Lao Voices

I had a chance to visit my local Wat (temple) again yesterday, and my favorite place is the garden.  This portion of the garden is in the back, and this temple has 3 gardens, one in front of Gouti (living quarter for monks) that is an herbal garden, another one near the Sala Houng Tum (worship hall) and Gouti that has all kinds of vegetables, and this one is in the wooded area towards the back of  Wat property.  I like the design of this back garden, it’s very natural looking as one of the entrances has vines of vegetation growing, giving that secrete garden look.

The string beans are planted to blend in with the natural setting, and other vegetables that grow on stakes just climb up as high as ever.

There are all kinds of animal back here, this one is trapped in a cage appears to be a groundhog, the monk kept saying “gow hok” and I couldn’t figure out what he was saying.  He asked me if they didn’t teach me in school of what a gow hok is, and I said I must have not paid attention to the teacher if they did, but when I got there it was a groundhog.  This is the fifth one that they caught in a trap, and he will take this one for a joy ride and release it where it can’t come back to the garden again.  I’m wondering if it’s the same one, might not have took it far enough.

Wat ground is also a place where young people gather and play sports, also a social gathering place where many hang out.