Summary:
This fourteen-day cycle tour broadly follows the Mekong River from Ho Chi Minh City to Siem Reap. The itinerary is designed for leisure cyclists, keen to discover the diverse culture and natural heritage of Southern Vietnam and Cambodia.
Details:
The bike route escapes the bustling city for the natural environment and rural scenery with green fields, zig-zagging paths, monkey bridges, beautiful canals and thatched roof houses. See the legacy of the Khmer empire and ancient mysterious temples in Cambodia and experience a different way of life. Make an optional stop at Oxfam and support a poor community. Oxfam were amongst the first group of NGOs providing aid to Cambodia after the collapse of the Khmer Rouge in 1979. A support vehicle is available should you finding the going a bit tough at any time, or maybe skip a stage to relax your legs and save energy for the next section.
Itinerary:
Day 1: Ho Chi Minh City arrival
Arriving at Tan Son Nhat airport in Ho Chi Minh City, you’ll be met and driven to your hotel. You’ll have time to relax after your journey before a Welcome dinner. You also have tickets for a performance of traditional Water Puppetry. This is an art form unique to northern Vietnam, and a good, light-hearted introduction to its rural culture. You spend the night in Ho Chi Minh City.
Day 2: Ho Chi Minh City Cu Chi Tunnels/Orientation
After breakfast, your guide will take you to visit the famous Cu Chi tunnels, a Byzantine maze of underground passages, chambers, rooms and booby traps used by the Vietminh and the Viet Cong to suddenly materialise as if from nowhere, launch a lightning ambush, and vanish equally rapidly. After lunch, you return to Ho Chi Minh City for a tour. You’ll visit Reunification Hall, a French Colonial masterpiece and former palace, modified in the Soviet influenced era and then visit the Museum of War Remnants. This provides a rather partial, but riveting, perspective of the ‘American War; not for the squeamish! You then visit the large Binh Tay market in China Town. Your accommodation is in Ho Chi Minh City.
Meals: Breakfast, lunch
Day 3: Ho Chi Minh City/Long An/Vinh Long Homestay Biking
After escaping Ho Chi Minh City’s urban sprawl, you travel to Long An province by support car with your cycling guide. Your bike tour starts at the small town of Tan An. As you cycle along quiet back roads and paths you pass through peaceful villages, orchards and friendly water buffalo herds on the way to Cai Be and cycle over small bridges. Enjoy this rural idyll and the slower pace of life, and your picnic lunch too! If time permits we’ll call in at the beautiful and ancient Vinh Trang pagoda. Our car will then pick you up at Cai Lay Bridge and take you to Vinh Long for a Mekong River cruise to visit fruit orchards, a traditional family-run brick kiln and long-established cottage industries. You’ll sleep in a family house in an orchard at the side of the canal.
Vinh Trang Pagoda, renowned for a mix of Chinese, Vietnamese and Angkor architectural styles, is located on a 2 hectare block with 5 buildings, 2 ornamental yards, 178 pillars and many valuable statues. Especially important are the statues of 18 arahants carved from wood and made in 1907. The pagoda will give you a deeper look into the relationship between Vietnamese art and Buddhist beliefs.
Distance Today: 50 km
Meals: Breakfast, lunch , dinner
Day 4: Cycling in Vinh Long/Tra Vinh
Wake up to the peace and fresh air of rural life! Your route takes you along narrow paths past rice orchards, villages, thatched houses, fruit gardens and a bonsai garden also to Cai Mon. After a picnic lunch you’ll pass over the main ferry at Co Chien before cycling to the Khmer town of Tra Vinh with many side tracks and trails for you to explore. You spend the night in Tra Vinh.
Distance Today: 40km
Meals: Breakfast, lunch
Day 5: Tra Vinh/Can Tho
Your day begins with a cycle to visit the attractions in Tra Vinh - the Khmer Minority People’s Museum and Ong Met Pagoda – a large Khmer Pagoda with an antique structure. You then continue to Ba Om pond with its magnificent lotus flowers. You then leave for Can Tho on a pleasant but long route passing paddy fields and impressive rural scenery. Cycle as much or as little as you wish. You spend the night in Can Tho.
Distance Today: 80km
Meals: Breakfast, lunch
Day 6: Can Tho/Long Xuyen/ Chau Doc
After breakfast and a boat cruise you’ll arrive at Cai Rang floating market on the Mekong Delta. Both the journey and the market provide insights into the Mekong lifestyle. Your cycle ride from Can Tho takes you past an ancient church, vast green fields, monkey bridges and many zig-zagging paths. Enjoy the fresh air, natural environment and life in the Delta. En-route you’ll stop at local markets and find out more about the distinctive lifestyle. You arrive at Chau Doc late afternoon for your overnight hotel.
Distance Today: 60km.
Meals: Breakfast, lunch
Day 7: Chau Doc-Phnom Penh by speed boat
You now have two cycle free days having ridden about 230 km or 140 miles! Relax on a high speed boat for a few hours to the Vinh Xuong border. We continue upstream on the Mekong River to the outskirts of Phnom Penh. On arrival at the boat pier you’ll be picked up to check in at your hotel. After lunch, there is a visit to the National Museum which exhibits 5,000 objects including Angkorian era statues, lingas, artefacts – most notably the legendary statue of the 'Leper King" - and a good collection of pieces from later periods. You'll call in at the Royal Palace and visit the nearby Silver Pagoda and Wat Phnom where you will see a large and elaborate flower clock. You stay the night in Phnom Penh.
Meals: Breakfast, lunch
Day 8: Phnom Penh/Killing field
In the morning, you’ll be picked up and driven to the so-called ‘Killing Fields’.
The term is a misnomer because it implies a single location. In reality, the process of genocide under the Kh’mer Rouge involved a large network of interrogation prisons linked to extermination centres. The most infamous is Phnom Penh’s S-21 Prison and the Choeung Ek extermination centre.
S-21 Prison was originally the Tuol Svay Pray High School on the outskirts of the capital. It became an interrogation, torture and execution centre under the Kh’mer Rouge. Today it is the Tuol Sleng Museum of Genocide. The name means ‘poison hill’, an apt description.
Choeung Ek, the ‘killing fields’ was the final destination of nearly all inmates of S-21. The helpless victims were slaughtered in their thousands and thrown into more than a hundred shallow burial pits dug by the prisoners. The total number of men, women and children buried at Choeung Ek is estimated to be around 15,000. It was one of many extermination centres spread across the entire country – and by no means the largest.
A visit to Tuol Sleng and Choeung Ek presents a stark picture of Cambodia’s recent past. However, it’s also a profoundly harrowing experience and likely to distress anyone of a sensitive disposition.
You then stop at Oxfam to get a better impression of the work being done. In the afternoon, you have free time for souvenir shopping, sightseeing or whatever. Your overnight accommodation is in Phnom Penh.
Meals: Breakfast, lunch
Day 9: Phnom Penh/Kampong Cham Biking
After breakfast you’ll be driven through the bustling city until Rokakong Village where you begin your cycle ride by the Mekong River, with a late picnic lunch with locals before continuing to Kampong Cham. On arrival check into your hotel and enjoy dinner and your overnight stay.
Distance Today: 40 km
Meals: Breakfast, lunch
Day 10: Kampong Cham/Kampong Thom
After breakfast your bike ride will take you past a big rubber plantation and cornfield and you continue to Kampong Thom and your hotel for lunch. In the afternoon you travel by bus to explore the Pre-Angkorean complex of Sambo Prekok and then check in to your hotel in Kampong Thom.
Distance Today: 50 km
Meals: Breakfast, lunch
Day 11: Kampong Thom/Siem Reap
After breakfast you are driven to Dragon Bridge, an ancient bridge built by King Jayavaramon VII in the 12th century. Your rural cycle ride to Siem Reap starts here. We stop for a picnic lunch at a local house and visit a temple before continuing to Siem Reap where you check in at your hotel for the night.
Distance Today: 50 km
Meals: Breakfast, lunch
Day 12: Siem Reap - Cycling to Angkor Temples
After breakfast we cycle to the jungle temple of Ta Prohm, and then to the Angkor Thom complex where we see the ornate entrances decorated by gods and demons. We also see the Terrace of the Elephants and the Terrace of the Leper King. We visit the Bayon Temple with smiling faces in the heart of the temple complex and then incredible Angkor Wat. After lunch you’ll explore this fascinating complex and then take a boat trip to the floating village of Chong Kneas to see how people live, as well as the church and floating school before returning to Siem Reap. Tonight, after dinner, you’ll see a Khmer traditional Apsara Performance at Angkor Village Tether. You stay overnight in Siem Reap.
Distance Today: 30 km
Meals: Breakfast, lunch, dinner
Day 13: Siem Reap/Cycling to Angkor Temples – App 40 km
After breakfast, it is a fairly easy cycle through the countryside to the Banteay Srei Temple. It means the “Citadel of Women” and is one of the most beautiful temples of the Angkorian period. You stay overnight in Siem Reap.
Distance Today: 40 km.
Meals: Breakfast, lunch
Day 14: Siem Reap Departure
You have free time until your private car and driver take you to the airport for your departure flight. Your amazing cycle tour ends! For those cycling all sections of the tour the distance is about 440 km, equivalent to 270 miles!
Meals: Breakfast