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This is my fifth entry of My Perth Diary. This blog is dedicated to my EC friend, Eric; "This 'beach hopping' blog reminds me of you. "The epitome of a California guy", lounging at his lazy seat while sipping some cold Bloody Mary or some kind Tropical concoction drinks.". LOL

Day One : 29th Dec 2013

Day Two : 30th Dec 2013

Day Three : 31st Dec 2013

Day Four : 1st Jan 2014

Day Five : 2nd Jan 2014

We started to think that we made the wrong calculation of how long our Perth holiday should be. By the fifth day we were thinking very hard what to do, where to go. Hmm. But, first thing first. The order of the day was breakfast.

Since we agreed to take it easy today, my room mate and I decided to finally have a proper 'Perth' breakfast. Well, I don't know what the real Perth or Australian breakfast was, but this was the first time that we were going to a cafe to have a breakfast. Normally, we had to skip breakfast or ate something while in the car.

We went to a well known coffee shop, "The Coffee Club", which was a walking distance from our hotel. Surprisingly, there's no other well known coffee shops such as The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf or Starbucks in the whole Perth. Speaking of that, there was no 7-eleven grocery shop either. I like that. It seemed that Perth was still not being bombarded with all those global brands.

For the first time, Perth seemed to be a bit alive. Mind you, it was still very quiet for a big city, but we can see a few groups of 'office workers' came into the cafe and bought some breakfast, coffee or enjoying their breakfasts in the cafe itself. What was my typical Perth breakfast, you may ask? Well, I had coffee macchiato and omelet with tomato and mushroom, while my friend had espresso and a stack of pancakes. Were that typical? I don't know, but I know they were very delicious. LOL

When we came back to the hotel, my other friends were waiting in the lobby. Another decision to make. Maybe we should just picked the shortest draw or something. No such thing fortunately, or unfortunately. Finally, we decided just to be beach bums for the day. Furthermore, we need to return our car to the car rental company in the afternoon.

So, first destination, Rockingham Beach. It was about 55 km from Perth. After taking the freeway, we decided to take the beach road. First stop was the Kwinana Beach. 'Kwinana' means "Pretty Maiden" in aborigine language. Kwinana Town seemed to be industrial hub of Western Australia. It also well known for its ship-wreck SS Kwinana, of which the blown on to the beach and was made into some kind of jetty. 

Then a short drive from Kwinana Beach, we reached the City of Rockingham. Seemed everyone was still in holiday mood. The parks were filled will families. As any other beach in this part of the world, it's really pristine. We decided to have our lunch at the city. We decided we had enough of fish and chips, so another Turkish cafe. 

After enjoying our lunch, we decided to drive back to Perth because we need to return our car. However, we still managed to stop at another magnificent beach, Cottlesloe. While in Cottlesloe, we decided to continue renting our car to next day. We tried our best to contact the car rental company, but apparently, it was closed at 4.30 pm. Hmm...

We had no choice but to drive back to Perth City and try to sort it out. When we reached the car rental company, in no time at all it was agreed that we will return the car tomorrow. Gosh! How I wished it was sorted out through a phone call.

Since the day was still sunny and bright, we decided to go to Kings Park, a botanic garden and park atop Mount Eliza. There were a lot of people walking or jogging around the park, or just having a simple picnic or laying on the grass. Unfortunately for us, the glass bridge through the tree top was closed at 5.30 pm. 

So we just spent the rest of the day lying on the grass and enjoying the view over looking Perth and Swan River. We were getting worried when we saw dark cloud looming over, but most of the people took no notice of it. Suddenly we felt a drops of rain. WOW! I thought, finally rain in Perth. But I spoke too soon. It was just a tiny drop and then it stopped. LOL. That was what they called rain in Perth.

We decided to go to Subiaco after refreshing ourselves, thus back to the hotel. It was said that in Thursday evening, there would be an open market in Subiaco and various stalls selling delicious foods. We were so looking forward for that.

Subiaco was just next to Perth City, but the atmosphere was a bit different. The buildings' architecture was like a mixture of Oriental and European. When we reached Subiaco, the first thing we tried to find was the open market. Alas, maybe it was the day after new year, and everyone was still not in the mood, it seemed the market was not opened. We were very disappointed. 

However, maybe because it was well known for its shopping, some of its shops were still open even at the late hour (late hour over here was about 7.00 pm). In order not to make our visit totally a waste of time, we decided to buy a few things in its Supermarket. I decided to buy some peaches and tangerines.

My friends decided to stop and have another churros, again. Because it's a totally chocolate based cafe, I had to order a some sort chocolate drink. I started to love churros, but to have it again in within a few days was really a torture for me. LOL. I really wonder how could people love chocolate. Gosh!

Our fifth day in Perth ended with a little bit of disappointment, though when looking at the mirror and seeing my sunburn face, I don't think it was that bad day, at all.

To be continued in My Perth Diary : Day 6th 3rd Jan 2014