Talking Travel on 6PR with Burgo (audio at the end) spends a fair share of time overseas but came home this week to visit the things we’ve made that we can travel to.
Man-made attractions play a really important part in tourism, they represent heritage, engineering and sometimes are just there for fun. We had a caller who is about to visit Lake Argyle, the second biggest man-made lake in Australia. We mooooved our way down south to Cowarumup where they’re encouraging travellers to stop a while and enjoy the 42 life size cows that are in the streets and parks of this little town.
The Busselton Jetty, Lake Ballard sculptures, dams and lighthouses all got a mention and we even included the biggest periodic table in the world, right here in Perth!
Enjoy the pics and audio below:
Nearly 30 lighthouses are on the WA coast, many of which can be climbed and enjoyed.Busselton Jetty is nearly 2km’s long and you can walk or ride a train to the end. Heritage listed with an underwater observatory makes this an amazing jetty experience.The water cooler statue of CY O’Connor on Hannan Street in Kalgoorlie reminds us of the extraordinary water pipeline from Perth to the Goldfields. The Cunderdin Museum, located in an original pumping station, has a lot of pipeline history that’s worth a visit.
The weather doesn’t matter when you stay at Pullman Bunker Bay. Enjoy the story below, published in Western Australia’s best newspaper, Have a Go News, available in print all over Western Australia an online all over the world.
Travel talk with Burgo was a lot of fun describing adventures to be found in Sarawak and in Sabah as well. Enjoy listening to the audio file below. In between the laughter there’s hopefully some good descriptions of the land beneath the wind.
Sarawak is an extraordinary experience whether you’re in the city of Kuching, travelling the waterways, trekking jungle paths or hiding from headhunters.
Bako National Park has a lot to look at and a lot to look out for!Throughout Kuching are reminders of how much this community loves catsBorneo sunsets over the South China Sea are always special
On 6PR with Fred we listed a few of our favourite travel firsts. First flights. First time overseas. First family holiday. Enjoy the discussion in the audio file below. Let me know what your favourite travel first is. I was in South Australia recently and my son Tom, who has travelled the world, was amazed by Stobie Poles.
With all the sites and sights of the world a power pole on his first trip to South Australia is what caught his attention!
The story attached below was published by the West Australian in 2016. For some reason I never put in this website. Matilda and I were a lot younger than the pic I’ve used for the cover image of this post. The cover pic is actually of Matilda and I in the Dryandra Woodlands when we spent time with my great Narrogin Noongar mate, Ross Storey. Enjoy the link to the story below. Maybe it will remind you of your own camping and bushwalking experiences with your kids or give you an idea for a bushwalking adventure with kids you have now.
On ABC Victoria Statewide the timing was perfect for Prue to want to know more about Kuala Lumpur. I’d returned from Kuala Lumpur only a few hours before our discussion.
We wandered through Kampung Baru and found a streetside stall selling Nasi Lemak. I explored the streets around my hotel, Hotel Stripes, and found a refreshing bowl of Cendol. At Chow Kit Hotel I enjoyed sambal prawns and satays with sophisticated cocktails in lamp lit dining rooms oozing speakezy vibes.
Prue and I talked about the melting pot culture of Malaysia and what this means beyond food. You can discover beautiful temples and mosques dating back to the late 1800’s. There is architecture from the 1940’s being reincarnated from laundries and residences into galleries, cafes and bars.
We discovered the green lungs of KL, those green spaces like Kabun Kabun Bangsar – a community garden with vege patches and squabbling turkeys and geese. There’s remnant jungle surrounded by urban jungle and parks with walking trails through shady trees that cast dappled light as you meander through opportunities to get away from the hustle and bustle of this amazing city.
It’s an exciting time to get to KL. Air Asia is flying new direct routes from Darwin and Adelaide and there’s always great deals on the established routes from the other state capitals. I also found that Air Asia has its own ride share service and partners with luxury and boutique hotel brands. I flew Air Asia, caught Air Asia ride share and for two nights enjoyed the remarkable Chow Kit Hotel. It’s a great way to travel, being able to bundle everything under one umbrella of service.
Hotel Stripes roof pool and bar with views to KL Tower (including remnant jungle). A beautiful hotel in a heritage neighbourhood.Chow Kit Hotel feels like a Gatsby era gambling den. It makes you smile as soon as walk into the hotel.Kebun Kebun Bangsar is a beautiful respite from the urban jungleCaptain Nasharudin and all of the Air Asia staff I met were so excited about the new direct routes to KL. KL is not a stopover city, it’s a destination.
In the 1990’s my brother sang in The Neptunes and one of their best songs was, ‘Down South’. It was about surfing, heading down south once you’ve finished the exams and having a good time before having to come back to Perth. Just saying ‘down south’ is enough. If you’re from Western Australia you know it means Margaret River, wineries, beaches, forests and lots of small towns along the way.
It also means camping grounds, farmstays, old pubs with a few rooms upstairs, forest cottages and beachside resorts. Enjoy the link below to my chat with Burgo.
When you head down south maybe our travel talk will remind you to pack an extra blanket and remember to stop at those roadside stalls for chutneys, jams and pickles. And remember to stay somewhere nice which for me is always the Pullman Bunker Bay. It has everything and is close to everything!
Pullman Bunker Bay just west of DunsboroughMy legs and feet always look good at Bunker BayAlways make time to stop for local produceAlways pack a blanket
On 6PR with Burgo we made our way through the drinks menu of our travels.
One of our callers described his experience of drinking Shochu in Japan which is a very spirited drink and left a lasting memory of his visit to Japan.
A favourite roadhouse for a cold milkshake, a hidden bar for a dark and stormy cocktail, a cold Peroni in Rome or a hot coffee in Istanbul. Drinks are an important part of our travels to exotic destinations and roadtrips and wherever we choose to travel.
For my second show with Burgo we decided that the new Air Asia flights from Darwin to KL were a great opportunity to talk about why KL makes a wonderful holiday destination.
Enjoy the audio below and maybe just a few of my favourite KL pics.
Air Asia flights are taking off from Darwin to KL, connecting the top end to top destinations across Asia.The street food on Jalan Alor will fill you with dumplings, satays, laksas, fresh fruit and maybe you can even try a durian!Exploring Little India during Deepavali, the Indian Hindu Festival of Light, is also a time where crackers are sold in stalls and then held at arms length and aimed (sometimes) skywards.I love old fashioned Kampung Baru, the energy of Bukit Bintang, the vibrancy of Jalan Alor and so much more, but make time to sit at the base of the Petronas Towers for an awesome look upwards at these beautiful twin towers.
With Prue on ABC Victoria Statewide we discussed the strategy required for that short interval break during a theatre show. Do you run for the bar or the bathroom? Do you try both?
We explored London’s West End, New York’s Broadway, The Loop in Chicago and even closer to home in Perth with opportunities to see Wicked at Crown Theatre and upcoming productions in Geelong.
Musicals can lift an old story to new heights, think of Matilda and Lord of the Rings. They can provoke an interest in history thanks to Les Miserables, Evita and, of course, Hamilton.
Musicals and tourism walk excitedly hand in hand, engaging you in temporary escape experiences and providing an opportunity when you’re in distant lands to immerse yourself in local culture or closer to home turning a night out into a night away.
Try and book early for your theatre experience but there’s nothing wrong with Prue’s approach to just rocking up to the ticket counter in your best back packer outfit and trying your luck!
Just a reminder if you’re booking online to please make sure it’s an official ticket purchasing site.
The curtain is about to come down on this description but it might come back for an encore if I can upload the audio file of the discussion a bit later on.
Do you sing the songs as you approach the theatre? “I’m young, scrappy and hungry and I’m not throwin’ away my shot!!!”A bit different to the excitement building at the Narrogin Town Hall on the opening night of Oliver in 1984. Only a bit different.Opened in 1911, the Victoria Palace Theatre, where Hamilton is playing, is a jaw dropping theatre with a spectacular marble foyer, a soaring ceiling dome and all sorts of velvet and brass trimmings.
Chris Parry Writes For Us 