Aug 11, 20168 min read

This time SOUTH AFRICA!

Hey you all, how are you? You know how I feel right now? "So much to do; so little time"

Yes, I have so many things lined up & I'm the kind of a person who wants do all of it! It's been just 2 months since my South Africa trip, but so much has happened meanwhile that it feels so long ago! Nevertheless I'm here with another travel story, my travel trip to South Africa! Woho!

Honestly speaking, I was not really excited as before that I went for my Contiki trip and by the time I was back... I was already overwhelmed with my Contiki experience & the whole packing unpacking took away my energy to look forward for this trip. This one was with my family. We take a trip every year, do you remember my Greece trip from last year, I do have my travel stories about it on the blog! You can check it out if you wish to :) Here's the link - Greece Travel Stories

To be frank, I had no idea what South Africa would be like, no expectations at all! But yea, I had my cousins and my family so all I knew was it's going to be fun and chill! Starting our Day1 - we reached Johannesburg! Our stay was arranged at Holiday Inn, Rosebank. I have some of my Contiki friends living in that city, but unfortunately I couldn't meet them, because I was there just for a day. This place is so beautiful; we headed for a city tour, to experience the beautiful place! For my outfits I had carried some sweater dresses, more of full-sleeves, and some layering as I knew the weather was more on the cooler side. The weather in Johannesburg was brilliant, it was so pleasant. I decided to wear one of my sweater dresses as a top along with shorts and my boots. Comfy and chill! I like casual dressing, that's so me! We went on Red Bus City Tour! That was fun!!! I loved sitting on the top, enjoying the weather plus the architecture of the city! Too gooood! The history, the Mahatma Gandhi square, the buildings.., everything was an eye opener for me, that's because I really did not expect all of this! The vegetation in South Africa is gorgeous! So many different kinds of trees & plants even across the streets! I fell in love with South Africa on our very first day! After the city tour, we chilled at the hotel and in the evening, we headed for dinner nearby, as where we stayed had a lot of eateries in and around! I love travelling because you can dress up according to the weather as Bombay is just not the place to wear thigh high boots, jackets and all of that cool winter stuff! I could completely rock these in South Africa, because the weather allowed me to do the same, plus it's normal to be wearing something like that there. I believe in dressing appropriately. So I just turned my sweater top into a dress with my thigh high boots from Koovs and some bold lips for the evening! We had fun! And of course when you are with your cousins, the company is so much fun!! Our first day was a relaxed fun day; here are the pictures from Johannesburg!

Outfit Details:

Top - Forever21

Shorts - Aeropostale

Boots - Forever21

Bag - H&M

Outfit Details:

Dress - Forever21

Boots - Koovs

The next day we had to travel to Kruger! All of us were pretty excited for that, as that was the place for Wild Life Safari & when you think about South Africa all you think about is this! I had to experience this. It was a 6 hours journey, and we booked a van for the same, just our family. This literally reminded me of Scooby Dooby Do! Haha you know why right? The journey wasn't tiring, the nature looked magical, we had a service stop & we were dying to get some Wi-Fi! Haha! This generation I tell you. Like I said, I didn't really expect things, and then when we reached Kruger! Boom! The resort... OMG! So surreal! We spotted giraffes on our way while entering the resort! This was definitely exciting! And being an animal lover, I just couldn't wait any longer. We stayed at the Karongwe River Lounge which was extremely beautiful. We were welcomed in a way that we were actually looking forward to all the activities there! The resort was so nicely done; right from the landscape spaces to the rooms everything was atheistically pleasing. Traditional architecture, wooden houses, natural landscaping...somewhere in middle of the jungle. A perfect holiday home I would say. Sanskruti, Tanvi and I shared rooms throughout the trip. We got the biggest room there! Haha! So we definitely turned it into a party place. Every house there had a deck and everything was spacious. There were two swimming pools; our dinner place was on a deck again, which was so beautiful, surrounded with natural vegetation & amazing climate of course! It was fun to dress up there, as in the mornings and evenings it would be extremely cold and in the afternoon it felt like summers! Isn't that perfect? We would get Wi-Fi only at the dining area, so we literally spent a lot of time there haha! Which was so beautiful, more of a gathering space. We kinda had a routine there, evening we'd go for wild life safari...after high tea, then back to the hotel, then barbeque dinner at night. Early in the morning again we used go for the safari, come back and do breakfast, then lunch, and then tea and again the safari! Like so cool! Let me tell you this, the people over there are just so sweet! Always smiling and so warm all the time! It feels so amazing to interact and listen to them, because they do spread love! And that's the energy we all look for right? Talk about the safari, omg! It was so good. The first time we went for the safari, I sported an Olive Sweater Top, along with pants and sneaker & went for Boxer Braids. Such a safari look though! The whole safari experience was magical, if given a chance to do it again, I wouldn't give a second thought. If you are visiting South Africa, then you HAVE TO do this! It's beautiful! Right from the king of the jungle to cheetahs, zebras, giraffes, rhinos and so on, we literally spotted numerous gorgeous wildlife species! I'm in love. How I wish I could chill with them! Haha. Like literally while looking at them in front of me, all I wanted to be was either the Tarzan or the Mogli. ;)

Day 2 & 3 -

Outfit details:

Top - Forever21

Pants - Arabellaa

Shoes - Adidas Originals

Outfit Details:

Top - H&M

Shorts - Arabellaa

After being surrounded by nature for so long, we needed a change of scenery and so we travelled from the country side to the beautiful city of Cape Town. The city, from the start was as beautiful as one can imagine. We lived in the Double Tree Hotel by Hilton and the best part about it was the fact that we got free cookies as soon as we entered! Haha! Who doesn't love free cookies? The first thing on the to-do list was visit The Table Mountain which is a flat mountain overlooking the city. The view from the top was absolutely breathtaking. There was a humongous compass at the top and the architect in me got so excited when I saw the North of the compass. Our trip to Cape Town was supposed to be relaxing, so looking at this beautiful city in a beautiful surrounding amongst the people I love was the perfect way to unwind. The beautiful moment finally had to end and we moved on to our next destination, which also happened to be my favourite part. We went to Bo-Kaap, a colourful neighbourhood in Cape Town. Rows of beautifully coloured houses are a treat to the eyes! I could've sat there all day just looking at the houses. I decided on keeping my outfit casual for that day, so settled on a top from Zara and shorts from Arabellaa with my green Adidas Originals & my sweat shirt or you can term that as a T-shirt dress is from Forever21 again!

After lunch and a little nap, we decided to go to a mall overlooking the Waterfront. Apart from shopping, we ran into George Calombaris which was definitely the highlight of the day for all of us!

Day 4 & 5 -

Outfit Details:

Top - Forever21

Bottoms - H&M

Shoes - Adidas Originals

Outfit Details:

Dress - Forever21

Cardigan - Koovs

Shoes - Adidas Originals

Crop top - Zara

Shorts - Arabellaa

Outfit Details:

Top - Forever21

Skirt - Forever21

Jacket - Zara

Boots - Forever21

Having been an animal lover for as long as I can remember, the second day at Cape Town was by far the best. We had the same guide as the previous day and the first order of business was to go to a seal island which is a tiny island 30 minutes away from the dock AND IT IS COVERED WITH SEALS! Like every inch of the tiny island was covered with seals. I'd never seen so many seals in one spot before and all of us were so thrilled! Despite the cold weather, we made the most of it. Watching the seals wasn't the last of it as after having an amazing lunch with a view, we went to Boulders Beach to see Penguins! YES YOU HEARD ME RIGHT, PENGUINS! The experience was unreal! Despite there being so many people, we still got our chance to look at the Penguins in their natural environment.

Day 6 -

Outfit Details:

Top - Koovs

Jacket - H&M

Denims - H&M

Boots - Cotton On

Day 3 in Cape Town was just as great as the first day had been. We decided to go on a historical tour and so went to the Robben Island. It's the island where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned. Now, I don't consider myself a huge history buff but this actually sounded pretty interesting. As soon as we reached the Waterfront, we had some time to kill so my cousins and I decided to go cycling around the area. This was something I'd already done on my Contiki trip but doing it with family seemed so much fun too. We had to take a ferry to the island which in itself was a task. The waves were a little choppy which made the ride all the more fun.

Day 7 -

Outfit Details:

Dress - H&M

Jacket - H&M Shoes - Forever21 Choker - The Dapper Label

The last destination of our trip was George which is a quaint little city in the Western Cape. Since we went there on a weekend, there wasn't much we could do but after all the traveling we had done that day, all of us were content with a night in. After walking around the city for a while, we got some pizza and decided to call it a night.

Day 8 -

Outfit Details:

Top - Forever21

Denims - Topshop

Trench Coat - H&M

Boots - Cotton On

Bag - Wildcraft

Day 2 in George was everyone's favourite because we were heading to The Cango Wildlife Ranch! We were so hyped up about seeing and possibly touching the wild animals that they had in the reserve and all our wishes came true when we were told that we could touch the cheetahs. The excitement was real! We were split into groups and given a guide each so that we wouldn't spook the cheetahs with our bustle. We were actually were scared even when we were petting the cheetahs because they kept purring in pleasure. The whole experience was amazing and surreal. Aside from the cheetahs, we also saw crocodiles, lions and a number of endangered birds. The fact that the world is a small place was proved when we ran into one of our friends' from the previous vacation. After taking pictures with him, it was finally time to fly back home. Like always, it was a bitter-sweet moment. On one hand, I missed sleeping in my own bed but on the other hand I wasn't done exploring South Africa! But like all good things come to an end, it was time for us to go home despite what the heart wants. I've attached pictures from the trip down below. Enjoy x

Day 9 -