Cosmetics: BeautyFresh
Styling: Jolaine Chua & Mirabelle Koh
Photography: Mirabelle Koh



A couple of photos from a studio shoot I did with Jolaine back in July, for one of my work assignments! I was tasked to style some of the beauty products, and Jolaine helped me out with them right after I returned from my Perth trip (yes the photos are more than a month overdue lol). It's our first styling shoot together and I thought it was kinda fun especially since we were overly hyper while doing it together hahaha. Styling on your own is a pain in the ass when you have to manage both the camera and the products on set at the same time. So I was really thankful for the extra pair of hands. Plus, it's always better to have another mind to help with the creatives, so it's a joy being able to work on a project like this with my gurl :')

Can't wait to start on our next shoot (one of Jolaine's project) the following weekend!! Hopefully, this means more styling shoots to come for us as we continue to build our portfolios.

On a side note, work lately has been fruitful, albeit exhausting. I've been working on BTS/promo videos and a couple of product shoots in the office. Maybe I could post them up here soon? I'll see how it goes.

The Perth video is almost done. Almost. Well, I'm not really the one working on the video... It's mostly Zhiyi editing haha but I'll have it up here over the weekends.

Still can't stomach the fact that August is already coming to an end. The sudden realisation that half of my gap year has already passed... Woah. I have yet to even reach the halfway mark of what I hope to accomplish. And there's just four more months before 2016 concludes itself hmm.

I finally got around to revamping my entire blog layout and its design, after procrastinating for god knows how many weeks now. It's hours of coding, image editing and designing to get this cleaner look. I was getting bored of the previous pinkish one.

Here's the final installment for our five-part Western Australia road trip, where we headed to Caversham Wildlife Park to spend our last few hours in Perth before heading back to Singapore.

CAVERSHAM WILDLIFE PARK

Travel time: 40min (Northern Perth to Caversham)
Total distance travelled: 1269km


Around this time, we have already travelled more than 1500km on the road with lummy, based on the distance calculator (a built-in function of lummy's) that Kelvin started right from the moment we started on our journey. I guess the other 200++ km includes all the night drives to hunt for food, and the detours we made to explore some inhabited terrains.








The Caversham Wildlife Park is not that much different from a zoo, except for the fact that they have this kangaroo zone where you're allowed to enter to pet the animals. The best part? Free snacks are available for you to feed the kangaroos!! I guess this was the main attraction that lured all three of us to pay Caversham a visit, despite its $27AUD entry fee.

You know how other petting zoos/parks usually place an exorbitant price tag on their measly pack of animal food, just because they know we damn tourists will pay for it anyway lol. But at Caversham, it's free!! Considering their relatively pricey entry ticket, I guess it's only reasonable for the snacks to be free. The Singaporean blood runs deep in me lolol #cheapskate




The kangaroos are such a joy to be around just look at some of their poses/faces LOL. And somehow our group photos with the kangaroos really seem to be more like a family portrait HAHAH.





^See that albino kangaroo in the middle





Thereafter, we also went to this petting farm (they called it Molly's farm) where they had goats, geese, pigs?? And a couple of other farm animals.

There was this goat that couldn't stop chewing Zhiyi's shirt lolol it was quite funny. We managed to catch it on video with some of the kangaroos' antics as well so, wait for it hehe. Zhiyi and I (mostly Zhiyi actually, I'm just being annoying) are almost done with the trip video, so hopefully we can get it posted up by the coming weekend!




But after spending about two to three hours at the wildlife park, we drove back to Ace (our car rental place) and took their free shuttle van service back to the airport. Not bad, the rental service even includes sending us back to the airport so we didn't have to spend any extra $$ on Uber :')


I left Perth with a heavy heart because I wasn't ready for my vacation to be over just yet... But work is piling back in Singapore and I have jobs to be responsible for so, goodbye Aussie. Until I save up enough to travel again.

That's pretty much it for our road trip! It's been a pretty chill 8D7N, and if there's anything I miss, it's the weather and its less hectic lifestyle. Not the food though, definitely not the food.


In the past month I've spent updating about my travels, I've been pretty much busy with work, some external projects and one or two cafe trips. I'll be blogging about them soon. :)

Check out my other posts on Perth:

▶ Roadtrippin' Perth (Part 1) - Perth CBD
▶ Roadtrippin' Perth (Part 2) - Lancelin Sand Dunes and The Pinnacles
▶ Roadtrippin' Perth (Part 3) - Geraldton and Kalbarri National Park
▶ Roadtrippin' Perth (Part 4) - Perth and Fremantle
▶ Roadtrippin' Perth (Part 5) - Caversham Wildlife Park
▶ Roadtrippin' Perth - Travel Video

For Day 5, we spent majority of our hours on the road since it was a long ride from Geraldton back to Perth. Upon reaching the city, we checked into our next airbnb apartment before exploring our neighbourhood.

Travel time: 4h 30min (Geraldton to Northern Perth)
Total distance covered: 1203km



That night, we managed to find the Chinatown of Perth,  where all the Asians and their cuisines are gathered. It's mainly located around/along William Street, so if you're craving for some Asian cuisine while you're at Perth, you should explore that area cause it really feels like home... HAHA.

So while we were there, we chanced upon this Korean restaurant called Sun BBQ, that takes pride in its Korean Chicken. We loved it and you should go there. Each set is probably about 30AUD but the serving is huge (enough for three) so it's worth your every penny. It opens late afternoon up to 2AM on weekends (which is so much later than your typical 8-9pm restaurants everywhere else), so it's really no excuse to miss it!! We went to dabao some of their chicken for our drinking session on our last night too.

SUN BBQ (PERTH):
318 William St, Northbridge WA 6003, Australia

Sadly, our 30AUD dinner went up by another 120AUD when we realised we got a parking fine... :') Because we were starving and had such a hard time trying to find a parking lot in the Chinatown area, we parked along this stretch that everyone parked at as well, thinking "aiya we won't so suey kena ticket one la".

Guess the summon auntie is not sparing us even at Perth. :')
Everyone else who parked along the stretch had a ticket as well lol. Honestly when we saw the white slip all of us were not sure how to react, because it wasn't unexpected but to be this unlucky?? To comfort ourselves, we settled with the thought that dinner is 50AUD per person. So friends, please be more mindful of the road rules because another friend of mine (and her friends) also got a speeding fine of 400AUD while they were at Perth too. At least ours was only 120...



On Day 6, we woke up pretty early and begun our journey to Fremantle! We planned for it to be a day trip since we still wanted to stay in Perth for our last night. Before heading to Fremantle though, we made a short detour to the highly famed and photogenic Blue Boat House.

BLUE BOAT HOUSE

Travel time: 10min (from Northern Perth)
Total distance covered: 1209km





Yeah, everyone of us had a go at taking some really posey shots. We happened to go at a time where no other tourists was at the Boat House so we had the whole backdrop to ourselves hehe.

Next stop, Fremantle!

FREMANTLE

Travel time: 25min (from Blue Boat House)
Total distance covered:  1224km

The main thing that attracted us to Fremantle are the Fremantle Weekend Markets, which opens on Fridays and over the weekends. Their market bar, featuring a variety of food stalls and various trinkets, were what lured us.

The only bane was that everything was kind of pricey, and the price was not exactly justified for every item. The dudes got this beef jerky thing that costed them 10AUD but (according to them) it was not consumable. My 5AUD yogurt ice cream and 10AUD Acai smoothie were super good though!






We had our late lunch at Cicerello's since it was highly raved, particularly for their Fish & Chips. The guys got some other seafood platter as well. Our verdict? It was nice, but we personally thought that the family owned one at Dongara was better.






Thereafter we explored more of Fremantle, where everyone was kind of crazy about Pokemon Go at one of the parks. At that point in time, Pokemon Go had yet to hit Singapore so Kelvin was the only one going crazy about it while Zhiyi and I were just judging him the whole time lol.
Damn it we should have started our Pokemon master journey earlier while we could!!

I also got a lot of my Adidas stuff at a discounted price while at Fremantle/Perth :')








We made our way back to Northern Perth around the late evening and the traffic in the CBD area was almost as bad as Sg's. And of course, this time we found a proper carpark to park our car (even though it was kinda costly hourly) because one fine is enough a lesson to discourage us from breaking other road rules.

Travel time: 30min (Fremantle to Northern Perth)
Total distance covered: 1249km


I'll cover Day 7 (our last day) of our road trip where we headed to the Caversham Wildlife Park in the next post! Expect super adorable pictures of friendly kangaroos!!
Also, our video is about halfway through and I'm so stoked to have it up. In another week's time, perhaps.

Check out my other posts on Perth:

▶ Roadtrippin' Perth (Part 1) - Perth CBD
▶ Roadtrippin' Perth (Part 2) - Lancelin Sand Dunes and The Pinnacles
▶ Roadtrippin' Perth (Part 3) - Geraldton and Kalbarri National Park
▶ Roadtrippin' Perth (Part 4) - Perth and Fremantle
▶ Roadtrippin' Perth (Part 5) - Caversham Wildlife Park
▶ Roadtrippin' Perth - Travel Video

Part 3 is going to cover two days of our trip, in which both of our nights' stay was at Geraldton.




After leaving our super huge apartment at Cervantes in the early morning, we began our route to Geraldton, where our next airbnb apartment booking awaits us.

Along the way, we made pit stops at Jurien Bay (for breakfast at the petrol kiosk, but there wasn't much) and Dongara, since the jetty was kinda picturesque. The guys also had some fish and chips at one of the family stores in Dongara.

DONGARA

Travel time: 1h 50min (from Cervantes, including stopover at Jurien Bay)
Total distance covered: 391km









So... Kelvin was hooked onto Pokemon Go the moment we arrived at Perth. Wherever we were, he was always on the lookout for pokemon and this picture is evidence. He claims that he unintentionally got into the picture because he was attempting to catch a Sandshrew. Hmm not sure why he had to stick his ass out though.

We also got some alcohol for the night at some liquor store in Dongara because... Well, alcohol is cheaper overseas. LOL.

GERALDTON

Travel time: 45min (from Dongara)
Total distance covered: 456km





Upon our arrival at Geraldton, we were pretty happy when we spotted Spotlight, a huge supermarket with all the groceries we possibly need, and Mcdonald's. Since we had been cut off from civilisation with limited supplies in a secluded town for the previous night, all these were pretty welcoming. Guess we're true blue city kids after all lol.

After much complaining to the guys, I finally got to eat Asian food for dinner!! Omg!! I mean, fries/chips are nice but I can't eat them for four days in a row man... The Asian blood in me was screaming for rice or at least something of an asian flavour, if not I'd just settle for the $1.30 mugshot pasta LOL.
The guys relented and we went to have Thai food after our airbnb host recommended us the place. The Thai food didn't really taste like Thai, but I guess the flavours were adjusted to fit the locals' tastebuds. But I had my rice and curry and tom yum so I'm good.



The next morning, the temperature hit the lowest throughout our entire stay. I remember it being only two degrees at 7am. No wonder I was freezing my butt off in my room (which didn't have a heater). It was also the night I started to feel a bit sickly, probably because it was too cold.

After we packed our bags, we began our drive to Kalbarri, while making a stopover at Gregory.

GREGORY

Travel time: 1h 10min (from Geraldton)
Total distance covered: 553km






We didn't do much at Gregory, aside from grabbing a bite and exploring the town a little. But, we did stop at the Pink Lake!

It wasn't as Pink as we thought it would be. Apparently the different seasons affects the colour of the water but the pictures on Instagram made the lake seem so pretty... We were all a little disappointed but it was still pretty cool.

KALBARRI

Travel time: 45min (from Gregory)
Total distance covered: 618km






The road to Kalbarri was a super rocky one.  Initially, we were kinda worried because Lummy is just a two-wheel drive, and everyone else on the same route as us had their kickass four-wheel. How was she to survive the bumpy track?? And it's kinda funny when we realised that the only other drivers who would drive a two-wheel to Kalbarri are also Asians... HAHAHA.

But anyway, Lummy braved through and we are so grateful and proud of her!!







Could do with some sponsorship from Adidas since I took their brand to... greater heights... :') Ha ha ha.
@adidasoriginals @adidaswomen #adidastravel

Am I punny enough lol don't stab me.

Due to some time constraints (we didn't want to head back too late since the highways are not lighted up and the sun starts setting at about 4pm), we didn't get to explore more of the tracks at the National Park.
But we did get to see the famed Kalbarri Nature's Window.


And had only one group shot of us that none of us were prepared for :)

With much thanks to Zhiyi, I also got my cliff shots that I've been wanting to take!! It wasn't exactly safe and yes I admit it may be pretty reckless... But it was worthwhile!!



We explored a bit more of Kalbarri before heading back to Geraldton. Initially, we wanted to stop at a Lavender farm but it seemed like it wasn't the season for lavenders... I should have known better ):

Travel time: 2h (Kalbarri back to Geraldton)
Total distance covered: 786km


Upon reaching Geraldton, we did some grocery shopping in preparation for tomorrow's breakfast. We were all getting a little tired of the pies and sausage rolls... And then it's dinner before Zhiyi and I started working a little on our trip video! The trip video should be up in two weeks so keep your eyes peeled for it hehe.

Also, I've always wanted to attempt astro photography of some sort, so we had a go at it in the backyard of our apartment. It was so cold out, we didn't bother driving elsewhere since we didn't have any winter wear on us. I thought the shots were still not too bad though!




I'll try more of these astro photog in my future travel trips :')

That pretty much wraps up day 3 and 4 of Perth/Western Australia!

Check out my other posts on Perth:

▶ Roadtrippin' Perth (Part 1) - Perth CBD
▶ Roadtrippin' Perth (Part 2) - Lancelin Sand Dunes and The Pinnacles
▶ Roadtrippin' Perth (Part 3) - Geraldton and Kalbarri National Park
▶ Roadtrippin' Perth (Part 4) - Perth and Fremantle
▶ Roadtrippin' Perth (Part 5) - Caversham Wildlife Park
▶ Roadtrippin' Perth - Travel Video