Vietnam - Thailand - Cambodia 9 days

After breakfast, your private tour guide will pick you up and your tour of Indochina starts with a full-day city tour of Hanoi. Below are the recommended sites, but of course, your guide will be happy to modify the list based on your preferences. Visits: – Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum and the Presidential Palace – Ho Chi Minh’s private home, a wooden stilt-house surrounded by lush gardens – Tran Quoc Pagoda, the oldest Buddhist Pagoda in Hanoi, is located on a small island near the southeastern shore of Hanoi’s West Lake. – Museum of Ethnology which focuses on the 54 officially recognised ethnic groups in Vietnam.

Lunch will be served at Pho Huyen, a Vietnamese noodle shop. Some locals call Pho Huyen’s world-famous noodle soup “Mac-Noodles” since it is as popular here in Hanoi as MacDonald’s is in other parts of the world! At the restaurant, your private tour guide will explain to you the routine during Vietnamese meal times, and educate you on the special ingredients used.

Wake up early if you can to see the sun rise over the spectacular horizon, reflected in the pristine waters of the bay. Relax and enjoy your breakfast while sailing around this natural wonder. Once the boat has docked, you will be driven back to Hanoi’s Noi Bai airport for a short flight to Da Nang.

Upon arrival at Da Nang airport, your private tour guide will take you to your hotel in Hoi An to check in.

After breakfast and a leisurely morning on your own, you will check out by midday and have lunch on your own.

Your private driver will pick you up for the drive to the Imperial City of Hue (travel time approximately 4 hours). During this scenic drive, you will get to see the stunning Hai Van (Ocean Clouds) Pass which offers spectacular scenery and views of the coastline below. You will see miles of pristine beaches, travel past villages, and at times drive alongside the tracks of the famous Reunification Railway.

There will be stops en route to take pictures and visit the Marble Mountains, a cluster of five marble and limestone hills.

You will arrive in Hue in the evening. After checking in to your hotel, the rest of the day will be yours to explore at your leisure.

After breakfast and check out, your private tour guide will pick you up and take you to Hue airport for a short flight to Ho Chi Minh City (HCM City), previously known as Saigon.

Upon arrival in HCM City your private tour guide will take you to the infamous Cu Chi Tunnels, an incredible underground tunnel network constructed by the Vietnamese resistance fighters during the long struggle for independence. The tunnels are a sobering insight into the dedication of the Viet Cong who lived almost entirely underground in the narrow and claustrophobic tunnels, for up to 10 years! Upon arrival, you will watch a brief introductory video on the Cu Chi Tunnels, followed by a walk through the reserve. During the walk, you will see:

– the Secret Entrance to the tunnels
– workshops for the handmade weapons
– the clinic, commander, meeting and kitchen bunkers

If you are feeling brave, you can crawl inside the Cu Chi Tunnels to experience how difficult life must have been, and discover the 3 underground levels. After the visit to the Cu Chi Tunnels, you will return to HCM City where the rest of the day will be yours to explore at your leisure.

After breakfast and check out, your private tour guide will pick you up and take you to Ben Tre town, on the way to the heart of the Mekong Delta, via some rustic country roads (travel time approximately 2 hours). The Mekong Delta, popularly known as the “rice bowl” of Vietnam, is famous for its vast rice fields, orchard farms, coconut trees, numerous waterways and beautiful landscapes.

When you arrive at Ben Tre town, you will embark on a motorized boat trip along the scenic Ben Tre River, visiting various local industries along the way such as the small local factories where bricks and sleeping mats are made. You will take a leisure walk along the village lanes visiting the local homes to sample dry fruits, and enjoy honey tea while enjoying a local Tai Tu music show. You will also visit a coconut mill workshop where the local delicacy of coconut candy is produced, and a range of coconut husk and fiber products are skillfully handcrafted.

You will then take a small sampan boat through palm-fringed back canals, gliding peacefully along the hidden waterways surrounded by an immense variety of tropical plants. The quiet, rural setting is a welcome and restorative retreat to the frenetic buzz of HCMC which seems so far away.

After breakfast, your private tour guide will pick you up for a motorized boat trip on Tonle Sap Lake, Asia’s largest inland lake, which harvests the largest amount fresh water fish in the world. This lake swells to ten times its normal size during the wet season. Here, you will interact with the locals, see the school, hospital, church, fishing farm, crocodile farm and the souvenir shop in the floating village. Afterwards, you will return to town to visit Les Artisan D’Angkor and observe students learning the art of carving.

Afternoon
In the afternoon, you will be driven to Siem Reap airport for a short flight to Bangkok. Upon arrival in Bangkok, your private tour guide will take you to your hotel in Bangkok to check in.

After breakfast, your private tour guide will pick you up for a tour around Bangkok.

Visits:
– The Golden Buddha – This statue is approximately 3 meters high and weighs 5.5 tones. The statue, which can be disassembled into nine pieces, was housed in a wat in Ayutthaya until mid-19th century, and its provenance from Ayutthaya excludes the possibility of it having been made after 1750.
– The Reclining Buddha – The chapel and the reclining Buddha (Phra Buddhasaiyas) were built by Rama III in 1832. The image of the reclining Buddha represents the entry of Buddha into Nirvana and the end of all reincarnations. The posture of the Buddha is referred to as sihasaiyas, the posture of a sleeping or reclining lion. The statue is 15 meters high and 46 meters long, and is one of the largest Buddha statues in Thailand. The right arm of the Buddha supports its head, which rests on two box-pillows richly encrusted with glass mosaics. This statue has a brick core, which was modeled and shaped with plaster, then gilded