winter in perth

It's quite unfortunate that my trip to Perth coincides with its shoulder season preceding winter. Well, not really. Winter in a city that boasts, on average, 300 sunny days a year, isn't so torturous. In fact, it may be even better than most of the summer days I've had on the (U.S.) East Coast--not too hot, not too humid, and with the perfect occasional breeze.

Thanks to the advice of several acquaintances I met in Australia before I made my way out to the west coast, I am staying in one of the most glorious locations in Perth, Cottesloe Beach (or Cotts, as the locals call it). Unlike the beaches I visited in Sydney, e.g., Bondi, Manly (which, don't get me wrong, are just as dreamy, but in a different way), the beaches in Perth run uninterrupted, straight up and down the coastline, for kilometers. And, as with the Sydney beaches, they are no longer than a 10 minute drive from the CBD.

Walking up the footpath that runs along the beach, I stopped into Barchetta, a cafe in North Cottesloe with these sensational views.


I spent the rest of the afternoon browsing cute boutiques in Subiaco and in the evening, met up with two Perth natives, Jess and Matt. This is all part of a plan in which I am acting as a Rob Ambassador to Jess, who is moving to France this fall to start the MBA program at HEC with Rob. Rob and Jess have been e-mailing each other from their respective sides of the globe as prospective classmates, but have never met in person, so the fact that I am in Perth to act as Rob's proxy to his soon-to-be-new BFF is kismet!

Based on some of the e-mail exchanges that Rob had forwarded to me, I had a strong feeling that Jess would be nothing short of fabulous, and when I met her in person, I immediately thought, I'm so lucky that I get to hang out with Jess! (Well, not just Jess, but her amazingly cute doctor-in-training surfer boyfriend, Matt, as well.) Jess and Matt took me to Annalakshmi, a vegetarian Indian restaurant (yum!), situated on the Swan River, at the Barrack Street jetty, right behind the Swan Bell Tower, pictured here.

The food at Annalakshmi rivaled some of the best Indian food I've had in Mumbai and New York. However, the experience of visiting this restaurant was memorable beyond its culinary offerings; the concept behind Annalakshmi is "Eat to your heart's content and pay what your heart feels." This means that the food is prepared by volunteers and all of the profits go towards humanitarian causes in India and Malaysia. Isn't that brilliant?

After feeling good about ourselves for giving to a good cause by the act of pigging out, Jess, Matt, and I finished out the night at Hula Bula Tiki Bar just down the street. It was the perfect ending to one of the most memorable days I've had in Australia.