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Itinerary:
Day 1: Arrive HCMC
Day 2:City Tour Saigon
Day 3:Saigon – Sadec – Can Tho
Day 4:Can Tho – Chau Doc
Day 5:Chau Doc
Day 6:Chau Doc – Phnom Penh
Day 7:Phnom Penh – Siem Reap
Day 8:Siem Reap
Day 9:Siem Reap
Day 10:Siem Reap
Day 11:Siem Reap – Departure
Itinerary details:
DAY 1: SAIGON
Upon arrival in the airport, you will be picked up and transffered to the hotel.
In the afternon, you will visit the monuments of the Pearl of the Far East. The Notre Dame Cathedral (Jules Bourard - 1877), the great post (Alfred and Henry Foulhoux Vildieu - 1886); Central Market (Establishments Brossard and Mopin - 1914), the History Museum (Auguste Delaval - 1929) mark the stages of the French colonization, the Romanesque-Gothic church with Indochinese grounds of the museum, to the frame Eiffel mail. Then spree pedicab in Cholon, the Chinese quarter, where are the temple of Thien Hau is the goddess of the sea, and the Church of St. Joan of Arc, Binh Tay market impregnable too. Visit a lacquer workshop. Overnight in hotel.
DAY 2: SAIGON – SADEC – CAN THO
In the morning, road to Sadec where the mother of Marguerite Duras lived. You will visit the Mekong Delta school (now Trung Vuong primary school) that and the family home of Chinese lover, miss Donnadieu. The small Kien An Confucian temple is lovely, it was built in the twenties by Hoa, Sino-Vietnamese minority.
Drive to Can Tho and overnight in hotel
DAY 3: CAN THO – CHAU DOC
The morning is spent for a tour of floating market, to trade the colorful and tasty products of regional agriculture. Then, a few kilometers cycling in the countryside around Can Tho. On the road to Chau Doc, stop at Binh Thuy. We visit there a large Franco-Vietnamese house (late nineteenth century), where Jean-Jacques Annaud, who shot scenes of the film he shot's Lover
Arrival in Chau Doc in the late afternon. Check in and overnight in hotel.
DAY 4: CHAU DOC
Breakfast in hotel and visit the Temple Chau Phu, raised in 1926 in memory of a senior official Nguyen who fixed the border with Cambodia. Then walk to Sam Mountain, five miles southwest of Chau Doc. Many pilgrims attending the temples and pagodas that big hill. On the way to the top, refreshment stalls offering refreshments and hammocks (although we continue stoically - even stop at the back - because, on the top, the view of the deployment of the delta and the rice fields is gorgeous). Finally, a boat stroke, we reach a village on stilts where lives a Cham Bani community who practice an Islam tinted of Hinduism and Buddhism. Free afternoon. Overnight in Chau Doc.
DAY 5: CHAU DOC – PHNOM PENH
Transfer by boat to Phnom Penh.
Arrival, check in hotel and visit Phnom Penh City by cyclo. It is time for discovery of remarkable buildings of the period of the protectorate. Visit Central Market, splendid achievement Art Deco (John Desbois - 1935-1937) whose rehabilitation progressing rapidly.Overnight in hotel
DAY 6: PHNOM PENH – SIEM REAP (ANGKOR)
Morning is spent to visit extraordinary ethnography and art Khmer National Museum (George Groslier - 1917-1924); the Royal Palace, whose construction began in 1866 under King Norodom 1 (Silver Pagoda palace has a crystal Buddha Baccarat and set with diamonds golden statue of the Bodhisattva Maitreya) Wat Phnom Pagoda Hill, which gave its name to the city ...
Transfer to airport for flight to Siem Reap.
Dinner is served at a cozy restaurant. Taste and enjoy some Khmer cuisine.
Overnight at your hotel in Siem Reap
DAY 7: SIEM REAP
Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom. It's tuk-tuk (trishaw) that we visit these two great monuments of the ancient capital of the Khmer empire. Built in the twelfth century Angkor Wat temple-city of Suryavarman II, is the largest monument of the site and the best preserved. Archaeologists of the French School of the Far East, in particular, did a great job. The statuary is admirable. Buddhist worship continues in the sanctuary (which was originally dedicated to Vishnu). Jayavarman VII had built the royal city of Angkor Thom in the early thirteenth century. The huge carved faces of the south gate are unforgettable; natural reliefs of Bayon, the central temple, surprised; on the terrace of the Leper King had probably held cremation sovereign ... overnight in hotel
DAY 8: SIEM REAP
Drive to Koh Ker, a hundred miles north-east of Angkor. Imperial capital in the tenth century, the city whose remains are scattered in a dense forest, has long been dedicated to Shiva (represented as phallic shape of the lingam). Many statues kept in the National Museum in Phnom Penh by this site. After lunch visit another major set: Preah Khan Kompong Svay (eleventh century). This royal residence five km² was one of the most important sites of the Angkor period. Overnight in hotel
DAY 9: SIEM REAP
Visit Roluos / Hariharalaya, one of the first capitals of the Khmer Empire, founded in the eighth century. You can still see the Preah Ko (ninth century), the first temple built in the Angkor area; it is brick and dedicated to Shiva, its name, which means sacred bull Nandi means the bull god mount. In the same time, the Bakong is the prototype of Khmer temple-mountains (symbols of Mount Meru, Olympus deities of Hinduism). As for Lolei, it is a little later than the previous, Shiva converted to Buddhism, with beautiful calligraphy carved into the sandstone jambs of doors. And, a few kilometers away, meeting of old and modern at Chao Srei Vibol, flanked Angkorian ruins of a small Buddhist monastery sheltering some monks with whom you can type the dharma talk.
DAY 10: SIEM REAP - FLIGHT BACK
Transfer to the airport and return flight.
