Albany, Western Australia Trip - Day 1

Hyundai iMax Interior

2nd Jan 2011
Having gone to bed early and our body clocks adjusted to wake up early, both KK and I woke up around 6:30ish. On a second thought it could be the two day trip to Albany in Western Australia we were going to embark on that day. This trip had come together in an impossible way. My older brother or the only sibling I have, Ash-da, and his wife aka D-bhauju live in Perth. They have a wonderful newly bought house including a brand new barbie (it's not a doll mind you; that's what Aussies call their grill) that was inaugurated with lamb and other meat and non-meat varieties the day after we arrived. My cousin sister Swe and her husband or Pa-jwai's paperwork was not ready up until the very last moment. With my aunt or Swe's mom's blessing, Swe and Pa-jwai were visiting from Kathmandu as well and what a pleasant surprise it was to know after we had already started our travel that they were going to be here as well. After our weeklong stay in Sydney with my brother-in-law Kir and his wife Rosh, they had joined us in Perth to explore the west coast together. This Perth get together had been in the making for about a year before it finally came true. And the Albany trip, Ash-da's idea with mamu's strong backing from what she had seen during her visit, was in order and our happiness knew no boundaries.
As the morning tummy growl orchestra started playing, spacious living area was ready to get busy with breakfast orders. With house full of enthusiastic volunteers I hardly ever had to lift a finger. All I needed to do was get my packing done, get ready and show up. I could politely sit my butt down on the couch and the breakfast would be served. So it was. While we got busy with eating, Ash-da and bhauju left to pick up the rental van. As Pa-jwai and Kir were bringing laughter to the room, we could hear the sound of an engine outside. I hurried outside to find the eight-seater Hyundai iMax being backed up to the driveway. It was spacious and sat tall. All ready for the trip, we hauled our luggage and an Esky (that's what they call a cooler downunder) to the boot (aka trunk) of the van. With some organizing, everything did fit in the trunk, and all eight of us fit in the van, Ash-da being the designated driver for the entire trip, and bhauju and Kir the possible substitutes. The house was locked but the security system was left unactivated for the fear of false alarm being set off by crawling bugs in the summer. Without a friendly neighbor to hand over the keys to, Ash-da and bhauju had to take their chances with the burglar.

We were now leaving at the 9ish morning hour and had about four hours or 400 kilometers of driving south-east on the Albany highway to get to the port city of Albany. Little could I believe my ears when I later heard that we would see the Southern ocean. I had not seen much ocean growing up. Nepal is a landlocked country where I spent the first 18-19 years of my life. Then I have been mostly inland in the US and I am not much familiar with the beach culture so to speak. Although I must admit I did see Atlantic ocean during my visit to Miami, Florida in 2001 and the Pacific Ocean from San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco. This trip had been a wonder in the oceanic sense as we spent a lot of time on Pacific ocean beaches while at Sydney. I would be spending time on Indian ocean beaches here in Perth later. With this trip, I would be able to check off all the oceans from my oceans-to-see list as if I ever had one.

Stirling Range

With only a couple of stops but a planned and an unplanned detours, it took us comfortably more than four hours to get to Albany. Pa-jwai's articulate story telling and Kir's spouting sense of humor kept us entertained. With Pa-jwai's DJing abilities, Ash-da's passion for driving, and Kir's navigation skills, the ride couldn't be more exciting. Cousin Swe has grown up to be a mature lady and a glib talker herself. I quite enjoyed listening to her life experiences. She has been through a lot for her age and anyone can learn a lot about life just by sincerely listening to what she has to share. Sharing the third row of three seats with KK and Swe gave me a chance to listen to her experiences. One advice be it useless or not that I would impose as a big brother is that she does need to try a bit harder to see things from an alternative perspective once in a while. Having said that I am sure I have my own set of biases. "Antakshari" probably lasted for about half an hour during the ride. It's always effortless to talk to KK about random things that come to my mind, which helps no matter where I am. The indeliberate detour gave us a chance to enjoy the Stirling range a bit more.  Stirling range is a mountain range in Western Australia with its own signatory landscapes, though very different from Nepali mountains.It is simply nonsensical to label a taller mountain more beautiful or for that matter the idea of rating nature's beauty itself is quite senseless. I love mountains in Nepal and I loved Stirling range as well.

Albany City Center

It was about 3pm and now we were in the heart of Albany, a nice little town, ready to pick up a set of keys to the 3 bedroom beach house Ash-da and bhauju had made reservation for all of us about 5 months ahead of time. As some of us waited in the van, I got a sense that we were smack in the middle of Albany downtown. The street was lined with some old Victorian style buildings and souvenir shops, other retail stores, and restaurants in the area gave a testament of how the town is frequented by tourists. The drive up the hill and by the shore was

12 By The Sea, similar to where we stayed

beautiful and I know I speak for all when I say the place was completely and more than half a day worth of driving. After a little frustration and confusion about finding the exact house we were staying at, we finally pulled up to a garage similar to the one in the picture here. The place was awesome with all fully equipped kitchen, two restrooms, and a TV in the living area. I caused Ash-da a little pain by expecting a view of the ocean out the back door, but I later found out the beautiful Middleton beach was literally two minute walk away. Immediately I also realized I could actually hear the waves. This "12 by the sea" beach house was going to be the closest house from the ocean I had ever spent the night in.

View from Mt. Clarence

Skipping lunch for snacks and such had made KK and possibly others a little more irritable than usual and we promptly headed out to the city center again in search of a place to eat and with intent to grocery shop and do a bit of sight-seeing as well. After finding out that a few of the restaurants were already closed, we quickly decided to eat at a Hong Kong cafe which looked a little deserted. Having had to throw away a lot of food at a Malay-Chinese restaurant in Sydney and our general experience with the serving size in most of the Chinese restaurants back in the US, KK and I decided to get an appetizer and a regular vegetarian noodle for the both of us which turned out to be not enough for two people. So, I got to try different dishes being generously offered to me while I waited for my additional order to arrive. Calamari for the appetizer and my sweet and sour duck was pretty average but quite filling to the hungry stomach. We strolled to the ANZAC peace park from the restaurant afterwards and performed out usual photo-taking rituals. The Peace Park stood as a symbol to remind the visitors that Albany was a departure point for soldiers in World War 1. After hitting the IGA supermarket for some breakfast items including real Aussie stuff like vegemite, we hit the road again to get to Mt. Clarence. How magnificent the view from Mt. Clarence was I cannot simply put in words.

One more stop at a lookout spot where Ash-da pointed out a trail that he and daddy hiked about a year ago and we called it a day, went back to the "12 by the sea" house, watched some local TV, had a beer or two, and hit the sack with thoughts of exploring the beautiful city of Albany some more the next day.