Swan Valley and Whiteman Park

May 19, 2012 (Saturday)

Since I'm leaving soon, The Stooges decided to spend some time together as much as we can... hehehe... touching betul. So this week kami kembali lagi ke Swan River to collect items yang ditempah oleh Wan Hon dari Cape Lavender. As usual kalau ke Swan Valley mesti singgah chocolate factory. Sempat juga bought a few things as a souvenier untuk kekawan di Malaysia. Also met a group of Malaysian here, rombongan pakcik2 korporat dari Melaka. Sembang2 pasal currency exchange, makin jatuh nampaknya dollar Aussie... rugi3, banyak dollar dalam poket ni, nak convert ke ringgit... hehehehe.

Then off we go to Cape Lavender to pick up barangan Wan Hon... essential oils bagai. Bagus2 product Cape Lavender, tapi me and wifey tak beli apa pun.

Red roses depan Cape Lavendar.

Finished our bizz di Cape Lavendar, its lunch time. Tengok map, Whiteman Park tak jauh mana, so we heading to Whiteman Park for picnic. Lalu Caversham Wildlife tapi tak singgah, sebab few years back dah masuk, masa tu baru sampai Australia. Hidangan wajib picnic macam biasa, mee hon goreng yang dimasak oleh my wife... hehehehe

Saujana mata memandang, langit indah membiru.

Picnic shelter.

Cute birdie.

Wan Hon No. 1 enemy... phobia betul dia dengan magpies.

Birdie kat sini especially magpies suka curi makanan... berhati2.

Make it more touching.... sob3..... siap ada cake for my farewell and advanced birthday celebration.... he3. My birthday lambat lagi, awal bulan 6 but since I'm leaving end of this month, The Stooges decided to celebrate my birthday 2 weeks early. Me of course buat2 surprised and terharu... he3. But to be frank, I'm appreciated our friendship very much. All of you are the best friends I ever met... Wan Hon, Sharon, Xixi, Vina, Elvina and my beloved wife.

Brutal seh my birthday cake.

The best friend I'm ever met... Sharon and Wan Hon.

The Stooges port... picnic shelter B.

We just spent our time chit chat without ever thinking to visit Caversham Wildlife Park or nearby museum. Just pure chit chat among closed friends. I will miss our lovely moment, very much, after leaving Perth. But life must goes on, we can't live in our own shadow forever.

Swan Valley

May 5, 2012 (Saturday)

Returned from our Busselton-Margaret River-Augusta awesome trip, The Stooges still in vacation mood. Make a move for another escapade, this time to Swan Valley. A very short trip, but gud enuff to spend a very good weekend and quality time with a very good friends.

We leaving Perth quarter to 10 am, this time no more iMax (I missed that car tho...) but Yaris belong to Wan Hon. Gud enuff for 5 of us... yes 5 of us and not 6. If you realised the number of The Stooges in each trip kept changing... sometime 5, or maybe 6, even 4 depend on availability.

Exit to Swan Valley from Great Eastern Highway.

Swan Valley is not far from my place, after drove for 30 minutes we arrived at our first check point, Margaret River Chocolate Factory. Yes, the same name with the one at Margaret River but this one located at Swan Valley. It’s looked the same as what I saw in my previous visit 3 years ago, except no more huge signboard on top of the factory. The products and environment just like before. Personally I like the one at Margaret River more than this one.

The products.

Then moved our head and legs to Cape Lavender, just behind the chocolate factory. Cape Lavender relocated their main activities from Margaret River to Swan Valley. Their premise in Swan Valley included a small cafe, gift and product shop and facilities to manufacture their products. Not sure if they open their Lavender Farm to public, we not ask either.

Forgot to sample lavender tea.

Under the same roof with Cape Lavender, is Mago Coffee. Mago Coffee sold almost everything related to coffee but their core business of course coffee bean. The aroma just great but been a social coffee drinker, end up with buy nothing from Mago Coffee.

The aroma of bean and red roses, a refreshing environment.

Then having our lunch at Elmar’s German Restaurant. Should be noted that Elmar’s is NON-HALAL restaurant so nothing much we as a muslim can enjoy there. Elmar’s is favourite resto for Wan Hon and Sharon, and maybe for Vina too. The menus almost all contained white wine and pork. The only thing we as a muslim can enjoy here is tuna steak but again the issue might be sensitive for certain individu, since the utensil used to prepare the tuna steak might be used to prepare pork steak!!!! Thinking of that, end up with a cup of hot chocolate and a piece of cake.

Elmar's interior deco, simple but classy.

Our next pit stop was The House of Honey. They sold honey-based product such as honey-choc, honey-sparkling water as well as cute souvenier. Not far from The House of Honey is Mondo Nougat. The concept in Mondo Nougat, similar with choc factory where we can watch nougat been made.

Entrance to The House of Honey, unique signboard.

Unique deco by Mondo Nougat.

Be the last pit stop, we leaved Mondo Nugget around 3ish pm for Perth. Another short trip but memorable by The Stooges. Keep thinking for our next escape, maybe horse riding?