From Siam to Saigon: Thailand & Vietnam Revealed (2012)

Fly from Ho Chi Minh City and arrive this afternoon in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, where you’ll be met by an OAT representative and transferred to your hotel.

We'll take an orientation walk and have lunch before we continue on to view the National Museum’s collection of Khmer art, which displays over 5,000 objects, including statues and other artifacts from Angkor Wat.

Tonight, dinner is at a local restaurant.

After breakfast at the hotel this morning, we visit the Royal Palace, where King Norodom Sihamoni and former King Norodom Sihanouk live today. The Palace was opened in 1870 under King Norodom, and now contains the Royal Residence, the Throne Hall, the Silver Pagoda, and other buildings. The Silver Pagoda (Wat Preah Keo Morokat) is one of the city’s most visited sites and offers a display of priceless Buddhist and historical objects. The Pagoda draws its name from the more than 5,000 silver tiles that cover a floor in the temple. The building serves less as a functioning shrine, no monks currently reside here, than a repository of cultural treasures, such as the famous Emerald Buddha and many other valuable statues.

Then we visit the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek—both grim reminders of Cambodia’s bloody past under Pol Pot. It is almost inconceivable to confront the nature of true evil here in this gentle land, but the Buddhist memorial at Choeung Ek, commemorates the 1.7 million victims of the 1975-79 Pol Pot genocide. This execution site is one of many throughout Cambodia.

After lunch at a local restaurant, we visit Toul Sleng Genocide Museum. This former high school was utilized by the Khmer Rouge as a place to torture prisoners throughout the years from its rise to power in 1975 to its fall in 1979.

The balance of the day is at leisure for you to explore as you wish, and dinner is on your own.

After breakfast this morning, we’ll board a coach for our trip to Siem Reap, a town within the boundaries of the ancient city of Angkor. We travel through Cambodia’s Kampong Thom Province, stopping en route to visit a local market and stonecarvers’ village. We’ll arrive in Siem Reap in the early afternoon.

After checking in to our hotel, we’ll take an orientation walk and then have dinner at a local restaurant.

Today, your Trip Leader will take you into the heart of ancient Angkor, a holy city that took centuries to build and whose scale is still breathtaking today—it sprawls across an area of roughly six by 16 miles. The Khmer aristocrats who built the temples and monuments here between 800-1200 were motivated by their Hindu and Buddhist beliefs.

We’ll begin at the South Gate of Angkor Thom, the capital city of Khmer rulers. We’ll see the Bayon, pass four other temples, and make brief stops at Baphoun and the Elephants Terrace, where amazing bas-reliefs depict the huge beasts almost life-size. At the nearby Terrace of the Leper King, equally intricate wall carvings depict rank after rank of court attendants to mystical rulers. We conclude our explorations of Angkor’s most notable features with a tour to the Ta Prohm.

This afternoon, we’ll stop by a village to enjoy a Home-Hosted Lunch.

Later we return to explore Angkor Wat (whose name means simply “Angkor’s main temple”) and wait for the sunset, the most opportune moment for seeing this masterpiece of Khmer architecture. Angkor Wat is a large pyramid temple, built between 1113 and 1150, surrounded by a great moat 570 feet wide. Note the bas-relief carving throughout the temple. Who knows what you might feel as you stand in the courtyard of this temple whose towers represent Mount Meru, the center of the universe?

Tonight, we dine together at a local restaurant.

This morning, join us for a boat ride on Tonle Sap Lake, where you’ll have a chance to glimpse a bit of the life of Cambodia’s river people. Floating fishing villages sprawl across the lakefront and everything is gliding by on the water—thatched-roof houses on hollow bamboo poles, small markets, jewelry shops, even a beauty parlor floats by. Commerce goes on all across the water—women selling fruits and vegetables from a sampan, a skiff full of firewood, and fishermen selling their catch. The people who live on the water have tied their lives to the lake’s cycles, and are constantly on the move as the water level rises or recedes throughout the year.

Tonle Sap means “Great Freshwater Lake,” and indeed this is one of the world’s geographical wonders, as well as the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia. When the rains begin here in June and July, the Mekong River begins to rise, but instead of flooding its own banks, it begins to push the waters of the Tonle Sap at Phnom Penh northward, reversing the river’s flow. The waters of the Tonle Sap River then flood the lake, increasing its size tenfold and flooding the surrounding forests and fields, leaving behind fertile silt for rice cultivation. In October, after the monsoon season has passed, the lake drains and the river returns to its southern flow. If you are a birder, this is a world-renowned habitat for shorebirds. We end our tour with a visit to a floating village and then return to our hotel for lunch.

This afternoon, you might join us on an optional tour to visit the ancient temple of Banteay Srei, one of the oldest and most beautifully preserved temple sites in Cambodia. Built in AD 967, Banteay Srei means “Citadel of Women,” and it is recognized as a tribute to the beauty of women. The structures here have been carved in painstaking detail out of sandstone. Amazingly, the detail is as intricate as a woven tapestry, a testament to the craft of the original artisans and to the devoted conservation of generations of Cambodians to this site, set like a gem in a seemingly enchanted forest, about 20 miles from Angkor, it is famous for its delicate carvings, wonderful state of preservation and small size in relation to the other Angkor temples.

Or spend the afternoon on your own. Perhaps you’ll visit one of Siem Reap’s markets. There are two major markets (psah) nearby—Psah Chas (Old Market), and Center Market, which offers numerous souvenir shops and craft stands along the riverside. This evening, enjoy dinner on your own.

This morning, we'll stop at a local village and enjoy an ox cart ride and local home visit en route to the Siem Reap airport for our flight back to Bangkok. Upon arrival, we transfer to our hotel where you’ll have free time to relax or explore before enjoying dinner on your own.

We rise early this morning for our return flight to the U.S.