Brief glimpse of Perth

I managed to visit the few main tourist areas while I was in Perth such as the city (of course), Northbridge (China town), Subiaco, Freemantle and King's park. Also managed to pass by popular beaches such as Scarborough and Cottlesloe - beautiful indeed.



Photo taken outside Curtin University (city campus). According to a friend, it has another campus outside of city.

I was told there is a bakery that is famous for its apple strudel and it's situated on Victoria Street in the city centre. Me and another friend wandered around city in the hunt for the bakery then to realise it's actually in Northbridge. During the hunt, we stumbled upon a bakery owned by Vietnameses and we went in to ask if it was the famous bakery (being naive). Hah, the owner did not say yes but told us MANY Singaporeans go a long way to bring home their apple strudels. Desperate for the strudel, we decided to give it a go..


I did not order apple but vanilla custard strudel instead. Each strudel costs AUD2.80 and oh my mama - look at the size! I also had half of their rum truffle because it looked so gigantic and yummy.



Taking the first bite with excitement and great anticipation~


My look reveals the quality of taste..




I then went roaming around city aimlessly after realising the famous strudel is not within walking distance. Yeen pretending to be a kangaroo.


Cheeky Yeen~






My first musical experience - The Beauty and the Beast! Produced by Disneyland. It was awesome and I had lots of fun watching and listening to their beautiful lyrics and powerful singings. My heart melted when the beast fell in love with Belle..until the Beast turned back into the prince.. We all share the same verdict - The beast looks better than the Prince..




During break time, I found this very thoughtful room beside the washroom~ Perfect for a theatre!

Determined to try the apple strudel (fine, my whole trip pretty much revolved around it) - I made a visit the NorthBridge the next day.

AC told me I should try the chinese foods there; especially those hiding in the little streets off main street. The foods were meant to be delicious and cheap.


I did. Found an area with hawker stalls off the main Northbridge street and decided to have a go at their DimSum. My opinion = not fantastic. The Siu Mai was good but the rice noodle of their Cheong Fan was too thick. Felt like eating flour with intermittent taste of prawn and soya sauce.


Ohhh wahahahaha - I finally fulfilled my purpose to Perth. I found the Apple Strudel! The bakery's name is Corica. Apparently the baker who makes the pastry has moved to another bakery called 'Love bite'. I couldn't find that bakery but that's ok because I think the pastry from Corica should be just as good. I thought they were going to sell it in small pieces like the AUD2.80 one I tried. But holy mama, the only size that they have was a half a meter long (ok, exaggerated a bit here) apple strudel that costs AUD16.80!



Still had to buy regardless.. Hmm hmm.. the sales ladies at the bakery were pretty rude though - impatient and were not very helpful. But the strudel - excellent!

I reckon Freemantle is perhaps one of the most popular places in Perth. Everywhere I went and everyone I spoke to had recommended me to make a visit to that place. It's slightly further than all the other places I have been to and took me about 1 hour one way to bus there.


Freemantle has lots of beautiful and unique architecture. It gives me an impression that it is an old town but on observation, all the buildings are well-maintained .



Saw this outside the main entrance of freemantle market. Thought it's interesting. Had an urge to try the herbal drugs but was too coward to put my thought into action haha.


Inside the market..

There is a seafood store right at the entrance and it is linked to a fish and chips restaurant. With an extra AUD6, we could order the seafoods we want to eat and the chef next door would cook them for us. Chips and salad come with the AUD6.


Fresh oyster with lemon juice - Yuuumm!



I had Rainbow trout pan fried with olive oil, herbs and pepper, deep fried baby octopuses and a baby sardine. On top of that, I also ordered bubble milk tea and tako balls. A very tummy satisfying session.


After the fattening meal, I decided to take a walk in the King's Park - a well maintained botanic garden with hundreds of different wild flowers species. It's about 400 hectares big and overlooks the city of Perth and Swan River.


After the quick walk - it was time to meet up with my bunch of high school friends.. something I have been looking forward to since I knew I was going to Perth!

IADR Conference

The IADR conference started on 1st Oct at 1pm. Because of jet lag, we all woke up at about 7am @_@. We had heaps of time on our hands being the early birds hence we took our sweet time getting ready and did a bit more preparation for the poster presentation.

University of Otago's student representatives at their most 'presentable' appearances and lugging their posters everywhere they went. We had done well - we guarded our posters with our lives. "If poster dies - I die" *shiver*


All from University of Otago - 5 students, one professor and one lecturer.


Mock Poster presentation competition.

After we got to the venue, we found out the poster competition was postponed to the next day. We then attended a part of the welcome talk as well as a few research presentations; followed by sneaking away..... to roam around Perth city.

That very evening, the conference held a welcome function at the Dental department of the University. Was told that they serve very good food every year... how could I miss that?! Moreover, I made sure I went there with VERY empty stomach hohoho.. Wanted to take photos of the finger foods but felt it was too embarrasing.

Bird's view of participants of the conference from 1st floor of dental school..

Me and another Malaysian schoolmate then wandered away hoping to catch a brief glimpse of the clinics and laboratories (we were told all the rooms were locked by then and we wouldn't be able to see anything). But god was once again kind to us! According to my schoolmate, I managed to 'charm' the security / cleaner to open all the doors for us haha. Well, it didn't need much except to be nice, smiley with a blend of sweet talks.. somehow don't know how, he was very happy and decided to open every single door and turn on every single light for us to have a good thorough look at the learning equipments and environment. Not only that, he was happy for us to pose and take pictures like we were from the Uni!


Dental laboratory for the students. Not even do the students have their own seats, proper suction system to clean away the debris, own functioning burs... they even have their own compartments for storage of models etc! These people have no idea how lucky they are!


Simulation clinic with proper phantom heads! And every phantom head had a tongue!!!


We ended our first evening at the conference feeling a wee bit tipsy and followed by my first musical ever - The Beauty and the Beast! (Elaboration to follow)

The next few days were pretty similar with presentations after presentations. The most exciting parts were always the tea breaks. I looked forward to the foods everyday and made sure I had a lot because they were all so yummy!

The conference organizer arranged a formal dinner on the second day at the Matilda Bay restaurant not too distant from Trinity college. It was a very cosy restaurant with a perfect view of the bay and the yatches. I couldn't snap a view of the scenery as it was too dark but trust me - it was beautiful.

Photo of us before heading to the restaurant. Reminds me a quote from a wise friend (can't remeber who) - EVERY woman needs a little black dress in her wardrobe.

My Holiday at the Mount Cook

I am having my holiday now and it's been 3 weeks since I have been free from fixed schedules. During this holiday, unlike last year, I don't get the chance to go home and enjoy life back in Asian countries. This time, I get the opportunity to go to Mount Cook and Wellington! :)

I went to Mount Cook and Lake Tekapo during the first week of holiday and I must say, it was a great great experience! I utterly enjoyed my trip and for the first time, I actually appreciated NZ's scenery whole heartedly.

Lake Tekapo has one of the most beautiful night skies in the world and star gazing is a popular thing to do when tourists visit the place. There is an Canterbury University built observatory where it holds a very powerful telescope. There is a star gazing tour every night where the tour guide would introduce the different stars etc and people get a chance to experience the powerful telescope. Well, it was certainly very tempting to try but too bad, it was too expensive - NZD65 per person! Eventually, I decided to just star gaze with my naked eyes haha. Cheap and convenient. Was told by a friend that apparently the city council has a rule where the houses in the area were not allowed to install lights that shine towards the sky as this would hinder the reflection of light from the stars.. very interesting indeed.

There is also a cafe built beside the observatory named Astro cafe. It is in general built of glasses and it has a million dollar view where people get to enjoy the scenery of Southern Alps and Mount Cook while having coffee / sandwiches. I had lots of fun looking at the wonder of nature while having my cup of Latte.




There are also Salmon farms around the area. Apparently the salmons are extremely strong and lean because they swim against the water flow in the river. Whatever it is, I didn't really pay much attention as my main focus at that time was to: BUY the SASHIMI and feast on them. On top of that, I also had the opportunity to feed the salmon and introduce Macho to his favourite food. I think I overdosed myself with sashimi in the 3 days.




Then it's the Mount Cook. All I have to say about that place is - it is beeeaaaauuuuutttiiffuulll!! The snow, the hotel, the scenery, the glaciers..



Take home message = MUST GO!

And after the 3 days of fun-filled road trip, Macho was the most exhausted 'person' *_*"" He was so exhausted he slept through the night and day after he got back to Dunedin..........