{"id":1282,"date":"2011-02-01T07:21:46","date_gmt":"2011-02-01T00:21:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/?p=1282"},"modified":"2011-02-01T07:21:46","modified_gmt":"2011-02-01T00:21:46","slug":"perth-and-margaret-river-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/2011\/02\/01\/perth-and-margaret-river-australia\/","title":{"rendered":"Perth and Margaret River, Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Driving<\/a><\/p>\n

Total Miles Traveled:<\/strong> 54,208 (We passed the 50K mark! \u00a0This means we’ve circumnavigated the earth at its equator more than 2 times!)<\/p>\n

After Madives, we rested for a few days in Bali. \u00a0We got massages at our favorite massage place Jari Menari … 3 days = 3 massages! \u00a0And we caught up with my friend from business school KW Low. \u00a0How did we know KW would in Bali? \u00a0We didn’t! \u00a0But he posted about going there on Facebook. \u00a0Gotta love Facebook status updates!<\/p>\n

\"Drinks<\/a><\/p>\n

After resting in Bali, we arrived at our first English-speaking country in over 6 months. \u00a0We were thrilled to be able to read signs and communicate with the locals! \u00a0 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. \u00a0 So what were our first impressions about Australia? \u00a0Two things – one good and one not-so-good.<\/p>\n

First, the good: \u00a0the area seemed\u00a0unusually\u00a0vibrant. \u00a0The colors were super crisp. \u00a0It was like walking around in a photo-shopped world. \u00a0We asked a few locals about this super-color effect. \u00a0They offered us 2 theories — (1) very little pollution and (2) the angle of the sun since Perth is very far south. \u00a0Regardless of the reason, our photos turned out great and we didn’t need to do anything to make them so!<\/p>\n

\"20110201-DSC_0176\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Gnarabup<\/a><\/p>\n

The second – and not so good – we noticed how fricken expensive Australia is! \u00a0We call it “stupid expensive”, but not because it’s anyone’s doing. \u00a0It’s the exchange rate\/weak US Dollar. \u00a0In years past, the US $ was stronger than the Australian $ so prices were discounted or even fair. \u00a0Now the currencies are 1-1. \u00a0NOT FUN! \u00a0Here are some examples:<\/p>\n

Appetizer\u00a0(what they call ‘entrees’) at a decent restaurant = $20-30<\/p>\n

Entree (what they call ‘mains’) at a decent\u00a0restaurant = $35-50<\/p>\n

Dessert at a decent\u00a0restaurant = $15-20<\/p>\n

Subway footlong sub = $12<\/p>\n

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

\"Astronomical<\/a><\/p>\n

But putting costs aside, we very much enjoyed our first few days exploring the west coast of Australia. \u00a0We tasted the wines in Margaret River…<\/p>\n

\"Vasse<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Margaret<\/a><\/p>\n

We also visited the local Boranup forest, featuring karri trees. \u00a0The light through the trees was stunning!!<\/p>\n

\"Boranup<\/a><\/p>\n

And after a few days getting to know the wines, we drove back up to explore Perth. \u00a0The photo below is taken at the Little Creatures Brewery \/ restaurant in the hip and trendy area of\u00a0Fremantle.<\/p>\n

\"Little<\/a><\/p>\n

We LOVED the Little Creatures micro-brew. \u00a0Every one of their beers is superb, but pale ale and bright ale are still our favorites!<\/p>\n

\"Little<\/a><\/p>\n

We also found – but did not try – another local delight… \u00a0really??<\/p>\n

\"Fish<\/a><\/p>\n

Perth is the most remote city in the world, with the nearest major city, Adelaide, over 1,500 miles away. \u00a0It’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.<\/p>\n

The city reminded us a lot of San Diego with beach community after beach community going up and down the coast. \u00a0In fact, Western Australia also reminded us of the US. \u00a0It was like we were in an alternate reality complete with high real estate prices that California is known for.<\/p>\n

People from all over the world flock here to take part in the water-related sports. \u00a0The wind and kite surfing looks pretty good.<\/p>\n

\"Cottesloe<\/a><\/p>\n

Here’s the well-known Cottesloe beach:<\/p>\n

\"Cottesloe<\/a><\/p>\n

To see all our photos, check out our slideshow:<\/p>\n

[flickrslideshow acct_name=”tony-chen” id=”72157626011118984″]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Total Miles Traveled: 54,208 (We passed the 50K mark! \u00a0This means we’ve circumnavigated the earth at its equator more than 2 times!) After Madives, we rested for a few days in Bali. \u00a0We got massages at our favorite massage place Jari Menari … 3 days = 3 massages! \u00a0And we caught up with my friend […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1282"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1282\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}