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Ok, so I finally found my camera, and I can now post the last pictures from my trip to Perth. 

For easy reference, here’s a list of each day’s activities. Do continue reading, as the following explains more of what happened on my last day. (On the Day Thirteen post, you will find a quick summary of the shows that I saw with links to each, as well as a short list of highlights)

• Day Thirteen
• Day Twelve
• Day Eleven
• Day Ten
• Day Nine
• Day Eight
• Day Seven
• Day Six
• Day Five
• Day Four
• Day Three
• Day Two
• Day One

Basically on the last day (Day Thirteen), I got up and had breakfast, then packed my things and checked out of the hotel. I had my flight at 7.30pm, so I had organised to leave my stuff at the hotel, and to catch a shuttle from there at 5.30pm. So what to do with the rest of my day? Well, I always love taking the ferry, and find it very relaxing, so I headed a few blocks south to the ferries. 

On the way, I discovered a tent which had a Da Vinci machines display, and for $20 I went in, largely out of curiousity, but also feeling the need for inspiration from his designs. I’ve always had a fascination with Da Vinci’s machines, rather than his artwork. For $20 I went in, looked around for five minutes, and then went out. Either it wasn’t very inspiring after all, or there was simply too many people for me to really take it all in. (Probably the latter) 

It was a beautiful day for it, and I quickly discovered that cruises were too expensive - and too late in the day - for me to take. However, Perth has a public transport ferry that takes you over to the Fremantle side of the harbour. Disappointingly, it was a two-stop trip (one stop Perth side, second stop Fremantle side), and I got into trouble for not getting off by the time we got back to Perth side. Apparently they don’t like you to just ride the ferry for a while… Well, I would have stayed a little longer, but feeling rather indignant and embarrassed, I got off and wandered along the park near the ferries. 

I was in the middle of reading my book - something I was doing on the ferry - so I found a place in the shade near the harbour, and read for about an hour. I would have stayed longer, but I ended up being right near some sort of sulphur-smelling area, and moved on to another section of the park, and found a bench to lie on. I ended up having a little nap there… 

By this time it was about 3pm, and I wanted an icecream, so I bought one and decided to slowly head back to the hotel. On the way through, I went past the backend of Perth Concert Hall, and happened upon this huge party - a Bhudda Birthday Party, held by the local Chinese communities. It was pretty cool; along with heaps of food stalls, craft areas where you could make stuff, and clothing/knick knack/cutesy things stalls, there were some carnival games and rides… The special stuff though was the three displays: first one I saw was a small Bhudda statue, with a small incense/candle display; the second was a wonderful garden scene, created with Bhudda statues and surrounded in a circular pattern with hedges and bushes. The third, and the largest, was a big constructed stage, on which stood a very large Bhudda statue, with rows below that of flowers, candles, incense, and other pretty stuff. The music coming from this stage area was gorgeous - harmonious chanting that echoed around the space. Play the video below to hear some of it! (Scroll down to read the rest of the post) Ah hell, I can’t get it to embed… Just go to this page and watch it there. 

Being somewhat disappointed that this party was only a block away from the ferries, I couldn’t be bothered hanging around - if only I had known earlier I would have gone and had some lunch there, or looked properly at the stalls, or done some calligraphy… Oh well. 

I walked back up to the hotel, where I sat and read for the rest of the day, only an hour or two… I was getting very bored at this stage, but it was so hot and I was very tired. I just wanted to go home by now. Finally it reached about quarter to five, so I went inside and picked up my stuff. Luckily a shuttle appeared at 5pm - even though I’d booked for 5.30pm, I think I probably hitched an earlier shuttle by accident - and by 6.30pm I was in the Qantas section waiting for my plane. I kind of repacked some of my luggage while I was there, but to no avail, since my computer just didn’t want to fit in my big backpack - by about 1 inch! The flight home was uneventful, except for me being rather overprotective of my bunraku head, which I’d carefully placed under the seat in front of me. 

We landed about 1am, and I didn’t get home till about 2/2.30am. So yeah, that’s my trip. I enjoyed it a great deal, and even though I’m glad to be home, I am already missing being able to go and do puppetry every day. Hopefully I’ll be able to attend another conference before 2012, which is when the next UNIMA festival is on.