Cruise the Mekong Delta

Start your day at the floating markets where you’ll come across huge baskets of snails, sampans carrying a bounty of rice and every green vegetable imaginable. Continue to a traditional-style house and learn how to make rice paste and traditional coconut sweets. Lunch is served in a French colonial villa shaded by lush gardens. Next enjoy a jaunt on a small rowing boat through the narrow canals, passing tiny villages and fruit plantations. Spend the rest of the afternoon relaxing on the river.

After breakfast, moor up by the village of Sac Dec to peruse its riverside French-colonial architecture and Chinese wing-tipped temples. Then continue cruising upstream passing Khmer farmers and fishermen on their way to the markets. Stop at the bustling town of Chau Doc where you’ll disembark for a bike ride past mosques, temples and stilted houses. This evening, enjoy dinner in a family home perched on the riverside suburbs of Cho Moi, where you can trade stories with your hosts and learn first-hand about traditional Mekong life.

This morning, your boat will veer off onto a smaller arm of the Mekong where you’ll encounter local communities residing on the banks of the river. Here you can see traditional life unfold – women weaving baskets from palm and traditional fishing nets sprawled out on the shores displaying the morning catch. Glide past 19th-century temples peeking out of the vegetation as you approach the Cambodian border. A guide and a private car will be waiting at Chau Doc’s main pier to take you to Ho Chi Minh City.