Travel 2015: Rottnest Island

Our third day was the highlight of our trip -- or at least mine.

Whyyyy???!!!!

ROTTNEST ISLAND Y'ALL THAT'S WHY!!!!!

In case you don't know, Rottnest Island (or Rotto by the locals) is an island off of Perth. It is home to the happiest animal on earth - the Quokkas!

What I like about this island is that it is vehicle-free, except for the tour busses. That means to explore the island you can either go by foot (which I tabik spring if you do), bicycle (most popular choice), or bus (most convenient). Read more HERE.

Going to Rotto, we took Bus 158 to Freo then hopped a ferry. We heard that Rotto is pretty deserted in the winter but we purchased our tickets the night before anyway. You know, just to be safe.

The whole you-can-have-the-island-to-yourself claims were LIES! The ferry was packed with homosapiens! (Read: humans) I can't imagine what it's like in the Summer.

The ferry has bike rentals too that you can add into your ticket purchase.

We arrived at Rotto slightly after 10 am and immediately went to the bike rental to rent our bikes.

Lari punya la lari takut basikal habis -.-' You don't have to worry about not getting a bike coz they are abundant! SMALL, MEDIUM, LARGE, EXTRA LARGE you name it! I took the small one coz I have short legs lol! Make sure you check the brakes. We forgot to check that out of excitement and both our front brakes were not functioning well. Thank god for the back brakes though! Bike rental is AUD$30 per bike with extra charges on locks and other stuff. Also there's a deposit of AUD$100 which you will get back after returning the bike (provided you return them back as they were la brooo)

After some testing and checks we're ready to ride around the world! (OK. Island. Fine.)

Map of Rotto just outside the rental's exit

Ready to GOOOO...

... Not before we had our brunch though :D.

Saw a quokka sleeping near Subway. Lol too cute!

I forgot to take off my helmet. BAHAHAHA

Hey Mr Duckie!

We decided to start up north first since the lady at the information center said most tourists start South. Yeah we stray from the norm. We're the norm strayer. Didn't have to go far till we spotted three quokkas by the street. *SCREEEEEEEAAAMMMMM*

 

Meet the happiest animal on Earth!

Quokkas are nocturnal animals which surprised us to see them roaming that morning. Also you can get fined for feeding and touching them. We saw them foraging for food but the leaves on the ground were all dried up and they can't reach the ones high up the tree. So I thought, heck it's not that I feed them human food!

Jangan gigit. Aku ketuk kepala hang.

Not long after, people started flocking the place so we resumed exploring. Each stop we went we took pictures, which probably explains why we didn't get to explore too far. :/ I suggest if you're planning to visit Rotto, overnight there 'coz there's just sooooo much to discover!

One thing I'd like to comment is the lack of signboards around the island. We got lost a couple of times which was frustrating since we didn't have much time. We're not that good with maps either *trying hard not to blame Waze*

One of the many times we got lost :(

Thankfully we got back to the information center just in time for the Quokka Walk. Wuhoooo... It's a free walking tour to the quokka nests. It was hard to take a quick selfie with them since they just DON'T.STAY.STILL!

After the tour, we cycled some distance down south before finally returned the bikes to the rental at 3.30 pm. Spent close to an hour lounging before finally heading to the jetty for the last ferry out of Rotto.

Sunset at O'Connor Landing

What can I say, Rotto is beautiful! I love the cute quokkas, I LOVE EVERYTHING! The water is crystal clear, there were hardly any litter on the ground, and the scenery, SubhanAllah, absolutely captivating!

My take? If you're a nature lover, you'd love this place. We were lucky the weather was really on our side the entire day. Don't forget to bring wet wipes to clean your hands as our bike chains fell off a couple of times.

I wanted to stay longer as I didn't get to go round the island long enough. But another side of me felt good. Hey, more reason to come back to Perth then! :)




BAHAHAHAHA Banyak duit kau.


**PSA: Please support my travel adventures by signing up to Airbnb here. You will get instant travel credits just by signing up! #howcoolisdat

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Warm Winter Wanderlust

When I first heard from my dad that I had a free AirAsia ticket to any ASEAN country I've yet to use, I didn't know what to react. For one.. WHAT IS THIS FREE TICKET I KNOW NONE OF? Two, WHY THE SHORT NOTICE????

How short? It was mid May. I had to utilize it by July. Ramadhan in mid June. SAY WHAAAAAA~

Oh well, at least there will be some spontaneity. Spontaneity is good... Right?

*cringe*

I had less than 2 weeks to plan, apply for leaves, get a visa yadayadayada.. Not to mention my colleague was in her final pregnancy trimester and was due anytime soon. AAAAAND I had a major project going on.

Serius stress weihhh.. Like nak cekik orang type of stress.

Thank god sis tagged along (or I tagged her) so I left the planning and ticket purchases to her. She suggested Perth since we have two relatives staying there. Accommodation all kaodim.

Ok lah, off to beautiful Perth we go!

*Since we had our accommodation all taken care of, I can't really recommend any good place to stay. But if you're looking for a place to stay in Perth, why not try somewhere unconventional such as those in Airbnb? In fact, here's some travel credits for you when you sign up!

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We reached Perth International Airport just after sunrise. Immigration was okay, my sis was stopped by the customs because she declared some stuff but she was cleared fairly quickly. The only thing I hated was the long snake-like line.

The moment we stepped outside the arrival gate, a (strong) cold breeze greeted us. It just turned winter in Perth and although Perth is warm in the afternoon, the morning's below 10 degrees is still chill-to-the-bones cold for someone who lives in an all-year round hot and humid country.

We met with our cousin shortly after and he drove us to his house in Picton. That afternoon, his wife took us to Freemantle (or Freo by the locals) for some sightseeing. Lovely place! We went to the market to buy some fruits, saw some fire fuming bag pipe performance, and I had my first taste of churros (yes, a newbie. Laugh all you want)!

Popcorn stall in the market

Outside churros

Nephew

Fire fuming bag pipe performance. I can't seem to capture the fire. Sorry folks!

For dinner we went to our dad's cousin's house near the airport. She's been living in Australia for many years now. We told her we're coming so she cooked us delicious briyani kambing, sambal udang, and other Malay dishes.

Sedap bak hang makan macam org dah lama tak balik Malaysia gittew...

We also celebrated Azizah's 18th birthday. Happy belated birthday Azizah!

They have a cat but it hid away from us. Thought it was roaming outside but turned out it was in the house hiding our whole entire stay!

Oh well that was it for Day 1. Went back to Picton extremely tired. Took a short shower then off to Dreamland...

PSA! Please support my travel adventures by signing up to Airbnb here. You will get instant travel credits just by signing up! #howcoolisdat #kipidap

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Earth Hour 2015

Strawberry scented candle from whoishussain.org booth

So I went to the Earth Hour Night Walk at Sunway Pyramid last night and IT WAS SO COOL! If you are a WWF-Malaysia donor, you will get invitations to amazing events like this.

Source: WWF Malaysia Facebook page

Earth Hour 2015 Night Walk map (for Selangor event).
Source: pandashop.my/earthhour2015

This was my first night walk, although I've been supporting Earth Hour for many years. There were two major places for this year's Earth Hour Malaysia - Penang and Selangor. I believed there was another one in Sabah but there's not much hype about it. Event started from 8.30 pm to 9.30 pm, but by 7.30 pm the crowds were already building up.

The emcees were hilarious. There was a cosplay event happening on the same day so many curious cosplayers were there to see what the hype is all about. Boleh plak emcee tu gi tarik sorg to the front. Sorg kena tarik, the rest followed. Yg lg satu emcee gigih kejar a female cosplayer around the building. Not sure whether he managed to call her out though. Fun part is, the other participants cheered loudly for them. Very Malaysian lah!

#useyourpower

I didn't take any photo of the walk because, duhh, it was dark. But all I can say is, it was a well organized, very happening one.

Just before the walk

Done! Yay for the goodies!

I'm going for next year's event, that's fosho. Maybe this time, a volunteer? *excited*

Just some fyi's...

What is Earth Hour?

Earth Hour is a global event organized by WWF that aims to create awareness to conserve energy. Earth Hour started in Sydney, Australia in 2007 and has attracted more than 100 countries ever since!

What do I do during Earth Hour?

Show your support by switching off all lights for one hour (yes, just one hour) from 8.30 pm - 9.30 pm. However, your support should not end there. Go the extra miles by instilling awareness of global warming by joining campaigns, reduce carbon footprint by the 3R methods (reduce, reuse, recycle), change to hybrid cars (I'm saving up money to buy one myself!) and many more.

How do I participate in the Earth Hour Malaysia Night Walk?

Just fill out the online form on its official website. Not sure if the website remains the same each year but I registered at pandashop.my/earthhour2015. Pay RM60 for the walk pack (consists of an Earth Hour T-Shirt, a car decal, e-certificate of participation, and a 10% voucher for pandashop.my). You will then receive a confirmation email together with the receipt. A few weeks before the event, they will inform you where and when to collect the walk pack (yes, it's self-collect). You can also register on the event day itself but t-shirt sizes are limited! Profits from the walk will be used for conservation purposes. Noble plus fun, isn't it?

Earth Hour 2015 T-shirt design. Cute!
Source: pandashop.my/earthhour2015

Learn other ways you can help WWF HERE.

(Source: https://www.earthhour.org and http://www.beyondthehour.org/show-your-support-for-earth-hour.html)

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