Part 1 -- Planning for a vacation to South Africa

Less than two months ago, my wife and I decided to spend the year-end
holiday period in the Southern Hemisphere. We picked South Africa
because we had never been there, it is warmer now than in the frozen
US, and we had heard good things about the country and its people.

Our past travels had left us with the expectation that the planning
stage would be the easy part (doing the research, booking flights,
reserving accommodations, etc.) and the challenging part would be
doing the trip itself (the jet-lag travel, the unfamiliar laws and
customs, the unanticipated glitches, and the physical dangers -- both
human, animal, and microscopic).

As it turned out, the exact opposite was the case: the pre-trip
activities dealing with US officials and business were painful and
frustrating, and the actual trip itself was joyous and rewarding.
For these reasons, we am going to recount -- in some detail -- both
the problems and delights of this particular trip. The intent is to
provide useful information for Americans (or others) seeking to
duplicate such a vacation, and to any South Africans who have an
interest in foreign tourist travel to their country.

As has been my practice for many years on Usenet, I will parse this
report into several parts in order to better manage the varied topics,
channel responses into appropriate threads, and offer the reader a
choice of matters of interest without having to read through lots of
non-relevant information. So just ignore what does not interest you.

Also, because many of you in this group generously attempted to answer
our oddball questions posted here prior to the trip, this will be
feedback on your suggestions and advice. Without that help, this trip
would not have happened. We are grateful for your tips and assistance.

On to part 2...