Perth: Get Your Local Know-How Before You Go West
Posted August 21, 2009 , add a commentPerth: Get Your Local Know-How Before You Go West
Western Australia is now more accessible than ever with Virgin Blue offering flights for as little as $99 each way from Sydney to Perth. These cheap fares do exist - I got one. Top value to get all the way to the other side of Australia.
Having been shown around by a local myself, here is the local know-how to plan a great trip before you go!
Perth offers many hotels throughout the city; and the backpacker district where you’ll find cheap hostels, meal deals and loads of bars is Northbridge, located close to the city centre.
For shopping you can’t beat Harbourtown in the city centre, which has outlet stores for virtually every shop you can think of. Keen shoppers should allow at least half a day to attack this one.
For beach lovers Perth is a paradise with several beaches stretched along the coast not far from the city centre: including City Beach, Scarborough Beach and Perth’s most famous, Cottesloe Beach. At any of Perth’s beaches you can soak up the sun, jump into clear, clean water and relax on white island-like sand.
Cottesloe is a mecca for fans of the great Aussie Sunday session. There are two huge pubs right across from the beach where Perth locals head to in droves every Sunday, to drink multitudes of beer, catch a live band and watch the sun set on the beach. The Cottesloe Beach Hotel (CBH in local lingo) is famous for its Sunday sessions all over Australia and the Ocean Beach Hotel (OBH) is the pick of the two if you’re over 25 and also like the occasional cocktail: they also have a cocktail bar overlooking the beach.
To get a taste for WA’s culture and history head to Fremantle, only half an hour drive/train ride South of Perth. Freo, as the locals call it, is packed with history and buildings built by the convicts. It’s still a working port and uni town, home to the University of Notre Dame, which has taken over many of the historical buildings.
Being a uni town it is also a hippie town. You can spend all day wandering around arcades full of alternative shops selling crystals and motivational books and/or dousing the 40C (in summer) heat with a refreshing pint or five in the beer garden of one of the many pubs. Note to backpackers - Freo is great for nightlife and boasts Perth’s biggest selection of $2 stores.
The old buildings in Freo are lovingly restored back to their old glory, but it’s just as well because it’s the only place in Perth you’ll find any history. As a rule everything in Perth is astoundingly new, and any building over 20 years old has been knocked down and replaced with McUnits or McMansions.
Perhaps it’s all part of the mining boom, which saw property in Perth skyrocket in price and housing costs rise with it. This boom also brought about a new species, which you’ll find all over WA - the CUB, or cashed-up bogan. You will recognise the CUB because he has a mullet, is often covered with tats, and makes more money in one year in the mines than your politically correct office job in Sydney will make you in three years. Sometimes he also wears a suit - a rare photo opportunity for Facebook.
People in Perth are friendly, very polite and protective of their personal space (probably because the State they live in is around as big as QLD, NSW and Victoria combined). At one point they were going to ban mobile phones on buses because they thought the noise was offensive to other commuters.
For more of the alternative scene head to Leederville, in suburban Perth. Eat at the top caf? diner on the main street with Chinese lanterns covering the ceiling, retro band posters covering every inch of the walls, comfy couches, loads of mags to flip through and the best home-made smoothies.
For a bar with a difference hit The Leederville on a Saturday night. The whole back area is an open air beer garden with a huge dance floor, loads of dance podiums for the drunken exhibitionist in us all and a huge dome covering the lot around three stories up in the air. There’s loads of platforms and suspended wires up in the air around ceiling height which come to life with fire twirlers and trapeze artists after dark.
To see the city views head to Kings Park. You can see over the entire city basking in the sun in its high-rise glory on the Swan River. There are walking paths around Kings Park and the River, as well as a tower you can climb for an even better view.
WA is famous as home of the majestic black swan, which you won’t find anywhere else in Australia. Go to Lake Mungo and you can see them in droves, but don’t get too close during nesting season as they can get nasty. Especially with anything smaller and therefore below them on the food chain, like kids or photo-happy Japanese tourists.
Perth even has its own island, Rottnest Island or ‘Rotto’ as locals call it. On Rotto you’ll find beautiful white sand beaches, a bike track around the entire island and loads of native wildlife including the quokka, a cute native marsupial resembling a large rat which you’ll only find on this island.
Built by convicts in the 1830’s and once an Aboriginal prison and Italian prison during the War, Rotto is now very PC to the point of being wind-turbine powered to save the environment and a car free zone. There’s only one way to get around Rottnest and that’s by bike - so you’d better be into pedal power! It’s a small island (19 square km in area), too big to walk around but the right size to bike around.
My friend Lizzie showed me how Perth locals do Rotto. Pack an industrial sized picnic food stash from the mainland and when you get to the island head straight to the bike hire to get your wheels. We cycled around the coast paths, through the old village and down to the Basin, just one of the stunning bays on the island, where you swim in crystal clear rockpools lined with white talcum-powder sand. This was followed by much cycling, fresh air, healthy picnic feasts and simply relaxing on the island’s many lovely beaches. Rotto is a place you just don’t want to leave. Give yourself two to three days here you’ll have time to do it all, and relax with a cold beer at your beach cabin or the island pub, where wild peacocks and their tiny chicks have the run of the place, roaming free around your feet and behind the bar.
My Venice Walking Tour
Posted , add a commentWhat’s the secret to Venice? Comfortable shoes.
But please, this does not mean you should throw style out the window. Venice is a stylish city. Paved in marble. Actually, more correctly I think it’s Istrian stone from across the Adriatic Sea in Croatia. Whatever it is, it’s hard. Very tiring on the legs and feet. After a few days of negotiating the labyrinthine streets, you’ll just want a Bellini, a seat and a foot rub.
Before you collapse, might I recommend taking a guided walk through Venice? The city is such an enigma wrapped in a mystery that to have someone who knows the way around can open it up like no guidebook or, heaven help us all, map. I have never in my life seen so many people gazing in complete incomprehension at maps – even turning them upside down doesn’t help. Venice resists easy navigation – it’s part of her charm.
Catch a different side of Venice on a walking tour
Walking the streets and canals of Venice
I took the Hidden Venice walking tour, which promised to take us off the beaten track without getting lost. It delivered. We twisted and turned our way through the oldest districts of Venice, behind the Rialto market. Fast-moving locals cutting through these backstreets to avoid tourists looked at us with despair: would we now come and fill up even these secret throughways? They can rest assured in the knowledge we’ll never find our way back in here – or out again – without our trusty guide.
And she was fantastic. So knowledgeable and passionate about the city; she covered such a range of history and modern life, gossip, restaurants, art and essentials that everyone was enthralled.
We started on the top of the Rialto Bridge. Crowds milled around but we found each other easily. The view from there is great. So much water traffic churning up and down the Grand Canal. I know it’s only the main road of a busy modern city, but when the vehicles have propellers not wheels it’s suddenly so much more interesting to watch.
Where the streets are paved in gold…
Something I didn’t know was that the palazzos lining the Grand Canal were once highly decorated with painted frescoes on the outside. Right next to the Rialto Bridge, a huge building that was once the offices and warehouses for the Germanic traders was painted by Titian no less! And the famous palazzo Ca’ D’Oro (dating from 1421), which means House of Gold, was actually gold!
But it’s all faded, crumbled off, been painted over. Until only a hundred years ago, these buildings were not really valued so no attempt was made to retain their original magnificence until the 20th century. Palazzo Salviati further down the canal towards San Marco has a glass-tiled frescoed fa?ade and gives an impression of what a trip down the Grand Canal must have been like when all the buildings had that level of decoration.
Mind you, Ca’ D’Oro is not so bad to look at even without its gold – it’s the prime example of what Ruskin termed Oriental Gothic for its mixing of Western and Arabic architectural styles.
From fish markets to back streets
We walked through the market, saw the wall plaque giving minimum fish sizes, learnt to read the one-armed 24-hour clock, saw the first banks in Europe and the marble hunchback holding the podium from which new laws were read to the population. We also found out that Venice is built on thousands of tree trunks embedded into the mud and saved from rotting by the salty water; that Venice became rich from having a monopoly on import and therefore on the trade taxes, and that the Pope once excommunicated the Venetians for trading with the ‘Infidels’ of the east.
Walking the back alleys of Venice
But then, as now, the Venetians are nothing if not pragmatic and they don’t care who comes to their city as long as their purse is full.
And then we plunged into the back streets. Narrow, dark, winding streets dating from the 12th century. This is where the market traders keep their goods outside of trading hours. I saw laundries servicing the many restaurants of Venice, doctors’ surgeries, a dentist’s office. It was like getting a peak backstage; so Venice is not all carnival masks and spruiking gondoliers! Thank goodness!
Crossing the Ponte de la Tette, we learnt its English translation and its reputation: the bridge of breasts. This was the edge of the red light district, where the many prostitutes came to advertise their goods. In the 13th century, prostitution was so rife in this port city, that the Doge (leader) and his government decided to push it all into one area. They chose the houses of the Rampane family – I do not want to speculate why. Being the house of the Rampanes’ it was Ca’ Rampane, and to this day the Venetian word for prostitute is Carampane. Not a great family name to have inherited…
As we wove our way past the best restaurant in Venice, Da Fiore (Calle del Scaleter 2002 2202A and yes, it is hidden in a narrow back street and the fine waiters did not look too fondly at the gawking tour group) and the house of printer Aldo Manucia who invented the pocketsize book at the end of the 1400s and revolutionised reading forever, we all exclaimed how far we had walked and how lost we were. The guide laughed and explained we were about five minutes direct walk away from the Rialto where we had started – that’s if we could find our way there.
Venice nearly without its canals
I think the most frightening thing she told us was that in the 19th century, those in charge started filling in the canals of Venice. Fifty were filled to enable people to walk rather than relying on gondolas, which were considered old-fashioned (not to mention expensive). Every street called a Rio Terre was once a canal and it’s easy to recognise them once you know – they are slightly wider and curved, and the house facades fronting onto them are much nicer. Venetian houses always had their backs to the streets, turning their best face to the canals. Which is lucky when you consider the house at the end of the narrowest street, which is only shoulder-width - if not for the canal door on the other side, that house would have to be filled with the skinniest furniture ever made.
There was even a plan to fill in the Grand Canal to make way for cars! Luckily this did not happen. Though in 2007 bicycles were legalised in Venice. Although good luck trying to ride through those streets and over the 400 bridges. I
noticed on this visit many more ramps being built across the bridges: I thought they were for prams and wheelie-suitcases but perhaps they are actually for bicycles ridden by the newly-wheeled locals. Not that I saw one bicycle; perhaps in the off-season when the crowds are less dense.
Along the way, our guide greeted at least half a dozen people and pointed out that Venice is not a place to have an affair: everyone knows where everybody else is and with whom all the time! At the end of a week, even I began to recognise people I passed in the streets.
Our walking tour ended at the Frari Church. I had been there before but not with a guide. This church is filled with magnificent treasures and laden with history. Most importantly, the Titian painting of the Ascension above the altar; it signifies the beginning of modern art as Titian broke all the rules of his day, and also caused huge religious debate due to the depiction of Mary ascending to Heaven directly. In 1518 this was completely outrageous. The guide showed us the most important things before she had to head off, leaving us to explore the rest of the church on our own.
Venice walking tips
One tip: if you are interested in looking at churches and the abundance of art in the churches of Venice buy a Chorus pass at the first one you visit it. This gets you into the churches you have to pay to visit and is valid for one year. It’s 9 euro and each church is 3 euro so you recoup the value pretty fast.
Another tip. Our guide gave me a piece of invaluable advice: walk fast. The shorter time your feet have in contact with the stone streets, the less tiring it is. So that’s why you see all the busy Venetians rushing from place to place. And all the meandering tourists looking completely exhausted and in pain.
I tried it – it seemed to help. There were only two problems: the meandering tourists got in my way, and I had no idea where I was going. It’s not easy walking fast, avoiding people, reading a map, turning corners, crossing bridges, all in streets ten feet wide. I won’t be forgotten easily by the many I passed. The bruises might fade but the memories of the crazy, speedwalking Australian may last a little longer.
Planning a trip? Browse Viator’s Venice tours & things to do in Venice, from Venice walking tours to gondola rides & canal tours.
Sydney Beach Guide
Posted , add a commentYou think Sydney, you think the beach.
And you’d be right. There are about 150 beaches in the Sydney metropolitan area! The city’s spread along a long coastline fronting the Pacific Ocean, full of coves and rivers, ocean pools and surf, cliffs and treacherous waves. It’s spectacular and awesome and chilled out, all at the same time. And as winter starts to release its grip in Australia and we head into summer (remember summer in Australia starts in December!) I’ve created a Sydney beach guide to get you in the mood for the next Australian summer.
Sydney Beach Guide: Harbour Beaches
You can divide Sydney’s beaches into harbour beaches, and the southern and northern ocean beaches. I think of the northern beaches and I think of surf and bush (as in, plants and shrubs). Of the southern and I think of blocks of apartments climbing hills overlooking some great ocean views.
Sydney’s Bronte Beach
Within the harbour, Balmoral Beach is my pick. While the ocean waves pound outside Sydney Heads, Balmoral sits tucked safely inside with its calm water and sandy beach. Surrounded by trees and expensive houses, the lovely Bathers Pavilion has a restaurant and cafe if you get sick of the sun and sand, and it’s only a short way from the centre of the city. It’s been a popular beach since the 1930s and is a conservation area.
Another popular harbour beach is Neilsen Park. Don’t be put off by its alternate name: Shark Bay. The beach has a shark net protecting it. Although it would be hard to convince non-Sydneysiders that this is enough to keep the sharp toothed marauders away. The media, especially the world media, loves reporting shark attacks; you’d think it was the only thing that ever happened in Australia. The real news is that hundreds of thousands, millions of people swim every year in Sydney, and very few get eaten. Really.
Sydney Beach Guide: Southern Ocean Beaches
Of course, the ocean beaches are a bit riskier. Harder to protect with shark nets and the summer of 2008/9 did see a lot of visits from sharks. Can you blame them for wanting to go to the most popular beaches in the world? And, again, almost no one ever gets eaten. There is an underwater shark net to protect these beaches so… we’ll see.
Bondi’s Lifesavers: Vigilance
Bondi is one of the most famous beaches – it’s the one that always gets on TV and into movies. One of the southern beaches, it’s a kilometre of golden sand, with the iconic lifesavers in red and yellow to pull people out of the surf if necessary. There’s an internationally popular TV show called Bondi Rescue about these heroes, and they really are heroes!
At the southern end of Bondi Beach is a rip which takes people out a little deeper than they intended – locally it’s known as the Backpacker Express. The other end of the beach is quieter, kinder. I have to say that while I appreciate the beauty of Bondi, I have never swum there. I am too scared of waves. Not very Australian of me, I know. I’m just not that keen to make it onto reality TV.
One of the things I love about these Sydney beaches is the ocean swimming pools. Forged from the natural rocks and a bit of concrete, these pools are filled by seawater, with the waves breaking into them at high tide. It’s just like swimming in the sea but much, much safer. Bondi has its famous Icebergs pool and swimming club, dating back to 1929 when the lifesavers needed to keep fit throughout winter without braving the roiling seas. Now there is also a swanky restaurant called Icebergs Dining Room, with some of the best views in Sydney.
A little further down the coast to the south are my favourite beaches: Bronte and Clovelly. Bronte has a pool that I love, and the usual Sydney cafes, and trees and hills full of apartments with views to die for. Many of the apartment buildings are older style and sometimes almost affordable – if you are in the movies, or otherwise stumbled over a large pile of cash.
It’s a lovely walk along the clifftops near Bronte and Tamarama beaches. Waverley Cemetery perches on the cliffs here and has some of the best views in the world. If I ever live in Sydney, this will be my dream location.- not the cemetery, I mean Bronte. But I definitely won’t be swimming at Tamarama Beach – pretty it might be, safe it’s not. Considered on of the most dangerous beaches on Australia’s east coast, it’s small and deep and the smallest bit of weather can whip the water into a frenzy of waves and rips; you’ve been warned. Mind you the surf lifesavers at this beach haven’t let anyone drown yet – pretty impressive. I’m still not venturing in there though.
Clovelly Beach is my favourite because it is small and protected by a sea wall – no waves! And the little bay is full of marine life. I can take a mask and snorkel and float face-down until my skin’s all wrinkled and the huge blue fish are totally sick of me watching them. Fabulous. And great for kids. Not so much a place to go for sunbathing and glamour – more for gawking at the marine life.
Nearby Coggee is also great for its pools and for wandering off the beach as the sun starts to drop in the sky, heading for one of the cafes or beer gardens overlooking the beach and just watching the moon rise. And people get to live here everyday! I should be so lucky…
Syndey Beach Guide: Northern Ocean Beaches
On the other side of the famous Sydney Harbour Heads are the northern beaches. Manly is probably the most popular and is easily reached by ferry from Circular Quay. Again, it’s a long sandy ocean beach, but with the benefit of having a calm harbour side beach also. Little Manly Beach is often cited as one of the best beaches for kids to swim, and for having picnics in the grassy park. Nearby Shelly Beach, also inside the Heads, is a good place for diving with lots of marine life and calm waters.
Manly Beach volleyball game.
Further north along the coast, you get to the beaches whose names just mean surfing and beach culture: Curl Curl, Narrabeen and Dee Why. Made famous, or infamous, in the book and film Puberty Blues by Kathy Lette and Gabrielle Carey, when the boys surfed and the girls waited on the beach with food, a dry towel, and the dog. These days the girls get to surf too.
Even further north are the other places I could quite happily live were I to call Sydney my permanent home. Palm Beach and Whale Beach are gorgeous, and a little quieter than the beaches closer to central Sydney. The areas surrounding the beaches are full of trees and houses clinging to the hills. Some of these original beach holiday shacks have survived, although a lot of mansions have come to roost also. But the terrain and the local councils stop people building total horrors so the area remains pretty. It’s still close enough to commute to work in the city each day, although Sydney’s traffic can be a bit of a nightmare. And the shopping areas still have a local feel about them, unlike the tourist-thronged esplanades of Bondi and Manly.
Just inland from here lies Pittwater. A bay full of yachts and little villages, which are actually still suburbs of Sydney. It’s surrounded by Ku Ring Gai Chase National Park, which is huge and bushy and great for bushwalking. In the middle of Pittwater lies Scotland Island, which has no cars and is only accessible by boat. People living here rely on ferries or private boats to get home and for all their shopping. Likewise some of the bays around Pittwater have no road access, only boats. Which would explain why there are so many yachts tied up in the marina. Here and the Harbour are great places for sailing and those who prefer to whip across the water rather than slide into it flock here on weekends.
I just read a book about living in Pittwater – Sanctuary Creek by Susan Duncan. The lifestyle sounds so romantic and wonderful – a close knit community, a closeness to nature, silence, - and I’m sure it is, but – and again I am a terrible Australian – the thought of so many spiders and snakes scares the living daylights out of me. I think I’d rather try my luck with the sharks - there are fewer of them.
Planning a trip? Browse Viator’s Sydney tours & things to do in Sydney. Also check out Rod’s previous post about Sydney’s Bondi Beach.
Discover the world of animation at Animadrid 2009 - LateRooms.com
Posted , add a comment) LateRooms.co reveals that Brits heading to sunny Spain later this month will have the chance to attend one of Madrid’s most colourful and entertaining festivals.
Animadrid takes place from September 24th to October 2nd and is a celebration of cartoons and animated film for adults.
The event is held in the area of Pozuelo de Alarcon, which is situated in the north-west of the city. It is easily accessible by public transport and within easy reach of most Madrid hotels.
Organised by the ministry of culture and tourism for the community of Madrid, the festival showcases the very best in present day animated film and features productions from around the world.
Visitors can “enjoy innumerable films of great beauty and originality, learn new film languages, [discover] the contrast between hand-crafted animation techniques and techniques using high technology, and [be submerged] in the creative process”, according to the event organisers.
Films spanning all genres will be on show, with comedy, horror, suspense, drama, action, science fiction and children’s cartoon films all included in the festival line-up.
US feature film Idiots and Angels by Bill Plympton scooped last year’s top award, while the prize for best international short animation film went to Australian Dennis Tupicoff for Chainsaw.
You can also visit our Spanish hoteles Madrid page.
Somali piracy and Islamic militancy reaches Australia
Posted August 7, 2009 , add a comment- Australia on top again as number one destination for Americans
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- Cruise lines weigh tougher response to pirate threat near Somalia
- 60 nations meet in Bali to discuss how to end international smuggling and trafficking of human beings
By
Wolfgang H. Thome, eTN Africa |
Aug 07, 2009
The recent arrests in Australia of several Somali-born Australian citizens once again demonstrate the global reach of this festering problem originating from the Horn of Africa. The entire east African region is under increasing threat by Islamic militants who congregated in the war-torn country, following in the footsteps of Afghanistan under the Taliban regime.
The piracy problem was long underestimated or played down, and the covert involvement of Eritrea in supplying arms, ammunition, and other supplies – no involvement of Eritrean forces in the conflict has been proven yet – has the alarm bells ringing with the African Union and the coalition partners based in Djibouti.
Earlier in the week, a German vessel being held hostage was released after a reported US$2.5+ million was dropped onto the ship from a light aircraft, and similar payoffs reportedly also helped to free other ships.
What is often overlooked, however, is the use of such money beyond the individual greed of the pirates. Much of the funds so extracted are rumored to find their way into the coffers of the militants to help them to buy arms, ammunition, and other supplies, beyond what is provided freely by their political godfathers and supporters, based in countries known to continue to sponsor and support terrorism.
A few weeks ago, German Special Forces were called back over emerging issues about rules of engagement, while they were already in the air towards their intended targets. These special commandos were reportedly well on the way to take the held ship by force and free the hostages before returning to their base inside Kenya.
Some participating nations with the coalition naval forces that are now patrolling the Indian Ocean, the Horn of Africa, and the Red Sea continue to operate under orders not to arrest pirates spotted unless they are fired upon, or only if the pirates are suspected to have captured a vessel operating under their own home flag.
It is time now to enter into a more robust forward defense against these pirates and terrorists, giving the naval forces clearer and more aggressive operating parameters, and effectively blockade Somalia and Eritrea to stop the flow of illegal arm shipments. At the same time, neighboring countries need logistical and intelligence support to secure their land borders with Somalia to halt the potential flow of terrorists into those countries where they could wreak havoc in revenge.
Ethiopia reacted some time ago to these threats against their national security and continues to play an important role in the fight against militants and terrorists, in spite of having withdrawn their initial fighting forces back into their own territory. Yet, they remain under attack, and it is understood, from usually well-informed sources, that they may re-enter the conflict, and if so, hopefully with an international mandate.
Uganda is already the largest contributor of troops for the AU “peace-keeping” mission, itself a misnomer considering that the Islamic militias are not at all interested in the type of peace the international community intends to propagate and for which purpose the AU sent forces in the first place.
Hence, Somalia could well become another Afghanistan in the making, and the sooner this is recognized, the better. East African economies are already said to have lost hundreds of millions of dollars as a result of piracy, and still the pirates enjoy safe havens in their hideouts along the coast line of the Indian Ocean.
How long can the world afford to just watch things from the sidelines before some serious action is taken against pirates and terrorists in Somalia? Does it really take another major successful terror attack in Europe, North America, Asia, or Australia? The Jakarta bombings should be the final wake-up call that the world continues to face a real and present danger, originating also from Somalia, and not just Afghanistan and their border regions with Pakistan or other known terrorist breeding grounds and hotbeds. The global anti-terror alliance is already present in Djibouti, and the time to act is now, not when it is too late. Eastern Africa, and the rest of the world, will be grateful, even if they don’t know it yet.
Maybe US State Secretary Hillary Clinton’s presence in Nairobi this week for the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA Summit will aid in discussing the Somalia issue with the regional leaders to come up with a better strategy and way forward. The hopes and aspirations for peace of tens of millions of east Africans depend on it.