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Out here in the boonies of the Kingdom of Wonder,where the days flow on and begin to resemble one another.It is small things that begin to draw the attention, things like the unusually heavy traffic on highway 7 and the unusual number of ambulance sirens. It is of course Ching Ming, the Chinese grave cleaning day. My daughter has gone with granny to clean the grave of a man she never met and one suspects, to eat good food later.

So, I am sitting outside at home seeking relief from a bit of boredom when all at once I notice four strange cows in my back yard. Yep, it'' s that time of year when green grass is hard to find and their owners let them graze free range. In rural Cambodia free range means along the side of the road, anyone's property or orchard. The term for this is prawleng koh chawl. An interesting variation of this is used by wives who praleng pdey chawl. They let their hubbies look for greener pastures because they know all the grass is the same and like the cows they will find their way back to home and responsibilities.

This sounds idyllic, as long as you're ok to share with your neighbours, but what about all these stories between neighbours, where "what's yours' is mine and what's mine is mine"...not to mention the cows who eat your washing ?

(And I don't even want to go into the problems with sharing your wife - think there's another thread for that anyway. )

Polyamorous villages??? I'm in!

Rozzie, you may find the dice loaded in favour of the blokes.

first class descriptive memoir Taa.

do one like that a day and you will have a book worth reading in 6 months.

i will buy one.

if electronic.

Thank you Frank lee bent. The first posters obviously have an agenda or preoccupation that has nothing to do with the introduction of an idiom that is used humorously. And of course, you are correct about the same right not being extended to wives. And as for "This sounds idyllic." Shit I said I was bored. And if you quoted the German phase which I used elsewhere here(Was ist meins ist meins and was ist deins ist auch meins.) you reversed the order, no biggie to be sure, but furthermore cows here do not eat laundry as far as I know. Both of you have read too much into my post. Secondly, I've read your posts rozzieoz and you're still in the honeymoon stage of your stay here. I can assure you that your love philosophy is better suited to your home country than it is to rural Cambodia.

I liked that. I've heard prolaing used in a few ways, but never like that!

Thank you Rick, yeah, that's why I post rural language usage and idiomatic spin-offs. I'm certain that the idiom is known to city dwellers, but since it's impossible to prawleng koh chaol(chawl was wrong)there is no need for usage.

frank lee bent wrote:do one like that a day and you will have a book worth reading in 6 months.

I'd buy that.

If they just eat the grass is no problem, but some cows eat our plants. So praleng koh chawl is suitable to do in the forest,but in the village is a cause of argument.

taabarang wrote:Out here in the boonies of the Kingdom of Wonder,where the days flow on and begin to resemble one another.It is small things that begin to draw the attention, things like the unusually heavy traffic on highway 7 and the unusual number of ambulance sirens. It is of course Ching Ming, the Chinese grave cleaning day. My daughter has gone with granny to clean the grave of a man she never met and one suspects, to eat good food later.

So, I am sitting outside at home seeking relief from a bit of boredom when all at once I notice four strange cows in my back yard. Yep, it'' s that time of year when green grass is hard to find and their owners let them graze free range. In rural Cambodia free range means along the side of the road, anyone's property or orchard. The term for this is prawleng koh chawl. An interesting variation of this is used by wives who praleng pdey chawl. They let their hubbies look for greener pastures because they know all the grass is the same and like the cows they will find their way back to home and responsibilities.

I spent a few minutes to understand it. I was confused by the your Romanization for the word cow (Koh). To me, it sounds like Island. So for the Romanizaation for island, we write (Koh).

BTW, i have never heard of this idiom.