Hi Nora,
Thank you so much for your kindness to us during our South Africa trip.
Our guide, Ananda, made sure she followed your instructions to get Karl chocolate on his birthday!
He had a birthday cake both at breakfast and dinner!!!
We also received a welcome gift from you when we arrived in Dubai!
Ananda kept telling us that you are the best travel agent she has come across; no one else goes to such lengths to make sure we are welcomed and celebrated!
The trip was fantastic. It was perfect for us. A bit of city… Cape Town and Pretoria, the train ride that Karl loved…. And the safari. We managed to see all of the big five. It was quite exciting. I would highly recommend this A&K trip.
I am attaching a poem that Karl and I did for our guide, Ananda van der Merwe. She was amazing. She is Africaan going back multiple generations, so understands the South Africa culture intuitively. She also speaks several of the native languages, so would speak to our local guides or to the local authorities in the native tongue. It really helped expediting things. Four example, we had to go through four countries in three days, many times several different countries and visas in one day. This could be problematic; however, not with Ananda.
We are not the only ones who said that Ananda was the best guide they ever had; most of the frequent travelers said that as well.
Could you do us a favor and forward this review and the poem to A&K? I want to make sure that her talent is recognized by the hierarchy at A&K.
Again, many thanks for making this trip so easy for us! We are now thinking about Finland in February.
Say hi to Pat for us.
Best,
Joan and Karl
Poem to Ananda
We came to this beautiful land
To explore the beauty and mystery at hand.
First stop was to Cape Town and the Lord Nelson Hotel,
We met our traveling companions and all of us bonded well.
To Table Mountain we did go.
To view the sites down below.
We enjoyed the spinning floor
And we’re glad it did not prevent us from finding the door!
Next to the Cape of Good Hope.
No venicular, no problem, we will climb that slope!
Then many a penguin we did see,
We found that when they arrived they made the people flee!
Then on to Rovos Rail and off to Pretoria we did roll.
With the sights of South Africa to unfold.
Despite a few screeches and stops,
It was an adventure to behold.
On to Victoria Falls!
The Hotel was grand and so was the land.
The Falls were dramatic,
It could have been cut from a movie schematic.
From there we traveled through four countries in three days.
We are still counting visas and in a haze!
We next go on the Zambezi Queen.
May I have a blue gin and tonic please?
That sure went down with ease!
At Sanctuary Retreat, great food we consumed,
Under the watchful eyes of many baboons.
And now we are at our final stop.
Rolling around in trucks with cloth tops!
We search out the big five to add to our count…
Lions leopards, rhinos… as we bounce about.
At last we have arrived at the end.
So thank you Ananda for keeping track of this crazy bunch!
And ensuring we are not the next delicious lion’s lunch!
Thank you for making this such a great adventure
You will remain in our hearts forever.
So Ananda, we bid you a fair adieu,
We will always have fond memories of Africa and you….
All the best,
Joan and Karl
South Africa Adventure, October 1-October 17 2019