Day 5: 14/5/2007

After travelling outside of Perth for the past few days, today we stayed in Perth. Despite the chilly weather, we headed out from our hotel to walk to and along Swan River. It was quite close to our hotel, and we had no problems getting there. Again, we saw a lot of birds, but no cockatiels. Instead we saw a comorant and a darter. There were tons of seagulls, as always.

We walked down the river and ended up at Swan Bells. Swan Bells feature the old St Martins-in-the-fields bells and five new bells. That's 16 altogether. We were lucky enough to get the ring the bells. The volunteer was a nie old lady who taught us how to ring the bells. Most intriguingly, the bells are actually hung upside down to get more control and a louder ring. But they can also be rung in the stereotypical way.

The tower comprised of several sections: the belfry, where the ropes were; the gallery featuring the history of bells; the viewing gallery where we could see the bells being run; and an observation deck where we could see a lot of Perth. I had a lot of fun at the bell tower. Watching the bells being rung was fascinating.

Also, music-wise it was a joy to hear. The bell notes were very rich. Interestingly enouhg, the sound of the bells were much nicer when heard outside than in the tower itself. Still I enjoyed watching the bells swinging around their support and letting out joyful peals in various different patterns to form lovely melodies.

Lunch was at Arirang's, a Korean restaurant. While it was interesting, it wasn't spectacular. I have yet to find Korean food I realy adore.

The afternoon was spent at the museums. We first headed to the Western Australia Museum. It was one of the freakiest museums I'd even been in, and I'd been in a few. What was so scary about this one was that it had poorly lit exhibits and exhibits in obscure corners such as an old gaol. Parts of the museum also resembled a taxidermy shop more than a museum, with cases after cases of stuffed animals.

Still, the 'Diamonds to Dinosaurs' exhibits were cool, as it featured meteorites and fossils. It's hard to go wrong with meteorities and fossils, especially since many meteorites or asteroids actually fall in Australia itself.

After that, we headed to the art gallery. I was underwhelmed, as most of it featured modern art. To make things worse, the indigenous art featured was the modern version and not the traditional version. Between the two, I would rather have the traditional version.

Later we went in search of appple strudle, but did not actually find it. We went to Miss Maud's, a Swedish place, but they didn't have the ones with filo pastry. So we wandered around an bought some dubious lamb pies and steak and kidney pies. At least we know never to buy those again.

King's Park tomorrow.