VIETNAM & COMBODIA EXPLORATION TOUR - 12 Days

THE DETAILED PROGRAM OF VIETNAM & COMBODIA EXPLORATION TOUR

DAY 1: HANOI ARRIVAL.

Welcome to Hanoi, you will be collected by our local driver at Hanoi Airport and transfer to hotel for check-in. The room is at your disposal from 14.00 onwards. Balance of the day as your leisure. Meals on your own. Overnight at the hotel.

DAY 2 : HANOI CITY TOUR .OVERNIGHT IN HANOI (B,L)

08.15 – 08.30 a.m: Meet your tour guide at your suggested places around Hanoi Old Quarter including:

• Tran Quoc pagoda, a Buddhist relic and national heritage lying on the West Lake.
• Ho Chi Minh complex, the final resting place of Viet Nam’s greatest father; his house-on-stilt and One pillar pagoda – modeled after a lotus flower, a symbol of Hanoi.
• Temple of Literature constructed in 1070 dedicating to Confucius, sages, and scholars. It was also the first university of Viet Nam once

Relax and have lunch at a local restaurant in Hanoi Old Quarter.

In the afternoon, spend time to explore:

• The traditional ceramics village of Bat Trang. Visit showrooms and see how they model the products.
• Ngoc Son Temple dedicated to Tran Hung Dao – General Commander for his struggle against Mongolians.

After Hanoi city tour, transfer you to your hotel & be relaxed at leisure.

Dinner on your own. Overnight at the hotel.

DAY 3 : DAY TRIP TO NINH BINH.OVERNIGHT IN HANOI(B, L)

07:45 – 08:30 You will be picked up at the hotel and then depart for Ninh Binh province. Have a break 20 minutes en-route to free your legs.

• Arrive at Hoa Lu, which was once depicted the ancient capital of Viet Nam, settling up in the 10th century.
• Visit temples of two dynasties of Dinh and Le with very unique architecture in the old time.
• Learn about ancient culture through an excavation of vestiges of Royal Palaces ground dated 10th century.

12:30 Relax and enjoy lunch in a nice restaurant.

• Board the sampan boats in Tam Coc going along river among the villages, mountains and rice fields. Passing through 3 caves “Hang Ca – First cave, Hang Hai – Second cave, Hang Ba – Third cave” to get a wonderful feeling.
• The boat returns to the dock for bus drive back to Hanoi.

Arrive in Hanoi. Drop off at the hotel. Dinner on your own. Overnight at the hotel.

DAY 4 : HALONG BAY DAY TRIP.OVERNIGHT IN HANOI (B, L)

07:30 – 08:30 a.m.Meet our tour guide and bus then take a 3.5-hour bus drive through fertile rice fields to Halong Bay. Have a break en-route in Hai Duong City to free your legs.

Board our Dragon Cruise and start cruising among limestone islands and photograph of stunning landscapes of Halong.

01:00 p.m. Savor your lunch on board while passing by beautiful Stone Dog, Incense Burner Islet.

Stop at a fishing village to see the local fish-men community and know more about their life. Cruising further to take photos of Halong Bay symbol, a “Fighting cock” rock.

Visit Thien Cung “Heavenly Palace” cave, the most beautiful in Halong Bay. Get back and cruise more around emerald water.

Stop at the harbor again to catch the bus to Hanoi.

08:00 p.m. Arrive back in Hanoi. Dinner on your own. Overnight at the hotel. At the hotel.

DAY 5 : HANOI FLIGHT TO HO CHI MINH CITY.OVERNIGHT IN HCMC (B)

After breakfast, transfer to Noibai airport (without tour guide) for a short flight to Ho Chi Minh – the largest city of Vietnam.

Upon your arrival at the airport, our driver will meet and transfer you to the hotel for check-in. The balance of the day is at your leisure. Meals on your own. Overnight at the hotel.

DAY 6 : HO CHI MINH CITY TOUR – CU CHI TUNNELS.OVERNIGHT IN HCMC (B, L)

08:00-08:30 am.Pick up at your hotel and start the city tour included:

• Independence Palace (the Reunification Palace) was built on the sight of the former Norodom palace.
• War Remnants Museum which has a vast display of the both the Indochina wars.
• Notre Dame Cathedral & Central Post Office the beautiful structures from the French Colonial times
• Jade Emperor Pagoda with the peaceful atmosphere &o many stories behind each detail of the pagoda.

12:30 am.Lunchtime with a famous Phở restaurant (Vietnamese noodle soup).

02:00 pm.Depart around 1,5 hours through the pleasant countryside before arriving at Cu Chi Tunnels – the historic site where Vietnamese soldiers used as a shelter during wartime. This fantastic network stretches over 250 km and is the shelter of Vietnamese soldiers during the wars.

06:00 – 07:00 pm.Be dropped off at your hotel. Dinner on your own account. Overnight at the hotel.

DAY 7 : DAY TRIP TO MEKONG DELTA.OVERNIGHT IN HCMC (B, L)

08:30 – 09:00 a.m.Depart from your hotel for My Tho, the town lies on the left side of the Mekong River.

• Boarding the sampan and cruising down the river around the four beautiful islands: Dragon, Unicorn, Phoenix and Tortoise islands
• Stopover at Unicorn Island, go walking around country lane and seeing orchards, enjoy tropical fruits, folk song music.
• Visit the fruit plantation.
• Riding a hand-rowed sampan through Thoi Son canal
• Visit the family business, visit honey-bee farm, enjoy honey tea and coconut candy workshop. Have lunch at a local restaurant.
• Cycling around Tan Thach village, meet the local villagers to experience the local daily life in the Mekong delta.

05:00-05:30 p.m . Drop off at your hotel. Dinner on your own. Overnight at the hotel.

DAY 8 : HO CHI MINH – BUS TO PHNOM PENH.OVERNIGHT IN PHNOM PENH (B)

At around 8:00 am, our driver will come to take you to the bus station to get on the shuttle bus to Phnom Penh (6-hour drive). Phnom Penh is the vibrant bustling capital of Cambodia. Situated at the confluence of three rivers, the mighty Mekong, the Bassac, and the great Tonle Sap, what was once considered the ‘Gem’ of Indochina.

Upon your arrival at the bus station in Phnom Penh, transfer you to the hotel for checking in. Meals on your own. Overnight at the hotel.

DAY 9 : PHNOM PENH CITY TOUR.OVERNIGHT IN PHNOM PENH (B, L)

In the morning, you’ll be pick up from your hotel’s lobby and bring you to meet other passengers or your new friend at the meeting point. After self-introduced, our tour guide will brief about schedule today, then we start your full-day journey by visiting the most important places in Phnom Penh.

• We begin from Wat Ounaloam Monastery, the oldest Buddhist pagoda which has been established in 1443 and consists of 44 structures. Located along Sisowat Quay near the Royal Palace and facing to the Tonle Charktomuk “4 Face River”.
• The Royal Palace, built by King Norodom in 1866 on the site of the old town, and the Silver Pagoda, located within the grounds of the Royal Palace. The Royal Palace of Cambodia is a complex of buildings although it is generally understood to be the royal abode of the King of Cambodia.
• Wat Phnom, the central point and the most significant of all the temples in Phnom Penh.
• Spend your last morning by visiting the Central Market (Psar Thmei), a large market constructed in 1937 in the shape of a dome with four arms branching out into vast hallways with countless stalls of goods. The four wings of this gigantic yellow dome are teeming with stalls that sell goods ranging from gold and silver, antique coins, money exchange, books, flowers, food, fabrics, shoes, souvenirs, seafood, and countless other products.

12:00 – 13:20 pm : Lunch break

After lunch, we continue to Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (S21 prison). This prison was a high school, and used as a prison by Pol Pot’s security forces and became the largest center for detention and torture during the rule of the Khmer Rouge.

If time permitted, have quick look at Phsar Toul Tom Phuong “Russian Market”, then head out to the south around 15km to visit the notorious Killing Fields “Choeung Ek” 15km southwest of Phnom Penh. This one is the site of brutal executions of more than 17,000 individuals, most of who first suffered through interrogations, torture and deprivation in Toul Sleng Prison during Pol Pot regime (From 1975–1979).

Drop off at your hotel around 5 – 5:30 pm. Dinner on your own. Overnight at the hotel.

DAY 10 : PHNOM PENH – BUS TO SIEM REAP.OVERNIGHT IN SIEM RIEP (B)

At 7:45 in the morning, our car will pick you up at the hotel to transfer to the bus station to take the bus to Siem Reap (6-hour drive).

Once arrival, meet your driver and transfer to the hotel to check-in. The room is at your disposal from 14:00 onward. The balance of the day will be free on your own. Meals on your own. Overnight at the hotel.

DAY 11 : ANGKOR SIGHTSEEING DAY TRIP.OVERNIGHT IN SIEM RIEP (B,L)

08:00: After meeting our tour guide, then we drive to Angkor Thom that was the masterpiece of King Jayavarman VII. Following the occupation of Angkor by the Chams from 1177 to 1181, the new king decided to build an impregnable fortress at the heart of his empire.

• We begin to visit Bayon Temple. At the exact center of Angkor Thom, this is an eccentric expression of the creative genius and inflated ego of Cambodia’s most celebrated king. Its 54 towers are each topped off with the four faces of Avalokiteshvara (Buddha of Compassion), which bear more than a passing resemblance to the king himself.
• We continue to visit Terrace of the Leper King. This intricately carved platform was the royal crematorium and the statue that was originally thought to be the leper king is now believed to be Yama, the god of death.
• We continue along the Terrace of Elephants, originally used as a viewing gallery for the king to preside over parades, performances and traditional sports. At the southern end lies the Baphuon, once of the most beautiful temples at Angkor, dating from the reign of Uditayavarman 1 in the 11th century.
• We visit Ta Prohm “Tomb Raider” fame. Ta Prohm has been abandoned to the elements, a reminder that while empires rise and fall, the riotous power of nature marches on, oblivious to the dramas of human history. Left as it was ‘discovered’ by French explorer Henri Mouhout in 1860, the tentacle-like tree roots here are slowly strangling the surviving stones, man first conquering nature to create, nature later conquering man to destroy.
• We journey out to the Mother of all temples, Angkor Wat. Believed to be the world’s largest religious building, this temple is the perfect fusion of symbolism and symmetry and a source of pride and strength to all Khmers. Built in the 12th century by King Suryavarman II, this is most famous temple at Angkor.

Transfer to your hotel. Dinner on your own. Overnight at the hotel.

DAY 12 : SIEM REAP DEPARTURE (B)

At a good time in the morning, you will be picked up from the hotel (without guide) to the airport for your departure flight. The room will be at your disposal until noon time only. Meals on your own.