Rottnest Island

Ok, so it's not quite as exciting as Moscow, Paris or New York but it's still cool....

We went over to Rottnest Island for the Rotto Short Film and Comedy Festival. Our friend Jules happens to be a film maker AND a comedian (and he's pretty good at DIY too) so we went to support him and catch up with the quokkas. Here are a couple of mangy little things...

We got the ferry from Fremantle on the Friday night and the weather was terrible. Trista (soon to be known as Dr K) brought along some anti-nausea tablets and vomit bags for the ferry ride over which was fairly horrific. You couldn't even see out the windows for all the spray and the boat was going up and down like it was a theme park ride. I was very close to vomiting but thankfully I managed to hold out and as soon as we got closer to the island it calmed down.

We woke up to a gorgeous day on Saturday which was very lucky as the weather in Perth has been fairly ordinary of late. See blue skies...

In the morning we went down the the picture hall to watch some of the short films. Jules had two films showing, Stand Down and Murray the Ghost which was definitely a crowd pleaser.

You can watch Murray on youtube if you click here and you can watch Stand Down if you click here. There was quite a few other films that were good but I think my favourite was Singer-Songwriter by Dan Osborn and Vincenzo Perrella. I can't find it on youtube yet but when it turns up I will try and remember to post a link.

Here's a picture of Julo being interviewed. He was as witty and professional as ever.

That afternoon we went to the lodge to watch a Jules and a bunch of other comedians doing stand up. It was a really great show actually, probably one of the best ones I've been to. Anyway, here is a picture of Trista and Wayne enjoying each others company before the show.

After that we went back to the house and finally ate the Zebra pate that we bought in South Africa. Yes it was real zebra! 42% zebra meat or something. God knows what the other 58% was. The taste? Well it was ok-ish. But now I've eaten zebra and that's all that matters.

Here's us enjoying some afternoon sun and a few beverages in our little shanty.

That night we went back to the lodge for another comedy gig. This one was a shocker though! It was the same people and a lot of the same jokes but it just wasn't working. You don't realise what a big difference the crowd can make.

Even though there weren't many laughs at the comedy gig within moments of leaving Trista was in hysterics after she spotted a quokka sleeping on its tail. Here they are laughing, pointing and taking photos of the poor thing.

Sunday morning we prepared for the ferry ride home and made an obligatory stop at the Rotto bakery for a pie. Here are some of our little furry friends hanging out near the bakery and trying to help themselves to our supplies.

The Penultimate Stop - Hong Kong

The next stop on the way home was Hong Kong. It was fun being back in Asia. The ridiculous humidity, all the Asian treats and bubble tea (see below)! We also met up with two of my bridesmaids, May and Wayne and also May's friends from Canada, Greg and Nicole.

On our first day there we went to the markets and found a tail being sold at the butchers!.Not so uncommon I guess but this one was still covered in hair! eek.

Then we found a fruit shop selling May's favourite fruit Durian. If you're not familiar with the Durian then you may be amused to know that it smells so putrid that some countries ban people from eating it in public places like hotels and on public transport.

It is sometimes described as smelling like rotten flesh but having never smelt that I can't really comment, but it is certainly not pleasant. On the boat back across the harbour I saw two girls on the other side of the boat holding their noses and looking disgusted. It was because we were carrying Durian! I hadn't noticed the smell so much at the market because there were so many other pungent smells but once we got it back the the hotel room it all got a bit too much and Wayne had to dispose of it outside the hotel once we'd tried it.

Here's a picture of May purchasing the Durian. The guy is cutting it open and taking out the fleshy parts.

And here's what the fleshy parts looked like. They have a big seed inside them too. And the taste... well May said it wasn't a particularly delicious one and I would have to agree with her there. To me it tasted like burnt hair. Yum.

We went up to Victoria Peak which is a popular tourist spot for views over Hong Kong. It's also popular with the clouds too and the day we went was no exception but we didn't think the weather was going to get any better. We got the crazy peak tram to the top which is a very steep funicular railway. There's a Madame Tussauds up there so I snapped this picture of Wayne with his and his mate Bruce.

So back outside in the humidity. Here is a picture of the boys using the binoculars to check out the view (yes, clouds).

And here's a pic of Hong Kong from the Peak. Still pretty cloudy but that's fairly good considering the weather at that time of year.

This is a picture of the Peak Tower which was designed to look like a noodle bowl (or so I read in my crap guidebook) but wikipedia is calling it a wok, so who knows!

Another day we went out to Stanley markets to partake in more shopping. On the way back we stopped at Aberdeen harbour to go on a Sampan ride. A Sampan is a flat bottomed boat and looks like this...

And here's a picture of some of the incredible apartment buildings around the Aberdeen harbour. It is amazing how many there are and how close they are to each other.

Then we found this little thing. It's basically pebble walking path that massages your feet. Kinda like those masseuse thongs if you ever had them. Strange and fairly painful after more than 30 seconds.

The other cool thing to do in Hong Kong is watch the light show over the city. Every night. And we did. The music is unbelievably cheesy yet so good. I would probably listen to it if I had it on my iPod. haha. And the lights on the buildings dance in time to the music. Brilliant! Genius! You can probably watch it on YouTube if you actually care. Anyway, here is a terrible picture that I took. Sorry but my camera does not like the dark.

And what better to go with a light show than a 1 litre can of Asahi. Did I mention it was good to be back in Asia?

On our last day there we all went out to a restaurant for Dim Sum. We ordered a ridiculous amount of food (well Greg ordered it for us so I blame him. haha). Here's a sample

And how cool are these things? They are crab dumpling things. Not that amazingly tasty, but look at them! They are little crabs!!

Speaking of cool. Wayne found the Charlie Brown Cafe. Here's our coffees. How cool is that?

The next stop is Perth. Well in fact we got back 2 months ago and how time flies. I will do the occasional update if anyone is still reading. I'll still try and keep it to "Laura and Nate in Places other than Perth" but that does mean that Western Australia outside of the metropolitan area is still ok:P

The Winelands, Penguins and a Dassie.

No trip to South Africa would have been complete for us without a trip to the Winelands. We hired a funny little car (pictured below) which seemed to be very popular in South Africa. Every 10th car was one of these. It was very strange!

Driving out of Cape Town was really easy. And very similar to driving in Perth. It's a small city and there's not too much traffic which was fantastic. We stopped at a servo and I saw a leaflet for a winery called "Backsberg" which was opened by a guy called Sydney Back. Although he probably isn't related to me (he was Lithuanian) I couldn't pass up the opportunity to visit and buy some wine(and Brandy). We got a bottle of their pinotage which is a variety that was created in South Africa and also picked up some of the Sydney Back brandy. No family discount unfortunately. Here's a picture taken in their cellar door in Paarl.

After that we headed to Frankschhoek to check out some wineries there. The valley was originally settled by French Huegonot refugees and it was called 'Elephants Corner' but they changed it to 'French Corner' or Frankschhoek. There's no elephants there now though, just a million wineries called French names. haha.

Here's some pictures at Grande Provence in Frankschhoek. They had some fantastic wines, an amazing looking restaurant and an absolutely stunning cellar door. What a beautiful place. Oh yeah, and it's winter.

The next day we'd organised a wine tour so I could actually taste some of the wines. We were picked up in the morning by our guide Lucas from Tsiba Tsiba. As it was winter and there was a rugby match on, there was no one else on the tour. He thought this may have been a concern for us but we couldn't believe our luck! He took us to heaps of wineries and we had a fantastic day but I did end up very drunk and hungover by about 7pm.

We had lunch at one of the wineries and it was really good. I can't remember what we had but here are some pictures. I also picked up a tin of Zebra pate in the shop. We haven't eaten it yet but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to eat a Zebra. Anyway, we did manage to get it back through customs but it was a bit of an ordeal mainly because I lost the tin in my luggage. I had to get them to scan the bag and tell me where it was. I didn't want to get in trouble. I watch Border Security, I know how strict it is!

Anyway, here's our lunch...

Did I mention the food in SA is amazing!? And cheap!

This was the last winery we went to for the day. By this stage I was well and truly drunk and can't remember much besides the fact that I was patting a dog with ticks (Nate told me not to touch it. haha) and I met a guy with a moustache like Merv Hughes. They even called him Merv!

Here's the gorgeous winery...

The tick infested dog...

And my mate Merv...

The next day on our way back to Cape Town we went for a drive along the coast and stopped off at Simon's Town to say hi to the African penguins living there. They were quite cute but I must say, they were pretty smelly! Here's some pics...

These three were so cute. They were all following each other around.

And I also spotted a Dassie! We were told that they were on Table Mountain so we were looking out for them but never saw any. They reckon they are the closest living relative of an elephant but they look like a giant guinea pig so go figure!? Anyway, I would include the picture I took but it is fairly ordinary so you'll just have to look at the wikipedia article.

Cape Town

Ok, so we've been back in Perth a few weeks now but I just have to finish off the blog...

After a pretty long flight from London we arrived in Cape Town at about 7am. We went to check into our accommodation at Daddy Long Legs which is a boutique art hotel. All of the rooms are designed by a different artist. Nate chose the "Do Not Disturb" room which looked a bit like this...

It had karaoke and microphones everywhere. Even one in the bathroom and a glass panel so you can still see the TV and sing while you're in the shower. For some reason there was also a pair of binoculars in the cupboard!? There's some more pics here if you want to see...

Anyway, the room wasn't quite ready so we went to grab some breakfast. One look at the menu and I was feeling closer to Australia already. It was decidedly un-European, which after 2 months in Europe was a welcome change. But it was definitely South African (hello meat!). Here's Nate's cooked breakfast with Wart Hog ribs.

It was winter in South Africa but it was quite similar to Perth. We were actually lucky that it didn't rain until we were driving to the airport to leave. The first thing we decided to do was the obvious Table Mountain. We got the cable car up there which was pretty cool as it rotated on the way up so you can get a good view of the very impressive Cape Town. Anyway, on top of the mountain there was a bit of cloud that kept moving over, so one minute it was clear and the next you were in a cloud. It was kinda cool. Here's me with the cloud moving in. The next photo Nate took was completely white behind me. haha.

We actually got tickets for the open air tourist bus as it was fairly cheap and a good way of getting around Cape Town which is quite spread out. Here's a pic from the other side of the mountain. It's called Camps Bay.

And this is a picture of what the crazy wind has done to the trees. Amazing!

Anyway, back to the food. This is something we hadn't heard of before. It's called Bunny Chow. We went to this awesome little place on Long Street called The Quarter and they do gourmet Bunny Chow which is as basic as a curry in a 1/4 loaf of bread. The difference was that they had a huge range of choices and it was just mix and match. So you choose your filling and then choose a topping and an accompaniment. I think I had the mutton with raita on top and a mango chutney side. There was all sorts of options though. And heaps for vegetarians too. Surprisingly Cape Town is vegetarian heaven even though they love their meat. Every restaurant we went to had really good veggie options.

The next day was gorgeous so we took a trip out to Kirstenbosch botanical gardens. Here's a picture from the gardens with the mountain in the background. It's definitely a beautiful part of the world.

After that we did a township tour of one of the many shanty towns in Cape Town. Now the tour was pretty rubbish, but we did get to see how these people live which is quite eye opening. Most of these places now have electricity but they still don't have real houses. It's quite scary to see the size of these townships. I'm not sure how many people lived in this place but it was massive. Here's one of the shops.

And here's a picture showing the power lines and the corrugated iron houses.

We got taken to the church where they sell things that the local people make to earn money. They're very inventive in South Africa. No one is begging, they are all selling things, some of which are quite amazing. On the sides of the roads we saw tyre swings, bean bags, baby mobiles and all sorts of things made from scraps. Here's some chickens made from plastic bags. Cool hey?

And when I asked where all the cats were the guy said this was the only one! I could hardly believe it. So here it is, the only South African cat that I saw...

We went out for dinner to an African restaurant so we could try some of the local creatures. Here's our African carpaccio plate. That's crococile, kudu, springbok and ostrich. Kudu was hands down the best though.

I also had to try the potjie which is a South African stew. Yes, more meat!

And then we had the Malva pudding for dessert which is a typical South African dessert with a Dutch origin of course:) And it was very tasty, kind of like a sticky date pudding. Yum!

And one other thing that the Saffas are into is their brandy. Brandy and coke anyone? yuk. Anyway, here's Nate enjoying some local stuff.

More pics of South Africa here.