11DAYS, VEUN KHAN – RATANAKIRI – KRATIE – KOMPONG CHAM – PHNOM PENH -SIEM REAP

Itinerary

ITINERARY IN  DETAIL:

DAY 1: VEUN KHAN - STUNG TRENG - RATANAKIRI   (L,D)
Customs and immigration formalities at Veun Khan (Laos-Cambodia border). Welcome by your guide at Cambodian side and departure by boat to Stung Treng (1½ hours navigation by speed boat).
Note: Currently it is not possible to obtain Cambodian visa upon arrival at this border! Guests arriving at Veun Khan border must apply for Cambodian visa at an Embassy or Consulate abroad prior to arrival!
Arrive in Stung Treng and lunch at local restaurant.
Then, departure by road to Banlung, capital of Ratanakiri, nicknamed “The Red City” because of the omnipresent laterite (4 hours drive). Check-in at Terres Rouges Lodge. Dinner and accommodation at Terres Rouges Lodge (14 rooms only).

DAY 2: RATANAKIRI    (B,L,D)
Breakfast at the Lodge.
We head north today, in the direction of Laos and the village of Taveng. We first cross the curious extent of volcanic rocks of Veyrum Plang: a lava field in the forest with a small waterfall nearby (only in the wet season though) and what locals call tiger caves. As we go north to Taveng, we cross a variety of landscapes: primary forest, clear forest, bamboo forest and “African” bush. We stop at a few nice Kroeung villages located quite far away in the forest. The Kroeung people have the peculiar custom of erecting bachelor houses standing on very long bamboo poles. These houses will remain so till the young man finds a wife, then they are destroyed. The right time to see them is usually from February to August. We have lunch at a small waterfall lost in the forest and we go on to visiting villages. Dinner and accommodation at Terres Rouges Lodge.

DAY 3: RATANAKIRI    (B,L,D)
Breakfast at the Lodge.
We go in a northwest direction today, crossing bamboo forests before reaching the village of Voeune Sai located on the left bank of the Se San River. The view of the Chinese village on the other side of the river is quite pretty. Besides, this place is nearly a Chinese enclave in Cambodian territory. Most villagers don’t even speak Khmer. Upstream of the Se San are a certain number of Tampoun villages that practice funeral statuary; if it is possible, we will rent a boat to go to the village of Ka Chaoan that has superb totems, if not we will reach it by jeep. Dinner and accommodation at Terres Rouges Lodge.

DAY 4: RATANAKIRI - STUNG TRENG – KRATIE   (B,L,D)
Breakfast at the Lodge.
Early morning, departure by road to Stung Treng.
Lunch at local restaurant.
Then, continuation by road to Kratie. Stop in Sambo to observe the river dolphins until sunset. Then, continue to Kratie, a small colonial-style town. Dinner at local restaurant. Accommodation at Oudom Sambath Hotel (2-star, best available).

DAY 5: KRATIE - KOMPONG CHAM  (B,L,D)
Breakfast at local restaurant.
Departure by car to Kompong Cham. On the way to Kompong Cham stop at Chhlong, a small and peaceful village on the Mekong River Bank with both Khmer and Colonial architecture. Continue to Chhup, a rubber plantation first established in the region by the French tire maker Michelin.
Lunch at local restaurant in Kompong Cham.
Tour of Kompong Cham to view examples of colonial architecture and check in at Mekong Hotel. Visit the silk-weaving village of Prek Chang Krane. Visit Wat Nokor with its ancient temple and modern style pagoda (12th century). Dinner at local restaurant. Accommodation at Mekong Hotel (2-star, best available).

DAY 6: KOMPONG CHAM - PHNOM PENH   (B,L)
Breakfast at hotel.
Depart by car to Phnom Penh via Preak Kdam. Take the ferry across the Tonle Sap river. Then, stop at Prek Kdam to visit Kôh Chen, a small silver handicraft village
Drive to Udong where a picnic lunch will be served.
Visit the various temples and the three large stupas where the ashes of three former kings are preserved. Continue to Phnom Penh and transfer to the hotel. Overnight in Phnompenh.

DAY 7: PHNOM PENH   (B)
Breakfast at hotel.
Morning, visit the Victory Monument, and the National Museum, also called Musee des Beaux-Arts. A French archaeologist and painter, Georges Groslier, designed it in Khmer style in 1917. The museum contains a collection of Khmer art - notably sculptures – from throughout the ages. Visit the Royal Palace, built by King Norodom 1866 on the site of the old town, and the Silver Pagoda. Located within the Royal Palace, the Silver Pagoda is so named because of its floor, which is made up of 5000 silver tiles. The treasures found include a solid gold Buddha encrusted and weighing 90kilogramss and a small 17th century emerald and baccarat crystal Buddha.
Afternoon,Visit the Notorious Tuol Sleng Museum. In 1975 Tuol Svay Prey High School was taken over by Pol Pot’s security forces and turned into a prison known as Security Prison 21 (S-21). It soon became the largest such center of detention and torture in the country. More than 17.000 people held at S-21 were taken to the extermination camp at Choeung Ek to be executed; detainees who died during torture were buried in mass graves in the prison ground. The museum displays include room after room of these photographs of men, women and children covering the walls from floor to ceiling; virtually all the people pictured were later killed.
Visit the Russian Market (Psah Tuol Thom Pong), a lively outdoor market where you will find antiquities, silver and gold jewelry, gems, silk, kramas, stone and wood carvings, as well as T-Shirts, CDs and other souvenirs.
End your afternoon with the visit of the Wat Phnom Temple, Phnom Penh’s namesake. Overnight in Phnompenh.

DAY 8: PHNOM PENH - SIEM REAP    (B)
Breakfast at hotel.
Morning, transfer to Phnom Penh International Airport and flight to Siem Reap. Arrive in Siem Reap and transfer to the hotel (rooms may not be available until the afternoon). In the morning, visit the most famous of all the temples on the plain of Angkor until the sunset: Angkor Wat. The temple complex covers 81 hectares and is comparable in size to the Imperial Palace in Beijing. Its distinctive five towers are emblazoned on the Cambodian flag and the 12th century masterpiece is considered by art historians to be the prime example of classical Khmer art and architecture. Angkor Wat’s five towers symbolize Meru’s five peaks - the enclosed wall represents the mountains at the edge of the world and the surrounding moat, the ocean beyond.
Visit the antique capital of Angkor Thom (12th century): the South Gate with its huge statues depicting the churning of the ocean of milk, the Bayon Temple, unique for its 54 towers decorated with over 200 smiling faces of Avolokitesvara, the Royal Enclosure, the Phimeanakas, the Elephants Terrace and the Terrace of the Leper King and Bayon Temple (unique for its 54 towers decorated with over 200 smiling faces of Avolokitesvara), until sunset. Overnight in Siem Reap.
 

DAY 9: SIEM REAP   (B,L)
Breakfast at hotel.
Morning, drive to the remote Beng Mealea temple through the typical Khmer countryside (60Kms from Siem Reap). There is a lot to see in the approximately 2½ hours drive as it takes you through many lively villages and along kilometers of rice paddies. Explore the long abandoned temple (11th C), strangled by the jungle. Lunch box will be provided at the site.
Proceed to the Banteay Srei temple (10th century) regarded as the jewel in the crown of classical Khmer art. Then visit Banteay Samre, one of the most complete complexes at Angkor due to restoration using the method of “anastylosis”. The name Samre refers to an ethnic group of mountain people, who inhabited the region at the base of Phnom Kulen and were probably related to the Khmers. No inscriptions have been found for this temple, but the style of most of the architecture is of the classic art of the middle period similar to Angkor Wat. The proportions of Banteay Samre are splendid. A unique feature is an interior moat with laterite paving, which when filled with water must have given an ethereal atmosphere to the temple. Drive back to Siem Reap. Overnight in Phnompenh.
 

DAY 10: SIEM REAP   (B)
Breakfast at the hotel.
In the morning, visit Prasat Kravan, with unique interior brick sculptures and the mountain-temple of Pre Rup. Continue your temple tour with visits to Mebon Oriental, Ta Som, Neak Pean, a fountain built in the middle of a pool and representing the paradisiacal Himalayan mountain-lake.  Finally, visit Preah Khan, built by the King Jayavarman VII and, like Ta Prohm, a place of towered enclosures and shoulder-hugging corridors. Unlike Ta Prohm, however, the temple of Preah Khan is in a reasonable state of preservation and ongoing restoration efforts should maintain and even improve this situation.
In the afternoon, transfer to the archaeological site and continue the temples tour with Srah Srang ("The Pool of Ablutions"), undoubtedly used in the past for ritual bathing, Takeo, Thommanon, Chau Say Tevoda and Ta Prohm, one of the most beautiful temples in the area, as it has been relatively untouched since it was discovered and retains much of its mystery. Its appeal lies in the fact that, unlike the other monuments of Angkor, it was abandoned and swallowed by the jungle, looking very much the ways most of the Angkor temples appeared when European explorers first stumbled upon them. Overnight in Phnompenh.

DAY 11: SIEM REAP – DEPARTURE   (B)
Breakfast at hotel.
Visit the floating village of Chong Khneas, located 10 kilometers south of Siem Reap. Visit the village and take an excursion in a traditional wooden boat on the Tonle Sap Lake, the “Great Lake” of Cambodia and the largest in Asia.
Note: From Feb-July, the visit to the Tonle Sap lake is not recommended because of the low water level. The below visits will be provided instead:
Visit the Roluos Group. The monuments of Roluos, which served as the capital of Indravarman I (reigned 877-89), are among the earliest large, permanent temples built by the Khmers and mark the beginning of Khmer classical art. Preah Ko erected by Indravarman I in the late 9th century dedicated by the King to his ancestors in 880. Bakong the largest and most interesting of the Roluos group temples, with his active Buddhist monastery just to the north of the east entrance. Lolei built on an islet in the center of a large reservoir (now rice fields) by Yasovarman I, the founder to the first city at Angkor.
Afternoon, visit “Les Chantiers-Ecole, les Artisans d’Angkor” of Siem Reap or the Silk Farm of Puok. Then, transfer to Siem Reap International Airport for departure flight to the next destination.