Wednesday 14th December 2022
We woke up feeling slightly hungry for a change (possibly the effects of yesterdays wine tour and not having much food after lunchtime), so went to get a light breakfast at Let’s Eat Lunch Bar and Cafe. If you’ve read my Vietnam blog posts, you’ll know that Pete and I have developed a love for Bahn Mi. Apparently Let’s Eat Lunch Bar and Cafe do excellent Bahn Mi, so we ordered a roast pork Bahn Mi to share between us. We weren’t disappointed. Not quite the same as the ones we’d had in Vietnam (the vegetables seemed a bit more thickly sliced and not so pickled) but still excellent – warm, fluffy bread with a crispy crust, beautifully cooked pork (with a lovely bit of crackling crunch), and ever so flavourful.
After eating, we walked to Kings Park and Botanic Garden. When we entered the park, I was surprised at how much it felt like a huge forest rather than a big open park. We came to a cool looking bridge thing, which apparently was the entrance to Rio Tinto Naturescape. We walked along the pathway, only to realise it’s actually a kids park – oops!
We backtracked and headed to the botanic gardens, which were beautiful.
A bit further along was Mount Eliza Lookout. There are beautiful views over the bay, and there was a nice shaded seating area so we took the opportunity to relax and admire the views.
We then walked to the DNA Tower, which (as the name suggests) is shaped like a double helix. We climbed to the top, for lovely views over the park.
We headed back towards the coast, and walked along a trail that led to the Lotterywest Federation Walkway Glass Arched Bridge. This is quite a cool looking bridge, and very elevated so again you get some lovely views.
As we continued, the path became more narrow and very sandy. It felt a bit like walking along a coastal path.
We soon came to another viewpoint, the Dryandra Lookout, which again overlooked the bay below.
Shortly after exiting the park, we came across the Blue Boat House, a very photogenic, picturesque boat shed out on the water.
We’d planned to go the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery. Disappointingly though, when we arrived we found it’s temporarily closed until February 2023. It was still a pleasant walk through the university campus though, with its sunken garden.
We headed back to the waterfront and walked along Matilda Bay. The beach itself is very small, but beautiful nonetheless.
We decided to take advantage of the free CAT buses to get back to the other side of Kings Park and Botanic Garden. From there, we walked to Frisk, a cocktail bar in Northbridge, where we enjoyed a couple of cocktails in the sun.
The cocktails were excellent. As we drank, we decided where to eat for dinner. There was an Italian restaurant nearby, 1934 Ristorante, which had excellent reviews. So Pete called them and asked to book a table at 6pm when they opened. We walked to the restaurant, but it appeared to be dark and shut up. We waited about 10 minutes and there was still no sign of life, so Pete gave them another call. Apparently they’re actually closed on Wednesdays, but there’s a trattoria round the back which mainly does pizzas. I’m not sure why they didn’t tell us this when we booked a table 20 minutes earlier! As we were already there, we decided to check out the trattoria and ordered a portion of mussels and a prawn pizza to share. The food was actually very good, definitely one of the better pizzas we’ve had.
On the way back to our hotel, we stopped off at Juicy Bao Bao to share some spicy xiaolongbao and pork dumplings. The xiaolongbao were exceptional, and the soupy filling didn’t leak out at all (which I find often happens with soup dumplings). Juicy Bao Bao also has a robot cat to deliver some of the food, which k thought was quite cool.
We were now feeling pleasantly full and sleepy, so went back to our hotel for the night.
Emma and Pete’s Asian Adventure 