You would not believe the number of emails we are getting asking about plastic surgery travel, so to help you out, we've uncovered another hot, faraway place to both explore exotic lands and get one's neck fat sucked out: South Africa.
SA and India are often more popular in the States and Britain for medical tourism than their Latin American and Southeast Asian counterparts because English is the doctors' first language, according to Lorraine Melvill, founder of Surgeon and Safari. The travel agency arranges exactly what it sounds like -- a quick nip/tuck before sending you off to recuperate where only the rhinos and giraffes witness your puffy, bruised face slowly deflate. Some (smartasses) call these trips "beauty and the beast" tours.
Travelers/patients stay at luxury-but-remote spas and safari lodges, like Montello (pictured above). If you'd like to stay out of the bush, another agency, Mediscapes, coordinates travel to medical facilities in Cape Town, and includes a list of recommended top-tier hotels nearby.
Forget your standard Busch Gardens Animal theme parks and get yourself to see the real thing, in South Africa. One of the best places to see "the big five"? Pilanesberg National Park, in the country's North-West province. Covering a space occupied 1200 years ago by a volcanic crater, the park itself is conveniently round (making getting lost difficult) and holds a small lake at its center (an ideal spot for watching the animals get a drink).
Opened in 1979, the majority of its residents (elephants, rhinos, giraffes, impalas, zebras) were relocated from other areas in Africa for protection and preservation purposes. Options for exploration are pretty endless - you can stay and camp, take a ranger-led ride, or even a hot air balloon ride above the park. Just beware when picnicking-- the animals are used to humans, and its not uncommon for a baboon to come swipe a sandwich or two.
What do golfers do when their regular golf courses get too boring and they've got far too much money? They head for southern Africa for a luxury golf safari, of course. Pricey tours head through Pretoria, Swaziland, Durban and Sun City, giving golf addicts the chance to enjoy 18 holes at five different courses.
On the off days (or when you think your handicap's just getting too high), you can go on game drives and see some of those African animals everyone always raves about.
Power Golf are the fellows behind these luxury golf and safari combinations, and they do provide a non-golfing activity every day of the tour for unfortunate tagalongs and uninterested golf wives. They claim to travel on the most luxurious train in the world, but perhaps the brand-spankin' new Trans-Siberian will be disputing that soon.
This week's New York Times travel section is all Africa, all the time (well, except Weekend With The Kids, but kids are lame). Our best-title award goes to a piece on night safaris in South Africa with the Seuss-meets-Sendak label, "In The Dark In The Park, With The Wild Things." And what wild things you can see!
· At Mountain Zebra National Park: "scrub hares and springhares (bopping on hind legs like diminutive kangaroos), a corkscrew-horned kudu and a toothpick-horned steenbuck, all boasting Prince Charles ears, reminders that by night out there one lives or dies by listening"
· At Addo Elephant National Park: "laughing hyenas, warthogs, yellow mongooses and nocturnal polecats (an African relative of the skunk)"
· At Gorah Elephant Camp: "Seven ghostly elephants floated into view, weightless behemoths drifting inches above the plains, trunks swaying. Behind them trailed a herd of moon shadows."
It's enough to make the most adamant homebody want to grab a pair of night-vision binoculars. Unfortunately, flights to Africa from the US are up nearly 30 percent, says another piece, but there are still ways to get there on the cheap -- by using frequent-flyer miles on partner airlines with better deals, booking two separate round-trip tickets (America-Europe and Europe-Africa) or checking out African national airlines.
Or you can just do African things in New York, as suggested in a piece featuring a bounty of restaurants and a hotspot for African music called St. Nick's Pub. Quick! Cancel those cruise reservations we made two weeks ago!
If a trip to South Africa sounds like it would cramp your style, and you can no longer bear the thought of stepping foot in Namibia now that Angelina Jolie's popped a baby there, the latest safari destination to capture your imagination might just be Mozambique's Lugenda Wildlife Reserve. Rani Resorts' Lugenda Bush Camp is the reserve's first luxury outfit.
It's all about privacy and seclusion at Lugenda, where there are just four tents and your only base for fly-in is Pemba, a coastal city also in the Cabo Delgado province. Privacy and seclusion from humans, that is. This is a prime hot spot for elephants and wild dogs especially, as well as other big game.
If you're coming from the U.S., the trip will be so long (and the connections likely so numerous) that an additional beach holiday in Pemba or the neighboring Quirimbas Archipelago would make sense. Beware, though: if your mouth isn't already watering at the thought of unexplored wilderness, pictures of Quirimbas beaches will surely make you drool.
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by ced138
