Hi Miso,
I'm back from my trip yesterday. Still having the jet lag.....slept at 4am this morning and woke up at 1.30pm. hahaha
Was quite disappointed with the safari.....didn't see as many animals as I expected. We manage to spot the big 4 (except for leopard) but for lions, they were so so far away that if not for the ranger who indicated their direction, we would not know they are there at all. They were resting on the ground, thought they look like white rocks among the grasses.
Sun City is overrated. My most displeasure was that our hotel room air-conditioning was not working due to a power trip (it affects our room and the adjacent room) and upon my numerous calls to maintenance and reception, they took more than an hour to fix it.
The whole episode was so ridiculous! They promised to get a guy up to see to the problem every time I called and complained that I've been waiting and waiting. The time was alreday past 11.30pm and we were so tired. The problem is the maintenance dept and reception both also dunno where their maintenance guy went to.....and at a last resort, I request for a change of room. The joke came when the porter came to help us move our luggage to another room a few doors away. The air-con suddenly came on just when the porter knocked on the door. And the maintenance guy also appeared - finally. But the porter says since we have already packed, we might as well change the room. Imagine his embarrassment when he opened the door to the new room and we saw goft sets and luggage in that room. He had no idea why the recption is shifting us to a room that is already occupied! So, in the end, we stayed in our old room... with the air-con working now.
(Our next-door neighbour also faced air-con problem and they manage to get quicker service 'cos they complained the husband got asthma and breathing difficulty. They came to them within 15 mins.)
However, throughout the night, it was stuffy and hot.....either they had a few more power trips or the stupid air-con condenser is faulty.
I woke up perspiring after 2 hours into my sleep and had to open all the doors for ventilation. Did not want to call recep to change room as it was already 3am in the morning, too much hassle.
Hi-tea at Palace Hotel at R95/pax (approx S$26)is quite good value. The ambience and food was delightful! Definitely not what you get in Singapore hotels.
When we were departing from Sun City, our tour guide did comment to us that the service has declined terribly since her last visit 5 yrs ago. She says she always recommend pple to visit South Africa and Sun City, now she have 2nd thoughts. She wondered if the staff have been paid their salary, that's why the poor service.
For the trip, my most enjoyable day out was to Cape Peninsula. We bought a decoupage ostrich egg for R180 (approx S$50). It was a better quality one from a roadside stall at the harbour for the Seal island cruise. The cheapest stall there sells for R98 but the workmanship and design is inferior. If bought in ostrich farm or retail stores, the eggs cost around R380 and above. On our last day in Johannesburg, we were brought to a factory outlet for the african handicrafts and accessories. The factory supposedly supply to the Johannesburg roadside stalls and flea markets, so the prices are reasonable and more selection. But no bargaining here and no VAT to refund at airport. Ostrich eggs at R205 for a decoupage one. The quality is similar to my R180 one. I bought another egg here.
We visited Neethingshoft winery in Stellenborsch. Their last harvest riesling is highly recommended but they don't offer tasting on that. We din buy it cos we don't like sweet dessert wines, but many in our group bought it. We did purchase their Lord Neethling Rouge 1986 (their most expensive wine at R120)after a tasting. It's extremely smooth and most enjoyable.
Temperature was around 24degC in Cape Town and 27degC in Johannesburg. You will do well with good sunblock and moisturiser. We were lucky that the devil is not smoking his pipe - no rain over Cape Town. We had a bout of shower during the end of our afternoon game drive.
