Pai lifestyle is always a comfortable fit, good friends, clean mountain air and positive energy flowing throughout.

When I arrived back in town and sauntered to the house, I found the shop had gone and it deserted except for Puk, who was working in the lounge on her internet ebay business. The shop had been relocated further into town and I soon soon found Willow and Buti nestled happily amongst their colourful wares in a new shop on a side road between a fruit/grocery store and Mango David's new bakery.

Over a long awaited Chai yen (iced chai tea) at our favourite muslim cafe (which is actually more of a hardware / fishing tasckle store with bonus'), I caught up on all the latest Pai news and gossip. New relationships, pregnancies and business', I was also saddened to learn that a much loved member of the community was terminally ill with cancer, in Chang Mai hospital and was soon to be brought back to Pai to die amongst his friends. A steady flow of friends new and old joined us at the table (as is the daily ritual) and I settled back into Pai life as if I'd never been away.

Over the next 3 weeks daily life was somewhat dictated by 4 orphaned kittens whose mother cat was killed on the road outside the house shortly after my arrival, they were only 8 or 9 days old and only just opening their eyes. I tapped into my repressed nurturing instinct and with a little help from the family we fed them every few hours with a 25mm syringe and after a week or so got them on to a babies bottle. They grew big and strong and when I left were turning into little tigers with big personalities and were eating canned fish and rice - hurrah for small furry animals...

Our good friend Rainbowheart arrived from hospital and his friends in the community formed a hospice to aid his transition from this world to the next. A rota system developed to give support and assistance to Dang his girlfriend and primary care giver. Each evening we gathered at his house for a communal meal and farewell party, bringing acceptance and celebration to his imminent departure. He stayed with us for only a few days more and in his final hours was transferred from the comfort of his house to Pai hospital because in Thai culture/superstition the place of death cannot be used for 3 months afterwards and the landlord of his house would not have been able to re-rent the house until after this time. All his friends gathered at his hospital bedside, read his favourite poetry and gave him positive loving energy to take with him into his next life. Soon after transistion, his body was transferred to a casket and placed in our local Buddhist temple where it was decorated with flowers and sparkling fairy lights. After 3 days of chanting, prayer and ceremony we held a procession through the town to the crematorium where more Buddhist ceremonies, blessings and goodbyes took place before the the monks pushed a button to light the furnace. It was all a bit surreal, but fascinating. There are a few nice photos on www.davidish.shutterfly.com that will explain it better than I can in words.

My time in Pai passed so quickly, trips to the markets, showing friends around the local sights and favourite places of beauty, birthday celebrations, making new friends and I was breifly involved in an English camp for Thai kids, but all too soon my 30 day visa would expire and it was time to begin an overland journey into Cambodia. To another special place and the gorgeous riverside town of Kampot to reacquaint with some lovely friends and the teachers & kids that I came to love when I was there one and a half years ago, more good times ahead.

The journey from Pai to Kampot took approximately 4 days, first with a minibus to Chang Mai (4 hrs), then the overnight bus to Bangkok (12 hrs), I stayed 1 night in the city and next morning took another bus (5hrs) to the Thailand/Cambodia border where I had to barter with the dodgy immigration officials for the price for my visa. I crossed the border into Poipet only to discover that there was no onward transport going in my direction until the next morning (welcome to Cambodia's 'developing' transport system). In a guesthouse near the bus station this night in a notoriously lawless border town passed uneventfully and I was soon on board a local bus to Phnom Penh stopping every 2 hours to eat rice. Eventuially I arrived in the city only to find that Lakeside and my usual guesthouse was mostly underwater from theoverflowing sewage filled lake - mmmmn lovely! I stayed there anyway in an upstairs room and finally started my final leg of the journey to Kampot on my 5th bus early next day. A long but interesting journey, I met some very nice people on the way but was glad to finally arrive in Kampot and hop into a tuk tuk accross the river to Bodhi Villa.

Over one and a half years had passed since I was last in Kampot, I'd spent a month living on the river and teaching at Chumkriel Language school (CLS) in the evenings, I was happy to see that apart from a new bridge and alot more greenery, nothing much had changed in town over this time.

Ahhh Bodhi Villa, another home from home, nestled on the riverbank in lush green gardens, but wow so many changes. After a cuppa and a quick catch up with Jos and Hugh in their new 'sound-proofed music studio' (Hugh's playroom) and an introduction to William, their smiling bundle of baby cuteness, Hugh proudly took me on a tour. 2 new floating bunglaows, a floating pontoon, toilet and shower rooms, garden bunglows across a wooden bridge, their new house and office on the duck pond, a big 4 bed dorm upstairs in the main house with an outside verandah over looking the treetops and surrounded by purple flowering beaugonvillia - Beautiful! They'd even built a human catapult to propel adrenalin fuelled guests into the river but alas, it broke on the first test run.. Hugh excitedley told me about an island that he'd bought further up the river and it's plans to become 'Bodhi Village' and his trekking and tour operation that is all set up and ready to run. It's looking possitively rosy for the Bodhi Villians indeed.

Relaxing back into the Bodhi lifestyle, I became instant friends of the new staff and well settled in guests, happy to find the same 'chill out' vibe floating throughout the lounge and bar - Good to be back!!

Eager to re-unite with the teachers and Thy, my good friend and director of the school, I arranged a meeting for the very next morning. Such welcoming smiles and possitively glowing greetings from Thy and the young teachers, it was so good to see them all again. I also met with Sandy, the brother of my friend Neil, who was previously foreign advisor/volunteer to the school but has returned to the UK for a work commission sending Sandy to Kampot in his place. Sandy is as much a valued and respected member of the community as his brother, not only continuing to provide financial and advisory support for CLS but for many other organisations and volunteers within Kampot - Their mother must be very proud...

After a quick catch up, a meeting was due to take place at 'Seeing Hands' massage by the blind, so I went along to see what it was all about. The director of ABC (Association for the blind in Cambodia) had approached Thy for his help in teaching their 3 blind therapists some basic English to enable communication with their customers, with no funding available for a teacher. The therapists are such wonderful characters, but with very limited English language if any, we worked out that with 1 hour a day with an English speaking volunteer teacher and the director as translator, we could make a big difference to their now self-sustaining massage business (which was previously funded as an ABC project). Hannah, an Australian volunteer undertook the role of teacher and I vistited the lessons a few times - wow what a difference she made.

Back at the school that evening brought a new mixture of emotions that I wasn't quite expecting. Thy invited me into his class, which I recognised instantly as the Scholarship Class (very poor students that are schooled for free by overseas donations from friends of CLS and it's volunteers). Thy and I were teaching these little excited ragamuffins their first ABC when I was there 18months ago - As we entered the classroom, they all stood up and with a perfectly formed chorus of "Good Afternoon Teachers" they beamed back at us. Thy suggested that I re-introduce myself and ask the students some questions - Oh my goodness, they can now understand me and reply in perfect English, in total awe at the progress they'd made and overcome with intence happiness I spent the rest of the lesson beaming goofily at them whilst Thy continued with their structured learning using me for pronunciation and drilling.

I continued to teach at school every evening Monday to Saturday working with all of the teachers in turn, particularly in the English for Children class, which was up to 65 exciteable kids aged 8 - 11, Souphon, their teacher is a lovely young guy who has only been with the school for a few months, he does a remarkable job at controlling them but an extra teacher to assist makes a big difference to the noise levels and subsequent learning. My confidence level in the classroom has improved for sure and it definately helps to know the teachers and how they plan their lessons.

I quickly discovered by working in different classes that many of the students didn't have a text book to work from, I approached Thy about this and he admitted that he was also worried but the school currently had no funding to rectify the problem. There are 5 different text books taught in the school and they cost between 50cents and $3 US, I made it my personal mission to ensure that every child in the school had a book. Thy knew from past experience that to just ask, who needed a book was a pointless excercise, they almost all put their hands up, so he untertook the task of interviewing the classes with their teachers (whilst I taught his class) to determine their genuine need. All in all, with the help of Souphon negotiating discounts, I bought over 100 books and proudly distributed them amongst the grateful students - Would you like to go to school without a text book? - I wouldn't........

One morning I met an Australain lady that was surely sent from heaven to CLS. She was only in Kampot for 2 days but I got chatting to her over breakfast and took her to meet Thy. Fiona has a business in Byron Bay (lots of rich friends too) she is currently co-ordinating a school/orphanage in a Tsunami hit village about an hour from Phuket in Thailand. Her school has excess money, supplies and volunteers and has had alot of funding from some large German organisions and from her home town in Australia. Her school is fully set up now with aims at self sufficiency and she would not only like to make it a sister school for CLS but to share all her excess money, goods and volunteers with us..... hurrah!!!!!

Her arrival and enthusiasm prompted a strategy meeting between Thy, the head teacher Rekha, Sandy, myself and some other volunteers, we wanted to be clear about Thy's idea of the future of the school, and what it requires to attain sustainability, also given an influx of monetary donations, supplies and volunteers, what are the most important and beneficial needs of the school. A wish list was created with priorities given, I undertook my idea of producing a volunter guidlelines booklet (easily achievable during my short stay) and Sandy is making it his priority to make possible a drop in center with a library and resources for students, teachers and volunteers. Other goals include, sufficient study aids and resources, an improved classroom environment, links to overseas schools, extending the scholarship class and many other acheivable goals given sufficient funding, thought and action.

I also got myself involved in another project that wasn't connected to the school. Epic Arts cafe create and host arts programmes for people of all ability and disability, particularly in the performing arts sector and with the deaf community. They were hosting a brand new project being started by a New York designer, Ruth. Ruth came to Kampot under the impression that there was a well established project recyling plastic bags into yarn and being crotched into saleable products by Kampots deaf and disabled community but it needed some expert design input - oh how she'd been misled... nothing had been started..,

However, determined that she was not going to waste her airfare and 2 months break from her high-flying job, she proceeded to create this project from scratch using the one disabled crotcheter, a khmer - English translator, a Khmer - sign language translator, some willing deaf kids and a great deal of patience and motivation.

The idea is to pay the deaf kids to collect plastic bags from around the town (yes Cambodians have no idea about litter and dump stuff everywhere) then we have them washed and dried and turned into plastic yarn. I have been working with a disabled lady and a deaf girl plus one abled bodied lady from the market to experiment with crocheting different sized plastic bag yarns with different sized needles. The local ladies were not keen to use plastic yarn or bigger needles so I have been working with them and encouraging them to experiment. After only 2 weeks since the project started we had a few items made that can be used as prototypes and they will soon be teaching other deaf and disabled their skills and making beautiful salable goods.

You can check out some of the project photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/ruthyoffe/collections/72157603212752244/

So it seems that i was kept pretty busy, but I still found some time for lazy breakfasts on the river, meeting new friends and sharing stories. I enjoyed a trip out to Hugh and Jos' new island - Paradise found!!! and an explanation of the planned development. I organised a group to go tubing down the rapids (now in full flow) which was scary, exhilorating and fun. an overnight stay an exploration of nearby Rabbit Island with 4 other girlfriends, a famous 4 adventure to Bokor hill station with our own driver (in a Toyota Camry) where we stayed overnight with the rangers and explored the deserted ruins of the old Canino/hotel, enjoying the crystal clear waterfall, stunning views and eiry atmosphere etc. We were invited to a festival at a Pagoda by Thy and some of the teachers which was also great fun even if we were starred at constantly by a crowd of at least 30 deep at any one time (these villagers had obviously never seen Westerners) and explored some caves on the way home.

All in all Kampot hadn't changed too much in the time I had been away, thankfully.... the market still smells and the roads are still as dodgy as hell but I love it there on the lazy river and will definately go back one day (maybe after the island has been developed) to share some more good times with the beautiful Khmer people there and to help with the school and it's ongoing projects again.

3 weeks flew past and before I knew it, we were crooning our hearts out to cheesy love songs in a karaoke bar as my send off - a hilarious night of much dancing and fun ('I love you yes I doooo....... like the mouse love the rice" etc) Khmer folk, especially the guys just love to croon over soppy songs. we had our own private singing suite complete with bar girls plying us with beer and snacks. The very next day I was crammed into a minibus laden with everything under the sun and 2 motorbikes on the roof, heading for the Thai border - Gotta love Cambodia.....