We got our cultural cringe out of the way early at the airport in Denpasar waiting to board our flight to Perth. A more bogan bunch of Aussies would be hard to find and we felt the exoticness of the past year fade away, especially when the news on the plane, even with the sound off, was obviously droning on about the same political issues as when we had left. Nothing had changed and after experiencing so much ourselves this feeling jarred.
Of course, there were wonderful aspects to being back, drinking water out of the tap being high on the list, but also seeing our friends and family. Our friend Lisa met us at the airport with the sign we had been looking for since getting off the plane.
Lisa and Damian cooked a fantastic fresh salad with chicken and we met their two lovely Burmese cats, Akira and Mishka who won us over in no time in that friendly Burmese way.
Lisa kindly took the next day off work so we headed to Kings Park to take in the Perth panorama. This was my first visit to the city and after all the talk of a booming town and mining millions it was nice to see a lot of heritage buildings around the CBD as well. It feels like a small but growing city with a fantastic setting. Kings Park has to be one of the best city parks in the world with killer views and a vast expanse of greenery that will hopefully stay development free.
We headed down to Fremantle next and tried to grab some winter sun sitting outside at Little Creatures brewery, which cooked the best hot chips we had eaten in years and some pretty nice pizza and beer to wash it down. We got a tour of the brewery which runs through and around the restaurant.
The day had started to get away from us so after a quick walk along the beach at Cottesloe, famous mainly for the ferocity of its sharks, we got ingredients for dinner and made a dash back to the coast in time to see the sun sinking into the sunset clouds on the horizon. The crispness of the air was in stark contrast to our time in China and India and made us feel lucky to be living in such a privileged country. Thanks Lisa and Damian for being wonderful hosts.
We loved our short stay in Fremantle almost 5 years back, good to see the brewery is still maintaining its high standards!
They’ve done an amazing job to keep all the heritage buildings. It has a great feel. The next WA trip will have to take in Margaret River as well.