Perth and Margaret River, Australia

Total Miles Traveled: 54,208 (We passed the 50K mark!  This means we’ve circumnavigated the earth at its equator more than 2 times!)

After Madives, we rested for a few days in Bali.  We got massages at our favorite massage place Jari Menari … 3 days = 3 massages!  And we caught up with my friend from business school KW Low.  How did we know KW would in Bali?  We didn’t!  But he posted about going there on Facebook.  Gotta love Facebook status updates!

After resting in Bali, we arrived at our first English-speaking country in over 6 months.  We were thrilled to be able to read signs and communicate with the locals!   After going through a VERY rigorous baggage screening process (Australians are fiercely protective of allowing in any bio agent that can hurt their agriculture industry), we made our way 3 hours south to Margaret River Valley – one of Australia’s ‘premier’ wine regions.   So what were our first impressions about Australia?  Two things – one good and one not-so-good.

First, the good:  the area seemed unusually vibrant.  The colors were super crisp.  It was like walking around in a photo-shopped world.  We asked a few locals about this super-color effect.  They offered us 2 theories — (1) very little pollution and (2) the angle of the sun since Perth is very far south.  Regardless of the reason, our photos turned out great and we didn’t need to do anything to make them so!

The second – and not so good – we noticed how fricken expensive Australia is!  We call it “stupid expensive”, but not because it’s anyone’s doing.  It’s the exchange rate/weak US Dollar.  In years past, the US $ was stronger than the Australian $ so prices were discounted or even fair.  Now the currencies are 1-1.  NOT FUN!  Here are some examples:

Appetizer (what they call ‘entrees’) at a decent restaurant = $20-30

Entree (what they call ‘mains’) at a decent restaurant = $35-50

Dessert at a decent restaurant = $15-20

Subway footlong sub = $12

And … per the photo below… JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings book is $40 (in the US it would be ~ $25 or less)

But putting costs aside, we very much enjoyed our first few days exploring the west coast of Australia.  We tasted the wines in Margaret River…

We also visited the local Boranup forest, featuring karri trees.  The light through the trees was stunning!!

And after a few days getting to know the wines, we drove back up to explore Perth.  The photo below is taken at the Little Creatures Brewery / restaurant in the hip and trendy area of Fremantle.

We LOVED the Little Creatures micro-brew.  Every one of their beers is superb, but pale ale and bright ale are still our favorites!

We also found – but did not try – another local delight…  really??

Perth is the most remote city in the world, with the nearest major city, Adelaide, over 1,500 miles away.  It’s also where a lot of Australia’s wealth is generated, from all of the mining operations which are now buoyed by China’s demand for building materials.

The city reminded us a lot of San Diego with beach community after beach community going up and down the coast.  In fact, Western Australia also reminded us of the US.  It was like we were in an alternate reality complete with high real estate prices that California is known for.

People from all over the world flock here to take part in the water-related sports.  The wind and kite surfing looks pretty good.

Here’s the well-known Cottesloe beach:

To see all our photos, check out our slideshow:

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