Amazing River Cruise - 14 Days

Welcome upon arrival by our driver then we transfer to hotel. The rest of the day will be free to wander around the lively streets of Bangkok. Overnight in a hotel.

After breakfast at the hotel, we will have a short time for free and then check out. We then depart from the pier located in front of the Anantara Bangkok Riverside Resort & Spa and board the Anantara Song Cruise for a 2-night onboard.

Enjoy the welcome drink while heading to the Wat Arun - Temple of Dawn, one of the ancient temples dating from the Ayutthaya period. We then cruise to the Royal Barges National Museum, home to an amazing collection of gilded and ornately decorated boats.

Enjoy your afternoon relaxing on the deck while Afternoon Tea with traditional English tea served with cookies, pastries, sandwiches, fruit, chocolate cakes, and scones with whipped cream and jam…We then have a quick stop at the Wat Pathum Khong Ka to feed the fish – a simple way of gaining merit and good luck in Thai belief. Arrive at Wat Samakkiyaram in time to watch the sunset and moor for the night.

Our relaxing evening will be on the deck with aperitifs and Thai canapés before having dinner with traditional Thai food with Wat Samakkiyaram as a dramatic backdrop. We spend the first night onboard.

Wake up early in the morning and enjoy the fresh air of the river. Freshly prepared breakfast is served while watching the life floating as we cruise up the Chao Phraya River. Our first stop today is Wat Bota with a guided tour around the temple and a chance to make merit with the monks. Back to our cruise and continue the journey until Mediterranean set lunch is served.

In the afternoon, we will stop at Wat Panancherng which houses Thailand’s largest ancient Buddha image made in 1344. We then get in our car and transfer to the World Heritage Site of Ayutthaya, the ancient capital dating back from 1350. We will have an elephant ride around the ruins before getting back to our car and continue to Bang Pa In, one of the 16 districts of Ayutthaya. We then back to the Anantara Song Cruise, and relaxed in the sun to check for aperitifs and Thai canapés. Enjoy a traditional Thai dinner and spend the second night on board.

After freshly prepared breakfast on board, we will have a guided tour around Wat Niwet Thammaprawat. From here, we take a short walk to the Bang Pa In Summer Palace. We then drive to Bang Sai Royal Folk Arts and Crafts Centre, here we can see different kinds of Thai houses in regional style and understand how the local people make handicrafts such as fern basketry, silk flowers, silk dyeing, wood carving…We then drive back to the pier and rejoin the Anantara Song and enjoy our light Thai set lunch while cruising back to Bangkok.

After an afternoon tea with special English tea and delicious cookies and pastries, we arrive at the Anantara Bangkok Riverside Resort & Spa pier. The rest of the day will be free. Overnight in Bangkok.

After breakfast at the hotel, we will be free until our car arrives to take us to the airport to board the noon flight to Siem Reap. On arrival, we will be welcomed by our guide and transferred to the hotel. Our afternoon will be free. Overnight in Siem Reap.

Our morning will be free to relax at the hotel’s pool. At around noon, we will transfer to the pier where we board the Jayavarman Cruise. After welcome and briefing, we enjoy a buffet lunch onboard.

Our afternoon will be a relaxing time while the cruise glides along the water. Dinner will be severed at the Dining Hall while the cruise anchors for the night in the Tonle Sap Lake.

Our every morning will be started with a Tai Chi lesson (beginners welcomed) then followed by morning coffee and tea. Before dawn, our ship sails along the Tonle River with spectacular marshland floating along the river banks of Kampong Chhnang province. Here, the river is narrow and we can easily see the daily life of the local people along the banks with lovely children waving to us from their villages.

In the mid-afternoon, we will take a short bus trip to traditional Khmer-styled pottery. We then embark to visit the wetlands, floating houses, and fish farms before reaching Kampong Cham in the evening. Dinner and spend the second night onboard in Kampong Cham province.

After breakfast on board, we will embark on a land journey to visit the pre-Angkorian temple of Wat Hanchey which was built in the 8th century with superb ancient structure and architecture of the Chenla Empire. We can take a motor taxi or climb more than 300 steps to the top with a breathtaking view of the river and the surrounding. Talk with the monks in the area with the help of our guide, we will understand more about the culture and religion in Cambodia before returning to our ship and taking part in a blessing ceremony performed by orange-clad monks.

In the afternoon, we will then cruise towards Kampong Cham to visit Wat Nokor, a wat built within the ruins of an ancient temple. We spend the third night in the midstream near Phnom Penh.

After freshly prepared breakfast, we will disembark and have a guided tour of the S21 Genocide Museum. Please be prepared to be heart-wrenched as this place will recall the stark period of Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge regime.

After lunch in a local restaurant, we will visit the Royal Palace, the Silver Pagoda, and the National Museum, which all are symbols of Phnom Penh.

After that, we will be back to the ship by cyclo, a traditional vehicle used in the colonial period, we will have free time in our cabin and then enjoy an exciting evening event including cocktails, BBQ dinner, Apsara Dance performance, and traditional music. It will be a highlight of the cruise with all these activities held in the ship’s open-air area. We spend the fourth night onboard in Phnom Penh.

After breakfast, we will be captivated by a comprehensive lecture on Cambodia’s modern history while the cruise sets sail along the main Mekong Channels. Later in the afternoon, we will set off to the Vietnamese border with some minutes stopping for immigration formalities. The rest of the afternoon will be a relaxing time on the sundeck or join our Chef to learn how to cook some traditional Cambodian and Vietnamese cuisine. Dinner and anchor for the night in the midstream in Tan Chau.

Welcome to the fish sanctuary of Vietnam. We begin our day with a hearty breakfast at the Dining Hall then brace ourselves for a short excursion in Tan Chau, a pleasant town near the Cambodian border with sizeable Chinese, Kinh, and Khmer communities. We will experience another traditional vehicle called ‘xe loi’ (Trishaw) to a local market with a chance to interact with local people seeing them in their daily life. We then visit a fish farm with different kinds of river fishes before going back to the ship and having lunch.

In the afternoon, we will set off for My An Hung Village and stop by a family house where we will have a pleasant talk with the host over a cup of honey tea and seasonal fruits, and understand how agriculture plays an important role in the Mekong Delta’s farmers’ life. In the late afternoon, we will be back to the ship and continue to Sa Dec for the night.

In the morning, we will change to a traditional sampan (a flat-bottomed traditional Vietnamese wooden boat) to Binh Thanh Island and its man-made canals. Here, every villager is involved in the process of growing and processing water hyacinths into natural fiber floor mats and rattan baskets.

After lunch on board, we sail to Cai Be town. The cruise will continue to bring us through the breathtaking landscapes along the river with some stops at the cottage industries making rice paste, rice cookies, and coconut candies. Back to the cruise in good time for shower, dinner, and, we spend the night in My Tho.

Our magnificent cruiser winds its way to My Tho, approximately 70km south of Saigon on the upper Mekong River in Vietnam. We bid farewell to the cruise as our journey comes to an end. Disembark at around 8.30 AM, we will find our private car to take us back to Ho Chi Minh City. Check-in our hotel and have free time to wander around the lively streets of the largest city in Vietnam.

In the evening, our Vespa guide will pick us up at the hotel and we start the street food adventure in the back of a Vespa. Our first stop is Café zoom to "watch the world goes by" (quoted by The Lonely Planet) and enjoys cocktail and appetizer before adventuring into the favorite local eating spot.

Our vintage Vespa scooter takes us to Chinatown and then heading to District 4 through busy streets and alleys to see the nightlife of locals and enjoy street seafood and cold drinks in places where foreigners won't be found. Leaving District 4 to District 3 the tour pass through downtown District 1 to take in the sights on the way to Banh Xeo (Saigon Special Pancake), the specialty of Saigon, and southern food with the locals. Then the tour will continue to a hidden Vietnamese-style coffee shop to have a taste of Vietnamese music (live) like a local.

After that, the tour will bring the guest to a lively bar to enjoy drinks with live music. The tour ends at 10 PM and we will have a good night after a hectic day.

Time will be free until our car arrives at the hotel to take us to the airport in good time to board our departure flight. Trip ends. See you again in the next Indochina & Vietnam vacation packages.