Chillin in Perth-Brunei:Day3

2nd April 2001 - Animal Kingdom


Early in the morning, we started our tour to the Caversham Wildlife Park. Koalas are everywhere. These adorable creatures eat very little. That’s why they are asleep most of the time. In Australia, they are called the sleepy head. We also hand fed the kangaroos. In thought kangaroos are magnificent creatures but when they came up to us, they moved like mutated creatures. Don’t get me wrong. They are not mutated. It’s just that they moved really slowly by using their legs and short hands toward us, making them look like something is wrong with them.

We saw two ostriches but no one dared to feed them because they can bite your hand. The ranger said that the size of the ostrich’s brain is as big as its eyes. So that’s why they thought most of the things are food. That also explain why, when the ranger feed them they took his hand as well. Next, is the camel ride! It was awesome. My friend Leela kept screaming as the camel got up. Then halfway through the ride she screamed again. It turned out that she thought the camel wanted to bite her feet. It was pretty scary when I experience it myself. The camel got up abruptly and luckily I didn’t fall from it. After the ride, the ranger took out a wombat. It is almost like a koala. It was really cute!

We traveled through Chittering Valley Bondoon to Windmill Farm where we had our lunch. We experienced a delicious Aussie BBQ lunch. After lunch, we saw how sheeps are shaved. In the farm, we also saw kangaroos, a sheep and a big goat. The sheep kept pissing and I guess it must be nervous after so many people kept touching him. The goat in the other hand looked ferocious. It was tied up and no one dated to go near it, as it will knock you down with its horn.

After that, we went to Apricot Acres fruit orchard that was managed by an elderly couple. The orchard was considered very small to Australian standard. It wasn’t very far away. There we were given a tractor ride around the orchard. Unfortunately, at that time the harvest season was over. We did not get a chance to hand pick any fruit, as all the fruits are still green. The weather was scalding hot today, the farmer told us that they are now experiencing the worst drought. They haven’t been receiving any rain since the last five months. They have to dig deep into the earth to get water. Each day, they have to water gallons of water to their fruit trees. I also learnt the difference between a sultana and a raisin. Sultanas are smaller and black in colour. Raisins are bigger and juicier. We bought honey, grapes and nougat for a very reasonable price. N our way back, we saw a tiny stall with buckets of honey on a small table. No one was there and there was a sigh indicating the price of a bucket of honey. Whoever that wanted to buy the honey can put their money in the cash box. Imagine if this is in Malaysia – the honey will be gone in an instance and so will be coin box!

After we went to Pinelli Winery for wine tasting. I tasted the white and red wine. There was this pretty heavy one called Port. Everyone liked it and Nancy bought it for AU$14.
We retreated back to our hotel. We had a nice bath before going out for dinner. We had our dinner at the Emperor’s Restaurant. It was another Chinese restaurant. We had a group picture as some of us will go on separate ways the day after that.

It was still very early after dinner and we don’t feel like going back to the hotel so soon. A group of us had a nice walk around Perth. It was very cold that night. Luckily I brought my coat along. Some of my friends thought that it was so hot in the morning that it might not be so cold at night but don’t let the weather fool you in Australia.

The weather was unpredictable – so don’t leave your sweater behind when you are going out at night. AT night, the whole city looked deserted. There weren’t a lot of night life in Perth. As we were taken by the serenity of the night, suddenly some of us sensed that we were being followed. Luckily we traveled in a group of seven and we were taking extra precautions. They soon left us alone. It was still pretty early when we reached back our hotel. We felt like it was almost midnight but it was barely 9:30pm when we got back to our hotel. Probably that’s because the whole place was so quiet and all the shops are closed.