My wife was going to call you and say the trip went well and we were very
pleased with all the arrangements.  Sorry she did not get to you.

Flights all went well - luggage stayed with us all the way!

The trip to Soweto was memorable and one that I had not thought of doing and am glad you suggested it. 

 As you can imagine my YMCA work brings me into touch with all of the social issues that surfaced in Soweto and the Museum
tour and thus, I found it great. 

 The tour guides were excellent.  The hotel
in Sandton allowed us to see South Africa from a variety of perspectives -
up and coming suburban business development - downtown Johannesburg (with
the opening of the mall out of town and other changes, I suspect they are
going to go through the same transition most American cities went through
and thus their worst times are probably yet to come (vacant stores, etc.)

Most people did not understand why would stay in Jburg - while we originally did so for jet lag purposes, I am glad we did it for the tour purposes as well!

The Hotel Livingstone was superb and the day trip to Chobe (especially the
river ride) was exactly what my wife was looking for.  If a lion had showed
its face, the trip would have been even better. 

But we saw almost every other type of animal!  If you could listen to her description of the experience to friends, you would know the trip was a lifetime highlight.

Victoria Falls was a wonderful sight - although we had little time to really
explore.  You said most of your clients stay only one night, while we stayed
two - and probably could have stayed a third.


I would not have changed a thing - well may one small thing.  The hotel that you booked for the night before stay in Johannesburg prior to flying out to Durban was adequate.  But we probably would have paid more for a better place.  But that is only a minor commentary and probably not worth
mentioning.

As you probably know, we flew into Israel two days after the war started and
thus spent the week with reports of rocket's falling, including one that
dropped two blocks from our hotel in Nazareth.  But that portion of our trip
went well, also, with the weddi8ng we attended going off.

If my son goes through with his plans, he hopes to get to SA in 2010 for the World Cup, as he spent a week in Germany this past summer attending four games.  We'll let you know.

Thanks again for your help with the trip planning.

phil