Price: US$395 (included tax & service charge)

Routes: Phnom Penh - Chau Doc - Can Tho - Ho Chi Minh City

Depart from: Phnom Penh

Return to: Ho Chi Minh City

Highlights: Boating, local life style and cultural experience

11.30am: Pick up at your hotel in Phnom Penh and transfer to the boat pier for boarding the Blue Cruiser Express boat to Chau Doc. Arrive at Chau Doc around 3.30pm. Pick up and transfer to your chosen hotel. Enjoy an hour's cruise down the Lower Mekong River. In the afternoon, visit Sam Mountain and the cave pagoda. From the summit of the mountain, admire the sunset over the flat rice fields around the Vietnamese-Cambodian border. Welcome dinner and overnight in Chau Doc.

 

Breakfast at your hotel. Take a motor boat trip to see the floating fish farm and the floating village. Visit the local Cham minority village in their traditional weaving village. Depart for Long Xuyen, visit the Bird Sanctuary in Thot Not and the incense stick making village. Check in on arrival. Dinner on guest's account. Overnight at your chosen hotel in Can Tho. (A family homestay can be arranged on request).

 

Option 1: Stay in a hotel in Can Tho
Check into your hotel on arrival at Can Tho. Free to explore the city on your own in the afternoon. You can also visit a village, meet the local people, have dinner with them and enjoy their music. Overnight at your chosen hotel.

 

Option 2: Homestay
Transfer by motor boat to a small village in Cai Rang district. Check into your riverside cottage. In the afternoon, go cycling or trekking around the village to experience the rural lifestyle of the Mekong Delta people. Join a family as they prepare dinner, then share the meal with them. Enjoy an evening of traditional folk music with your neighbors. Overnight in your riverside cottage.

 

After breakfast, take a leisurely boat trip to explore the picturesque tributaries of the Lower Mekong River (Bassac River), then proceed to the Cai Rang and Phong Dien floating markets, which are the liveliest in the region. You will probably have tried Vietnamese vermicelli soup so now go and see how it is made. Then wander around the village and meet the local people. Learn how to cross a "Monkey Bridge" which is built from a single bamboo. Return to Can Tho for lunch at a local restaurant. Depart for Ho Chi Minh City with stop overs at Vinh Vong and My Tho town. Arrive in HCMC at around 5pm.