Voyage Across Vietnam & Cambodia – 11 Days

Your guide meets you at the airport and takes you to your hotel to check in.

The rest of the day is yours to rest and shake off the journey before an early start tomorrow.

Ride through the dark by tuk tuk to the Angkor Archaeological Park. Climb to the main entrance of Angkor Wat and watch the sky turn gold behind its five towers and the temples around it.

Continue to the South Gate of Angkor Thom, the last great capital of the Khmer kings. Inside stand the Baphuon and the Bayon, whose towers were carved with the serene faces of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, more than two hundred of them gazing out in every direction. Your guide brings the history of the empire to life and points out the details that make Angkor’s architecture unique.

Walk along the Terrace of the Elephants and the Terrace of the Leper King, where the king once watched parades and held his great audiences. End at Ta Prohm, the “jungle temple”, where giant trees have wrapped their roots around the stones, as if nature were slowly taking the buildings back.

Drive through the countryside to Tonle Sap, one of the most productive freshwater lakes in the world. By boat, visit its floating villages, where life follows the monsoon rains and the rising and falling of the water.

Return to Siem Reap along the back roads and watch the farming life of the season: rice being planted or harvested, fish smoked over fires, prahok, the pungent fermented fish paste, being made, ducks being herded and even crickets being caught.

Transfer to Siem Reap airport for your flight to Ho Chi Minh City, still called Saigon by most of its people. Your guide and driver meet you on arrival and take you to your hotel.

The evening is yours to discover the city’s buzzing streets at your own pace.

Begin at the Reunification Palace, home of the President of South Vietnam until the end of the war in April 1975. Continue to the red-brick Notre Dame Cathedral and the elegant General Post Office, then to the War Remnants Museum, a sobering account of the conflict told through Vietnamese eyes. If time allows, browse the stalls of Ben Thanh Market.

Drive about 70 kilometres northwest of the city to the Cu Chi Tunnels, part of a network of some 250 kilometres of tunnels dug by hand during the war, with kitchens, meeting rooms and hospitals hidden underground. Learn how people lived and fought down here, and squeeze into one of the narrow passages yourself.

Return to your hotel for an evening at leisure.

Leave the city behind and drive south past paddy fields that stretch to the horizon. At Cai Be, board a motorboat for the floating market, then switch to a rowing boat and zigzag through a maze of shady canals to a large orchard. Taste tropical fruit straight from the trees and watch how coconut candy and crispy rice cakes are made by hand.

Lunch is a feast of typical dishes from the delta.

Cross the river by motorboat to its quiet islands and explore the country lanes by bicycle. At Vinh Long pier, your driver is waiting for the drive to Can Tho, the largest city in the delta.

Board a motorboat for Cai Rang floating market at its busiest hour, when boats laden with fruit and vegetables crowd the river and traders hang samples from tall poles so buyers can see them from afar. Taste some of the delta’s more unusual fruit, then continue into the backwaters, past traditional houses of wood and palm leaves, for a glimpse of daily life along the canals.

Return to Can Tho for lunch, then drive back to Ho Chi Minh City airport for your flight to Da Nang.

Your guide and driver meet you in Da Nang and take you to Hoi An, a peaceful riverside town whose old quarter has been beautifully preserved. The evening is yours to wander its lantern-lit lanes.

A van takes you out of town to where your bicycles are waiting, and you ride along quiet paths to Cam Thanh, a farming village set among the paddies. Your host welcomes you and shows you how the family grows rice: plough and rake the field behind a water buffalo, take a ride on the buffalo’s back, plant rice seedlings in the mud, flood the field, then grind and pound the harvested grain.

Continue to a fishing village and head out on the water with local fishermen to learn how to throw a traditional cast net. Then climb into a round bamboo basket boat and spin your way into the water coconut palm forest, where locals show you how to fold the leaves into grasshoppers, flowers, rings and hats.

Take a short walk through the palms, and if you are game, join a playful mud fight. Back on the boat, lunch is cooked for you on board and served with a cold beer or soft drink before you return to your hotel.

Spend the morning as you please: on the beach, shopping in the old town or with one more walk through its lanes.

Transfer to Da Nang airport for your flight to Hanoi. Your driver and guide meet you outside the baggage hall at Noi Bai Airport and take you to your hotel in the heart of the city.

The rest of the day is yours to explore at your own pace.

Begin at the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, then walk on to the One Pillar Pagoda, which rises from its pond like a lotus flower, and the yellow Presidential Palace. Continue to the Temple of Literature, dedicated to Confucius and later home to Vietnam’s first university.

Choose the museum that suits you: the History Museum for the story of Vietnam through the ages, or the Museum of Ethnology for the traditions of its many ethnic groups.

Walk through the Old Quarter, its narrow streets once each devoted to a single trade, to St Joseph’s Cathedral and the shores of Hoan Kiem Lake.

End the day at the water puppet theatre, a folk art born in the flooded rice paddies of northern Vietnam, where puppets glide across a stage of water to tell stories of village life and legend.

After breakfast, drive about three hours to the coast and step aboard your junk.

Cruise past Dinh Huong and Ga Choi islets and step inside one of the bay’s great caves, such as Thien Cung, Sung Sot or Dau Go. Later, drop anchor at a sheltered cove with a white-sand beach and, if the weather allows, take a dip in the warm water of the Gulf of Tonkin.

Dinner is served on board, and the night is spent on the water, rocked gently to sleep by the calm sea.

Rise early for tai chi on the top deck, or simply watch the sun come up over the bay with a cup of coffee or tea.

Explore the nearby islands by bamboo boat, then relax on the sun deck as the junk cruises slowly back through the islands. Brunch is served on board before you reach the harbour.

Your driver meets you at the dock for the transfer to Hanoi’s Noi Bai International Airport and your flight home.