Charming Vietnam and Cambodia tour

Arrive at Hanoi airport, meeting with the local assistant and transfer to the hotel.

In the early afternoon you will start your tour of today's capital, a city with an ancient history. The foundation of Hanoi dates back to the beginning of the second century and is one of the most ancient human settlements still populated nowadays in South East Asia.

You'll reach the Temple of Literature, an ancient religious center and university of the city. You'll then continue with the recent history of the country visiting Ho Chi Minh mausoleum (which will be visited only from the outside for practical reasons), then the Presidential Palace (visit to the gardens), and finally the house where Ho Chi Minh lived, "the father of modern and unified Vietnam".

You'll then leave the representative district of the city to move further east, into the beating heart of the more traditional Hanoi, represented by the Old Quarter and its hectic picturesque exotic market. The Old Quarter sorrounds the Central Lake on three sides (Hoan Kiem Lake or "Lake of the Restored Sword"), on a small island at its center Ngoc Son temple rises.

Visit the temple and then explore the Old Quarter on the typical local cyclos (cycle rickshaws). The Central Lake and the Old Quarter are also the best places in the city to spend the night. Here you will find several restaurants specialized in various cuisines and you'll also have a unique chance for shopping of the most popular local objects. 

In the early morning set off travelling nort-east towards the coastal town of Halong. Boarding before lunch on an elegant junk for a pleasant cruise with overnight in world-famous Halong Bay. The guide will be on board the boat for the entire duration of the cruise. The fame of this place is due to its majestic stacks, limestone formations, islands and peaks that punctuate it creating fairytale landscapes. Lunch on board.

During the cruise many stops are scheduled and you'll be able to get off the boat to explore the local caves and the typical local fishing villages. At an extra charge you can have a swim, take part in a Vietnamese cuisine class and practice night fishing.

Dinner on board and overnight on the junk moored in a sheltered bay.

Details on distances: Hanoi - Halong - 165 km ca. highway in single / dual carriageway. Estimated time 3h30min / 4h (variable depending on traffic conditions).

Important technical details: the cabins on board the junks used for the Halong cruise have very reduced space. We suggest you bring along  a small carry-on bag with the basic necessities for the night. The main luggage, which may be too bulky inside the cabin, may be deposited at the port or left on board the means of transport.

Early wakeup for those who wish to practice Tha Chi on the upper deck. Then continue the excursion in the bay. Brunch on board before disembarkation at 11 am ca.

Transfer from Halong to Ninh Binh province, in the heart of Northern Vietnam.

The splendid attractions of the area are plenty: the landscape, for example, is stunning and one of the most beautiful in the country. Just like in Halong Bay, here too the horizon is dotted by huge limestone stacks rising vertically with majestic arrogance towards the sky. The background scenery is different though: here the stacks rise from the countryside and not from the sea. The emerald lagoon of Halong is here replaced by exotic blinding green ricefields punctuating the horizon.

The ricefields are crossed by large placid rivers which wind their way through the giant rocks lapping and widening their every cavity. The stacks are thus full caves, made navigable by the rivers and creeks that penetrate them in every direction.

But Ninh Binh is also full of history,

Sorrounded by this monumental and unique miracle of nature, there once was the capital of the Viet kingdom. This was the city where Dai-Viet kings first declared the independence from the Chinese Han empire. This happened at the end of the first millenium AC, when Hanoi, the city that was to become the new capital, still didn't exist. Today this place is called Hoa Lu.

Arrive in Ninh Binh in the late afternoon and sail across the area of the stacks, known as "Tam Coc". On the local boats you will also be able to access many caves. Weather permitting, you'll also reach Bich Dong temple, located on an island at the center of the river network. Accommodation in a hotel in Ninh Binh City, a few kilometers from Tam Coc.

Details on the distances of the day: Halong - Ninh Binh: 185 Km ca. highway in single / dual carriageway. Estimated time about 4h30min (variable depending on traffic conditions). Important technical details for the present day: the navigation to Tam Coc on board very small rowing boats able to penetrate inside the caves. Each boat can accommodate no more than 3/4 people and is equipped with benches without backs, and no roof.

In the early morning visit Hoa Lu ruins before starting the journey back to Hanoi. Flight to Saigon. Lunch not included.

Arrive in Saigon in the early afternoon and visit the city, including Notre Dame cathedral (1880), and the Post Office (1886). Travelling along the city streets you'll also admire the great complex of the Reunification Palace from the outside, the City Hall and the Theater of the Opera. Time permitting, you'll also visit the War museum where the history of the Second War of Indochina is retraced, better known ad "Vietnam War", through a wide and detailed set of photographs.

Accommodation in hotel and dinner at leisure. Overnight in Saigon.

Details on the distances of the day: Ninh Binh - Hanoi (Noi Bai Airport): 130 km ca. modern two-lane highway. Estimated time 2h30min / about 3 hours (varies depending on the traffic conditions approaching Hanoi) . Important technical details of the present day: The War Museum in Saigon consists of several large rooms whose walls are set up with a detailed photographic record. Some of the pictures are of a violent nature or otherwise not appropriate for a very sensitive audience. We will also specify that the tour guides cannot accompany clients during the visit (the images to illustrate would be too many and it would also be unrespectful to dwell for long talking loud in the busy museum . Visitors will have to enjoy the visit with the only help of captions which, we specify, are in English only).

In the south-eastern suburbs of Saigon there is colorful China Town. You will find it along the route that leads to the deep South of Vietnam and it will be interesting to stop over at its central market, known as Binh Tay, Nearby is also Thien Hau temple.

You'll then leave the modernity and progress of one of the biggest cities of Asia to reach the gigantic "Nine-Headed  Dragon". Nine are in fact the mouths through which the great Mekong River, after winding its way for 4350 km through Tibet, Yunnan, Burna, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, flows into Vietnam to reach the South China Sea.

The Mekong is the twelfth longest river in the world and has a catchment area which is three times larger than Italy. The nine heads of the dragon, which make up the famous delta estuary, occupy an area of 39,000 sqm where many important pages of history were written over the centuries. Since the very beginning of the first millenium AC the capital Funan was situated here, one of the most ancient Indianized kingdoms of South East Asia which was later to evolve into the great Angkor Khmer Kingdom over the following centuries. The area was then occupied by Cham populations, whose reigns once spread all across today's central Vietnam, were erased by the inexorable expansion of the Dai- Viet. And this same expansion in the seventeenth century also brought the Dai- Viet themselves in contact with the Delta which became the scene of a diverse melting pot of ethnicities. The political conquest of the Delta by the Vietnamese against the Khmer is a long process that has continued to the present day. The French settlers in fact were the ones who determined the new borders between Vietnam and Cambodia through the creation of an immense engineering work: the excavation of the giant Vinh Te canal that still marks the border between the two countries, extending 87 Km from Chau Doc to the China Sea.

Nowadays many Cham and Khmer communities live in the Delta. The Cambodians, once masters of this vital outlet to the sea, still refer to the Delta by the nickname of "Lower Cambodia". The Government has divided the Delta into 13 large provinces where today a quarter of the entire Vietnamese population lives, meaning over 20 million inhabitants. Some of the most populous cities of Vietnam and South East Asia overlook the banks of the majestic river branches and the thick network of artificial canals connecting them and forming a magnificent water system. The most important is Can Tho, commonly known as the "Capital of the Delta".

With over one million and two hundred thousand inhabitants it is the fourth most populous city in Vietnam and is the nerve center of the river trade network. Each one of the 13 provinces of the Delta is known for its peculiar local products, from rice to fishing and tropical fruit. Producers and buyers of the Delta meet every day at the popular permanent floating market aboard their junks. This market is known as "Cai Rang market". Can Tho lies on the banks of Hau, "second" in Vietnamese, meaning the second branch of the river coming from Saigon.

Travelling out of the great metropolis, you'll first find "Thien", the "first" branch, where you'll stop at Cai Be. Lunch with local products; the main dish is "elephant-ear" fish, prepared on your table, wrapping its delicious meat in succulent rice rolls.

From Cai Be your adventure on a junk will start: you'll sail the canals of the Delta taking many stops to admire the plantations of tropical fruit, the windmills for rice cleaning and the use of the chaff for the production of pillows and mattresses, the factories producing "fish sauce", tofu and other derivatives for local products. The junk will take you to the port of the popolous town of Vinh Long, capital of the province bearing the same name, where you will be able to admire one of the rare attractions of the area not related to water: the hectic vegetable and fruit market, where busy attendants huddle among the goods displayed on the ground, moving around not on foot but on a motorbike, arranged in long moving lines.

You'll reach Can Tho at sunset.
 

Early departure. The best time to visit popular Cai Rang market is the early morning. This is the most important time of the day for the bargaining and no dealer wants to miss it.

The junks are distributed in a random and irregular order occupying more than a kilometer of the course of the busy Can Tho river, one of the main tributaries of the Hau. They don't know that they are thus creating one of the most authentic, colorful and exotic activities on the planet. They don't know that in the rest of the world, markets are not set up on the water. They look at us with naive amazement and are surprised by our interest, they cannot understand it, but they accept it happily. There is no pride in their eyes, just a natural indifference for an external world which doesn't belong to them.
You can find everything on their junks: mango, rambutan, lychee, pineapple, mangosteen, but also spices, fragrant roots, all kinds of vegetables and more.

The market of fresh products is instead on the banks of the river. You'll cross it sorrounded by its colors and smells before resuming the journey further west, till reaching the place where it all started, a place now called Oc-Eo, lost among the ricefields of the remote Long Xuyen province, where, since the beginning of the first millenium, the towers of the palaces of the capital of Funan kingdom rose. Now only few remains of them are still standing.

Vinh Te canal and the border with Cambodia will be even closer when you'll enter An Giang province, the westernmost of the Delta. Here fruit is not grown, the locals specialize in fish breeding.

A few kilometers from the border you'll find a place whose landscape is of incomparable beauty: Tra Su nature reserve, a giant swamp covered by thick impenetrable Cajput forest. Among these trees around 70 species of water birds still live, including the rare Painted Stork (Mycteria leucocephala) and the beautiful Oriental Darter (Anhinga melanogaster), with a thin and long neck. Both species are endangered and Tra Su is one of the few places where they can still be easily sighted. You will have to proceed still and quiet, on small rowing boats. The best time for sightings is the late afternoon, just before sunset.

This is the last stop of today before reaching Chau Doc, the capital of the province, where Vinh Te canal meets Hau river. Cambodia is a few steps away.
 

Breakfast at the hotel.

From Chau Doc travel on a motorboat to the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh. On arrival meet the local guide and transfer to the hotel.

Lunch in a local restaurant.

The day continues with sightseeing in the classic part of the capital of Cambodia: the National Museum, a precious casket that contains the masterpieces of Khmer sculpture from the fifth to the thirteenth century, the area of the Royal Palace with the Throne Room, where still today the Sovereign grants its hearings, and the adjacent Silver Pagoda complex.

Dinner and overnight at the hotel.
 

Morning at leisure. In the afternoon visit the National Museum displaying relics from the pre - Angkorian and Angkorian era of the glorious history of the ancient Khmer empire.

The neighbourhood near the Museum is entirely occupied by the Royal Palace complex which also hosts the Silver Pagoda.

The history of the Royal Palace is strictly related to the French colonization and the function of Phnom Penh as capital of the country. "Silver Pagoda" is the name which the Westernes have assigned to the Royal Temple, because of its splendid floors entirely covered in silver tiles.

The last stop is due at Wat Phnom, the Buddhist temple connected to the foundation of Phnom Penh city during the 14th century.

Retunr to the hotel after the tour.
 

Travel north along the road east of the largest natural lake of Tonle Sap. The green and unspoiled countryside is the abundant and unchallenged ruler of the day, until we reach the chief town of Kompong Thom after about three hours. From here you will take a detour of about 30 km that stretches into the open country and consists of a bumpy dirt road barely passable with cars. This harsh and challenging road can offer some of the most distinctive attractions of today's Cambodia. It connects some remote rural villages with exotic and picturesque wooden houses, inhabited by simple and friendly ordinary people of the countryside.

Soon we will arrive at the archaeological site known today as Sambor Prei Khuk coinciding with the ancient pre-Angkorian City Ishanapura. The ancient city was divided into three distinct neighborhoods that extend over a large area. The visit will take place by walking along a path of about 2km to admire the pre-Angkorian ruins dating back to the seventh and eighth centuries. Some buildings have a unique and original octagonal shape.

During the last part of the transfer that leads to Siem Reap there is a further important stop to admire the bridges built in the late twelfth century by the great King Jayavarman the 7th, who undertook the construction of a road network to connect the various provinces of  the Empire. Today's Highway 6 follows the same path of the ancient Khmer road.

Arrival in Siem Reap scheduled for late afternoon. Hotel accommodation.
 

Drive to the famous historical site of Angkor. The day will start with the so-called "Grand Tour" of Angkor.

First stop at Prasat Kravan, one of the oldest buildings of Angkor consisting of 5 aligned towers. Short stop then to Srah Srang ( "the royal swimming pools") before arriving in the immense reservoir of Yasodharatataka (modern name East Baray), now dried up, for which King Yasovarman erected mighty high banks up to 7 meters arranged on a rectangular plan with sides of 7600 * 1800 meters. At the center of the East-Baray, on a specially crafted artificial hill are the sumptuous ruins of the temple Shivaista Rajendraesvara (now known as the East-Mebon).

A little further south stands the majestic group of five towers of the StateTemple of King Rajendravarman II: the Rajendrabadresvara, now known as Pre Rup, a colossal "temple mountain" with imperious proportions. About 20km further north we find one of the finest and most precious works of art that the ancient Khmer have handed down to us. It is a small temple entirely covered with beautiful bas-reliefs. The original name of this pure masterpiece of art is "Tribuvanamahesvara" which identifies the God Shiva as the "Lord of the three worlds." Today the temple is rather known as Banteay Srei, the "Citadel of Women".

The entire afternoon will be devoted to the wonder of Angkor par excellence, the place which since its discovery has sparked the imagination and the desire of the Western world: the legendary Angkor Wat. Considered today as one of the most stunning wonders of our planet, this colossal building holds several records including the prestige of being the largest religious complex in the world.
 

Start for a new day of visits to Angkor. The protagonist of today will be Jayavarman VII, the most celebrated and praised of Kings under the command of whom, between the end of the twelfth and early thirteenth century, the Khmer empire reached its maximum expansion and cultural and political influence. The era of Jayavarman VII also marks a fundamental spiritual transition from Hinduism to Mahayana Buddhism and is to the latter form of worship that its great monasteries are dedicated.

The day will begin at Angkor Thom, the giant walled city that you will access through today's most famous gate: the "South Gate", surrounded by Gods and Demons lines that hold "Naga" snakes. Inside you will find "the Terrace of the Elephants" and "Terrace of the Leper King", entirely carved with beautiful bas-reliefs made of five superimposed registers. At Angkor Thom the geometric center is instead the State Temple of the great King Jayavarman VII, the famous "Bayon", known to the world for its numerous towers on which the giant stone faces are carved.

Exiting Angkor Thom through the eastern door of the "Victory Gate" you will meet in rapid succession a series of extremely interesting buildings including two small "flat" temples in the Angkor Wat style, similar and of immense beauty: the Thommanon and Chao Sai Tewoda, then the colossal ruins of the "mountain temple" known today by the name of Ta Keo, never finished by its ancient builders. These ancient ruins are the perfect prelude to the highlights which will round off the morning in the first of the great monasteries built by Jayavarman.

This is the great Rajavihara, now known by the generic name of Ta Phrom, popular among international tourists for the wild look in which it presents itself. The Ta Phrom was in fact chosen as the place of example to show the world the state in which Angkor was found. Even today, giant trees hang on the walls of the monastery and their mighty roots creep in the spaces between the massive blocks of sandstone to form a mystical combination of art, history and nature.

In the afternoon you will visit the second colossal monastery: Nagarajayasri, the "lucky city that brings victory". Dedicated to the father of the King, the entire complex was fortified and defended by a high wall and surrounded by a wide canal crossed by four bridges adorned with "Naga" snakes. Today the complex is known as Preah Khan and its symbolic importance is underlined by the construction, along the same longitudinal axis, of the large artificial reservoir Jayatataka in whose center were  the "spa" now known by the name of Neak Pean was located.