Angkor Wat Sunrise is on many bucket lists. You could imagine tasting coffee and sitting when the sun gradually rises, enjoying the wonderful moment with countless photo opportunities. The Vietnam Backroads team will pick you up at your location and then transfer you to Angkor Temple. Enjoy the sunrise, then explore the majestic Angkor Temples on foot, then we'll have breakfast before our first-day trip ride. Explore the ancient city of Angkor, the ruins: Ta Prohm tangled in vines, magnificent Angkor Wat, Terrace of Leper King, the Terrace of Elephant, and stop at the Bayon Temple- a spectacular Gothic-style temple at the center of the ancient royal city of Angkor Thom. Return to Siem Reap for lunch, check-in at the hotel, and be free to explore Siem Reap and the night market in the evening on your own.
After a leisurely breakfast, we quickly transfer to starting point of cycling, just 1.5 km from the hotel. The road alongside the river leads us through rural villages and fertile farmlands. This is a beautiful time for us to see the daily life of farmers, water buffalos working rice paddies, the elderly selling vegetables and other farm products, and locals harvesting the lotus followers on the lakes. We resume the ride through the vast wetlands on the edge of Asia's largest freshwater lake, Tonle Sap. Enjoy the pleasant, passing small shelters, and ride on the quiet dirt route through this wetland filled with farmers and locals doing their daily business. Stop at a local market for a walkthrough en route to Kampong Phluk, the floating villages. Following our bike guide, we walk through the stilted-house villages and experience how local lives when the water is high up in the flooded season. Local houses are mostly built with almost local materials. We'll enjoy a truly private experience canoe ride with countless photo opportunities. Visit the floating village, and interact with locals. Many small grocery sampan boats move around the village, and other vessels buy and sell different items. Then canoe rides will get through the mangrove forest, where we'll learn more about the forest's wildlife. After lunch, select the option to cycle back to Siem Reap on different routes or have a transfer to the hotel.
Start the early morning travel on the shuttle across the iconic towers, and enjoy rural landscapes through many small towns to the south of Siem Reap to the urban District of Kampong Thom. We briefly visit Naga Bridge in Kampong Kdei before we pick up the bike in the urban district of Kampong Thom and cycle to Sambor Prey Kuk (615-650). The temple site was constructed in the 7th century and functioned as the capital of the Chenla Empire. We have time to look around Prasat Sambor Prei Kuk and the jungle surroundings. After lunch, we roll onto the dirt tracks and back roads, cycle through the authentic countryside and palm trees, pass stilted wooden houses, and cross the vast rice paddy fields to Kampong Thom City—Check-in at the Sambor Village Hotel.
We start the day with an early transfer to Uodong, about 2.5 hours driving to the former capital of Cambodia. Climbing 400-plus steps to the top will tire the legs, but the opportunity to view the stunning countryside plain is. Then we have time to walk around the surrounding area before lunch at a local restaurant, and everyone is ready for a fantastic bike ride to Prek Pnov. The afternoon ride is on dirt roads. It allows us to see rural Cambodia, stilted houses, rice paddies, ox carts, pass colorful temples, schools, little markets, and waving children along the villages. The last transfer is about 45 minutes and takes us to Phnom Penh City. Free to explore the capital city on your own with your dinner.
After a leisurely breakfast, we spend 1/2 day sightseeing in the capital city. Visit sites related to the Khmer regime; the notorious Tuol Sleng Museum & Choeung Ek Killing Field. This former school was used as a prison by Pol Pot’s security forces and became the largest center for detention and torture during the rule of the Khmer Rouge. Then we explore the Russian Market and return to the hotel to check out and enjoy lunch before leaving Cambodia for Vietnam.
Board on a speedboat down the Mekong River, where we will cross the immigration Check Point at the Border from Cambodia to Vietnam. Enjoy the scenery along the river banks and the life of Cambodians and Vietnamese on the waterways. Enjoy the views as we float toward the following days through Mighty Mekong Delta to Ho Chi Minh.
Note: Please keep your passport, visa photos, and other related documents in your day bag for your visa application process. Your local guide will help you with exit/ entry and visa procedures at Vietnamese and Cambodian border gates.
- Exit point: Kaamsamnor Border Gate
- Entry point: Song Tien Border Gate
After a leisurely breakfast at the hotel, we cycle through a Muslim village, and we will have time to walk around the mosque and experience local along the Mekong River, stopping at some little markets and verdant vegetation farms before we cross the Basac River by local ferry. We cycle along country trails and paths through lush farmlands and rustic villages to the Vam Nao River. After the ferry crossing to the rural Dist of Cho Moi, An Giang, we resume the ride, cross numerous small bridges over canals and creeks, and have many stops to interact with the locals along the villages. Enjoy fresh fruits at local orchards. Today lunch will be at a local home and well prepared. The afternoon is more leisurely, passing fish farms, Buddhist pagodas, and brick factories, taking a ferry to Ong Ho Island, resuming the ride through Island, and having the next ferry to Long Xuyen City.
We begin today with a-30 minute transfer to Tho Not, where we cycle to Bang Lang Stork Garden, a bird sanctuary with peaceful views of thousands of storks, cormorants, and snowy egrets. We will have time to walk around it before we ride through quiet villages on back roads, sometimes along rivers to Co Do. After a coffee break in this town, the day ride resumes to Thoi Lai, passing rice husking mills, peal on shady paths along canals, and will have lunch at a local restaurant in the town of Tho Lai. By cycling in the afternoon, we experience local lives along creeks and windy rivers, and then we keep exploring the charming villages of Phong Dien's backwaters and take a short transfer to Can Tho City.
Today starts with a boat trip to see the Cai Rang Market. Witness the morning activities of locals on the river banks, and see the bustling floating market where locals come to trade, buy and sell from boat t boat. Then we have a short transfer to the other side of the Hau Giang-Mekong River, where the day ride starts in the Binh Minh rural area.
In the morning, we venture into Khmer communities, passing numerous beautiful temples and idyllic villages with many stops at local homes. We also experience how locals use water hyacinths to make handbags, hats, and other products. The routes are open-air through rice paddies and sometimes along sleepy rivers. Lunch en route.
In the afternoon, we ride to Mang Thit village, where pottery and brick are made. It is a cottage industry for over a hundred years and still exists and develops today. People still use old techniques to create various pottery and bricks. In the past, locals made yin and yang tiles, but many mills abandoned them because yin and yang ties have been known for years. Most of the mills, kilns, and factories are by the branches, canals, and Rivers because water has been the main transportation in the past and current days. Afterward, we ride to the local ferry, cross the Co Chien River to Cho Lach, and resume riding back roads by the river to the local homestay. Enjoy swimming by the pools.
After a leisurely breakfast, say goodbye to your host, and begin the last-day ride to explore fruit orchards of mangosteen, durian, and gardens of nursery, ornamentals, and bonsai plants on the way to Cai Mon. This allows us to visit local farms and greenhouses and learn more about the country's lifestyles. Then we resume the ride through rural villages, surrounded by coconut trees and water palms, to Mo Cay, where we end up cycling with lunch en route to Ho Chi Minh.