Exotic Mekong Tour of Bangkok, Yunnan & Laos, 15 Days

An intimate itinerary for an exotic reconnaissance of three neighbouring Mekong River countries

DAY 1: ARRIVE IN BANGKOK

Arrive in Bangkok airport meet and transfer to hotel for check-in. 

Have an orientation walk-about in the vicinity of your hotel which is in the city centre.

Overnight at your selected hotel in Bangkok. 

DAY 2: BANGKOK (B, L) 

Buffet breakfast at the hotel. 

Morning Bangkok city & temple tour to see what makes this eclectic city throb with vibrancy of life, traffic, smells of pungent foods and roasting meats and contrast this hurly-burly world with the serenity of its temples where time seems rooted within their walls. 

Be introduced to a good Thai lunch in an excellent restaurant for a first taste of Thailand after the sights.  Afternoon at leisure to find out what Thai health and foot massage is, drink coffee in a coffee café and watch the human stream flow pass, walk the lively streets to come at close quarters with the Thai living and working in their city environment.. 

Overnight at hotel in Bangkok.

DAY 3: BANGKOK – DAMNERN SADUAK FLOATING MARKET & ROSE GARDEN (B, L) 

Buffet breakfast at the hotel.  Rise early to take a trip to Bangkok’s largest and most authentic floating market 80km southwest of the city where a flotilla of sampans loaded with local produce glide among boats of shoppers buying their daily sustenance in a large canal that is the marketplace.  The sight of so many sampans and rowboats milling around is startlingly picturesque.  We will row right up next to these sampans and you can buy a comb of bananas or a papaya or a bowl of hot steaming noodles.  Fun.  See sugar-palm making in the traditional way in a backyard ‘factory’.  And as the sampans and other boats glide away for home, we too leave the floating market to go and see a folk show and an elephant show in the well-landscaped Rose Garden at Samphran.  Lunch at the Rose Garden restaurant.  It would be about 5.30pm before we arrive back in the comfort of your hotel for a dip in the pool.

In the evening as the hundreds of stalls selling all kinds of Thai and imported products lit up and open for business, stroll in the Patpong night market near your hotel.

Overnight at hotel in Bangkok. 

DAY 4: BANGKOK – KUNMING  (B,D)

Breakfast at the hotel.  Free until time to transfer to the airport for the flight to Kunming, provincial capital of Yunnan in southwestern China.  Arrive in Kunming airport, meet and transfer to hotel.  Kunming has a freshness of air to delight anyone, and wherever the eye roves there is something natural and wondrous to see in spite of the old buildings with character largely gone to be replaced by concrete blocks; but small enclaves of old Kunming still exist in the interesting alleyways.  On the way to our hotel for check in you will see sights of the modernizing city of 3.5 million Yunnanese including Yunnanese Muslims and Buddhists, and ethnic groups found nowhere else in the world.  Free to amuse yourself until 6.30pm when we gather for dinner at the New Canton restaurant for your introduction to Yunnanese cuisine.

Overnight in a 4-star or 5-star hotel, Kunming.

DAY 5:  KUNMING – STONE FOREST  (B, L, D)

Breakfast at the hotel.  A full-day excursion to the Stone Forest, one of China’s most remarkable natural phenomena, located 98km southeast of Kunming, a short scenic drive of one-and-a-half hours.  It consists of 80 hectares of innumerable fanciful-formed limestone cliffs and peaks created by wind and water erosion some 270 million years ago. Marine fossils found here indicate that it was once under the sea.  The Stone Forest area (Shilin) is home to the Sani minority group, a branch of the Yi tribe reputed for their diligence, valour, wisdom, exquisite embroidery, melodious songs and graceful dances.  They put on nightly performance showing their cultural activities.  A stop is made at Bao Shu Tang where you can buy China Famous Herbal Medical products.

Lunch at Ashima Great Hotel.  After lunch we enter the Stone Forest National Park for a group photo (if you are in a group) followed by sightseeing.  At about 4pm we drive one-and-a-half hours back to Kunming to the Colorful Yunnan restaurant for the Yunnan Cultural  show with dinner of Yunnan rice noodle and pot-steamed chicken.  The evening ends only after the Luyu Tea performance .

Overnight in a 4-star or 5-star hotel, Kunming.

Day 6:  KUNMING – DALI  (B, L, D)

Morning call is at 8am and breakfast follows.  Transfer to airport for the morning flight to Dali.  Upon arrival, meet and transfer to hotel for check-in.  Go to Cangshan mountain for sightseeing.  We will use the two-way cable car to go up the mountain.  Today we have the chance to be really in contact with one of Yunnan’s minority peoples at the Zhoucheng Bai nationality village and see how they tie-dye their cloths in their village workshops.  To top it up we will have an authentic lunch of the Bai nationality favourite food – fish from the Erhai Lake and beancurd done in one of several ways.  For more cultural education of the Bai people we will catch a tea-show in Xizhou, another Bai nationality village.  Here there is a popular Three Pagoda Temple (actually a cluster of temples, shrine-halls and pavilions) that locals worship at. Afternoon tour of the ancient town of Dali on foot and by car/van.

Dinner time at 7pm.  Then we return to our hotel.

Overnight at Phoenix Hot-spring Resort & Hotel, Dali.

Day 7:  DALI - LIJIANG  (B, L, D)

Morning call at 8am and breakfast before leaving the hotel to go to Lijiang, a drive of 3.5 hours through lovely scenery and ethnic minority villages.  Along the way we visit a silver workshop at Heqing Xinhua village to see this ancient craft still being practiced.  Lunch in a restaurant.   Upon arrival in Lijiang, check into hotel before dashing into the old town for sightseeing.  This lovely old town is a gem of northwest Yunnan and high in popularity among visitors.  It is a world heritage site crisscrossed by canals of rushing waters, quaint bridges and a labyrinth of narrow granite streets.  The focal point of interest is the Market Square full of Naxi women in their traditional dress around mid-morning.  Old Lijiang town has a majority population of Naxi (descendants of the Tibetan Qiang tribe), traditional houses of wood surrounded by a profusion of flowers and decorative plants, cobbled streets and gushing canals between them and crisscrossing one another, spanned by stone bridges, combined with a gracious people and wonderful scenery to make it a tourist destination not to be missed.  In the afternoon, tour the Black Dragon Pool Park and visit the famous Dongba Research Institute to learn something about Naxi shamanism culture and see the real ancient Naxi script.  Later in the afternoon, go on a guided tour of UNESCO’s “Ancient City of Lijiang” for about 2 hours and be fascinated by this World Heritage site.  In a recent earthquake when the new buildings in Lijiang new town collapsed all those in the old town remained standing.  Dinner in a restaurant.

Overnight at Jiannanchun Hotel, in the old city, Lijiang.

Day 8:  LIJIANG  (B, L, D)

Breakfast at the hotel.  At 9am we depart from our hotel to drive one-hour to Yulong Snow Mountain National Park.  A two-way cable car goes to Love-Suicide Hill (where horses can be hired to ride up to Dragon Spruce Meadow, but we won’t go there).  We change cable car at Glacier Park to go farther up the mountain range – the highest chair lift in Asia.  The views of glaciers at such close quarters are mesmerizing.  Snowy peaks glitter in the sun before our eyes.  A ski-resort is in the making here.  At White-water River we will stop for 30 minutes to take in the scene before going to lunch at the Snow Mountain Villa.  At 1.30pm we proceed to Jade-Peak Lhama Monastery for an encounter with Tibetan monks and talk to them through your guide or if you speak Tibetan or Chinese then directly.  At Baisha village we make a photo-stop.  Naxi dinner with Chinese classical music show will keep us entertained at Huangshan village.  For those people who have not have enough of music and shows they can pay USD15 to see the Splendid Lijiang Show at Li-shui-jin-sha.  The others are free to walk in the UNESCO-adopted “Ancient City” - a better proposition.  At 10pm we all return to our hotel.

Overnight at Jiannanchun Hotel, Lijiang.

Day 9:  LIJIANG – SHANGRILA  (B, L, D)

Breakfast at the hotel.   Morning departure by road through fantastic scenery to Zhongdian, recently renamed “Shangrila”.  After an hour’s drive we arrive at the small town of Shigu at the first bend of the Yangtze River.  Here we will stop for half-an-hour to admire the beauty of the river-and-rapids and ponder on the great significance of this little place.  If not for a hill of rocks (Cloud Hill) blocking the southward flowing Yangtze River thereby diverting it north and eastwards, the Yangtze would not be flowing through the heartland of China - with disastrous consequences to Chinese civilization.  Proceed to Stone-Drum village to see how the rural Yunnanese live.  Tour the awesome Tiger Leaping Gorge, a deep-sided ravine twisting with the furious rush of frothing water to form a spectacular scene of sheer beauty and power.  A two-hour drive takes us to Shangrila, the fabled land that captured the imagination of millions who read and heard about the book “Lost Horizon” written by James Hilton in 1933.  Dinner of western food in Shangrila.

Overnight at Gyalthang Dzong Hotel in the countryside of Shangrila.

Day 10:  SHANGRILA   (B, L, D)

Morning call at 8am and followed by breakfast at the hotel.  The fabled “Shangri La” of James Hilton’s 1933 novel, “Lost Horizon”, waits to be discovered.  It is said to be in Deqin prefecture in the northwest of Yunnan next to the Tibetan border in the mountain range of snow-capped peaks.  The perfect pyramid-shape of Mt Kawa Karpo (6,740m) sitting on top of a beautiful valley of very red earth is Hilton’s Mt Karakul on top of a blood red valley that was Shangri La.  The name “Shangri La” crops up everywhere to the confusion of travellers.  Deqin county is called “Shangri La”; so also is the town of Zhongdian renamed “Shangri La”. Restaurants and even grocery stores latch on to the name Shangrila.  Like the name “Angkor” in Siem Reap (Cambodia) the eye-catching and mind-boggling name appears everywhere.  So also is the grandeur everywhere in Zhongdian Shangri La.  Sightseeing of the Ganden Songzanlin Monastery where the frescoes completed in the 15^th century depicting Taoist, Chinese and Tibetan Buddhist themes are reputedly of the highest order.  Lunch in a local restaurant and have a short rest at the hotel. Napahai Lake is reserved for the afternoon’s sightseeing. We will visit a local market and a Tibetan Buddhism Book pavilion.  Tonight’s dinner will be at our hotel.  Be entertained tonight by participating in a visit to a Tibetan family and enjoy its cultural activities.  Return to your hotel filled with wonderment at this Tibetan “hada”.

Overnight at Gyalthang Dzong Hotel, Shangrila.

Day 11:  SHANGRILA – KUNMING – VIENTIANE  (B, L)

Breakfast at the hotel before proceeding to the airport for the flight to Kunming.  In an hour we arrive at Kunming airport and be taken to the Western Hills on the western side of Lake Dian for sightseeing.  We go up to the mountain top by cable car and see the Dragon Gate grottoes, sculptures and pavilions gouged into the cliff-face by a Taoist monk in the late eighteenth century and have a bird’s eye view of Lake Dian.  Visit the Taoist Sanqing Temple (actually a group of temples, shrines and pavilions which was a country villa of a Yuan prince) before taking the mini-train back to our waiting coach.  On the way to the airport, we stop at Huating Temple for a 30-minute visit. It was the most important temple of the ancient Nanzhou kingdom displaying fine statues, stupas and superbly designed gardens.  Then have a leisurely lunch of pot-steamed chicken and Yunnan wild mushroom while your pre-check in is arranged for you.  Proceed to Kunming airport to board your departure flight to Vientiane, the capital of Laos.  Upon arrival at Wattay airport, meet and transfer to check-in at your pre-booked hotel in the city centre.  Free for the rest of the day.

Overnight in hotel, Vientiane.

Day 12:  VIENTIANE   (B, D)

Breakfast at the hote.  Morning tour of the city.  Sightseeing of Vientiane will include Wat Sisaket (built by Prince Anou in 18181 of Thai design that was not destroyed by the Thai invaders of the early Bangkok period), Haw Pha Kaew (a former royal temple built in 1565 to house the Emerald Buddha that is now in Bangkok since 1779), That Luang (the holiest of Lao temples that annually holds a huge religious fair that attracts devotees from all over Laos), and Patuxai (Laos' own Arc de Triomphe).  Dinner at Kua Lao restaurant.

Overnight at hotel, Vientiane. 

Day 13:  VIENTIANE - LUANG PRABANG   (B, D) 

Breakfast at the hotel.  Transfer to the airport for the flight to Luang Prabang, the royal capital of the old Lan Xang kingdom, a gem nestling beside the Mekong River and surrounded by hills.  Upon arrival, meet your English speaking guide at the airport and be taken to your hotel.  Go with your guide on a walking tour of this heritage town which was once a royal city of Laotian kings, in particular in the main street, Thanon Sisavangvong.  You will not forget the wonderful simplicity of the town and its sedate flow of life beside the Mekong River and the smaller Nam Khan River.  Have a Lao coffee or tea with a baquette sandwich or pastry at Le Café Ban Vat Sene at the top end of the main street. Climb the 329 steps up Phousi Hill and see a panoramic view of Luang Prabang city nestling between the Nam Khan and the Mekong River.  Upon your descend see the tribal market at the foot of the hill as the Hmong tribesmen would have set up their makeshift stalls on the road to display their home-made embroidery and other products.

Have a good Lao dinner at Pakhuay Mixay restaurant that your guide will take you to.

Overnight at hotel, Luang Prabang. 

DAY 14: LUANG PRABANG –CITY TOUR & PAK OU CAVES  (B, L, D)

Buffet breakfast at the hotel. 

Morning sightseeing of Luang Prabang including the former Royal Palace now the National Museum for the memorabilia of the last Laotian King Sisavangvong and other cultural treasures of Laos before the Pathet Lao takeover.  Visit Wat Visoun, Wat Aham and Wat Xiengthong the best of them all.  Chat with the friendly English speaking monks in these temples and take photos with them.  Learn how they study and live the dharma.

Lunch at Indochina Spirit restaurant.

Afternoon excursion by boat upstream of the Mekong River to visit Ban Sanghai (a village producing very good Lao rice-wine and embroidery works) by the bank of the Mekong River.  It used to be famous for its earthen jars but today it imports jars to contain its copious production of rice-wine.  Proceed by boat to the Pak Ou Buddha Caves (Tham Ting) where local people bring various sizes and kinds of Buddha images and wooden elephants to place at this shrine for good luck and fortune.  By now there are hundreds if not thousands of these images inside the main cave. See the light of the setting sun strike the limestone cliff opposite the caves.  Return to Luang Prabang revived by this mystical experience.

Dinner of French set menu at the Elephant Blanc restaurant.  Free for the evening.  (Suggest indulging in the herbal steam bath and massage at the Red Cross building.  Sauna is US$1 and one-hour massage is US$2).

Overnight at hotel, Luang Prabang. 

DAY 15:  LUANG PRABANG – DEPARTURE   (B)

Breakfast at the hotel.  Check out of the hotel after breakfast.  Visit the large sprawling morning market to have an insight into the kinds of food consumed daily by the Lao people in Vientiane.  You will see a host of edible products including frog legs so loved by the former French colonialists in the city, and baquettes by the basketfuls, a whole range of vegetables and many other things.  Transfer to the airport for your departure flight.

End of Exotic Mekong Tour

INCLUSIONS:

-     Domestic airfares Kunming-Dali, Shangrila-Kunming, Vientiane-Luang Prabang.

- 14 nights hotel accommodation with daily breakfast

-  10 dinners (one with show) and 10 lunches

- All transfers and transportation in air-conditioned car/van/coach

- Tours as stated in the program

- All entrance fees when on tours, tolls and parking charges

- Boat fares in Bangkok and Luang Prabang

- Cable car and train fares in Yunnan

- English speaking guide services.

EXCLUSIONS:

- Regional airfares and their airport taxes: BKK-Kunming, KMG-Vientiane, and departure flight from Luang Prabang.