{"id":2526,"date":"2012-12-16T01:20:27","date_gmt":"2012-12-16T08:20:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thejohnsonsjournal.com\/?p=2526"},"modified":"2012-12-16T01:20:27","modified_gmt":"2012-12-16T08:20:27","slug":"battambang-cambodias-second-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thejohnsonsjournal.com\/?p=2526","title":{"rendered":"Battambang, Cambodia&#8217;s second city"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From Phnom Penh it was another 6-hour bus ride to Battambang, Cambodia&#8217;s second largest city, which actually felt like a very small town. \u00c2\u00a0 Battambang has many small wats (Buddhist\u00c2\u00a0temples) and some French colonial buildings to explore. \u00c2\u00a0It is also adorned with many statues decorating nearly every round-about, sidewalk and park.<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 460px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/photos.thejohnsonsjournal.com\/photos\/9268\/medium.jpg\" width=\"450\" height=\"675\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Statues all over the place<\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"width: 460px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/photos.thejohnsonsjournal.com\/photos\/9276\/medium.jpg\" width=\"450\" height=\"675\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Another statue<\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"width: 460px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/photos.thejohnsonsjournal.com\/photos\/9272\/medium.jpg\" width=\"450\" height=\"675\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Statue made from dismantled weapons.<\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"width: 460px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/photos.thejohnsonsjournal.com\/photos\/9263\/medium.jpg\" width=\"450\" height=\"675\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Another great statue.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Though after a day of wandering around, we felt like we had seen most of what there was to see.<\/p>\n<p>So on our second day we went on a bike tour of the nearby countryside\u00c2\u00a0to visit some of the local industries including rice paper making, fish paste, dried bananas, sticky rice cakes, and rice wine. \u00c2\u00a0We had a great local guide who was very\u00c2\u00a0knowledgeable\u00c2\u00a0about each business and the process of making each product. \u00c2\u00a0It was a great way to learn about local customs and daily life, as well as get out, get some\u00c2\u00a0exercise,\u00c2\u00a0and have a bit of fun.<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 460px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/photos.thejohnsonsjournal.com\/photos\/9231\/medium.jpg\" width=\"450\" height=\"675\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Learning how to make rice paper by hand<\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"width: 460px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/photos.thejohnsonsjournal.com\/photos\/9236\/medium.jpg\" width=\"450\" height=\"300\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Scott trying his hand at making rice paper<\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"width: 460px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/photos.thejohnsonsjournal.com\/photos\/9237\/medium.jpg\" width=\"450\" height=\"675\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sheets of rice paper drying in the sun<\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"width: 460px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/photos.thejohnsonsjournal.com\/photos\/9240\/medium.jpg\" width=\"450\" height=\"675\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Woman making dried banana sheets<\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"width: 460px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/photos.thejohnsonsjournal.com\/photos\/9243\/medium.jpg\" width=\"450\" height=\"675\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Delicious sticky rice cake with banana and coconut<\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"width: 460px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/photos.thejohnsonsjournal.com\/photos\/9242\/medium.jpg\" width=\"450\" height=\"300\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Brewing local rice liquor. This stuff is strong, 30-40% alcohol.<\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"width: 460px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/photos.thejohnsonsjournal.com\/photos\/9245\/medium.jpg\" width=\"450\" height=\"675\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fish drying in the sun, this place had a strong aroma.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>More photos of <a href=\"http:\/\/photos.thejohnsonsjournal.com\/albums\/331\">Battambang<\/a> and the <a href=\"http:\/\/photos.thejohnsonsjournal.com\/albums\/330\">bike tour<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From Phnom Penh it was another 6-hour bus ride to Battambang, Cambodia&#8217;s second largest city, which actually felt like a very small town. \u00c2\u00a0 Battambang has many small wats (Buddhist\u00c2\u00a0temples) and some French colonial buildings to explore. \u00c2\u00a0It is also adorned with many statues decorating nearly every round-about, sidewalk and park. Though after a day [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[93],"tags":[116],"class_list":["post-2526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cambodia","tag-cambodia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thejohnsonsjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thejohnsonsjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thejohnsonsjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thejohnsonsjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thejohnsonsjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2526"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/thejohnsonsjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2526\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2533,"href":"https:\/\/thejohnsonsjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2526\/revisions\/2533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thejohnsonsjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thejohnsonsjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thejohnsonsjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}