Friday, June 16, 2006
Here I am, back in too-damn-hot Singapore, looking at the 1500 pictures that Angie and I amassed between the two of us. How on earth did we take that amount of pictures in just 22 days? We left with a mission to photowhore, and photowhore we did. Along the way, we made plenty of new friends, ate a lot, shopped a lot, drank a lot, clowned around a lot, and were treated to some gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous scenery and weather. And I'm delighted that all these were documented in pictures, our hearts, and now, words.
This is a picture-documentary. I'm selecting my favourite photos and captioning them. It's gonna be a really long entry and there are gonna be a ton of photos. Be warned. Let's see who even gets to the end of it besides Angie.
My first day at beautiful Cottesloe Beach. Here, I lay on the sand fully clothed (I would never do that in Sg) in the hot sun with the cool wind, daydreamed, listened to what I call 'holiday music' on my MP3 player, wrote postcards, ate Connoisseur ice-cream, chatted with Angie, and admired the intense blue of the sky and sea. Bliss.
On the swing at Cottesloe Beach. We liked it so much that we went to the beach 2 days in a row, but the 2nd day we were fully prepared for a day of tanning -- bikinis, tanning oil, HobNobs, shades... etc. That's me on the swing after tanning and feeling very pleased with myself cos I think I got 2 shades darker from just 3 hours. (I've lost the tan since, damn)
Our first of many many many Boost juices. A fantabulous place that sells heaps of different kinds of smoothies and juices. I would say this is by far the best drink(s) I had there. My first swig and I was addicted. It's just lurveeelyy...
I love this picture of Angie at the Pinnacles cos it's absolutely hilarious. Just imagine her decked out in a full safari outfit and the picture is complete. Maybe hunting a nearby giraffe or something. And of course, please, amidst your "wtf is Angie doing" reaction, admire the pinnacle.
My first of many breathtaking sunsets. Gosh, if there's just one thing out of this world I could buy... sunsets. In Australia. And this wasn't even taken at some special lookout point on the hills or at the beach. We were at some random petrol kiosk on our trip up North topping up on fuel and getting our pee/smoke breaks.
Sunrise at 7am in the morning. Taken up North of course, where we had to set off on our journey at 7am anyway. I wouldn't have the willpower to wake up any earlier than 9.30am on our R&R holiday if given the choice. But looking at the sheer beauty of the sunrise, it might only take just that little bit more effort to get me started on being a regular sunrise-watcher.
The Z-Bend Gorge. Many were impressed when I wrote back to them telling them I climbed down and up the other side of that gorge. The feat almost killed my lungs and limbs cos we had to scramble up massive rocks that were evilly arranged by Mother Nature almost completely vertically. This photo doesn't even do our climb justice -- it was far worse than can ever be imagined. But oh the view, the view.
After our climbing expedition. Good job, us!
After our horrifying gorge climb, when our limbs were stupendously shaky and trembly, we made our way to Nature's Window. Took the opportunity to lie down, stretch the poor tired backs, and ham it up for our photo. Glad to see that we don't look that pengsan here. Hohoho.
Monkey Mia. A touristy place where dolphins are known to make an appearance very close to the beach. Except that it was drizzling when we were there, and few were brave enough to stand around waiting for dolphins to come. It's a beautiful place, but I'm disappointed that because of the rain, we couldn't really explore unless we wanted to freeze to death cos it was pretty cold that day. But hey, I still got to see the.....
... DOLPHINS!! I got my dolphin pictures before the rain got heavier. They were SO close to the beach, barely 2m from where that guy in the photo is standing. I would have loved to get some underwater pics of the dolphins, but too bad I didn't have the guts to stick my precious camera underwater like one of our travel mates, Joon, did. He got some gorgeous underwater dolphin pics with his non-waterproof camera. Kuku guy.
This was our one successful attempt at 3 airborne star jumps. The rest were complete failures, but hilarious to look at. That's Joon, kuku camera guy. He's nice and funny to talk to. Check out the completely empty road behind us… I guess it epitomizes the words "road trip." It was Just. Us. One lone WesternXposure bus along the dusty roads. There's something surreal about that.
It would have been a very peaceful day here at the Shell Beach if we did not spot those branches and decided to have a fencing competition. It was a very good workout for our arms and legs as we lugged massive branches, running after each other and attempting to knock each other out, much like how deer fight with their antlers. And of course, we had a fantastic photographer -- a plump, always-smiling German guy named Thomas. Hehehe. How nice of him to humour us.
Our rather hot tourguide. He reminds us of George Clooney.
I snapped this shot at the risk of getting punched by the fat guy. Check out the sign on his car. Then look back at him in his highlighter-spilled-over shirt. And that belly. Gawsh. How apt.
The alpacas we met on our farmstay. Funny wooly creatures that look like a cross between a camel and a llama. They're tame! Wouldn't have been standing in there with them if there was any chance of me getting head-butted.
Sunset on the farm.. at... 6.03pm. The sun sets so early in winter! I like how the shadow of the trees, the barn, and the tractor is visible. Pretty pretty.
2 of the 3 very adorable Jack Russell Terriers that live on the farm. I never go on a holiday without taking pictures of dogs, and these are just 2 of the dogs that I met. They're friendly and adorable and fat and very smart! I LOVE DOGS!
We visited the wildlife park where we fed a camel, a donkey, a horse, some kangaroos, mountain goats (with horns!!!) and deer. I'm looking brave in this pic, feeding the deer. Truth be told, I was petrified that I'd get a nasty nip cos the food looks a lot like a human finger.
At the wildlife park, I also faced one of my biggest fears.. I held 2 snakes!!! *shriek* They scared me half to death and were slithery and tongue-y and the words "Gross Reptile" kept running through my mind as I was holding them, but I managed to do it. Scary as hell, but on hindsight, it wasn't so bad after all.
Here we are at an Italian restaurant Cino's, having dinner with Claire & her mum (Mrs T), who were so nice as to adopt us for 2.5 weeks. Their house is gorgeous and huge and there's even a swimming pool. Claire makes yummy cookies, Mrs T makes stupendous ginger muffins, and basically we were extremely well-fed and VERY well looked after during our stay.
Stupid antics in an attempt to breathe out smoke. We succeeded!
Celebrating Lisa's 21st birthday at Café Villa over a fantastic breakfast. Here's Lisa wearing the tiara her sister got her. Cute stuff!!
Lovely lovely Mandurah. Our one-day trip to Mandurah was a ton of fun because of the beautiful weather, Russell's kind gesture to drive us there, the stupid things we got up to and of course, the food. We had some pretty damn fabulous fish&chips. Oohh.
I thought the JRTs at the farm were so damn cute... and then I met this sweet giant of a dog. He was sitting quietly with his owners while they enjoyed their lunch and I just couldn't resist going over to talk to him. Look at him! He's so sweet!! He smells nice too. Btw, he's only a puppy. 10 mths old with the propensity to grow somemore. I love big dogs!
I'm on the ferris wheel, being treated to a view of the water, the grass, the birds and Angie's and Russell's "I'm not so comfortable with this" expressions.
Russell and I being juvenile on the seesaw. This was fun.
Angie & Russell holding the 2 paintings that I bought at a lovely store called Euphoria. They make the paintings look even better. Hehehe.
More of the lovely things that are sold in Euphoria. The "love" and"imagine" signs that we're holding would be completely useless to own, but they looked really nice in the store, especially amidst the arrangement of the other stuff around. I love the layout of the place and the stuff in there!
Running from the waves and forcing Russell to take pics of us doing it... for the umpteenth time.
We climbed on top of these pinnacle-like thingies and Russ took stupid pictures of us doing the Titanic thing, but I'm too embarrassed to post those pics online. So here's our Amazing Race style (according to Angie) photo. "We're a team. We're gonna win the million dollars." *cue head turn to camera at the same time and grin determinedly*
I'm an embarrassment. Don't take me out.
Perth in all its splendour at night. This was taken atop King's Park. The lights are so nice. Pity that all the photos we have of nighttime Perth is blur cos it's just impossible to take a good photo without flash. Look at the pains that Angie went to in her attempts to get an unshaky photo...
Great determination, Angie!
We were walking down Nedlands when we saw this rainbow... a nice fat rainbow! It's the biggest rainbow I've ever seen, and so clear too! WOW. The beautiful sights of Perth contain little surprises like these..
A completely random pic (we have many) of us taking the bus to the city. I love the buses there. They're clean, very punctual, are very rarely full of people so we don't have to squeeze, and the bus drivers get thanked! What's there not to love about it??
Angie and her dream-man, Lazarus. We were browsing at the 2nd hand bookstore and came across a bunch of interesting books, namely trashy Mills&Boon books. At only $1! What a fantastic deal. I didn't dare to buy any cos I was afraid of the weight limit of my luggage though, what a waste.
Here we are at Little Creatures, a brewery that has an art gallery on the 2nd floor! I loved it. We were preparing and mustering up the strength to carry the 24 bottles of Little Creatures Pale Ale we brought back. The carton of beer was bloody heavy and required all 4 of us to take turns carrying it. Good grief.
Baskin Robbins!! After dinner & beers, we stopped for icecream although it was pretty damn cold already. The beer got even heavier to carry after our dessert probably because we were even fuller from fatty foods, were sleepy, and so not up for lugging 14kg of alcohol 4 blocks to catch the bus.
This is the life... waking up at 11.30am, walking out into the sunshine (still in our pajamas, no less) to the Jester's Pie shop and shamelessly calling our meal "breakfast." These pies are serious stuff. They are so incredibly fantastic that I tried every single one and even brought home eight of them beauties.
Here we are at The Moon, on jazz night. Great music, great food, great ambience, great company. That's Paul and I'm stuffing a boobie bag into his jacket while he's being very tolerant about it. Next pic is a closeup of the boobie bag.
It cracks me up.
Angie trying to steal Paul's scarf. Look at her face! She's obviously enjoying herself. Don't let her make you think she's being victimized here -- she started the whole fight.
Here's Mylene and I.. she's a lovely French girl who makes great crepes (that we had a food fight with), salads, pasta, and a great person to live with. Yup, we stayed with her & her housemate Daniel for a few days and she's fantastica!
What could be better than enjoying the warmth on the sun while sprawled out on the greener-than-green grass? This was one of my favourite moments in the whole trip. We were at the retreat and it was break-time with some of the others.
And Angie and I even found love on our trip! *bashful*
The much-awaited Belgium Beer Cafe in which they sell a million and one types of beers. It's a gorgeous, rather quaint place and they have a really nice waiter, who paid his guests some special attention when we all turned to stare amorously at him. *snigger*
I love this photo. Claire & Mrs T grappling for the thank-you gift that Angie & I bought them. That's some gorgeous wrapping paper too -- in the form of a blue pillow case and some ribbon. Pretty good job on the wrapping, us!
Our last full day in Perth. We went around the neighbourhood taking pictures of trees, houses, streets, and of course, ourselves. This is the lovely house we stayed in. It's so cosy and homely. That's me sitting on the brick thingy. Just look at the lovely trees on the side. And the blue of the sky. Sigh.
Our massive avocado&bacon hamburgers on our last night there. Oh gosh, they were SO good. Possibly the best burger I've eaten in my life. Forget those stupid 100 dollar burgers that everyone's talking about. This only cost $9.90 and I finished every morsel of it even though it's huge.
Many have asked me "what's there to do in Perth?" Well things don't come to us, we go to things. And so we decided to throw caution to the wind and go in search of a bowling alley upon my "what the hell is she thinking" suggestion. We forced the rest to come out with us and they very gamely did although it was essay/exam season (still is). Of course, Angie & I were up for an evening of complete embarrassment with our lousy scores, but it was gleeful cos of the retardo pictures that we took. Here's Angie kicking the table cos she longkang-ed (again).
And here I am in an intensely embarrassing shot after I longkang-ed (again).
Me awaiting my embarrassing scores with Koen, Andreas & Kim in the background.
One of the foodfights that ensued on our trip. Here's Russell catching Angie's thrown lemon very deftly. I've got to learn a thing or two from this guy! He always seem to know when the food was gonna be thrown and would catch it like he would a rugby ball. Poetry in motion.
The yummy ginger muffins that Mrs T baked at 11.30pm for us before we were to go home the next day. They're displayed on the cake stand that Angie & I got them. Isn't it pretty? And gosh, those muffins were so fantastic. FANTASTIC, I say.
The final Boost of our stay. *depressed* How poignant.
On the way to the airport. Goodbye Perth.
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These were just a few of the special moments I could put out in words and graphics. The rest are held safely in my heart, and I look forward to coming back to these moments and remember the wonderful time I had.
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lying among the petals 7:21 PM
