| | | | | Arrive | Depart |
| 27th27 | DecDec | 202121 | 3 nights accommodation before your cruise, staying in Hanoi | | |
| 30th30 | DecDec | 202121 | Hanoi, Vietnam, embark on the RV Indochine II | | |
You'll catch a flight to Ho Chi Minh City. Transfer to the city centre and lunch. In the afternoon, we'll enjoy a tour of the city to see the Reunification Palace, Notre Dame Cathedral, and the Saigon Central Post Office. Next, we'll head to Cholon, the Chinese-influenced section of the city, to tour its hectic market and the Thien Hau temple. You'll then be transferred to our ship. After comfortably settling into your cabins, we'll introduce our crew at a welcome cocktail. We'll have dinner and spend the night on the ship, which will remain moored in central Ho Chi Minh City. |
| 30th30 | DecDec | 202121 | Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam | | |
Romantically referred to by the French as the Pearl of the Orient, Ho Chi Minh City today is a super-charged city of sensory overload. Motorbikes zoom day and night along the wide boulevards, through the narrow back alleys and past vendors pushing handcarts hawking goods of all descriptions. Still called Saigon by most residents, this is Vietnam's largest city and the engine driving the country's current economic resurgence, but despite its frenetic pace, it's a friendlier place than Hanoi and locals will tell you the food—simple, tasty, and incorporating many fresh herbs—is infinitely better than in the capital.This is a city full of surprises. The madness of the city's traffic—witness the oddball things that are transported on the back of motorcycles—is countered by tranquil pagodas, peaceful parks, quirky coffee shops, and whole neighborhoods hidden down tiny alleyways, although some of these quiet spots can be difficult to track down. Life in Ho Chi Minh City is lived in public: on the back of motorcycles, on the sidewalks, and in the parks. Even when its residents are at home, they're still on display. With many living rooms opening onto the street, grandmothers napping, babies being rocked, and food being prepared, are all in full view of passersby.Icons of the past endure in the midst of the city’s headlong rush into capitalism. The Hotel Continental, immortalized in Graham Greene's The Quiet American, continues to stand on the corner of old Indochina's most famous thoroughfare, the rue Catinat, known to American G.I.s during the Vietnam War as Tu Do (Freedom) Street and renamed Dong Khoi (Uprising) Street by the Communists. The city still has its ornate opera house and its old French city hall, the Hôtel de Ville. The broad colonial boulevards leading to the Saigon River and the gracious stucco villas are other remnants of the French colonial presence. Grisly reminders of the more recent past can be seen at the city's war-related museums. Residents, however, prefer to look forward rather than back and are often perplexed by tourists' fascination with a war that ended 40 years ago.The Chinese influence on the country is still very much in evidence in the Cholon district, the city's Chinatown, but the modern office towers and international hotels that mark the skyline symbolize Vietnam's fixation on the future. |
| 31st31 | DecDec | 202121 | Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam | | |
Romantically referred to by the French as the Pearl of the Orient, Ho Chi Minh City today is a super-charged city of sensory overload. Motorbikes zoom day and night along the wide boulevards, through the narrow back alleys and past vendors pushing handcarts hawking goods of all descriptions. Still called Saigon by most residents, this is Vietnam's largest city and the engine driving the country's current economic resurgence, but despite its frenetic pace, it's a friendlier place than Hanoi and locals will tell you the food—simple, tasty, and incorporating many fresh herbs—is infinitely better than in the capital.This is a city full of surprises. The madness of the city's traffic—witness the oddball things that are transported on the back of motorcycles—is countered by tranquil pagodas, peaceful parks, quirky coffee shops, and whole neighborhoods hidden down tiny alleyways, although some of these quiet spots can be difficult to track down. Life in Ho Chi Minh City is lived in public: on the back of motorcycles, on the sidewalks, and in the parks. Even when its residents are at home, they're still on display. With many living rooms opening onto the street, grandmothers napping, babies being rocked, and food being prepared, are all in full view of passersby.Icons of the past endure in the midst of the city’s headlong rush into capitalism. The Hotel Continental, immortalized in Graham Greene's The Quiet American, continues to stand on the corner of old Indochina's most famous thoroughfare, the rue Catinat, known to American G.I.s during the Vietnam War as Tu Do (Freedom) Street and renamed Dong Khoi (Uprising) Street by the Communists. The city still has its ornate opera house and its old French city hall, the Hôtel de Ville. The broad colonial boulevards leading to the Saigon River and the gracious stucco villas are other remnants of the French colonial presence. Grisly reminders of the more recent past can be seen at the city's war-related museums. Residents, however, prefer to look forward rather than back and are often perplexed by tourists' fascination with a war that ended 40 years ago.The Chinese influence on the country is still very much in evidence in the Cholon district, the city's Chinatown, but the modern office towers and international hotels that mark the skyline symbolize Vietnam's fixation on the future. We'll leave by coach for the Cu Chi tunnels, an immense network of underground tunnels that were the location of several military campaigns during the Vietnam War. After lunch, join us for a visit to the Museum of Vietnamese History. Our ship will begin to cruise toward the splendid Cho Gao canal. We'll spend the night on board. |
| 31st31 | DecDec | 202121 | Chợ Gạo, Vietnam | | |
| 1st01 | JanJan | 202222 | Chợ Gạo, Vietnam | | |
During our passage through the Cho Gao Canal, you'll discover the daily life in Vietnamorganized around fishing, farming, and transport. In My Tho, we'll visit a bee farm and enjoy some honey tea and exotic fruit. We'll then take a ride in small sampans along the canal lined with mangrove palms. Enjoy lunch on board. Vinh Long is located in the middle of the Delta region, between two of the Mekong's distributaries. We'll discover a brick and pottery factory, a fruit-tree nursery, puffed riced, rice-paper wrappers, and rice alcohol.* We'll spend the night on board. |
| 1st01 | JanJan | 202222 | Sa Déc, Vietnam | | |
| 2nd02 | JanJan | 202222 | Sa Déc, Vietnam | | |
Visit the former house of Huynh Thuy Le, the man who Marguerite Duras based her book The Lover on. After our excursion, enjoy some free time in Sa Dec. We'll return on board and cast off as you sit down to lunch. Our ship will begin to cruise to Cambodia. We'll spend the night on board. |
| 2nd02 | JanJan | 202222 | Châu Đốc, Vietnam | | |
| 3rd03 | JanJan | 202222 | Châu Đốc, Vietnam | | |
After breakfast and our arrival in Chau Doc, we'll visit a local fish farm, the Ba Chua Xu Temple, and the Tay An Pagoda. We'll enjoy lunch on board before arriving in Phnom Penh in the evening. Enjoy a brief tour of the area by 'tuk-tuk,' the easiest way to get around the city. We'll have dinner on board and remain in port overnight. |
| 3rd03 | JanJan | 202222 | Phnom Penh, Cambodia | | |
| 4th04 | JanJan | 202222 | Phnom Penh, Cambodia | | |
We'll enjoy a tour of the fabulous Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda, which is inlaid with more than 5,000 silver tiles. After, join us for a visit to the National Museum of Cambodia. We'll have lunch in the city. In the afternoon, you can pay a visit to the Tuol Svay Prey School, a former detention, torture, and execution center run by the Khmer Rouge during the civil war. Afterwards, enjoy some free time at the market. We'll return to the ship and enjoy a performance of classical Khmer dancing and music. We'll have dinner on board and remain in port overnight. The rest of the evening is yours to do as you please. |
| 5th05 | JanJan | 202222 | Phnom Penh, Cambodia | | |
Once we arrive in Koh Chen, you can explore this small village where craftspeople specialize in silver and copper work. Enjoy lunch on board. We'll head to Kampong Tralach to visit the beautiful Vihara at the Wat Kampong Tralach Leu pagoda. To access the pagoda, we need to cross the village of Kampong Tralach in ox carts, moving along a small road that runs perpendicular to the river in the middle of magnificent rice fields. Our ship will remain anchored overnight. |
| 5th05 | JanJan | 202222 | Kampong Chhnang, Cambodia | | |
| 6th06 | JanJan | 202222 | Kampong Chhnang, Cambodia | | |
This morning, we'll visit the mysterious Beng Mealea temple, whose ruins were once utterly consumed by jungle. The temple was built in the 12th century and used the same floor plan as Angkor Wat. We'll have lunch in the city. We'll visit the Senteurs d'Angkor, a local business with a diverse collection of silk and carvings, as well as a superb range of traditional beauty products and spices, all made locally. We'll also visit a silk farm to learn about the complex process of creating the luxurious fabric. We'll end the day with Phare, the Cambodian circus, and spend the night at the hotel. |
| 6th06 | JanJan | 202222 | Tonlé Sap, Cambodia | | |
| 6th06 | JanJan | 202222 | Siem Reap, Cambodia | | |
| 7th07 | JanJan | 202222 | Siem Reap, Cambodia | | |
We'll spend the morning cruising the river before disembarking and having lunch on shore. After, we'll visit the Angkor Wat temple: the epitome of Khmer architectural art and the most famous and imposing of all the monuments in Angkor. Enjoy a stroll through the Angkor Night Market. Dinner and overnight in hotel (Accommodations will be at either a 4-star or 5-star hotel according to the cruise you choose). |
| 7th07 | JanJan | 202222 | Angkor, Cambodia, disembark the RV Indochine II | | |
| 7th07 | JanJan | 202222 | 2 nights accommodation following your cruise, staying in Angkor-temple | | |
| 9th09 | JanJan | 202222 | Check out of accommodation | | |