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Glimpse Mekong Tour
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Code: |
IDCN36 |
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Routes: |
Chiang Mai - Luang
Prabang - Vientiane - Siem Reap |
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Duration: |
11 Days |
Itinerary in brief
Day 01: Chiang Mai - Arrival
Day 02: Chiang Mai - Doi Suthep Mountain
Monastery
Day 03: Chiang Mai - Maetaeng Elephant Park
Day 04: Chiang Mai - Luang Prabang (Laos)
Day 05: Luang Prabang
Day 06: Pak Ou Caves - Kuangsi Waterfall
Day 07: Luang Prabang - Vientiane
Day 08: Vientiane - Siem Reap - Rolous Group
Day 09: Angkor Thom, Banteay Srei, Kbal Spean
Day 10: Ta Prohm & Angkor Wat
Day 11: Siem Reap - Departure
Detail Itinerary
Places
Covered: Old City
Moats & Walls, Fruit Market, Wat Chedi Luang,
Wat Phra Singh, Wat Suan Dok, Night Bazaar, Doi
Suthep Mountain, Wat Prathat Doi Suthep, small
Museum, Bo Sang Village, Sankamphaeng, Baan
Tawai, Maetaeng Elephant Park, Main Street
Thanon Sisavangvong, Mekong River, Nam Khan
River, Phousi Hill, Tribal Market, National
Museum, Wat Visoun, Wat Aham, Wat Xieng Thong,
Pak Ou Caves (Tham Ting), Kuangsi Waterfalls,
Hand-weaving Village of Ban Phanom, Ban Sang
Hai, Wat Sisaket, Haw Pha Kaew, That Luang,
Patuxai, Morning Market, Roluos group temples of
Lolei, Bakong & Preah Ko, Angkor Thom, Bayon,
Phimeanakas, Elephant Terrace, Terrace of the
Leper King, Banteay Srei, Kulen Mountain, Kbal
Spean, Ta Prohm, Ta Keo, Prasat Kravan, Banteay
Kdei, Sras Srang, Angkor Wat, Bakheng Temple.
Day 01:
Chiang Mai - Arrival (Dinner)
Arrive in Chiang Mai airport, meet and transfer
to hotel.
Orientation tour of Chiang Mai city visiting the
old city moats and walls, a fruit market, a
couple of the most important temples like Wat
Chedi Luang, Wat Phra Singh and Wat Suan Dok,
and other sights. If the monks are gathered
under the tamarind tree at any of these temples
they welcome visitors chatting with them about
Buddhism, Thai culture and history, or their
daily life in the temple. Be picked up at your
hotel at 7pm for the khantoke dinner with
northern Thai and hill tribe cultural show.
Return to your hotel at 9.30pm or drop off at
the Night Bazaar. This evening, stroll in the
interesting Night Bazaar which has a wide range
of handicrafts and souvenirs as well as coffee
cafes, money-exchange booths, restaurants, bars,
ice cream parlours and health massage places for
foot and traditional massages.
Overnight in your selected hotel in Chiang Mai.
Day 02: Chiang Mai - Doi Suthep Mountain
Monastery (Breakfast/ Lunch)
Buffet breakfast at the hotel.
Be picked up for the tour up the mountain of Doi
Suthep to visit Wat Prathat Doi Suthep with its
golden chedi, fine views of Chiang Mai below,
the small museum of votive tablets and Buddha
images. Be sure to ring all the bronze bells
surrounding the main chedi for merit. Burn a
joss-stick before the Buddha image to pray for
good health and good luck.
Lunch in a restaurant along the way. After lunch
visit Chiang Mai’s cottage industries of
teakwood carving, celadon firing, silk and
cotton weaving, lacquer ware and saa paper
umbrella making in the Bo Sang village. Northern
Thai craftsmen are carrying on the artistic
traditions of their forebears in the
Sankamphaeng and Ban Tawai enclaves producing
fine pieces of craft by hand and simple tools.
Return to hotel and be at leisure to relax by
the pool, or go out and explore Chiang Mai on
foot or go for a health massage.
Overnight in hotel, Chiang Mai.
Day 03: Chiang Mai - Maetaeng Elephant Park
(Breakfast/ Lunch)
Buffet breakfast at the hotel. Today learn a
whole lot about elephants at the Maetaeng
Elephant Park. Be picked up at your hotel at 8am
to go to the park 50km north of Chiang Mai.
There are about 40 elephants free-ranging in
this park. You can see them taking their bath,
feed them and ride on them for a romp into the
jungle. Ride an ox-cart to experience an ancient
mode of local transport. Then have lunch by the
riverside restaurant, and glide downriver on a
bamboo raft before driving back to Chiang Mai,
and be free at leisure.
Overnight in hotel, Chiang Mai.
Day 04: Chiang Mai - Luang Prabang (Laos)
(Breakfast/ Dinner)
Buffet breakfast at the hotel.
Free until 11am when we transfer to Chiang Mai
airport for your one-hour flight to Luang
Prabang by Lao Airlines, QV645,
dep.1250/arr.1350 (on Tuesdays & Fridays) or
dep.1540/arr.1640 (Sundays). 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 or at
Luang Prabang Bakery in the middle section of
this main road. 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 05: Luang Prabang (Breakfast/ Lunch)
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 Xieng Thong 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 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 06: Pak Ou Caves - Kuangsi Waterfall
(Breakfast/ Lunch/ Dinner)
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.
Lunch of French set menu at the Elephant Blanc
restaurant..
Afternoon excursion by boat upstream of the
Mekong River to visit Ban Sang Hai (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 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 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 at Indochina
Spirit restaurant
Overnight at hotel, Luang Prabang.
Day 07: Luang Prabang - Vientiane (Breakfast/
Dinner)
Breakfast at hotel.
Transfer to the airport for your flight from
Luang Prabang to Vientiane, the capital of Laos.
Upon arrival in Vientiane, meet 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 1818 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 08: Vientiane - Siem Reap - Rolous Group
(Breakfast/ Lunch)
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. Early lunch in
a restaurant and then transfer to the airport
for your flight to Siem Reap (in Cambodia, by
QV105, dep.1300/arr.1340). Upon arrival, be met
by your guide and taken 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.
Overnight at hotel, Siem Reap.
Day 09: Angkor Thom, Banteay Srei, Kbal Spean
(Breakfast/ Lunch/ Dinner)
Breakfast at the hotel. Morning sightseeing 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
5 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; Terrace of the Leper King,
supposedly named after the founder of Angkor who
legend says was afflicted with leprosy. Lunch in
a restaurant. Drive to the temple of Banteay
Srei, 38 km from Siem Reap. It 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 period. There are over
20 unrestored temple ruins here, but the
marvellous carvings are of huge Hindu gods and
the hundreds of carved lingas in the river-bed
that you get to with a half-hour trek along a
shady jungle path. Return to Siem Reap in the
late afternoon.
Dinner at New Bayon Restaurant.
Overnight at hotel, Siem Reap.
Day 10: Ta Prohm & Angkor Wat (Breakfast/
Lunch/ Dinner)
Breakfast at the hotel. Morning departure at
8.30am to tour Ta Prohm which is unrestored and
left to the elements with giant trees embracing
its stone works, giving Ta Prohm its unique
character. Also Ta Keo, a 11th century sandstone
temple dedicated to Shiva. Prasat Kravan,
Banteay Kdei, Sras Srang and others if we have
time for. Lunch at Angkor Cafe. Continue
sightseeing after lunch.
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 comprised of 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 Sampheap restaurant.
Overnight at hotel, Siem Reap.
Day 11: Siem Reap - Departure (Breakfast)
Breakfast at the hotel. Free until time to
transfer to the airport for your departure
flight.
End of Tour & Services
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