Chez Warner: Christmas 2014

Boxing Day Christmas Dinner

A Christmas Present: Our Cambodian Pumping Well Is a Reality

Rethy, our Siem Reap guide, didn't waste any time. We gave him our donation December 7, and when we happened to check his website today, there it is. This was sort of a Christmas present we gave each other, and what better day to discover it than Christmas Day!

Rural Pure Water Project
     (You can change a family's life)

     

    Thank you, Kathy and Brian Warner,

   Greeting from Siem Reap,Cambodia
    I am writing this letter to express my deepest appreciation for your recently donation to our Rural Pure Water Project. Donation from generous people like you are continuing to help our mission and changing the poor families' life while they were in needed with hard living without enough clean water.

 With your donation of USD230 will able to provide of one pumping well and water filter to one poorest family in Siem Reap's rural area. The family where we donate to is located in Knar village, Knar Sanday commune, Banteay Srey district, Siem Reap Province of Cambodia.

Mrs.Orin Orib is a widow woman in the age of 59 years old, She has got two daughters and three sons with six grandchildren. She's got responsibilities to look after her younger children. It quite hard for her to take care for them, but she has no choice. She is a farmer and also has extra part time job that hired by somebody else in the local village. Depend on what they told us they didn't have a pumping well since 2004, they shared the pumping well with their nieghbor. By the donation of Rural Pure  Water Project make their living become better and they are very happy to use the pumping well that they are dream to have as their own for long time ago.

On behalf of a co-operator of Rural Pure Water Project, I'm really grateful for your generosity, your trusted and most importantly of your commitment to our mission. In conclusion, we would like to say thank you to you again for your generous support and attending our event. I wish you with all of the best and whatever you wishes.
 We will keeping in touch and hope to meet you again soon.

 Thank you & Best Regard

  Mr Rethy Ly

Mr Ly Rethy

Angkor Private Tour Guide

www.angkorprivatetourguide.com

Email: rethytourguide@gmail.com

Tel: (+855)76 955 5526

Update of Updated Update: How Many Countries (But Who's Counting)?

We noted here in early November that we'd be adding one more country, Cambodia, to our list of countries visited.

Having spent a fascinating week there, our travel statistics have changed once more in 2014.

Based on the Century Travelers' Club list of 321 entities, we've therefore been in a total of 97 "countries" to date. You'll notice the list includes a lot of places that aren't sovereign states, but it's one harmless way for us to keep tabs.

Pacific Ocean
Australia
French Polynesia (Tahiti,Tuamotu, Austral, Gambier)
Hawaiian Islands
New Zealand
Tasmania
North America
Alaska
Canada
Mexico
U.S. (continental)
Central America
Belize (British Honduras)
Costa Rica
Guatemala
Honduras
Panama
South America
Argentina
Brazil
Chile
Colombia
Uruguay
Caribbean
Antigua & Deps. (Barbuda, Redonda)
Bahamas
Barbados
Cayman Islands
Dominican Republic
Jamaica
Leeward Islands, French (St. Martin)
Puerto Rico
St. Barts
St. Kitts
St. Lucia
St. Maarten (formerly Netherlands Antilles)
Turks and Caicos Islands
Virgin Islands, U.S. (St. Croix, St. John, St. Thomas)
Virgin Islands, British (Tortola, etc.)
Atlantic Ocean
Azores Islands
Bermuda
Canary Islands
Cape Verde Islands
Iceland
Madeira
Europe and Mediterranean
Austria
Belgium
Balearic Islands (Mallorca, Minorca)
Croatia
Czech Republic
Denmark
England
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Ionian Islands (Corfu, etc.)
Ireland (Eire)
Ireland, Northern (Ulster)
Italy
Luxembourg
Malta
Monaco
Netherlands
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Russia
Sicily
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Turkey in Europe (Istanbul)
Vatican City
Wales
Africa
Egypt
Lesotho
Morocco
Senegal (plane refueling at Dakar - did not formally enter)
South Africa
Swaziland
Zimbabwe
Middle East
None
Indian Ocean
The Maldives
Asia
Cambodia
China, People's Rep.
Hong Kong
India
Japan
Korea, North (DMZ tour only)
Korea, South
Malaysia
Singapore
Sri Lanka (Ceylon)
Taiwan
Thailand
Turkey in Asia
Vietnam

If, however, we restrict our list only to sovereign nations, we've visited 74 of 195 such entities:

Antigua
Argentina
Australia
Austria
Bahamas
Barbados
Belgium
Belize
Brazil
Cambodia
Canada
Cape Verde
Chile
China
Colombia
Costa Rica
Croatia
Czech Republic
Denmark
Egypt
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Guatemala
Holy See (Vatican City)
Honduras
Hungary
Iceland
India
Ireland
Italy
Jamaica
Japan
Korea (North) - DMZ tour only
Korea (South)
Lesotho
Liechtenstein
Luxembourg
Malaysia
Maldives
Malta
Mexico
Monaco
Morocco
Netherlands
New Zealand
Norway
Panama
Poland
Portugal
Russia
Saint Kitts
Saint Lucia
Senegal (plane refueling at Dakar - did not formally enter)
Singapore
Sri Lanka (Ceylon)
Slovakia
Slovenia
South Africa
Spain
Swaziland
Switzerland
Taiwan
Thailand
Turkey
United Kingdom
United States
Uruguay
Vietnam
Zimbabwe

It turns out, then, that we've visited a higher percentage of the world's current sovereign states - 38% - than our presence in 30% of the Century Club's entries. But who's counting?

Extreme Turbulence Out of Seoul

An American Airlines flight that departed from Seoul for Dallas the day after we flew from Seoul to Vancouver had to divert to Tokyo (NRT) after encountering severe turbulence.

Apparently 14 or so passengers and crew required medical attention.

One of our favorite travel bloggers, Lucky, writes about it here and includes a video that makes for some interesting viewing.

We keep our seat belts buckled whenever seated and this is a good reminder why to do so.

Flying AC 64 ICN-YVR

There is a lot of room in Air Canada's three-across 767, and, if you're sitting the left side, that pony wall separates you off from the rest of the cabin, providing an extra bit of privacy as well.

Dinner was quite tasty.

We managed to make it right through dessert, and the 10-hour flight length allowed us
to sleep for five to six hours. Air Canada offers a very competitive product. This flight was a pleasure.

Landing at YVR

ICN Lounge Hopping

We enjoyed our morning coffee at 3:20 p.m. in the small Silver Kris Lounge fairly near our gate.

Unsurprisingly, the food and beverage offerings in the SQ lounge are slightly better than those in the Asiana Business Lounge.

Still, we have good memories of spending time in the Asiana Lounge with Tom and Ellyn when flying home after our visit to Seoul.

Next stop is presumably Vancouver, after 10 hours on AC 64.

Seoul Transit Hotel

Our Asiana flight was about as we expected: uncomfortable seats, hot, and 20 minutes late.

We found our way through the transfer security and are now in a room at the ICN Transit Hotel West.

A few hours of rest and we should be ready for our flight to Vancouver.

Phnom Penh: Dinner at Khmer Surin

Huot recommended it, along with others, including Frommer:

http://khmersurin.com.kh/restuarant.html

We enjoyed the buffet (we left the crickets to Huot), after which Huot whisked us to the airport, where we learned our flight is delayed for 15 minutes.

Check-in, exit immigration, and security were all easy and efficient. We're now sitting in the Salon contract lounge, awaiting our flight.

The Drive Back: Kermits on a Stick

As dusk falls we stop at one of the numerous frog-skewers stands to take a photo of the friendly lady and her wares.

We enjoy watching the views as Huot weaves his way through the traffic.