Liying had been talking about this place since last sem and yesterday, we finally went down south to mandurah to visit the miniature village! Though it was a rather strange group consisting of april, me, liying, liying's landlady and her 3 colleagues, but it was still a great day trip! I woke up at 8am for it!!
We reached mandurah after a 45minute train ride on the line that i used to take every single day. Only now that I realised how far apart the stations are! And it takes forever just to reach cockburn central. It was somehow nostalgic taking the train and passing by murdoch and cockburn though.
We took a HATS bus down to the miniature village. The driver/guide was a really nice and happy old man and he gave a very informative and interesting tour during the drive.
So here we were at Abingdon Miniature Village. A 4-acre garden with mini sized old english buildings.
I thought this looked very real on photo. It's like a far away helicopter shot of a small village isn't it?!
The buildings weren't much to shout about but the next 2 are more interesting...
There were 2 garden mazes inside the village. And this was actually a cheat shot cos we entered from the exit and this spot was just a few steps from it. hahaha! but in the end we still went into the maze the correct way and got lost!! 
Shortly after we found our way out of the maze, it began raining!! But luckily it was just passing showers which lasted for about a minute or two each. But ever since this first shower, we had these very short showers all throughout the day! Until when on our way home, it began pouring continuously >_<>
Since it was drizzling, we went to enjoy coffee and cakes at the heritage tea rooms. It was such a quaint and cozy little place! And there was a wedding going on too!
It was filled with antiques which added to the whole traditional english ambience. The china ware used were also very exquisite. Very pretty! We even found a drawer filled with them whenfiddling with the furniture in the room while we waited for our food to come.
After our tea break, it was time for us to get back onto the HATS bus and head to the mandurah city area. Everywhere around the city were new residential projects and they are going for at least AUD3 million!
Pretty pretty waters glistening in the sun~ But they are exceptionally glaring for the eyes. I wished i wore shades!
Dolphin quay reminds me of freo. But a much much cleaner and not crowded freo. 
Liying's hugging-the-pole shot inspired us too~!
Ahoy! We hijacked a kids playground.
Although mandurah is very ulu, they had a arts performing centre! How nice it'll be for those who live there - sailing, good food, arts appreciation, water and the sun!
There's ciscerello's at mandurah too. And suprisingly, it's cheaper and much nicer! We shared had a seafood platter and deluxe seafood chowder which was amazing and also pecked on liying's landlady's chilli mussels which were fab too! The mussels weren't as big and juicy as those from little creatures but sauce definitely wins hands down. It was terrific! They even packed the remaining sauce home. After our late lunch, april and i headed home first cos we didn't want to return too late and cos weekend bus timings suck. And then, it rained and rained. It's still raining now. Will be too tmr and the day after and after.
It's my first time uploading photos on FB! I'm suprised at how fast and convenient it is.