Fourteen days, two countries, one night train and temples the jungle is eating.
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This is the longest and most expensive tour we run. Fourteen days, two countries, four internal flights and one night train. For 2490 EUR you get the full route from northern Vietnam to Angkor without spending three hours a day being driven to silk shops where the guide collects a commission. We do not go to those. Ever.
We start in Hanoi, in the old quarter with its thirty six streets, each of which once belonged to a single trade. You cross the road by stepping into it and walking slowly and evenly. The scooters flow around you. It sounds insane and it works. Then Ha Long, where we sleep on a boat. Not a cruise ship with four hundred people, but a wooden junk that takes sixteen. In the morning you can kayak between the limestone islands, of which the bay has 1969.
The middle stretch is the slowest and many people like it best. Hoi An, with its lanterns, its tailors who will make you a fitted suit in a day for 90 EUR, and a beach five kilometres from town. Hue and the imperial city. Then the south: Saigon and the Mekong delta, where you thread through canals by boat and buy fruit from a floating market. The last three days belong to Cambodia. Angkor Wat at sunrise is a cliché, but it is a cliché because it works. More interesting is Ta Prohm, where tree roots have split the walls apart, and the Bayon with its two hundred and fifty stone faces. Our guide Peter has been coming to Asia for ten years and knows where a bowl of pho costs two euros and where it costs twenty. Fourteen days is a long time and we will not pretend you will not be tired by the halfway point. That is why Hoi An has a completely free day and why Saigon is a morning only city for us. Meals are not included, because food in Asia is so cheap and so good that tying you to a hotel restaurant would be a waste.
We leave Vienna at 15:30 with a connection in Dubai. The whole journey takes about sixteen hours including the layover. Set your watch to Vietnam time as soon as you board and sleep by it; it takes the edge off the jet lag.
We land at 13:40 local time and transfer to a hotel in the old quarter. The afternoon is a slow walk around Hoan Kiem lake and your first lesson in crossing the road. Dinner in a place where a bowl of pho costs two euros. An early night.
The Ho Chi Minh mausoleum, the Temple of Literature, which was the first Vietnamese university, and the old quarter with its 36 streets. In the afternoon, the water puppet theatre, a thousand year old tradition, lasting an hour. In the evening, beer on the corner of Ta Hien for 60 cents.
A three hour drive, then we board the junk at midday. The afternoon is spent sailing between limestone islands, swimming and kayaking. Dinner on deck from the day catch and a night in a cabin with a window on the water. The silence out there is almost total.
Tai chi on deck for anyone up at six. We visit Sung Sot cave, then drive back to Hanoi. In the evening we board the night train to Hue in a four berth sleeper. The train rocks, but people sleep surprisingly well in it.
We arrive at half past six in the morning for breakfast and a shower at the hotel. The morning is the imperial city, a UNESCO site still scarred by the war. In the afternoon we take a boat up the Perfume River to the Thien Mu pagoda. The evening is free; Hue is a quiet city.
We drive the Hai Van pass, which separates northern and southern weather and looks out over the sea from 500 metres. We stop near Da Nang and the Marble Mountains. In the afternoon we reach Hoi An, check in and take a first walk through the lantern lit town.
The old town in the morning: the Japanese bridge and merchant houses three hundred years old. In the afternoon, a cooking class that starts at the market, then you make pho, spring rolls and banana flower salad. You eat what you cook. If you want a tailored suit, order it today.
Deliberately empty. An Bang beach is five kilometres away and the hotel lends bicycles for free. If you ordered a suit, today is the fitting. If you want, ride out to the rice paddies and to the fishermen who work from round basket boats.
A morning flight from Da Nang puts us in Saigon by one. The afternoon is the city: the War Remnants Museum, which is heavy and worth it, Notre Dame cathedral and the post office designed by Eiffel. In the evening, Ben Thanh market and a rooftop dinner above an endless river of scooters.
We leave at six for Can Tho. The Cai Rang floating market starts at five and breaks up by nine, which is why we go early. Boats sit loaded with pineapples and melons, their goods hung on a pole so buyers can see them from a distance. In the afternoon, the canals, and a night in Can Tho.
Back to Saigon and a seventy five minute flight into Cambodia. Visas are handled at the airport; you need a photo and 30 dollars. In the afternoon we check in and walk around Siem Reap, which is small and full of cafés. Dinner is Khmer food, milder than Vietnamese.
Up at 4:30 for sunrise over Angkor Wat. Yes, three hundred other people are there, and it is still worth it. Then Angkor Thom, the Bayon with its 250 stone faces, and Ta Prohm, where the trees have broken the walls apart. A break at the hotel in the afternoon and the Pre Rup temple at sunset.
The morning is Banteay Srei, a pink sandstone temple with the finest carving at Angkor, an hour outside town. On the way back we stop for lunch and for coffee with condensed milk. Airport transfer at 13:00, departure at 16:10 via Dubai, and we land in Vienna the next morning at 7:35.
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