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There is Disneyland, there is Dubai and Las Vegas....you like them or you don't like them, and there is also Sun City. The original concept of Sun City was created 25 years ago on the same concept of Las vegas...aka Casinos! At the time, capital cities in South Africa could not get their owns casinos. So Sun City came out of the plans, 2 hours drive from Joburg, in the middle of nowhere not that far away from the Botswana border.

To make people feel better, they did not only built casinos, the added two golf courses. 15 years ago, to complement the all thing came a Palace, the place is called the Palace of the Lost City. You are in fantasy, disneyesque or other would say bad taste extravaganza. We stay there, but imagine people are actually paying to visit the hotel!

Sun City was born! With it, the Gary Player golf course, top 2 in South Africa as well as the Lost City golf course, often rated in top 10 in South Africa. Each year, the Gary Player welcome the "One million dollar" tournament, early december, so the course was already closed this week to be prepared for the tournament and A-listers golf pros coming here early december.

Would I spend my holidays here...for sure not, but 24 hours was really fun. We stay at the Palace of the Lost City. Warning, this place is 15 years old and not cheap....good news...you know, the little upgrades I'm keen to land so often.

Our first afternoon was spent in the big water park. They have few really fun slides....this is where I wish Leslie was here with us. The massive wave pool is fun,but you have to wait way too long for each wave....whatever, we had 2 hours of fun. Our "little" room had a great view on the full Sun City...so extended time enjoying the view and some great wine.

For our evening we choose the Northern Italian Restaurant of the Palace. Let me make a statment first. South Africa is a wonderful deal if you stay in 3 stars service...great, nice, cheap, amazing. If you reach five star, quite often they are simply not to the level...price go higher...very high...and service simply doesn'r follow. So yes, this was not the best deal for your money to spend in 24 hours! Diner was nice, if we didn't had to wait an hour for our main dish!

In the morning, Mari plays photographer...and me 18 holes of golf at the Lost City course. I play with nice guys coming from Perth, playing at the Vines, a course I know pretty well. We had a really fun morning with great company.

What we did not see...the casino...I don't bother with them, the shopping....since when shopping is nice in SA?....and well....we did limit ourselves to the Palace, the golf and the pool and our room. For info, the breakfast at the Palace is a great experience.

I understand that most of you will find this entry completely irrelevant, specially if you are on the backpacker side, or you are single and do not care about golf, and for this, sorry to annoy anybody with our little luxury habits.

Next entry will come in around a week time. We have the pics, but we have too many of them, so some work to do on a really magical time.

Till there, with love from Africa...but not in Africa for much longer, see you soon...some dream their life, I live my dreams....

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