Tumult Mekong Tour of Bangkok, Laos & Angkor

11 Days/10 Nights

An intimate itinerary for a tumultuous 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, D) 

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. 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. Tonight be entertained by a fantastic show as you have dinner in an astounding restaurant called Siam Niramit.

Overnight at hotel in Bangkok.

DAY 3: BANGKOK – 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. 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 - LUANG PRABANG (LAOS) (B, D) 

Buffet breakfast at the hotel. 

At 9am meet in the hotel lobby to transfer to the international airport for your flight to Luang Prabang by PG632, dep.1130 /arr.1320. 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 5:  LUANG PRABANG  (B, L)

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 dharmma. Lunch at Visoun Restaurant. The afternoon is free at leisure. (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 6: KUANGSI WATERFALL - PAK OU CAVES (B, L, D)

Buffet breakfast at the hotel.

Morning trip by road to the Kuangsi Waterfall about 30km to the south of Luang Prabang. On the way visit the famous hand-weaving village of Ban Phanom where very good embroidery works are made by the villagers, and see some village life and the weavers busy at their looms underneath their houses. The Kuangsi Falls have water tumbling over several tiers of limestone formations into several turquoise pools that people enjoy wading in set in natural jungle with birds in the foliage of the trees.

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 on our way to the Pak Ou caves. This village used to be famous for its earthen jars but today it imports such 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 kinds of Buddha images and sizes of wooden elephants to place at this shrine for reverence and good fortune. By now there are hundreds if not thousands of these images inside the main cave. See the light of the setting sun strikes the limestone cliff opposite the caves. Return to Luang Prabang..

Dinner of French set menu at the Elephant Blanc restaurant.

Overnight at hotel, Luang Prabang. 

DAY 7:  LUANG PRABANG - VIENTIANE (B, D)

Breakfast at hotel. 

Transfer to the airport for your flight from Luang Prabang to Vientiane, the capital of Laos. Upon arrival in Vientiane, meet your guide and transfer to hotel for check-in. In the afternoon tour 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), Wat 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 8: VIENTIANE – SIEM REAP – ROLOUS Group of Temples (B, L)

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 flight to Siem Reap (in Cambodia). 

Upon arrival, be met by your driver-guide and taken to lunch at Nests & Fins restaurant before going to your city hotel for check-in. Afternoon tour to the Rolous group temples of Lolei, Bakong and Preah Ko all built in the pre-Angkor period (850-893) to see the precedents of the great Angkor period temples. These temples will establish in your mind the chronology of temple architecture in Angkor as temple-building developed and declined over a period of 600 years.

Overnight at hotel, Siem Reap.

DAY 9: ANGKOR THOM & TA PROHM (B, L, D)

Breakfast at the hotel. Morning tour of Angkor Thom, the great city located next to Angkor Wat. Angkor Thom was the greatest achievement of King Jayavarman VII. Built in the 12th century, it extends almost 4 square miles and is enclosed by a wall 26 feet high, 7.5 miles long and surrounded by an originally crocodile-infested moat. This great city contains many structures built to honour the Buddha and amenities for the king and people to enjoy. The area is surrounded by five monumental gates more than 65 feet high, each dominated by 4 huge carved faces of the king himself represented as the Buddha Avalokitesvara, facing north, south, east and west. In front of the south gate are giant statues of 54 gods on the left, 54 demons on the right. In the centre is the Bayon, a massive cluster of towers carved with 216 faces of the king. More great carvings are found on the 4000 feet of interior walls that are covered with bas-reliefs showing 11,000 figures engaged in battles, ceremonial pageants and everyday life of 12th century Angkor. Visit Phimeanakas, a 10th century temple built by Jayavarman V; the Elephant Terrace, a viewing platform from which the kings of Angkor watched military processions; the Terrace of the Leper King, supposedly named after the builder of Angkor Thom whom legend says was afflicted with leprosy. Visit also Preah Khan dedicated to Buddhism and Neak Pean, both built by Jayavarman VII, the latter a healing place. Lunch at Jasmine Angkor restaurant. Afternoon sightseeing of Ta Prohm which is not restored and left to the elements with giant trees embracing its stone works, giving Ta Prohm its unique character. We are able to visualize and perhaps feel how Henri Mouhot the Frenchman who discovered Angkor must have experienced when he stumbled upon the jungle covered ruins of Angkor in the mid-19^th century. If there is still time we visit also Ta Keo, an 11^th century sandstone temple dedicated to Shiva, Prasat Kravan, Banteay Kldei, and others. Return to your hotel to refresh yourself.

Dinner at New Bayon Restaurant. 

Overnight at hotel, Siem Reap. 

DAY 10: BANTEAY SREI – KBAL SPEAN - ANGKOR WAT  (B, L, D)

Breakfast at the hotel. Morning departure at 8.30am to tour Banteay Srei and Kbal Spean in the Kulen Mountains. The temple of Banteay Srei, 38 km from Siem Reap. is the only pink sandstone temple exquisitely carved dated before Angkor Wat. Its apsaras on the walls are regarded as the best in the whole Angkor temple complex. Venture out farther into the Kulen Mountain area to Kbal Spean, which was the first capital of the pre-Angkor Khmer period. There are over 20 ruined temples here, but the marvellous carvings are of huge Hindu gods and the hundreds of carved lingas in the riverbed that you get to with a half-hour trek along a shady jungle path. Stick to the well-trodden paths as there are still unexploded mines lying around. Return to Siem Reap to lunch at Sampheap Restaurant. In the afternoon we visit Angkor Wat, the great temple built before Angkor Thom. Angkor Wat represents the spiritual and mystical grandeur of the Khmer people. The kingdom was founded in the early 9th century by King Suryavarman II as a microcosm of the mythical world in which he identified himself with the god Vishnu. At the heart of the city was a mountain temple - traditional home of the Hindu gods and also the centre of an earthly kingdom in which the king was regarded as sacred. The temple also served as a mausoleum for the dead kings and was in use until 1431 when the Siamese eliminated the kingdom. The lost city was re-discovered by western archaeologists in the late 19th century. The temple complex of Angkor covers 200 acres, enclosed by a massive rectangular-shaped wall and surrounded by a moat. The wall contains gates on all four sides, with the main entrance richly decorated with carvings and sculptures. The temple comprises five distinctive towers with 72 major monuments and an irrigation system, which together portrayed the harmonization of Indian roots in a Cambodian context – which was the very foundation of Khmer art and architecture. This place is probably the largest religious monument ever built on earth, and is considered one of the most inspiring. Angkor Wat was declared a world heritage site by the United Nations, and is regarded as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. As the sun lowers itself beneath the horizon, climb up to the Bakheng Temple ruins to see the sunset on Angkor Wat. Dinner at Tonle Sap Restaurant with cultural show.

Overnight in hotel, Siem Reap. 

DAY 11: SIEM REAP - DEPARTURE  (B)

Breakfast at the hotel. Free until time to transfer to the airport for your departure flight from Siem Reap. Your guide will assist you at checking-in at the airport.

End of the Tumult Mekong Tour

INCLUSIONS:

- 10 nights hotel accommodation with daily breakfast

-  6 dinners (one with show) and 6 lunches

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

- Tours as stated in the program

- All entrance fees when on tours including that to the Angkor Temple Complex, tolls and parking charges

- Boat fares in Bangkok and Luang Prabang

- English speaking guide services.

EXCLUSIONS:

- Domestic and regional airfares and their airport taxes: BKK-LPQ-VTE-REP, and departure flight from Siem Reap.

- Visa fees in Laos (US$30) and Cambodia (US$25)

- Drinks at meals other than what is served at table

- Expenses of a personal nature like massage, use of hotel mini bar, laundry, phone calls, room service and the like.

HOTELS:

SUPERIOR (3-Star).

IN BANGKOK: New World Lodge, Mandarin Hotel.

IN LUANG PRABANG: Phousi, Muang Luang, Manoluck, Le Parasol Blanc.

IN VIENTIANE: Royal Dokmaideng, Novotel.

IN SIEM REAP: Star Royal, Royal Crown, Angkor President.

FIRST CLASS (4-Star).

IN BANGKOK: Tawana Ramada, Montien, Silom Serene.

IN LUANG PRABANG: Grand Luangprabang, Maison Souvannaphoum, Villa Santi.

IN VIENTIANE: Tai-Pan, Lao Plaza, Park View.

IN SIEM REAP: Day Inn Resort & Spa, Angkor Star, Princess Hotel.

DELUXE (5-Star).

IN BANGKOK: Royal Orchid Sheraton, Sofitel Silom.

IN LUANG PRABANG: La Residence Phou Vao, Maison Souvannaphoum (Deluxe).

IN VIENTIANE: Settha Palace.

IN SIEM REAP: Angkor Palace Resort & Spa, Sofitel Royal Angkor.