perth – sixthseal.com

Things to do in Western Australia

March 12, 2012 by HB

Perth skyline

I have a lot of high school friends studying in Perth when I was doing my university in Melbourne.
During one of the Easter long weekends, a bunch of us decided to fly to Western Australia. The journey was quite epic but that’s a story for another time.

pinaccles

Well, we had so much fun in Perth that we actually stayed a week and skipped all the lectures and tutorials back in Victoria. I had resigned myself to convince some of the more academically minded friends to stay on and miss a week’s worth of classes, but they really didn’t need much convincing. It was a lot of fun!

nightlife

Totally worth it. 🙂

surfing

Fun Fact: Perth has the longest sunshine hours of any other capital city in Australia!

Perth

The Greenhouse

You can enjoy the extra hours of daylight by lounging in one of the chic cafes that has been sprouting around the CBD area. The Greenhouse is one of the funkiest restaurants in town with food and wine winning rave reviews. I’ll love to check out this place!

Shopping on King Street

Shop at King’s Street – the home of labels like Louis Vuitton, Tiffany & Co and other high end designer houses. It’s also the perfect place to take a “I was here” photo.

Helvetica

You can relax and unwind with a drink at the very chic Helvetica after all that. Hitting all the designer bars can be a huge task, but do not be daunted, and go forth with a stout heart. 😉

Fremantle

Fremantle

Just a 30- minute drive away from Perth lies the quaint port of Fremantle. Don’t forget to eat at Cicerello’s Fish and Chips – it has a great commanding view of the Fremantle’s famous harbor and I’m telling you, you haven’t been to Perth if you haven’t eaten at Cicerello’s. It was one of the main reasons we went there – to see what the fuss is all about and we weren’t disappointed!

Wash down all that with some of the amber brew at the Little Creatures boutique microbrewery…

Fremantle buskers

…and walk off all those calories by browsing through the stalls at the 100-year-old Fremantle Markets and watching buskers (street performers) in action. Plan your trip to coincide with Friday to Sunday though coz that’s when the markets open.

Swan Valley

Duckstein Brewery in Swan Valley

Where’s the first place a couple of college kids head to the moment they’re in Perth? Swan Valley! It has FOUR microbreweries for those who love their beer. If you’re partial to vino, you’ll be pleased to know that it’s the oldest wine producing area in Western Australia too!

Henley Park Wines

Go for a vineyard tour with wine tastings to experience the best Swan Valley has to offer.

Rottnest Island

Cycling on Rottnest

This car-free island is the perfect getaway from the city! There are pristine beaches and bays and it’s just a short high speed ferry ride from Perth.

Rottnest

You can also experience the local wildlife after a long day of swimming, snorkeling and sunbathing at the beaches.

Rottnest Island quokkas

There’s something for everyone who loves the great outdoors – I strongly suggest you go sea kayaking. Powering over the surf can be a very rewarding experience! BTW, that’s a quokka you see in the foreground. What’s a quokka? It’s a marsupial like kangaroos and wallabies, except they’re around the size of a domestic cat. It’s mainly found in the smaller islands off Western Australia, especially Rottnest Island.

South West / Margaret River

bottleneck dolphins

Ah…the experiences you can take home in this region are unparalleled. There’s the Dolphin Discovery Center in Bunbury where you can interact with bottle nose dolphins.

Busselton Jetty

Stroll down the 145-year-old Busselton Jetty or ride the train to the end of the jetty and descend 8 meters below sea level to see the marine life right in front of your eyes.

Valley of Giants

Walk 40 meters above the ground amidst 400 year old trees along the Valley of Giants Treetop Walk!

jewel cave

Follow that up by going *down* down under with the trio of amazing caves – Lake, Mammoth and Jewel.

Coral Coast

Adrenaline junkies, adventure lovers and seekers of the weird and wonderful features of nature rejoice! For thou have reached the Eden of all that you have dreamt of.

The Pinnacles

The Pinnacles is an amazing natural formation that would strike wonder into your hearts. It certainly did the first time I went there. Definitely a must visit.

Get up close and personal with wild dolphins at Ningaloo Reef! It doesn’t get much better than this.

Sandboarding at Lancelin

Marvel at the sand dunes at Lancelin…and then sandboard down! It’s certainly one for the bucket list for all adrenaline seekers.

Upcoming Events

Sculpture by the Sea

Sculpture by the Sea, Cottlesloe
1-19 March
Cottlesloe Beach, Perth

This beach will be transformed into a stunning sculpture park with more than 70 artists, both local and international. Best of all? It’s free!

Sculptures by the beach

Margaret River Wine Region Festival
13-16 April
Margaret River

This five day celebration of wine, food, art, music and lifestyle is a festival featuring events from Augusta to Busselton. It’s a street fiesta that no self-respecting foodie would miss!

Truffle Kerfuffle
16 June
Manjimup

This festival celebrates the wonderful gourmet item known, loved and treasured throughout the world – black truffles! There will everything from cooking classes to truffle hunts and if you’re looking for something just a little bit different from the standard tour offerings – THIS IS IT! 🙂

The Natural Bridge

Hungry and raring to go to Perth? Purchase a package at MATTA Travel Fair from 16-18 March and receive an “Extraordinary Deals” booklet worth up to AUD 2,000 in savings and a Western Australian gift pack!

Suspended table Lake

There is just too much awesomeness going on in Western Australia at any given time that it’s impossible to list everything down. Surf over to westernaustralia.com for more information, links and start planning your itinerary!

Creative camwhoring 101

June 14, 2011 by HB

rubbernecking

I read something in a book about practical jokes when I was a kid. I didn’t know it at the time but it was actually a psychology experiment. Basically what the book tells you to do is to stand in the middle of a crowded place and start looking up – at nothing in particular. It goes on to postulate that people would either pass by and take furtive glances at what you’re looking at or plain stop and stare with you.

It’s universal and also called “rubbernecking”. You’re basically inciting curiosity just by actively participating in something.

sandboarding

Anyway, the reason I suddenly remember that good ol’ book of mine was coz I was at Sunway Pyramid with Bonnie last weekend. There was this installation with boards, a dune of molded sand and a letterbox with a background vista. It was an ambient structure and no one even paused to glance at it…

classic

…until we started to fool around and camwhore with it. It’s quite interesting to see how people stop, gape and start to want to participate. It went from a stone cold installation when we first got there to a hot one where we even had to queue to take more shots with it. Funny how it just takes one to get the ball rolling eh?

kids

This is an AirAsiaX Perth contest where you take a photo with the installation in the most creative way possible to stand a chance to win a trip to Perth for two. The theme at Sunway Pyramid is sandboarding in Kalbarri and there is a picture of two girls in a default pose, which most people (that came after us) emulated. I reckon we could do much better (or at least Bonnie could, with her flexibility).

boarding

1. De facto pose

default

2. Cheesy dual camwhore

headstand

3. My #fail handstand. Sorry AirAsiaX, I nearly destroyed your structure when I fell down. 😉

4. Bonnie does a headstand – she’s into capoeira which comes in very handy for this. I, on the other hand, is very good in looking nonchalant. Heh.

scorpion

5. Our piece de resistance! This is the one I’m going to submit. Bonnie is doing the Escorpio (Scorpion in Brazilian Portuguese) in the foreground to enhance the ambient installation – she is in fact, a prop in this pose. She’s the scorpion in the sand dunes in Kalbarri, Perth while I am dusting imaginary sand off my flip flops while sitting on a sand board.

There are installations in 1 Utama, Pavilion KL and Sunway Pyramid and all you need to do is to pose with the installation and email it to get a chance to win a trip for two to Perth. If you have terrible bearings, the first thing you should do is to approach the information counter and have them point you in the right direction. If you’re not comfortable with posing in public spaces, hey, be like Nike and Just Do It. I guarantee you there will be people looking and wanting a piece of the action once you get started.

people

Who did you think took our pictures? Random strangers posing with the structure who helped us with our photos once they were done. smirk

sandboard

I think our submission is pretty good. I really hope we win this contest. I swear, we spent almost an hour there doing various poses. We even came in the appropriate attire. I didn’t destroy the structure from a bad fall and Bonnie emerged intact without having to put on a neck brace. 😉

Try and beat our awesome poses by going to one of the installations. Check out the Perth contest post on the AirAsia blog for more details! We really want to win the contest but we’re confident our submission will be a pretty formidable one anyway. action #winning

Perth – The City of Lights

June 14, 2010 by HB

perth

I’ve been to Perth several times during my university days in Australia and I am very impressed with the relatively relaxed pace over there.

fish-chips

Nothing beats having some steaming hot fish and chips at the harbor! Make sure you go to the one at Cicerello’s – it’s the original, and the best. Located at Fremantle, it also serves beer if you want something to wash it down with!

perth_swan

Perth is home to The Swan Bells. It was a gift from London according to Wikipedia (O Wise One) and it’s one of the largest musical instrument in the world – you can even ring it and let yourself be heard all across the city! 🙂

perth-map

Okay, geography lesson time. I nicked this photo from Wikipedia. It has a hover text that says “Perth is located in Australia”. Well, no shit Sherlock! 😉

clothing-optional

You can also drop by Swanbourne if you feel like letting your dangly bits down. It’s a clothing optional beach in Perth.

However, Perth is not Western Australia. You can’t claim to have visited WA unless you’ve been outside of Perth city proper.

black-truffles

I must admit, I haven’t been to other places in Western Australia though. I hear it grows a lot of black truffles (gourmands take note!) – and you can buy fresh truffles during autumn and winter! These are not just plain black truffles but Black Perigord truffles – the real black gold. Expensive, but delicious!

simmos

There’s a cult favorite ice cream store called Simmo’s Delicious Dilemmas in Dunsborough and Margaret River. I haven’t personally tried it myself but Kristine tells me it’s good shit. Probably the best ice cream that has ever done the horizontal boogie with your taste buds.

margeret river

You know all that wine you’ve been drinking that says Margaret River? It’s also located in Western Australia! I would love to visit the vineyards over there to drink the tipple closer to the source!

kristine

…and do that I shall! I will visit Kristine later this year – gonna fly AirAsia straight to Perth and visit the rest of the Western Australia region that I haven’t been too. She’s been to quite a few places around the WA region, most of the pictures were taken by her (others nicked from Wikipedia). Thanks for tempting me with all the photos Kristine!

Stromatolites_in_Sharkbay

One intriguing place I’ll love to visit is Hamelin Pool – it is home to stromatolites – the oldest living marine fossils in the world. There’s only two places in this third rock from the sun that harbors stromatolites (no clue where the other one is) and Western Australia is one of them!
There is a bit of a mystery surrounding their origin and trust me, I’ll be there to unravel (oh well maybe not, but I’ll go take a look) the fossils.

shell-beach

We’ll go to the Coral Coast okay? I want to go to Shell Beach (formed from shells made from just one type in of animal and the only one of two in the world) and The Pinnacles!

The-Pinnacles

Just look at this photo!

A recent research revealed that taking a vacation has been shown to reduce work related stress by 66%, increase worker productivity by an amazing 92.86% and shaved an impressive 42% off arguments between couples over issues like leaving the toilet seat up. Of course, I pulled all those numbers from where the sun don’t shine but still!

beauty

I travel a lot coz I value experiences more than material goods. Life is short, travel the world! I’ll be going to Melbourne end of this month and Perth is next on my destination list – probably August or so. I’ll give you all a full trip report when I get there k?

You can find out more about Perth and Western Australia by following the blog of the Extraordinary Taxi Ride. Or you can just fly AirAsia and experience it for yourself!