Sun City

I remember Sun City from ages ago, when I was a student - it was a symbol of the apartheid regime, and musicians who performed there were generally reviled: the roster of the dissed included Elton John, Tina Turner, Rod Stewart, Queen and Ray Charles. The history is that Sun City was created as a casino in the late 70s in one of the "Bantustans" which happened to allow gambling and topless "revues" - and white South Africans from nearby Johannesburg and Pretoria flooded in to ogle and lose their money. Sun City is still going strong - and now includes a golf course (designed by Gary Player, also reviled) which features real crocodiles in the water hazard at the thirteenth hole.

I felt that I had to visit Sun City, once, just to see how kitsch and absurd the place really is - and I suppose I wasn't disappointed. The faux Lost City/ H. Rider Haggard decor is totally over the top and totally tasteless, but what's even more amazing is that one of the main attractions is a fake BEACH, with real sand, around an artificial lake which produces artificial waves every few minutes (a horn blares a warning so toddlers can be quickly removed). Tourists and South Africans - nearly all white - crowd this place out, although the real sea and real beach are a mere 400 kilometres away. There's also a fake African forest all around this ersatz seaside which oddly enough is fun to explore - after thirty odd years the extraordinary (real, not plastic) vegetation has grown wild and has asserted a sort of ownership of the place, transcending its artificial origins (apparently some 80,000 plants were trucked in) - although the illusion of authenticity is punctured now and then by architectural intrusions like a giant gong and a massive torch-lit staircase to the actual Lost City (a hotel). As so often in SA, my reactions to the place were ambivalent - it was worth a visit just to see the sheer scale of the lunacy of the people who dreamed the place up; and it's a safe environment (always a factor); but on the other hand bad taste has a pretty limited appeal once you've got over the initial impact, no matter what the scale.