Inside Vietnam (2012)

As our journey in Vietnam ends, we fly to Siem Reap, a town within the boundaries of the ancient city of Angkor, Cambodia. After arriving in the afternoon, we'll embark on an orientation walk featuring a visit to Wat Po temple, an 18th-century pagoda filled with paintings from the French colonial era. Next, we'll visit a local market, take an ox-cart ride, and visit a typical home.

This evening, we head to a local restaurant for dinner and a traditional Khmer culture show, returning to our hotel via remok, or motorized rickshaw (also called a tuk-tuk).

After an early breakfast, we’ll set off for an included cruise of Tonle Sap Lake, where we’ll have the opportunity to glimpse a bit of the life of Cambodia’s river people. We’ll glide by thatched-roof houses on hollow bamboo poles, small markets, jewelry shops, and even a floating beauty parlor. 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. Your visit to Tonle Sap includes an ox-cart ride and a boat ride in the Floating Village.

We then return to our hotel. The balance of the day is at leisure.

Or you can join us for an optional visit to 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. This optional tour includes dinner at a local restaurant.

Today our Trip Leader will take us 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 AD 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, 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 serving mystical rulers. We conclude our explorations of Angkor's most notable features with a tour to the Ta Prohm.

Then we'll enjoy a Home-Hosted Lunch in a nearby village. Here we'll be offered a personal perspective on Cambodian life in an experience that brings you into the home and the lives of a local family.

After lunch, we'll visit Angkor Wat (whose name means simply "city 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?

We return to our hotel in time for dinner.

After breakfast this morning, we check out of our hotel and transfer to the airport for our flight to Bangkok. En route, we stop at the Killing Fields Memorial Temple. It is almost inconceivable to confront the nature of true evil here in this gentle land, but this memorial, built inside Siem Reap's Wat Thmei Pagoda, commemorates the thousands of victims of the 1975-79 Pol Pot genocide. This execution site is one of many throughout Cambodia.

Then we transfer to the airport for our flight to Bangkok, arriving in the early afternoon. The rest of the day is yours to make your own discoveries.

We rise before daybreak for our early morning flight back to the U.S. You’ll cross the International Date Line en route, regaining the day you lost at the beginning of your trip.