Thursday, May 19, 2011

Seeing my village anew

 By Damaria Senne
The spa room where I got my pedi done.

 I tend to have tunnel vision when I go to Phokeng to visit my family. Mostly I spend time with my mother, siblings, their spouses, children and grandchildren. And when we go out, I usually choose the easy option: going to one of the restaurants at the Waterfall mall.


So when a friend suggested that we go to Kedar Spa for some pampering, my first reaction was “Where?” I hadn’t even known that there was a spa in the village!

Kedar Spa is part of the luxury Kedar Hotel, Conference Centre and Spa facilty, based about 21km from Sun City. The hotel is a member of the Recreation Africa group, which includes Misty Hills Country Hotel and Carnivore restaurant in Johannesburg. I won’t bore you with the hotel details, which you can find here

But back to my spa visit, my friend and I had wonderful paraffin pedicures and by the end of it, I was so relaxed I could have fallen asleep right there on the bed.


One of the receptions of the Royal Marang Hotel. There's a VIP
entrance too & yours trully is curious about what that portion
of the hotel looks like.
 Afterwards, we picked up my mother and took her to lunch at the Royal Marang Hotel. The 5-star hotel is part of the Royal Bafokeng Sport Complex, which hosted England as part of the 2010 World Cup Soccer games.

Lunch was great – the food was well-prepared, the portions were huge and the service was friendly and efficient. Best of all, the prices were very reasonable - we paid the equivalent of what we would have paid at a less rated venue at the mall. My mother thoroughly enjoyed herself, and  the Royal Marang Hotel is now one of the places I plan to take her to for special treats.

Anyhoo, the visit made me realise that tourists visiting the North West Province and Phokeng area in particular probably know more about the area than I do. I have been short-sighted about opportunities and resources that are available to me locally (either in Phokeng or here in Johannesburg) and I decided to actively seek them out.

Hence my querying previously neglected publications that are on my doorstep, attending local biz networking meetings etc.

So my question to you is, do you still explore your area for new resources to enhance your life, or have you, like me, been assuming that you know where everything you need locally is?

4 comments:

tiah said...

I am slow to explore, but open to finding new things. Have a list of 'must find a better' or simply 'must find.' It boils down to time.

Judy Croome | @judy_croome said...

Damaria this is such a good question! I'm also guilty of being so busy with my ordinary little life - the day-to day tasks that keep us on the run, that I actually forget to explore. There are so many areas around Jozi that I should explore but haven't. I must quiz my sister - she's *very* good at exploring and often finds the most unusual things to do around Jozi!
Judy, South Africa

Pamela said...

I'm probably the worst when it comes to knowing my area. I tend to go to the same old restaurants and shops and I lived in the North West for seven years and never knew about the places you discuss in your post. Guess that I am a conservative in regard to exploration, although those who know me well might question that. Day to day, I'm not terribly adventurous. It would be great to see more postings of this nature, letting Storypot's followers know about great gems of whatever nature nearby.

Damaria Senne said...

It seems we're all slow explorers:-).

@Pam - I don't travel as much as I would like to, but I like posting here about my adventures when I do. Last December i went on a road trip and it wasn't planned. We just got in the car, hit the road and ended up in Port Elizabeth, with stops in Bloemfontein and Steynsburg (a small town in the middle of nowhere in the Eastern Cape). It was exciting and I discovered that being impulsive can be very rewarding under the right circumstances. So stay tuned:-)

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