Sun City, The Lost City

First Sunday in South Afrfrica,... gak gereja...huhuhu. Today was warmer, the sun shone brightly, but sometimes there's cold wind. This morning we're heading to Hatsfield Sunday market. Various kinds of things were on sale, from african stuff to chinese to tiny g-strings! I saw a cute g-string with 'angel' written on it. Ooo, I want! But the booth owner were good-looking guys with naughty smiles, there's no way i could buy it... embarassing! hahaha! We fell in love with african throws... big wide fabric with African prints and handpaintings. After a long and tight bargaining, we got it! Woww...our first shopping in South Africa! First real african stuff! Norak, ah.


looks like a 'visa' ad!

From the market we head to Sun City. It took about 2-4 hours drive. The scenery along the way was awesome! Wide open land with golden grass, rocks, trees, cloudless blue blue sky. The kind of view in 'Lion King'. Not as dry as it looked. Usually i would fell asleep on such long monotonous trip, but this time I couldn't take my eyes off the scenery.


Hartbeespoortdam, so beautiful,..a place to grow old peacefully

We passed through Hartbeespoortdam, a big waterdam-lake surrounded by hills with pretty houses on it, with boats sailing and people kloofing (jumping off the high rocks straight into the water). Looks like a lovely place to live. There's an old little bridge only for 1 lane, so we had to queue. well... I didn't mind, because of the awesome view.


pretty little old bridge at Hartbeespoortdam

After another long drive, finally Finally, we're at Sun City! A huge complex of resort, hidden deep in the rugged bushveld, in the heart of an ancient volcano, unseen from the main road. With luxurious grand palace hotel, casino (yes, it's legal in South Africa, can be found almost everywhere) artificial beach and big food court, it's totally like a lost hidden city.


The Palace of The Lost City 

We went through the giant Kong Gate that took us to The Valley of Waves, the valley with artificial beach, sand and surfs, even the coconut trees were fake. It was spring break, crowded with lots of people, mostly young hot 'afrikaans' people! There's also surf competitions. Cool! Adis, Irma, Ica n I took a ride in Sacred River Ride current-pool on tubes which curent took us around the whole Valley of Water while we're on the water. Ya ampyuuunn! The water was shockingly cold as ice, spraying us from each directions!! Cold-ice water sprayed to my face, my head, my ears... Aaghh...!! Gulp! the water shot into my mouth. It was exciting!


Roaring Lagoon...surf, sand, sun, all artificially fun!

Enough for cold water. It's time to enjoy the sun and the sand. It's oOhh so nice, sunbathing on the fake sand...although it felt weird, the harsh light of the sun, warm air, cold wind, mixed together. Cuma kita yg menggigil, malu2in..hahaha. Sooner or later, I couldn't stand sunbathing and shaking too long. Seemed so much fun to play with the artificial waves in Roaring Lagoon. Splash!!! The adrenaline rushed when i got hit by cold wave. Too cold to swim! There were 2 kids joined n played with me...gw disangka anak kecil kali ya! Hunkie lifeguards were also around to save us from harmful events...yes, Irma got swept by wave and hit the harsh beach bottom. Only small bleeding, on her butt. Still....heeeellllpppp!!! Oh there he came, a cute hunkie helping Irma. cihuy!

Then Adis n I took a dark-tube-ride in Diamond & Gold Mines. It was pitch black all the way through the tunnel, spinned upsidedown, cold water around us. AAaaaaarrrrrrgghhhhhh!!! Our scream echoed through the whole valley! But it's sooo much fun!!! :-D

After a whole day under the sun, which didn't make me tanner :-( we left the valley by walking through the Sway Bridge which creaks and sways in every couple of minutes, like earthquake. Awesome.


an elephant, a bird and the moon... 

Anyway, I had my first Nandos meal Pita bread sandwich, yummm... Nasi disini aneh rasanya (Nandos was from South Africa, ternyata!).

We drove back around 7pm. The stars were shining so bright from the dark sky...(very rare view in Jakarta). We were sleeping all the way home...zzzzz. Tonight Ica n I slept in Adis' room. More people didn't make it warmer, but I slept so well, cos Adis' bed got heater!!

"God, thank you for today".