Freo

Fremantle, or Freo to the locals, is a seaside town about 20 miles from Perth  home to the 'cappuccino strip'.  The brochures made it sound like you couldn't move for coffee shops, but they were obviously on a break the day we arrived as not a single outlet was serving coffee!

Freo High Street

Freo is famous for its well preserved 19th century buildings and convict built buildings. The first British convicts arrived in 1850, after local farmers requested skilled labour be sent from the UK. In 1851, the skilled convicts started work on Fremantle's infrastructure, building a prison and a series of aquifers supplying the town with fresh water.


Fremantle Prison was completed in 1855 and only closed in November 1991.   It is now a UNESCO world heritage site and tours are conducted daily.

Freo Hilton

Easy to get in...

Built entirely by convict labour

1 Division

The prison opened in 1855 with capacity for 800 inmates, but at its peak it housed more than 2000 men and women.

Used until the day it closed!

Original en suite room, 7ft x 4ft.

The prison never had any sanitation in the cells.

An easy working day!

Luxury TV from 1990!

Convicts had the option to work whilst enjoying their time inside.  Half of the money earned was automatically saved for when the inmate was released, whilst the other half was able to be spent on 'luxuries', ranging from chocolate and cigarettes to electrical items. Wages averaged $17 a week, and a TV cost $250!

The prison was a maximum security prison, and mainly housed violent male offenders, where the average sentence was just over 7 years. In 1989, the prison was severely damaged when a riot broke out.  Fire broke out and burned for 19 hours, as fire engines could not fit through the main prison gates.

In 1990, the prison received notice that it was to close (maybe due to the shortcomings highlighted by the riot). As a 'gift' inmates were allowed to decorate their cells and yards. Most of these works of prisoner art are preserved, although some of the more brutal images (and one of how to steal an ATM in 4 steps!) were removed.

Arty

Maximum Security

mmmm beer

We headed back into the 42c heat, and quickly decided to find a drink! We came across Little Creatures - a microbrewery, so thought we had better try some as they had gone to all that effort to brew it onsite! 

Refreshed, we had a quick walk around the marina before heading back to Perth in a lovely air conditioned train! Bliss! 

Freo Marina

Freo Lighthouse - but I guess you
guessed as much!

Hello Australia! Arrived in Perth

I now love Qantas! What an awesome service they provide - the meals were amazing, the drinks plentiful, the seats really comfortable and the choice of movies was immense. Shame it was only a 5 hour flight!

So we touched down in Perth at 2pm to a balmy 32c and 25% humidity - perfect!  The rest of the day was spent doing the mundane things like food shopping, washing, ironing and chilling out for the first time in a month!

After a well deserved late start the next morning, we got on the free bus into town (even though it was only a mile!) and went exploring.   The locals weren't very helpful assisting Amy with the map reading, but we found our way to the Swan River Esplanade. Just our luck that it was also the first day of the Perth heatwave, and temperatures topped out at 39c.

Perth City Centre from the Esplanade

The city is officially home to 1.8 million people ( out of 2.2m who live in the whole of Western Australia which is over 1m sq miles or 11x the size of the UK) but the city centre can be walked from end to end in less than 15 minutes.

Big bells

The landmark in Perth is the Bell Tower - 'they  have Big Ben, we have big bells!' reads the slogan.  The set of bells is made up of 12 bells from St-Martin-in-the-Fields in Trafalgar Sq, 6 more cast by the Whitechapel Bell Company in 1988 as a bicentenary gift from the UK, and the additional bells are cast of metals mined within WA.

You can go in, but as its made of glass you can see it all from the outside!

We finished the city centre and headed up to Kings Park, the largest inner city park in the world - 20% bigger than Central Park.

Totes Amaze!

The view of the CBD and the Swan River is amazing from the park.

Perth, WA

A fine old specimen

Don't look down

Kings Park shot to fame in 2008 when it heard that a 750 year old tree was due to be felled in the Kimberley region to make way for a new highway.  The tree in question, a Boab tree, was dug up, transported 3200 kilometres and transplanted into Kings Park, making it the oldest tree to be transplanted in history.

A glass walkway has also been constructed in the Botanical Garden area of the park. It spans over 200m, 55m above the ground, providing visitors with a view of the tree canopy. 

Firm body

It's a creek darling

The water garden was designed to replicate a typical Darling Range creek, Darling Range being the escarpment to the south of Perth.

The park is also home to a number of sculptures and art installations, including a memorial unveiled in 1999 to mark the centenary of Women's Suffrage in WA, as well as over 200 species of birds.

It's a bird

Not a bad first day in Perth!

Last Stop in Asia; Singapore

We arrived in Singapore around lunchtime, checked in and had the world's most expensive sandwiches in the local sandwich bar.  The cloud was low but the temperature and humidity were both very high so we decided to walk to Orchard Road in search of shops with air-con! We found them, selling exactly the same stuff that was on sale in KL for twice the price, but at least it was cool!

We started to walk the 3 miles to Marina Bay, but thankfully found an MTR to take us there instead!  When we arrived just as the sky started to get very black. We decided against a ride on the Singapore Flyer when the lightening started and the rain tried to crack the pavement.

We had some food and wandered back along the river to our hotel in Clarke Quay, a former warehouse district that has been conserved and converted into an entertainment and dining hub.

Thursday morning started as Wednesday night had finished - hot with 90% humidity - the perfect weather for a trip to the zoo!


It takes about an hour to get to the zoo from the city, and in that time the humidity decided to gather itself and form the kind of rain that hurts to walk in. Undeterred (well we had already paid $100 SD to get in!!) we bought 2 luminous green full body ponchos, pulled our hoods tight and went in search of animals.




It seems animals like the rain as much as humans who do not have luminous green full body ponchos, and had all buggered off indoors.
All of them apart from the otters, who were being bribed with food to stay out!
As soon as the otters had been fed, the rain stopped and the sun came out again. In 30 mins of rain about 3 inches fell!

Singapore zoo prides itself on having no fences, just carefully constructed enclosures.




This very commendable, until you realise that a few feet away from you are three very hungry white tigers, capable of jumping a long way!




Time for education!
What is this?

Nope - this is a warthog!

The one above is a Babirusa, a type of pig found in Indonesia, easily identified thanks to the upper canine penetrating the skin and growing upwards, whereas the Warthog's canines do not penetrate the skin. So there you go - just in case you are ever in Indonesia and need to identify one! 

Our day at the zoo was rounded off nicely by some playful Orang-Utans stopping by to say goodbye before scampering back up the trees!

After the zoo we went to the Night Safari - the world's only nocturnal zoo.  It is fully open air and is lit with specially designed lighting that closely resembles moonlight. We walked the three walking trails, watched a Disney style animal show then boarded a tram for a 40 minute narrated tour through the habitats. Awesome to see the usually sleeping animals awake!


It was dark but the human eye is very sensitive.  
Camera lenses are not so - grrrrr.

Night safari by night

The next day was much more comfortable at only 34c and 85% humidity, so we went to Sentosa Island - Singapore's party island.  Just a mile off the the mainland, it is a place of beaches, theme parks and attractions. 

We started at a coffee bar (not Starbucks but close!!) and headed to the most southerly point of continental Asia - only a 20 minute trek!

The man made beaches were quiet, so I  decided to make a sand castle. 




I should choose my battles more wisely, as Amy was in building mode! 

We found a luge track, and this time I knew I had to beat Amy to get some pride back.  I started my training.

Cameras were banned on the track - you'll have to remember the laws of gravity to figure out who won!








We wandered back to the monorail stop through the flower show, posed, and then beat the rain back to town.

In the evening we caught the 'Wonderful' Light show at Marina Bay, before heading back to Sentosa to watch the Crane Dance and the Lake of Dreams shows

MBS Light Show  - It really is Wonderful!

Still wonderful

Is it a Lion? Is it a Mermaid? Yep - both! Meet Singapore's Merlion at Marina Bay

The world's only animatronic crane show - go figure!

On our last day the weather was still v humid, so after a Starbucks (mmmmmmm) we headed to the outdoor Botanic Gardens!

Daft idea - we melted almost immediately, but persisted and walked a few miles around the healing garden and the discovery garden before the rain clouds rolled in. 

Too big

A spider the size of a hand and a bee bigger than a fist definitely signalled our time in the gardens was up, and being experts on spotting tropical storms, we decided the safest place to be was inside, so off to Raffles!

Wheeler sized insects

Raffles, the quintessential colonial hangout in Singapore. Well, yes it is if you have £500 per night for a room. We joined the other non-residents in the famous Long Bar, had our Singapore Slings and munched through a whole pot of monkey nuts (whilst throwing the shells on the floor - its tradition!!)

Be prepared to drink
these when we're back! 

Proper history

CHEERS ASIA