Indochina: Angkor, Luang Prabang & Vietnam, 12 Nights

Met on arrival and driven in from the airport, which lies well outside town, to check in from mid-afternoon. Nothing is planned for the rest of the day beyond an easy evening walk round the old market and along the Siem Reap river, where the town’s restaurants and bars gather. Dinner is at an Indian restaurant. It is worth activating international roaming or buying a local SIM before you leave the airport.

The one full day at Angkor is spent on its three great sights. Angkor Wat, built for Vishnu in the twelfth century, with nearly a kilometre of carved reliefs round its galleries; Ta Prohm, where trees have grown through the stone; and Angkor Thom, the walled city of Jayavarman VII, entered by its South Gate, with the Bayon’s many stone faces at the centre. The evening brings the Apsara dance of the Khmer court, with dinner.

A morning at leisure, then the flight north to Luang Prabang, the old royal town of Laos on its tongue of land between the Mekong and the Nam Khan. It is small, slow and walkable, with more than thirty temples among its French-era shophouses. The night market on the main street is the first outing, a long line of stalls selling textiles, lanterns and silver under red awnings, before an Indian dinner.

At first light the monks’ alms round passes silently through the streets, worth rising early to watch from a respectful distance. The guided tour covers Wat Xieng Thong, the finest of the temples, and the Royal Palace museum, home to the gold Phra Bang Buddha. After lunch the van goes south to the Kuang Si falls, whose limestone terraces make a chain of turquoise pools, with a sanctuary for rescued moon bears near the entrance.

An hour’s flight takes you over the northern mountains to Hanoi. After check-in, the afternoon city tour covers Ba Dinh Square, where Ho Chi Minh declared independence, with photographs of his mausoleum and the One Pillar pagoda; the stilt house where he lived; the Temple of Literature, the Confucian academy of 1070; and a walk round Hoan Kiem lake to finish at the Old Quarter for dinner.

The shuttle leaves Hanoi in the morning for the coast, with a stop at a pearl farm on the way where the seeding and harvesting of oysters is explained. The cruise boards around midday and sails among the limestone islands during lunch. The afternoon usually includes a cave and a paddle in a kayak, and later a cooking class on deck, dinner aboard and a night at anchor. Kayaking and other activities depend on the weather.

A tai chi session on deck at sunrise and a last sail through the islands before brunch. After disembarking the shuttle returns to Hanoi, and the afternoon adds a stop at Tran Quoc pagoda on its little island in West Lake, the oldest pagoda in the city with a tall brick stupa. The evening is free in the Old Quarter, perhaps for the water puppets beside Hoan Kiem lake.

A morning flight to Da Nang on the central coast. The afternoon tour climbs the Son Tra peninsula to Linh Ung pagoda and its white Lady Buddha, sixty-seven metres tall and facing out to sea, then crosses to the Marble Mountains, where stairs lead to Huyen Khong cave, lit by a hole in its roof onto an altar of Buddhas. The evening passes the Dragon Bridge, lit in changing colours, on the way to dinner.

A day up in the mountains west of the city. A very long cable car rises to Ba Na, a French hill station of the 1920s rebuilt as a park at about 1,400 m. The Golden Bridge, its gilded rail held by two giant stone hands, comes first; then the French gardens, the mock-French village with its church, and the indoor Fantasy Park, whose rides are included (the wax museum is not). It is cooler up here; carry a layer.

A free morning at My Khe beach before driving south. At Cam Thanh, in a forest of water-coconut palms near the river mouth, fishermen take you out in round bamboo basket boats and show how they throw their nets. Hoi An’s old town follows in the late afternoon, once a great trading port for Japanese, Chinese and European ships: the covered Japanese bridge, the Chinese assembly halls and the lanterns coming on over the Thu Bon river.

The last flight of the trip, south to Ho Chi Minh City. The afternoon tour covers the French centre, with the red-brick Notre-Dame cathedral and the Central Post Office, whose iron-vaulted hall still sells stamps; the War Remnants Museum, which tells the war from the Vietnamese side and does not spare the visitor; and a photograph stop at the Reunification Palace, where the war ended in 1975.

Out through the suburbs to Cu Chi, where the guerrillas dug over 200 km of tunnels, with kitchens, meeting rooms and field hospitals, and held out within reach of the city through the American war. The guide shows the hidden trapdoors, the traps and the smokeless kitchen, and there is a widened section to crawl through if you wish. Back by lunchtime, with the afternoon free for Ben Thanh market and a farewell evening.

Breakfast and free time until checkout, with a last chance to buy coffee, lacquerware or silk at Ben Thanh market close to the hotel. The airport is close to the centre but traffic can be slow, so the driver will collect you about three hours before an international flight.