Part VIII: Sun City - The AfroDisney?About two hours' drive from Pretoria, in the Northern Province, locates the famous resort town of Sun City. Though with a name "city", it is more like a huge entertainment complex rather than a real city (Wasn't Las Vegas just like that before?). It is not really as popular among backpackers due to the tremendous high cost to stay in Sun City hotels. "Lonely Planet" even encourages travelers to drive here from Pretoria for only a daytrip so they can save hotel cost. While the famous Contiki (possibly the most popular youth oriented tour operator in the English speaking world now) doesn't include Sun City in their travel route, neither do other youth oriented tour operator. And now I will come to Sun City ! And I will stay in one of the most luxurious hotel in the world for two nights! Passing by the farmland in the vast Northern Provnce, I found Sun City is really built in the middle of nowhere. The only bonus to visit here (besides the fun inside the City), is the Pilansberg National Park, which is said to have better wildlife viewing than Kruger National Park (the largest and famous one in South Africa). Sun City does offer great job opportunities for the impoverish countryside of this region. Judging on the big tips handed out by the rich guests here, people here might even earn more money than me..... We checked in the "Palace of the Lost City". As its name suggested, it is palace-like. With two large swimming pools and marble floor, cascades all over its garden. I can see why it is ranked among the best hotels in Africa. I check my "Lonely Planet" and found a standard room start around $320. Fortunately, my trip is a pre-paid package for almost everything on the road. Ouside the hotel, there are three other (less luxurious) hotels, a very large casino (not really that big compared anthing you see in Las Vegas), the "Valley of the Waves" where there is a large-scale wave machine and a faked beach (Now we have things like that in Taiwan too! -->Ma-La Bay). There is also a faked tropical ranforest and many trails within it; Some fake Greek, Roman, and even Mayan ruins spotted here and there. A faked volcano and a drawbridge with faked earthquake (not really scary for people from Taiwan). It is cute but not really fun (it is too cold to enjoy the beach or surfing on the waves). And of course, everything is artificial. No wonder it is called Afro-Disney, though it has as much to do with African heritage as Euro-Disney has to do with French heritage... So when we had chance to wander into the Pilansberg National Park to view something 'real', it is a great relief. Building on the craters of extinct volcanoes, it is a little barren, and covered in sparse woodland. We set off at 7:45 am and it was very chilly. I guess maybe the cold temperature keeps animals hidden, we ended up not seeing too many animals. We did see six rhinoceros(µR¤û), three elephants (but they turned their back on us), two zebras, numerous wildebeest (¨¤°¨), and a group of African velvet monkeys. No lions, cheetah, or even hippos and gireffe....what am I here for :-<.... After returning to Sun City, I just take the whole afternoon off, without doing anything (not even lying on the faked beach to enjoy the lapping sound of the faked waves). It is what a vacation should be, isn't it? I still regret that I didn't see enough African wildlife as I desired. In fact, South Africa is a little bit overdeveloped by European colonizers in the past few hundred years. Most of what I see so far are either farmlands or residence. For wildlife viewing, people usually have to go into wildlife reserve or national park. But, there are not really that many national parks ndeed. Maybe, I will try Kenya next time. |