Michelle and I celebrated our one year anniversary in Canberra, Australia's mostly forgotten, well-planned, quiet capital city.
She spent her first three years in Australia there for her Bachelor's degree, and I had always been surprised by her overwhelmingly positive and fun recollections of her time in Canberra.
And while Michelle had managed to see many places from my childhood growing up here in Melbourne, Michelle hadn't had the opportunity to do the same for me.
Our first stop was her student apartment where she shared a room with three others near the Australian National University (ANU). I thought of how exciting and humbling it would have been for her to move halfway across the world to live here, and share that experience with others who had decided they would do the same.
We walked through the beautiful campus of ANU, located in the heart of the city, with towering trees, a winding creek, and a mix of modernist and contemporary architecture. She showed me where she used to study and have classes, the firepit where she and the other environmental studies students would gather, and her favourite places to visit during a spare moment. Michelle has this knack for noticing and appreciating details that everybody else will never see.
My favourite part was when she walked me around the Fenner Building and showed me the Wood Library, a place filled with varieties of wood blocks, and terrible tree jokes.
Another surprise from Canberra was the gentrification of the CBD, with coffee culture popping up in new hip-cafes, and well-designed, pastel coloured eateries.
We enjoyed soy-flat-whites and long blacks from the Cupping Room and The Goods Wholefoods.
They would pass in Melbourne.
What wouldn't pass are the 15% weekend surcharges.
The best part about Canberra?
Being the capital means it's a well-planned city, with few people, with world-class galleries and museums without the wait-lines and excessive crowds.
We spent an afternoon at the National Gallery of Australia (NGA), seeing pre-Raphaelite works from Tate Modern, Monet as well as more edgy contemporary works such as Fiona Hall's Paradisus Terrestris sculptures.
On our visit we stumbled upon a celebration of Maori facial markings, Ta-Moko, where we witnessed someone's face be tattooed as an ode to culture and identity.
Some infinities are bigger than others.
Nothing could attest to this more than Yayoi Kasuma's hypnotic and visually stunning installation, and now a permanent feature of the NGA's collection.
It's definitely one to experience for yourself while in Canberrra.
To emphasise how well-planned Canberra is, we were walking from the NGA to the National Library, and when we reached Reconciliation Place, across Lake Burley Griffin was a straight line up to the Australian War Memorial. And behind me was a straight line up to Parliament House.
This symmetry and planning was too much to take in.
I noticed an attempt to do the same for this row of trees, but alas one of the trees wanted to stand out.
The other place that stood out to us was the National Botanical Gardens, which was filled only with native Australian flora.
The rainforest and the eucalyptus gathering circles are particularly transient, making you forget that you're in the middle of the city.
There were also these tacky, yet adorable koala sculptures that had been painted by dozens of different Australian artists to reflect different environments, and I have no idea why I enjoyed them so much - Michelle rightly saw them as lame.
My favourite spot was Smith's Alternative, a secondhand bookshop, bar and music venue in the heart of Canberra. Known for being a venue for poetry and jazz music and in a previous life for selling progressive, "illegal", satanic books, it's a gathering place for the relaxed, creative types of Canberra.
After Michelle reunited with her best friend Rong, we spent a night drinking beer and sharing honest stories from the year that had passed since they last saw each other.
Seeing Michelle at her most hilarious, relaxed self with Rong at Smith's was heart-warming. Witnessing two people connect on a deep level is one of my favourite sights in the world.
It was a busy three days in Canberra, and I only photographed a tiny snapshot of our trip there.
We also reconnected with two of her high school friends who had moved to Canberra, saw an old friend of mine Jake whom I hadn't seen in eight years, ate lots of delicious food including Michelle's favourite pho and korean fried chicken of all-time, and finally we destroyed our tastebuds with the spiciest, painful instant noodles of all-time.
Seeing Canberra from Michelle's perspective changed how I view our capital. It is the place where she first experienced independence, and helped her become who she is now: an intelligent person who appreciates nature, quiet spaces and small joys.
Thank you for being you darling. Thank you for showing me around a part of your life.
I can't wait to visit again.
© 2026 Thomas Feng
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