It was a fitting end for us to spend most of our last week in Asia hanging out in SB village. We'd already spent three months there volunteering and it's the place were we've taken our fondest memories.

After jumping off the bus somewhere between Sre Ambel and Andoung Tuek (AKA the middle of nowhere), we hopped on the back of a couple of motos and took off down the muddy gravel road towards our familiar village. The first person we spotted was Kien, the young pump station operator who couldn't speak a word of English but was somehow one of our best mates. He broke out into a huge Cambodian smile as we rode past!

We soon realised that nothing had changed much in the last few months, except that it had not stopped raining since we left and the amount of farm work happening was almost non-existent. Apparently this was one of the longest and wettest wet-seasons for years, and motivation to work was pretty low. It didn't help that we were going into another national Buddhist holiday, known amongst locals as Pchum Ben.

It was great to see the look on everyones faces when they realised we'd actually come back, and as soon as we arrived our talented cook, Janton, had one of our favorite Cambodian dishes (spicy beef and lemongrass) ready for lunch! A friendly young dog came bounding towards us, and we realised we had known him before as a puppy. He was still just as friendly and followed us everywhere, only his name had been changed from Jamson, to Lucky, to Hanzhou, so we had no idea what to call him.

It was sad news to find that two of our favourite kids, Da and Perin, had recently lost their older brother to suicide. The family had taken it pretty heavily, and as a result Da was taken to the nearby temple to become a monk and regain some honour for the family. We went to say hello. He still had a bit of that smile we knew before, but his name had changed too, to Panaa.

Only three days after we arrived, all of the staff were headed back to their homelands to enjoy the holiday. We helped them enjoy a big Cambodian style BBQ and several Angkor beers before piling into a minivan altogether the next day on route to Phnom Penh, again. Is was great to see everyone so happy! We said goodbye to most of them in the capital and spent a few days hanging out and partying with Yaara, Teddy and the newest volunteer, Karin.

We were about to travel back to SB, waiting at the bus station, when Jess spotted Mary, our favourite field technician. We were planning on meeting her again but couldn't get in contact, so it was a nice surprise. Back in the village we spent the last couple of days swinging on hammocks, enjoying the best of Cambodian cuisine and playing cards with Mary and Janton.

The rain held up for about three hours the whole time we were there, so we took this chance to ride motos out to the humble temple in Chi Phat, were we joined in with the Pchum Ben festivities with some of the villagers. On the way back we all stopped for lunch at a scenic little wooden hut, and then hung out with all the kids at a nearby elephant-shaped rock. We were sad to be leaving Asia, but happy that our last few days were spent in SB, Cambodia with good friends.