Finding Life, Soul and Spirit in the Most Isolated City In The World.

I admit I wasn’t expecting much of our four-day trip to Perth. However, I didn’t want to be a wet-blanket with my lack of enthusiasm, so I turned to Bill. My trusty travel companion never ceases to create an appeal through endless accounts of travelling peculiars and I thought that a few words of encouragement would be in order.

I learnt quickly that “Australia is the world’s sixth largest country and its largest island. It is the only island that is a continent, and the only continent that is also a country. It is home to the largest living thing on earth, the Great Barrier Reef and the most famous monolith, Ayers Rock. It is the driest, flattest, hottest, most infertile and climatically aggressive of all the inhabited continents and still Australia teems with life. In fact Australia has more things that can kill you in a very nasty way than anywhere else” – Bill Bryson (Down Under).

Still, most of the oddities and wonders of Australia existed everywhere else in Australia, except in Perth! In terms of international travel, Perth was neither geographically, culturally or historically exotic nor striking enough to tickle my imagination.

With nothing very particular in mind, we visited the Caversham Wildlife Park and saw the Kookaburras, terrestrial kingfishers native to Australia; swore never again to don a woolen sweater after witnessing the shearing of a sheep, and came up-close and personal with very characteristic Kangaroos. The next day, we took the Perth City Sightseeing Tour, clicking our cameras at the lush parklands of Kings Park and blue waters of Swan River. We also showed up at Freemantle with its sunny bays and yatch-cluterred coves for world-famous fish and chips and took to the Freemantle market. In Sorrento Quay we sheltered from the rain at a trendy café, enjoying a hot mocha with churios, sharing our Tim Tams whilst others hung-out for gelatos and latte.

Yet, it was difficult to find anything truly distinctive and telling about Perth. The City Tour was soulless and devoid of any real charm. Freemantle and Sorento Quay was really just another tourist draw that lacked any interesting surprises or satisfying epiphanies.

The truth is most places feel like nothing until something happens ─ an adventure, occurrence or experience that changes the whole landscape.

Oddly enough, this extraordinary experience took place over social sojourns at the homes of our hosts and mealtime gatherings. There was something truly heartwarming about sharing such experiences together ─ the peculiar serving of mushrooms before dinner and learning that the garlic toast could use more time in the oven; the gratifying observation of how well the broccoli was braised and that fresh scallops served at a friend’s home would top any meal served at a five-star diner; the earnest revelation of how pretty the flowers were, travelling with one qualified botanist and the others, intelligent gardeners the lot of them.

Turns out, it wasn’t really about seeing a famous opera house; or a really huge living reef; or an ancient monolith or a center red and hot. It was pure human energy and social encounters that left the most lasting of memories. People were cheerful and unfailingly obliging and I unexpectedly found the connection I was searching for from sincere and spontaneous kindness and friendliness.

Most of the time, travelling the world abroad offers a thrill that is obtained from a hint of egoistic and self-centered achievement of having travelled to some place further, scaled some mountain higher, or braved weathers colder than most have accomplished.  

Perth offered no such temptation. That’s why it was so pleasant.

In all its understated reality, the four days in Perth proved a simple truth: if we embark on each travel with an open heart and mind, it can take us to places we never planned to go and enrich us in ways we never otherwise would have known

Whenever we met up with our hosts they were somewhat apologetic about not being able to take us places. Perhaps sensing our restlessness, “Your trip here is too short to show you more,” they’d say.

The truth is the last four days was Perth-fect!

View of the Perth City Skyline from across the river. Courtesy of Wendy Lim