Perth 2017 - Day 1, Part II

Swan Valley is home to many wineries, distilleries, breweries, food producers and cafes. My expectations of this "destination" is that it's full of factories with hands on things we could do but all the places we visited were really quick cause there really wasn't much - still, it was a nice area to explore!

Our first stop was House of Honey. 

What I expected of this place is that it's a factory.. where we could see how they made their honey etc but all they had was a honey tasting section which was probably the highlight and nothing fancy. 

Our next stop was the Cheese Barrel, also another underwhelming spot because they had the tiniest tasting area and was more like a restaurant than a "destination". Their selection of cheese is amazing though but super overpriced! 

We then visited Sandalford Winery (which is also available at Margaret River)! Went for their wine tasting and they have the best sweet red. Tasting fees are waived if you purchase any bottle of wine, pretty worth it I'd say. We skipped the wine tour since we already went for a similar one in Khao Yai the year before. Nonetheless, we enjoyed the experience at Sandalford thoroughly!

This was the start of our insane wine buying because #Australia!

Took a peak inside their dining hall and there was a wedding happening, so insanely pretty!!??!

My mum was also obsessed with how huge and nice their land was so she forced me to take a picture. My sisters were so done so they went to the car first, haha! On a side note, my mum takes way better pictures than my sisters...

Our last stop was FUNK Cider - a cidery boasting 12 taps of preservative-free, natural ciders made from cold-pressed juice! We ordered a tasting paddle of 6, all were unique in their own ways. Super awesome pre-dinner drinks! 

Headed back to the city for dinner! Spectacular sunset and view during the journey ^_^

We had Ciao Italia for dinner! They don't sell alcohol but they allow BYOB (and I realise a lot of restaurants in Perth does that, love it). Dad and I went to the liquor shop nearby to buy a bottle of wine for dinner = $10 for a decent bottle of red. Crazy! 

They are known to have insanely huge serving portions so we ordered 1 x Calamari as a starter, 1 x Squid ink pasta, 2 x Pizzas for 5 of us and we had half a pizza left HAHA. Nonetheless, my family was up for the famous tiramisu because.. it's famous. Tasted amazing though, no regrets though I was so full I could vomit after our meal at Ciao Italia. 

Super packed first day but so fruitful! 

Perth 2017 - Day 1, Part I

Had the opportunity to travel with the family to Perth, WA in November last year! It was our first time in Perth for most of us and also our family's first self-drive trip. We arrived at 6 pm and knowing Australian culture, everything was pretty much closed. We grabbed dinner at a nearby mall before checking-in to our apartment. 

On the morning of our first (full) day in Perth, we started with breakfast at tbsp which was (just nice) en route to Caversham Wildlife Park!

The cafe is small and compact but thankfully, we didn't have to queue for a table! 

I must say, the food here is mind blowing. Probably one of the best cafe spots in our itinerary! We loved the Asian twist with the Kimchi fried rice - though it's a little too filling for breakfast. A must-order is their beef brisket benedict which was packed with so much flavour and went perfectly well with the runny yolk! Skip the french toast though, it was nothing fancy. 

*take family photo before food comes* 

*take family photo again after food comes* 

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We then set off to Caversham Wildlife Park to.. see animals. 

me: Emiko, help me take a picture of me walking 

Dad: me too!

lol i died 

Mandatory tourist shot at the entrance!

Our first stop was the farm show. Sheep shearing was the main highlight and I found my vegan sister crying once again (we went to a farm show in Brisbane 10 years ago, she was a toddler then but wailed like mad when the sheep was being sheared. Should've known then that it's the BIGGEST sign of her becoming vegan zzz).

We then went to pat some kangaroos. Ok we = everyone else but me. 

I'm not the biggest fan of animals in general so there's no way I'd pet a kangaroo - their long tail and hind legs are enough to kill, lol. 

This was me the entire time, attempting to stand far away:

I did take one decent picture though, only one:

*smile Vevien!! SMILE!* 

I did touch a wombat though?!!?

random animals and human beings 

The most exciting part was probably meeting the koalas! 

The recommended time to spend at the park is half a day but we covered the entire ground within 3 hours and desperately wanted to leave because it was getting very boring. We decided to head to Swan Valley after. I'll talk more about the second half of the day in a separate post!

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FYI in this entire Perth travelogue, I will reiterate how bad my sister's photo taking skills are. 

Example number 1:

I take such nice, decent pictures for them on a random road. 

And this is the kind of pictures she take for me. If you need to know exactly which sister, it's Emiko. The second sister. The one wearing black. The vegan one. 

More examples in the next few posts, ugh.