| | | | | Arrive | Depart |
| 8th08 | FebFeb | 202525 | Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, embark on the RV Indochine | 11:00 | 11:00 |
| 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. Meet at the Liberty Central Riverside Hotel restaurant between 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Lunch at the hotel. In the afternoon, we will tour the city: Reunification palace, Notre Dame cathedral and Central Post office. We'll visit Cholon, the Chinese-influenced section of the city, including its hectic market and Ba Thien Hau Pagoda dedicated to the sea goddess Mazu. After comfortably settling into your cabins, we'll introduce our crew at a welcome cocktail, have dinner and spend the night on board downtown. |
| 9th09 | FebFeb | 202525 | Châu Đốc, Vietnam | | |
| We'll leave by coach for the Cu Chi tunnels, an immense network of underground tunnels that were used by Viet Cong soldiers as hiding spots during combat, as well as serving as communication and supply routes, hospitals, food and weapon caches. Lunch will be served on board. Visit the Museum of Vietnamese History. We'll then set out to cross the very narrow Chao Gao Canal. Night on board. |
| 9th09 | FebFeb | 202525 | Chợ Gạo, Vietnam | | |
| 10th10 | FebFeb | 202525 | Chợ Gạo, Vietnam | | |
| We continue our cruise to My Tho along the magnificent Chao Gao Canal. Visit of a bee farm and enjoy some honey tea and exotic fruit. Lunch on board. Well discover a brick and pottery factory as well as a traditional factory producing puffed riced, rice-paper wrappers used to make nems, and rice alcohol*. Night on board. |
| 10th10 | FebFeb | 202525 | Cái Bè, Vietnam | | |
| 10th10 | FebFeb | 202525 | Sa Déc, Vietnam | | |
| 11th11 | FebFeb | 202525 | 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. Well return on board our ship and have lunch. Sailing towards Cambodia. Night on board. |
| 11th11 | FebFeb | 202525 | Châu Đốc, Vietnam | | |
| 12th12 | FebFeb | 202525 | Châu Đốc, Vietnam | | |
| Located on the border between Cambodia and Vietnam, the prosperous city of Chau Doc has developed around fish and fish farming. Well visit the Tay An Pagoda and the Ba Chua Xu Temple. Lunch on board. Arrival in the evening in Phnom Penh. Dinner on board. We'll remain in port overnight. |
| 12th12 | FebFeb | 202525 | Phnom Penh, Cambodia | | |
| Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s busy capital, sits at the junction of the Mekong and Tonlé Sap rivers. It was a hub for both the Khmer Empire and French colonialists. On its walkable riverfront, lined with parks, restaurants and bars, are the ornate Royal Palace, Silver Pagoda and the National Museum, displaying artifacts from around the country. At the city’s heart is the massive, art deco Central Market. |
| 13th13 | FebFeb | 202525 | Phnom Penh, Cambodia | | |
| Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s busy capital, sits at the junction of the Mekong and Tonlé Sap rivers. It was a hub for both the Khmer Empire and French colonialists. On its walkable riverfront, lined with parks, restaurants and bars, are the ornate Royal Palace, Silver Pagoda and the National Museum, displaying artifacts from around the country. At the city’s heart is the massive, art deco Central Market. We'll enjoy a tour of the fabulous Royal Palace, one of the most impressive examples of Cambodian architecture, and its Silver Pagoda. Onward to visit the National Museum. After lunch in town, 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. As we get back on board, we will enjoy an Apsara dance show. Dinner and overnight on board, in the port of Phnom Penh. Free evening. |
| 14th14 | FebFeb | 202525 | Phnom Penh, Cambodia | | |
| Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s busy capital, sits at the junction of the Mekong and Tonlé Sap rivers. It was a hub for both the Khmer Empire and French colonialists. On its walkable riverfront, lined with parks, restaurants and bars, are the ornate Royal Palace, Silver Pagoda and the National Museum, displaying artifacts from around the country. At the city’s heart is the massive, art deco Central Market. Visit of Koh Chen, a small village where craftspeople specialize in silver and copper work. Lunch on board.Visit of the beautiful Vihara at the Wat Kampong Tralach Leu pagoda. To access the pagoda we need to cross the village of Kampong Tralach, moving along a small road that runs perpendicular to the river in the middle of magnificent rice fields. Our ship will remain anchored overnight. |
| 14th14 | FebFeb | 202525 | Kampong Chhnang, Cambodia | | |
| 15th15 | FebFeb | 202525 | Kampong Chhnang, Cambodia | | |
| Visit of Kampong Chhnang, one of the largest fishing ports on Tonle Sap Lake. Here they also have many fish farms. The region is best known for its fine traditional pottery which is a major source of revenue for the entire country.Tasting of some local products. Lunch on board. We'll then continue our cruise. Cocktail and gala dinner tonight. Our ship will remain anchored overnight. |
| 15th15 | FebFeb | 202525 | Tonlé Sap, Cambodia | | |
| 16th16 | FebFeb | 202525 | Tonlé Sap, Cambodia, disembark the RV Indochine | | |
| Disembarkation and transfer to the hotel Lotus Blanc(1) (ships: RV Indochine I and RV Lan Diep) and the hotel Sofitel Angkor(1) (ship : RV Indochine II) in Siem Reap. End of our services around 12:30 p.m.Please do not book your flight before 3:30 p.m. |
