Perth with the Ahmads: Where We Went (Part II)

My trips with Han typically consist of *a lot* of walking.

However, on this Perth trip with my parents, we had to tone down the trip quite a bit. We only went to the places nearby Perth City and skipped the usual Perth landmarks like Margaret River and the Pinnacles, which were about 2 to 3 hours drive from Perth City – a wee bit too far for comfort.

That didn’t stop us from having fun though because there were still plenty of great places to check out that were within an hour drive from Perth City!

Let’s first begin with the places that we went to in..

FREMANTLE

Fremantle is a really charming port town only about 30 minutes away from Perth City.

Fremantle Market
Image Credit: Fremantle Western Australia

I loveeee Freo especially because of this weekend market. It has about 150 stalls and they all sell amazing local products and food. We went there *twice* just because we couldn’t get enough of it. Or maybe it was just me haha.

Fancy, schmancy drink.

There’s this one Mediterranean shop – Palace Patisserie – that I really liked, which sells this amazing delicious Ottoman Börek! Börek are baked pastries made of a thin flaky dough, filled with various fillings like feta cheese, beef etc. Han and I were seated down for a glass of Turkish tea to try their Kunafe but we started to notice that everyone else was buying the Borek. So we got it too and it was soooo gooood.

Super good stuff! Check them out at Stall Y124.
Fremantle Prison

Han and I left my parents for a while at the Market to check out the Fremantle Prison.

This prison was built back in 1852 and remained in use up till 1991. There were several tours you could take – including a Tunnels tour where you explored tunnels built by the prisoners as well as the Torchlight tour, which takes place at night. ~Spooky~

(Image Credit: Fremantle Prison from Facebook)

We only went for the standard Prison tour though, as it was the earliest slot available at that time. But it was an experience, nonetheless. We walked past the tiny cells, the outdoor activity area and the kitchens. You can’t help but to feel rather sad, imagining yourself living in those conditions.

There were two prison cells that had these beautiful paintings on the walls! Apparently, this prisoner was granted special permission to paint on the walls for therapeutic reasons. Super nice.

Amazing painted walls!
Another painted wall

We also visited the gallows and it was pretty chilling to think about all the deaths that took place there.

Nooze at the gallows

Apart from these 2 main landmarks, Fremantle is overall a really nice and relaxing place to chill at. We walked by the harbour after our lunch at Kaili’s (which I talked about in my Part I post HERE) and came across lovely parks and a giant ferris wheel.

SWAN VALLEY

We took a day trip down to Swan Valley, which is widely-known as Western Australia’s oldest wine region and has over 40 wineries. But if you don’t drink, that doesn’t mean there’s nothing in store for you there. Because there are PLENTY.

(Image Credit: Berichard)
The House of Honey

Our first stop of our Swan Valley adventure was a honey farm that produces top quality raw and unpasteurised varietal honeys. They have this section for honey tasting where you could taste allll the different types of honey – my favourite was the Jarrah honey, which apparently has great healing properties but tastes super good too!

They also had a small cafe where we tried some cakes and ice cream. THE HONEY CAKE WAS SO DARN GOOOOD.

Super heavenly! (Image Credit: House of Honey & Sticky Spoon Cafe on Facebook)

I wonder if there are any good honey cakes in Singapore…..

We also tried the Sticky Date Pudding but it was too sweet and heavy. So if you ever head to Perth, drop by House of Honey and don’t forget to pack me a slice!

Sticky Date Pudding
Mondo Nougat & Morish Nuts

We then drove to our next stop at Mondo Nougat & Morish Nuts, where they sold.. yeah, you guessed it, nougat and nuts. You don’t have to drive all the way to Swan Valley to get their products though. They’re available at Fremantle and probably other places too!

Morish Nuts and Mondo Nougat were right next to each other.
Caversham Wildlife Park

I think this was the highlight of the whole Swan Valley day trip because Yana loves her animals! Caversham is a family-run wildlife park and it lets you get upclose with the best of Australia’s wildlife.

We love Caversham!

For example, you could..

Meet koalas and wombats upclose.

Koality family picture!

Watch the farm show at Molly’s Farm.

Sheep shearing!

Hang out with snakes at Wombat and Friends 😀

Get flashed at by the Llama (lol we were so scared it was gonna pee at us!)

Nooo, don’t do it, Llama!

Hang out and feed kangaroos and wallabies at the Kangaroo walkthrough!

Call me the Kangaroo Whisperer, if you may.

So if you’re in Perth, you MUST, MUST go to Caversham! It’s different from a normal zoo because it has this more homely and very Aussie vibe to it.

HILLARYS

Aquarium of Western Australia (AQWA)

When we were younger, almost every Ahmad family holiday would include a visit to either a zoo or aquarium. For this Perth trip, we went to both! 😀

AQWA is a privately owned aquarium and to be honest, when we first completed the underwater tunnel, I was a bit underwhelmed like “meh, that’s all?”.

(Image Credit: AQWA on Facebook)

But then, upon walking further up, we realised that there was this amazing outdoor space facing the sea. It was so beautiful!

It was super windy at the outdoor area facing the sea!

They also allow you to dive and feed the sharks too which I really wanted to do but we’re far from qualified divers so we couldn’t. Remind me to take my diving licence, please.

Sorrento Quay Boardwalk

Only a few metres away from AQWA, this boardwalk was a really relaxing place to chill at. There were some performances and family activities going on. We had super good kebabs there from King Kebab and dessert at San Churros.

It’s also at the Hillarys Boat Harbour where travelers to Rottnest Island board the ferries from. So, you may wanna check this place out if you’re heading to Rottnest!

ROCKINGHAM

Rockingham Beach

On one of the days, my parents and us went on separate ways. My parents explored Perth Mint while Han and I went on a mini adventure to Rockingham!

We only went there because I wanted to go to a nice beach and Google recommended Rockingham. The beach was realllly clean and super cold! But Han and I just took a dip anyway because #YOLO. (do people even say YOLO anymore?)

It was freeeeezinggggg.
Cape Peron

We drove a little further up from Rockingham Beaech and discovered this gem by accident! 😀 IT WAS SO BEAUTIFUL!

Do you see anybody else here? The answer is NO 😀

Best part was that there were so little people around – amazing! Although this could also be the reason why there were plenty of signs warning against car thefts lol.

Apparently, if you were lucky, you could see whales and dolphins too. But we didn’t. It was still an amazing discovery nonetheless. You could walk up to the lookout point and take in the breathtaking beauty from there!

PERTH CITY

Last but definitely not least, we can’t miss checking out Perth City because well, we stayed there lol.

Perth CBD

Seeing as we stayed a mere 5 min drive away from the Perth CBD, we frequently went there to get our groceries and Halal meals, which I wrote about in Part I of my Perth post. If you missed it, you can read it HERE!

As we went there in December, there were Christmas decors everywhere, including this pretty light show we chanced upon along St Georges Terrace on our first night there.

Light show in Perth CBD!
Kings Park & Botanic Gardens

Kings Park is like the place of retreat amidst the hustle and bustle of city life. It’s apparently one of the largest inner city parks in the world and has sprawling green fields, overlooking the Perth City. It’s the perfect place to go to for a picnic!

Sprawling green fields everywhere!

I guess it’s somewhat like our Gardens by the Bay, except way bigger. They also have a Botanic Gardens too!

Glass Bridge in Kings Park
Westfield Carousel

We initially wanted to go to Westfield Carousel only because it was the nearest movie theatre to our place. The Last Jedi was premiering while we were there so we couldn’t bear to miss it!

But when we went there to reserve our tickets, we discovered that Westfield was actually a pretty hugeee shopping mall.. with K-Mart!

KMart, KMart, KMart!

If you’re ever going to Aussie, going to KMart is a must!! They’ve got so many pretty things and they’re so cheappppp D: You can’t possibly expect to go there to buy just one thing because you’re gonna buy so many other things, fo’ sure. Here, read this Buzzfeed article – it accurately describes how I feel about KMart.

Also, we ended up buying a bunch of things that we don’t need.

All the useless but pretty (and cute) junk we bought from KMart lol.
Blue Boat House

I’m sure you may have seen someone on your social media posing with this blue boat house and wondering what is up with this obsession with the house?

Haha it’s nothing much actually, just a very instagrammable landmark to take photos at. You can’t even enter the boat house. When we got there, there actually was a *queue* just to take a photo there hahaha.

Also, you need to take note that it’s located by the busy road so it’s a lil difficult to get there. We had to park quite a distance away and walk to the place. But it was a nice walk, so it’s ok!

Han actually made a couple of videos of our trip! Go watch if you wanna!

Aaaand that, ladies and gentlemen, was our very first trip with my parents to Perth! If given the time and opportunity, I’d love to go there again and explore all the way down to Albany but until that ever happens, I’m still glad nevertheless to have been able to visit Aussie again!

Look out for my next post where we visited my favourite country, Japan!

Till next time, seeeeee ya.

Any Questions? I'll be glad to answer!