Battambang, Cambodia
 
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© 2019 John Holstein
 
 
 
Battambang is a pleasant town of around 200,000. It is comfortable for tourists but doesn't have many at all. I saw less than 10 Westerners during my week's stay. It's not a "touristy" town, with lots of fine dining and bars and boutique hotelsand shopping.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The huge jars are all over the place in Battambang; I haven't seen them in other countries in Southeast Asia. They are for storing water.
 
 
 
 
Off Main Street
 
 
 
 
The young girl is combing her mother's hair.
 
 
 
 
The bicycle shop where I rented my bike. I felt very lucky, because it's not easy to find bikes for rent in Southeast Asia. After I left Battambang I found out that this shop runs bike tours. (I just breezed past the sign out front.)
 
 
 
 
Reminds me of WEZY radio station in the movie Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?
 
 
 
 
 
 
Huai Bao Gu Miao, a small Chinese Taoist temple in downtown Battambang. It's supposed to be the oldest building in downtown Battambang. The next two photos were taken inside. "Many of the temples in Cambodia were destroyed during the Khmer Rouge period but those in Battambang fared a little better thanks to the relatively benign local leadership." (The Traveling Hams)
 
 
 
 
A panorama shot of the interior of the temple in the previous photo. (When will Samsung or Apple come up with a pan shot that corrects the fish eye effect?)
 
 
 
 
 
I guess it isn't a Buddhist temple, since that certainly isn't buddha on the altar. Generally speaking there are four types of Chinese religions: Buddhist, Confucian, Daoist and folk. That's not Confucius or a Daoist like LaoTsu on the altar, and the elder in the painting to the left of the altar is probably the Mountain Spirit, so maybe this temple is a folk temple dedicated to a local deity. "A T'u-ti is often a deified historical person who had assisted a specific community during his lifetime. It is believed that if the person is deified and sacrificed to, he will be moved to continue his assistance from the spirit world. If misfortunes occur in a location dedicated to a T'u-ti, the T'u-ti is believed to have lost interest and a new patron is chosen." (Religion Facts)
 
 
 
 
 
At Damrey Sor Buddhist temple downtown. We are borrowing this photo from Rudi Raspe, in a Google collection.
 
 
 
 
 
New Year's celebrations go on for days, full blast, into the wee hours of the night--right beneath my hotel room.
 
 
 
 
 
In the night market during the days of New Year's festivities.
 
 
 
 
 
River Park, Sangker River. The river runs along main street for about a kilometer.
 
 
 
 
 
Sangker River. The park is to the right. In 2006 I tried the 6-hour river ferry on this very interesting river from Siem Reap to Battambang. Check out scenes from the ferry ride (including scenes from the house-boat village on Tonlesap).
 
 
 
 
 
The goal of this seemingly endless parade of students (continuing off the photo at both ends) is to collect alms for monks in the province. The official religion of Cambodia is Buddhism.
 
 
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