile can't do roaming outside Malaysia. It's really weird. After following the Waze, finally we saw the 'Whiteman Park' signboard and reached Caversham! TIPS: Spend a lil on mobile data (vodafone for example) to not waste time gettin lost!.
From the parking area to the entrance is a small walk, there will be signs. Btw the parking is free. We reached the counter and bought 3 tix. The tix price for Caversham is 27AUD per person.
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| Wefie before the entrance:P |
After the entrance, we saw a cafe on the left and the right side is the trails to the Caversham parks. First thing we saw is a notice in Malay!. Yes, in Malay. I guess the number of visitors from Malaysia is high, even the notice about the food and toilet is here.
We had our breakfast first here, some coffee and sandwiches. Sarah had green curry rice. Bcos we were kinda hungry. Syl just bought some muffin.
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| Starts here! |
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| First stop! |
We started our walk thru the bird park. Lots of native Australian bird are showed here. The parrots can speak yes, fascinating. Altho honestly for me, i don't prefer bird in cages. But based on reviews, Caversham do have good ethics and treat the animals well. It is basically a wildlife conservation park. It is not a Zoo yall. One of the bird that i feels like cuddling is the owl. hihihi soo cute! TIPS: Do Not feed the animals here, they have their own food.
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| hello there :) |
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| Owly owl cutie pie :D |
We walked away from the talking colourful birds, (bye birdiee) and passed by some wallabies. Yep, the Australian wallabies. They were hiding at first, i guess they were like 'meh go away'. hihi. But i saw one hop to the center to eat. Wallabies are small. :) .
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| No sarah, that is an Emu not wallabies, :P |
A bit further from there, we saw the entrance to the Kangaroo Park! yeayy. TIPS: Once you got the ticket, they will provide you a map/brochure as well. Hold to it as you can maneuver ur way around the park. The roads in the park split into 2 at certain areas, for example it split one to Kangaroo Park and another to Mollys Farm. In the brochure it will state the time for certain shows at Mollys Farm, Koalas etc
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| Important! |
The entrance to Kangaroo & Wallabies Park is secured with gates, although no one is there watching you as this is not a Zoo (which is why we chose to come here). When u go in close the 1st gate and then open the 2nd gate. Once you got in, close the 2nd gate. There's no lock and stuff, just close it.
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| hello!!!!! |
There are lots of Kangaroos & cute lil Wallabies here, homaigerd. Some were resting, eating, some were jumping, toink toink toink. They are tame the Kangaroos here. Syl thought at first the food they eat contains drug and maybe thats why the kangaroos are tame. Guess what, he eat the kangaroo food!! hahaha. Aiyaiyaiii Syl! . He is full of surprises. But he said, no funny feeling means no drug in the food, the kangaroos is really tame naturally. I think maybe they were raised here so they are used to human.
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| I am full of Kangaroos food :P |
Do u ever see a white wallaby? i saw it for the 1st time!. I never know that there are white one, so i decided to sit between them while they're eating. You can touch the roos here, pet them. But very gently. The park is not resposible if the roos 'hate' you, hihi. No, really when u come in it already stated that these animal are naturally wild, so we have to behave and control our attitude here in the park. There are also sign for us to not touch any Joeys or Mama Kangaroo.
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| I know Roo, yea fine u r prettier than me! |
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| a white one! |
There is one side that we human shall not enter, hihi. It is called the kangaroos resting area. If the roos feels like 'i have enough of this mankind surrounding me!', it will toink toink jump to this side. No one will disturb em here. TIPS: Do not attempt to go inside the resting place, u can be asked to leave the park. Strictly for roos, unless you are one ;) .
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| Kangaroo resting place |
We then leave the park and as we walked i saw a fence on the other side. Actually, some of the big adult kangaroos were on that side!. There are no gates, so we are not allowed to enter, i guess it is not safe. Bcos these one were really huge, one kick and you'll faint. But they were quite chill ya.
We continued our walk and reached the Koalas. But these one is not on trees, they were in a big cage. Do u know that Australia was once the country with worst mammals extinction rate?. Yes, which is now everything need to be well taken care of.
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| brief explanation on the threats the wildlife face |
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| a sleeping adorable fluffy koala! #love |
The Koalas was sleeping as usual. Sarah was soo excited, of cos me too. One of the fluffy balls move for a while and i got in on Video yeay!! . So fluffy, mmuah! . I called it ChikoaLa bcos i missed my Chika! :P.
We leave the Koalas and headed to the Wombat & Friends area. This is where they show you the well protected species of Australia. One that really caught my attention was the golden possum. My oh my it is so beautiful. But these one u can't touch unless the staff there allowed you too.
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| How precious! the golden possum |
Apart from that cute lil possum, u can also see the Wombat of course!, the tiger quoll and endangered birds. All of these got their own 'bodyguards' ehehe. The staffs will explain to you about their habitat and the threat they face.
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| Tiger Quoll |
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| Hello beautiful, how r yah! |
Syl was so intrigued by the snake, python i think. There were few people queuing to hold the snake. So i asked Syl to queue as well, hihi. Not everyday u can touch a snake ya. But yes, i kinda pity the snake too, being hold by lots of ppl. But from what i read at the entrance, they only show you up close like this for 1 hour a day, so its not the whole day.
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| Snake & Syl, haha like a cartoon title |
Beside that, there are also some sections in Caversham that have reptiles if you are interested. The Farm Animals show (Mollys Farm) is also 1 hour a day, but we didn't go. TIPS: You need one whole day here if you wanna see all.
Sarah wanna go to the 'Meet The Koalas' session. Before that, we go and see the Dingos first.
Dingo is a wild dog breed that is now very rare. The Dingos here have their own space and small shelter house. They don't really come near you. I saw one resting, so cute :).
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| The Dingo |
We then made our way to the 'Meet The Koalas' area. Here, they will let you get close with the Koalas for also one hour (or maybe half i cant remember). But my oh my there were lots of people!. As u know, it is not easy to hold a koalas so that was why there is lots of ppl.
So Sarah decided to not queue as it will take time and also its not a guarantee with that long queue, it might be over an hour and u will lose your turn. Hence, we continued walking out of the park. Beside, i don't know whether it is okay for the Koala to meet that much of people, i guess the Caversham staffs know better about their behavior. TIPS: I do recommend you guys to come here instead for Perth Zoo. also bcos i am not a fan of zoos. For complete info, and schedules on this park for your planning, do visit https://www.cavershamwildlife.com.au/
Our next stop from here is, The Swan Valley! . We get into our car and i turned on the GPS from here, luckily it works. Still Syl use Here app and Sarah prefer waze, hihihi. So what's in Swan Valley?
Swan Valley mostly known for the food and wine trail along the Swan River. You can visit coffee places, chocolates, wines, cheese, nougat and others. Because we don't have lots of time, we chose to visit 2 place which is The Margaret River chocolate company and Lancaster Wine & Cheese. TIPS: If you wanna save time, plan where you wanna go, you can either get the brochures from tour centre or visit http://www.swanvalley.com.au/Home
Swan Valley and Caversham is not that far, its basically the main road from the Whiteman Park. Around 10 minutes of driving and we arrived at our first stop is The Margaret River Chocolate Factory. A house fillled with chocolates! . Lots of Malaysian tourists tho, hahahaha. Beside it is Cowards & Black Vineyards. TIPS: There are more than one Chocolates & Wine factories here, so you may choose which one you prefer. We chose Margaret River cos it's the nearest and the largest in WA and also offers free chocolate tastings, there is also one more that is quite famous called Whistler's Chocolate Company.
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| beside Margaret River Chocolate Factory |
There are soooo many chocolates inside here. There are free ones too for tastings! yeay!. The white chocolate chips is the best if you asked me. But the prices is a bit expensive. The dark chocolate chips is pretty much average tho. They have various type of chocolates and candy for you to buy. Also selling inside is ice creams, mmhmm. I saw a group of Japanese women bought ice creams and eat in front of the carpark, there's a green field there, awesome plan girls.
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| the white chocolate chips is soo yummy! |
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| I am being willy wonka-ed |
I bought some assorted chocolates for me, u can choose which one you want, the price is around 1-2 AUD each. But to be perfectly honest, i prefer brussels chocolates, much more tasty, sorry! :P . <click here to read bout brussels trip!>
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| Assorted Chocolates |
Beside that, i bought a fruits flavoured candy for my office mates, it's a good way to save money as the price is 7AUD for around 30 candies. Sarah bought some chocolates to her Mr. Charming as well :). She told me the cashier is a Malaysian, so that's good news. When i was paying, i asked her and she said yes she is Malaysian, student maybe i think. So i asked her about how to go to Lancaster Vineyards from there in Malay. She replied in this full slang of mixes British-Aussie 'i can give you the map and you can look for it' with an arrogant face like 'i am better than you'. I was like 'wow', never in my travelling experience i meet someone like her, a very cocky Malaysian, she is the first one, congratulations adik. Oh well, watever as long as she is happy behaving that way.
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| Lets roll yall! |
Sarah was like 'rolling eyes, lets go'. So we hop into our orange wheels and find Lancaster Vineyards. Lancaster is famous for it's outdoor tasting shed of Premium wines and Cheese. We saw the signboard not far from the chocolate factory, yeay for us!. TIPS: Swan Valley is the state's oldest wine region and celebrated 180 years of winemaking in 2014. So, if you like wines, take this chance and explore it!. There is also a food and wine tours if you are interested. Beside Lancaster, there are also Oakover ground and Jane brook estates wines, so you choose which one you prefer :).
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| Free wine and cheese tasting, interested? :) |
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| The Lancaster Wineries |
Syl is quite interested to come here as he lives near vineyards as well. We parked inside, not much cars and people which is good. The concept of the wine and cheese tasting is like an open bar, interesting. I cannot take my eyes off the vineyards, the grapes trees. It is soooo beautiful! . While Syl was eager to taste the wine, me and Sarah was taking pictures of the vineyards! hihihi.
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| How can you not love this view! |
We stayed at the open bar. Dont worry cos they will ask whether you wanna taste it. They pour both white and red wines for Syl. He tasted the white wine and said 'it is really good' in his thick french accent, hihi. Apparently, the wines in Australia now taste better than French, so if you are a wine lover, do buy one to bring home with ya!.
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| Lancaster White Wine |
The red wine is not so much of Syl favorite. Then they provide you with cheese. I tried the cheese, there were 2 types, original and chilly. It was good, i prefer the chilly one. It'll be great to eat with salads and bread. Sarah is not a fan of cheese btw hahaha. TIPS: Even if you don't drink (like me), just come to the vineyards, see the fantastic surrounding and taste the cheese! Don't forget to take some eclipse candy to freshen you breath after! :D
My original plan is to visit Mondo Nougat and House of Honey but sadly we didn't have the time as we have to return the car. With that, we leave Swan Valley around 4PM. I searched the GPS for Avis Perth City. It is located at 46 Hill St, so of course u need to find Hill St with the GPS. Syl uses the Here app to ensure we are going in the right direction. In the form, we stated to return the car here at around 5PM. Yup, you can pick the car at another branch and drop it at a different branch.
But we missed the exit and we have to take another road based on the GPS. One big turn until we saw the signboard to Perth Airport already!, Haish. Luckily we got the right direction again and arrived at Avis Perth. Of course my head was moving left right left right to see the Avis signboard. Phew..
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| Avis at Hill Street, Perth City |
We parked the car and a lady came and inspect the car. She said 'everything is okay here, but u did't fill in the petrol back'. I did not know that we need to fill it back. When we got the car the petrol was at full tank and the guy didn' say anything! meh.
But the lady was very polite when we said we was not informed. She just smile and said 'its okay, i will set the GPS for you to the nearest petrol station, you can come back after you fill it, don't worry' . So Syl waited with our bags in Avis, me and Sarah went to the petrol station as routed in the GPS. Full tank is 50AUD btw for this car, so add that to our rental cost, it become 250AUD+ , oh dear. But if you are in a group of 4-5, divide it so its cheaper. TIPS: fill the petrol before returning the car to Avis!.
We drove back to Avis altho we circle the same road twice cos we forgot the landmark, hihihi. We returned everything back at the counter. I almost forgot to give back the GPS, ahhaha, i am such a granny. The Avis lady said, 'oh it's nothing, there was one time i forgot to ask the car keys back from a customer and she has went back to Singapore' . Yaiks! She said, they funded the courier service for the keys to be returned back as the customer also forgot that the keys was in her bag the whole time. Hahaha oh life, full of surprises.
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| Walking alll the way to Hive |
From there, we with our bagpacks made our way to our hostel in Perth City called The Hive. It is located in James St. Sarah bag was heavy you know, can u imagine that little girl walking with 10kg bags. Syl said to her 'are you bringing your house with you', lol. Of course for Syl he just bring one small bagpack, boys. Sarah said maybe it's time we should stop being backpackers, hahahahahah.
We just followed Syl as he was our guide at that time with Here app on his hand. We turn right, we turn left, we turn here and there at Perth's road and finally we reached The Hive hostel! yasss.
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| The Hive Hostel! |
We checked in, and unlike Pirates we got our 4 beds room. The staff is friendly, the hostel is okay. I would recommend staying here. The one bed is occupied and based on the stuff I saw in the room, maybe a guy.
Oh well, we got some good rest freshen up. They have one toilet on that floor, but u need to take the stairs. There is another toilet to the left for the 10 dormitory bed room, but accessible to all.
Around 7.30PM we walked around that area. Our first plan is to go to Perth CBD central area called Forrest Place, but the hostel is near Northbridge which is quite happening as well at night. So we decided to explore it.
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| Northbridge! |
We walked along the road, lots of asian restaurants btw. Some bars, convenient stores. We had our dinner at an asian-taiwan restaurant as they have some rice. Actually we stopped at a few restaurants first to check the menu especially the price. This one is quite affordable.
Self service and i had myself some hot tea cos the cold wind was quite strong that night. Still not as crazy as Fremantle. I can' finish my plate, idk why i don't have much appetite to eat that night. Syl finished his and my plate as well. One good thing about him is he doesn't like to waste food, which i really love. githuew,
We walked around the area a bit more, i saw a quote painted on a wall. There is few walls here painted with some murals as well.
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| Murals at Perth Northbridge, try to read it |
We then walked to the Perth Cultural Centre near our hostel. Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts is located here as well as Art Gallery of Western Australia. All is closed obviously as its already 9PM. We just sat at a bench there enjoying the night, looking at people walking and cycling around the place. There is this big screen playing blooming flowers video with some soothing music. It was great yeah. TIPS: Northbridge and Perth Cultural Center is a great place to spend time at night!
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| La la la, what a beautiful night <3 |
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| Hello peeps! |
Until, suddenly we saw some policemen on bike (yep the police here ride bicycles) involve in some arguement with a homeless native. The native Australian was sleeping near the road there and i guess it is not allowed. So they asked him to leave. But he fight back and that sparked the argument between them. The men was later detained and they bring him away. I can't really understand what was he saying but it was something about unfair treatment. That's something real we saw that night. No photo taken as i dont wanna be caught by them!
We then headed back to our hostel, got lost at one road at first, hahaha. But then we managed to find The Hive. Our roommate was there. I smiled at him. He is in his 50's maybe, and i'm pretty sure he work here and live at this hostel as he hang his security jacket by the bed and have lots of stuff at the rack. He didn' say a word and cover his bed with towels. I guess he prefer privacy.
So i went and take my hot shower, hmmm lovely. We talked that night while me and Sarah exchanging photos, hihi. Narcissism always win, lmao!. Bed time :)
See ya in my next entry, Exploring the Perth City!
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