The last full day in Perth already, and I never managed to adjust to the time zone somehow. I had a bit of a later start for once since my plans weren't as packed full as the two previous days.
I walked over to the WACA after 9:00am to find out if they had a stadium tour running. I managed to take the long way around and ended up covering 90% of the ground instead of 10%. I couldn't find any gates open anywhere, but it was only 9:30am and I thought the first tour wasn't until 10:00am. While I waited I crossed the road into Queens Garden for a few minutes, pretty calm place, you can see the WACA ground and all of the light towers through the trees.
 |
| Queens Garden, the poor man's Kings Park. |
After killing a bit of time it was back to the WACA where a gate had magically opened. The small museum was just inside and I was able to buy a ticket for the tour from them, I just hoped a few other people would show up as so far I had not seen anyone else. There was just enough time to look around the museum which had quite a substantial amount of memorabilia, the highlights where the Phil Hughes collection already assembled and the New Zealand "underarm ball".
 |
| Some old board game, not as good as "Test Match". |
 |
| Take that New Zealand. |
 |
| Phil Hughes. |
To my relief about seven other people in a few small groups had shown up for the tour, which is about the perfect size, and we were off with our senior tour guide leading the way. The old guy was pretty good as he had a lot of interesting facts accumulated over the years, and didn't mind if we wandered around and did our own thing a bit while he was talking to the group, he wasn't really concerned about the time either. A few things I learned were:
- The ground used to be so big they played two cricket games side by side
- The WACA used to own a lot more land, but had to sell off some to harness racing to avoid going bankrupt
- The Packer world series cricket was played at the harness racing stadium since they weren't allowed at the WACA
- The government is planning to build a new 60,000 seat stadium for AFL right next door
- The WACA was going to fund major redevelopment by building one apartment building at each end, but didn't get enough investors
I thought the tour might run for an hour, but it ended up going for almost two. We got to see all the usual stuff around the ground, plus the media rooms that had just been completed and got to walk around on the ground - just not onto the pitch.
 |
| Daily selfie. |
 |
| Around the ground. |
 |
| Big Bash ! |
 |
| In the slips. |
I took another CAT bus to the city where I was sitting next to this girl having a hilarious conversation, I'm not sure if she was actually talking to someone on the phone or just to herself. She'd just finished off a 600ml iced coffee drink, then began complaining about how all drinks have too much fat and sugar, how she felt sick now, Coke is no good either, she still felt thirsty, she should have just had water, and just kept going on and on for at least five minutes before her stop came up, it was pretty hilarious.
Off the bus and on to a train to East Perth for lunch, a few stops out to Cannington which took about 15 minutes, and then on foot to Westfield Carousel - it might sound like some kind of fun amusement park but sadly it's just a shopping centre. It was a bit of a walk to get to the place, and the day was becoming scorching hot, but I picked the right street to walk down and the parking lot appeared in the distance after a while.
The shopping centre was just a single level and it first it didn't look very big, but then the paths kept multiplying so it took a long time to reach the other end, I didn't see a single store directory in the whole place so I may have missed some also. I didn't find any interesting stores to do some shopping, but that's not much of a surprise. On my way back to the food court I did see a Bread Top - the first and only Asian bakery in Perth it would seem, the prices seemed to be at like a 50% premium to the Melbourne stores - and a "Fit Chips" store which was claiming to have 95.5% fat free french fries - that's a pretty specific number, but doesn't sound all that healthy.
There were a few good options for lunch but I could not pass up Mochachos when I discovered a double veggie burger on the menu! The burger was huge but was served in a polystyrene container, which meant once you managed to dig it out of there you probably won't be putting it down again. The sauce went everywhere and I ran out of bun long before the two burgers were done, but it was a good quality burger quite similar to Nando's - 8 out of 10.
 |
| Royale with veggie. |
Just nearby was this curious looking drink station called Schake Milk Bar, where you could order your own custom milkshakes on a touch screen. I was intrigued, and it beats standing in a line with twenty people at Boost Juice. The basic idea was you choose a milkshake or thickshake, a base ingredient like chopped pieces of a chocolate bar or fruit (I went with oreos), then your type of milk, your type of ice cream or yoghurt and then any extra ingredients. It was a pretty quick and easy process, and it tasted alright. I'd go back again.
On the way back to the train station I picked up an energy drink called "Truck It" from some discount supermarket place. I'd never heard of it before, it didn't have a really distinguishable taste but a decent, slightly sweet aftertaste, I'd give it about a 6 out of 10.
 |
| So many choices. |
 |
| Truck It ! |
Back at Perth I took a break in Northbridge and watched a bit of the cricket on the big screen outside the library. They had channel nine on the screen but ABC radio for the commentary, which was a little weird. I wasn't too hungry for dinner after a big late lunch so I just picked up some random assortment of bread and bakery items at the supermarket - plus lots of water!
 |
| Cricket. |
 |
| One of the local universities. |
After dropping off my dinner at the hotel the Perth Mint was just one block away. When I got inside the front door I found that all of the complimentary tours for the day (there was only one left) were full and even worse, you couldn't even take any photos inside the place. Since it wasn't too far from closing time either I figured I'd give it a miss.
 |
| Outside the Perth Mint. |
Instead of going to the mint I walked down to the Swan River, which was actually the first time I was anywhere near the famous waterfront. There was a massive block of grass, Langley Park, between the first street of apartment buildings and the river, not really sure why so much space was reserved or what plans they have for it in the future. I figured out a plan for a running route a bit later in the afternoon then went back to the hotel again for a quick rest.
 |
| World's worst mowing job. |
 |
| Kind of a boardwalk. |
My last outing for the day was a run along the Swan River, since I'd been eating a bit poorly for four days it was long overdue. I started south along the Swan River, having to detour through some construction but made it all the way to the Old Swan Brewery. I turned back the same way and then continued east across the tiny Heirisson Island and over to whatever comes after that. I ended up back at the hotel to conclude a 15 kilometre route.
 |
| The river route. |
 |
| Well earned dinner. |
So that was it for Perth, the travel back to Melbourne all went without a problem.
- Perth: 6 out of 10
- Days: 3.5
- Cost: $300 approx (plus hotel and flight)
- Photos: 150
- Taxis: 0
- Words: 5000 approx
- Good
- Free buses
- Kings Park
- Running tracks
- Sunshine
- Bad
- Hotel a bit far from city centre
- No Asian bakeries
- Virgin Australia service
- Missed Out
- Big Bash
- Bold Park
- City or Cottesloe Beach
- John Forrest National Park
- Perth Mint
No comments:
Post a Comment