Indochina Colonial Luxury (15 days)

Upon arriving at Noi Bai airport in Hanoi, you’ll be met and driven to your hotel. You’ll have time to relax after your journey before a welcome dinner at a good restaurant in a colonial building. In the evening, you’ll have tickets for a performance of traditional Water Puppetry (an art form unique to northern Vietnam, and an interesting, light-hearted introduction to its rural culture). Your overnight stay will be in Hanoi.

You’ll have the whole day to explore Vietnam’s capital city. Your guide will take you to the Temple of Literature, the first university in Vietnam dating back to the 11th century, and a popular attraction, as is Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum, his simple stilt house where he lived and worked, and the museum dedicated to his memory. You’ll then drive to the excellent Ethnology Museum for an overview of Vietnam’s 54 distinct ethnic groups. Then you’ll visit the Old Quarter by ‘cyclo’ (tricycle taxi), a magnet for visitors – it’s noisy and hectic, but definitely a ‘must-see’ attraction.

The Old Quarter is a maze of shopping streets and restaurants with a hotchpotch of architecture - traditional tube houses, religious buildings, artisans’ workshops and cottages, colonial houses and modern concrete edifices and stroll around Hoan Kiem Lake and the Ngoc Son Temple. You’ll spend the night in Hanoi.
We’ll arrange your programme to avoid the busy times at popular destinations, but if there’s anything you particularly want to see, let us know.

In the morning, you’ll visit Hanoi’s Fine Art Museum for an overview and historical perspective of Vietnamese art. Then you’ll call in on two or three of the better commercial galleries in the city. If there are any good exhibitions running at the time, they could replace one or more of the gallery visits according to your preference.
After lunch, you’ll visit the stilt house of a famous Vietnamese artist to view his antique collection and restoration work. Next, you’ll visit the home of another talented painter to enjoy his lacquer and oil painting artwork. After that, you’ll go to a warehouse where craftspeople create antique replicas (better known as ‘fakes’!) You’ll spend the night in Hanoi.

A morning for relaxing in your hotel's massage centre. The afternoon will be taken up with shopping in Silk Street, a busy thoroughfare with endless shops, galleries and stalls. You’ll spend the night in Hanoi.

Your morning will be your own until your private car arrives to take you to the airport for a noon flight to Dalat where your tour guide will meet you and take you to an embroidery workshop in an attractive garden setting and stroll around Dalat Market. You’ll spend the night in Dalat.

In the morning, you’ll ride a cable car to Truc Lam Pagoda and Tuyen Lam Lake. The pagoda is quite plain, but is surrounded by an attractive Flower Garden. There are good views of the lake, which lies below and can be reached by steps, and the thick forests on the far side. After lunch, you’ll visit Emperor Bao Dai’s Summer Palace, the Crazy House, and and the Lam Ty Ni Pagoda (home of the famous 'Mad Monk' and his enormous collection of paintings, calligraphy and drawings). You’ll spend the night in Dalat.
Bao Dai’s Summer Palace comes as a surprise, and perhaps a disappointment, for unprepared visitors expecting sumptuous luxury. The building is indicative of Bao Dai’s status as the puppet ruler of an occupied country. Both exterior and interior are modest, and the furniture, fittings and decoration are more akin to a suburban town house than the residence of an emperor.
The name ‘Crazy House’ invites curiosity, and deservingly so. It’s a bizarre guest house, the brainchild, and becoming the life’s work, of Ms. Nga, a highly qualified Vietnamese architect originally from Hanoi. She is very well-connected (the daughter of Ho Chi Minh’s successor) and thus escapes official wrath and the demolition that would otherwise be automatic. It’s either a masterpiece of surrealism, or a monstrous eyesore depending on your artistic viewpoint, but very few people are indifferent towards it.
A visit to Dalat isn’t complete without meeting Vien Thuc, the ‘Mad Monk’. The sole monk at the Lam Ty Ni Pagoda, he has already produced over 100,000 ‘art works’ during his lifetime, and is still churning them out. However, his output has slowed in recent years as much of his time is now taken up by his commercial activities. A consummate self-publicist, he has now turned to selling his brushwork to tourists. As he does a roaring trade with prices from five dollars upwards, the epithet ‘mad’ is rapidly becoming redundant!

After a morning visit to the Linh Phuoc Pagoda (interesting architecture with dragon statue made of La Rue beer bottles) and a brief look at Da Lat's railway station, you’ll be picked up for your flight to Ho Chi Minh City. When you arrive, a private car will be waiting to take you to your hotel in the city centre. You’ll spend the night in Ho Chi Minh City.
Linh Phuoc is a large Buddhist pagoda with ornate architecture and a spacious interior dominated by a large seated Buddha. Adjacent to the building is a large coiled dragon with scales fashioned from old La Rue beer bottles.
Dalat railway station is an attractive curiosity. Once it was linked to the main line by a cog railway, but the track was destroyed by the Viet Cong during the war. Despite a fully maintained station with a full-time booking office, all that remains is 8km of track and one train that chugs backwards and forwards from time to time. Even the steam driven tank engine has now been retired – it sits forlornly on platform 1, no doubt reminiscing about its heydays when French officers and civil servants were regular travellers.

After breakfast, your guide will arrive to show you around Ho Chi Minh City. You’ll visit the History Museum where there is a special exhibition of the 5th century ‘Oc Eo’ civilisation. The Museum of War Remnants provides a very partial, but riveting, perspective of the ‘American War’: not for the squeamish!

The huge Ben Thanh market, one of the liveliest areas of Ho Chi Minh City, is packed with every conceivable commodity. You’ll also call in at the Jade Emperor Temple. It’s one of the best Taoist temples in Vietnam, with superb effigies, remarkable carved panels of the descent to Hell and somewhat incongruous terrapin and tortoise sanctuaries.

You’ll finish your day with a visit to a lacquer workshop to see the complex processes and meticulous workmanship involved in this traditional Vietnamese craft product. You’ll spend the night in Ho Chi Minh City.

You’ll join a cooking class in the morning held at Ho Chi Minh City’s Cookery Centre. You’ll learn how to cook five traditional Vietnamese dishes representative of the all three regions in Vietnam. The programme includes a visit to market to purchase ingredients, followed by a chat over a pot of Vietnamese tea about Vietnamese cuisine and traditional kitchen. You'll be given demonstration and instruction by the chief to cook Vietnam's popular dishes. The class ends after lunch and awarding of certificates.
After lunch, you'll have free time for shopping in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City's commercial hub. You’ll spend the night in Ho Chi Minh City.

Your driver will pick you up at your hotel in good time for noon flight to Phnom Penh. When you arrive at Pochentong airport in Phnom Penh, you’ll be met and driven to your hotel. After lunch, you’ll visit the National Museum and the Silver Pagoda, followed by a sunset cruise on the Chatomouk River. Your overnight accommodation will be in Phnom Penh.

Your car will take you to the airport to board your flight to Siem Reap, where you’ll be met and driven to your hotel. The day’s activities, and those of the next, will be devoted to the Angkor Temple complex, of which Angkor Wat is a key element. You’ll begin with a visit to Angkor Thom, starting with the Bayon, a bizarre structure of several architectural changes reflecting a switch from Hinduism (the foundations) to Buddhism (the superstructure).
Your next visit will be to the Elephant and Leper Emperor Terraces, followed by the Baphoun Temple, which is now nearing the end of an eight-year multi-million dollar restoration programme. In the afternoon, you’ll explore Angkor Wat itself, the largest, and for most people, the most impressive temple in the complex. As dusk nears, a walk to the summit of Phnom Bakheng Hill will afford a panorama of the whole complex lit by the rays of the setting sun, weather permitting of course. Your overnight accommodation will be in Siem Reap.

Your day will be taken up with visits to some of the outer sites including Preah Khan, a huge and highly explorable monastic complex, Neak Pean, a Himalayan-style lake and sanctuary, and East Mebon, a temple-mountain. After lunch, you’ll also see Ta Prohm, strangled by massive tree roots and typical of the condition of the whole complex when it was discovered in 1860 by French naturalist Henri Mouhot. Your guide will then show you the Prasat Kravan (also known as the Cardomom Sanctuary) and Srah Srang lake and landing terrace. The Srah Srang is less touristed and could be sunrise alternative to Angkor Wat.

Your time will be free until the time going to the airport to board the morning flight to Vientiane, where you’ll be met and driven to your hotel. You’ll then be free for relaxing until dinner. Your overnight stay will be in Vientiane.

The morning will be taken up with visits to Wat Si Saket, Vientiane’s oldest temple and easily the most impressive, Wat Pha Keo Museum, and the That Luang Stupa, Vientiane’s most sacred shrine. After lunch, you’ll visit Wat Ong Tu, the Temple of the Heavy Buddha and an important centre of learning, and stroll along the Mekong riverside to enjoy the sunset. Your overnight accommodation will be in Vientiane.

Your time is your own until your car arrives to take you to the airport for your departure flight.