Hello! I'm now in my final week in Cambodia...in the last couple of weeks I've been at the hospital as well as doing a trip to the south-west corner of Cambodia. At the hospital I've seen a few babies being born (without any pain relief), and several operations (under general anaesthetic without an anaesthetist!). There were also some student midwives on the ward this week - I taught one of them how to find a pulse! It was difficult this week as my translator was away, but I can still usually grasp what is going on, especially as the medical notes are in French, and most of the medical words are similar. I've put a few pictures of the hospital on the website so you can have a look! We left for our trip to Koh Kong last Tuesday, and went over the border into Thailand and down before crossing back into Cambodia a few hours later as this was the quickest way to get there. After being in Cambodia for so long, Thailand just felt like another world - they have proper roads, with road markings and street lights, as well as a highway code that everyone follows. We also spent a while marvelling at the packaged groceries in the '7eleven' shop! It was only in the evening, after spending the day thinking how civilised Thailand was, that we found out about the military coup! Koh Kong was a not particularly nice town surrounded by stunning and unspoilt countryside. We went on a river trip through the uninhabited Cardamon Mountains to some rapids and waterfalls, and then got very wet in a storm on the way back (see pictures!). The whole trip was very wet and rainy which was a shame but it is the rainy season! After 3 days we got a boat from Koh Kong to the seaside resort of Sihnoukville, and then went and met Chris's Khmer translator and her friends and spent the night on a hut on the beach of a beautiful offshore island. The next day it was a bus to Phnom Penh for the night before heading back to Battambang the next day! We'll be heading to Bangkok overland next week, before we fly home from the brand new Bangkok airport that opened two days ago, on Thursday evening! I'm looking forward to coming home now to all the luxuries (and health and safety features) of the western world. However I'm sure I'll soon be missing the laid back lifestyle, hot weather, and the very low cost of living, though not the mice, ants and mosquitoes! This morning I woke up to find a mouse in the toilet bowel! It was swimming and frantically trying to get out. Eventually Chris managed to fish it out with a toilet brush into a bucket, he then released it outside his house where it ran into the road and narrowly avoided all the bicycles and motos! Looking forward to seeing everyone very soon! Helen xxx