DAY 1 ; HUE

Reception at the airport (or at the Lao border if you come by road) transfer to Huê, the former imperial capital and installation at the hotel.

In the late afternoon, you can take a turn round the town and steep in the atmosphere of a Vietnamese city. We have dinner at a typical restaurant in the town.

DAY 2 : HUE , the imperial capital.

After breakfast we cruise aboard a local boat up the Perfume River to the pagoda of the Celestial Lady (Thien Mu) erected on the top of a hill overlooking the river.

The pagoda was founded in 1601 by the first lord of the Nguyen family. On our way we watch river-life and the numerous boatmen who live on their sampans and spend most of their time dredging sand and gravel out of the river bed.

We visit the pagoda, then we move up the river to the tomb of Minh Mang, the second emperor of the Nguyen dynasty. After lunch we go on visiting the tombs erected to the memory of the emperors who ruled Vietnam one after the other.

We also attend a ceremony conducted by Buddhist monks at the Tu Hieu pagoda.

To end up that royal day, we share an imperial dinner with our hosts and spend the night at the hotel.

DAY 3 :HUE , the imperial capital.

We spend the morning visiting the famous citadel, with its Imperial City. The building of the citadel, with its battlements inspired by the Vauban fortifications, started in 1804.

We discover the nine sacred cannons placed inside the citadel. They symbolize the defense of both the palace and the Kingdom. The imperial precinct ( a citadel within the citadel ) numbers four gates. The Northern gate is the main entrance, it was formerly reserved for the use of the Emperor. We visit the palace of the Supreme Harmony, where the official receptions and imperial ceremonies used to take place.

Then, behind that palace, we enter the Mandarin's rooms. We won't miss a stop at the palace of worship where ten Emperors have their altars. At the entrance, nine urns symbolize the strength of the Nguyen dynasty. In the afternoon the scenery changes. We ride either a bicycle or a cycle-rickshaw ( as you like it ) around the neighbouring countryside. We ride through rice-fields along channels taken by little local crafts and spanned by some wooden bridges, the most typical one being covered and used as a meeting-point by the villagers. We enter a small local agricultural museum, right out in the country, which gives us information about the Vietnamese methods on that matter.

After this rural afternoon, we go back to Huê to rest a little before enjoying a wonderful dinner. Huê is certainly the gastronomic capital of Vietnam.

We spend the night at the hotel.

DAY 4 ; Danang and Hoian

We drive southwards along the shores of the China Sea, on the main road which runs over 2000 kilometres linking the extreme South to the China border up North. We'll see some oyster and mussel-beds, before reaching the 498 m high Cloud Pass and beholding a mountain and sea-shore gorgeous sight.

We soon arrive in Danang, a large industrial and shipping town. We visit the archeological museum of the town devoted to the Cham civilisation. The Cham developed a flourishing country and a trading economy between the 2nd and the 4th century owing mainly to the activity of their port. Marble is a very popular material here. It is many-coloured and quarried from the five neighbouring mountains. Many craftsmen still work on that noble stone.

We have lunch before making our way to Hoi An, a small town situated 15 kms South of Danang. That beautiful shipping borough is a true living museum, which has kept all its attraction. In the 15th century, the Vietnamese opened the trade-road with China and Japan. From the 17th to the19th century Hoi An has been the compulsory stopping port for the merchants from all over the world (Chinese and Japanese, but also Dutch or Portugese). Many Chinese families have settled here and opened numerous stores.

The town, mostly for pedestrians only, has recovered its olden-times charm, with its numerous wooden houses bearing the mark of various origins of its inhabitants. Here, the Vietnamese, Japanese or Chinese are living in perfect keeping with each other. We visit several sites in the ancient area : the History Museum, the Fujian Community center, the Japanese bridge, and an old Phung Hung house.

After an excellent meal, of typically Hoi An food, we spend the night at a hotel a few hundred metres from the centre.

DAY 5 ; HO CHI MINH

After breakfast, we are driven to Danang airport for the domestic flight (about one hour) to Ho Chi Minh City. After arriving in that South Vietnam huge city, we cover the 7 kilometres that separate the airport from the town centre where our hotel is situated. That road is really our first meeting with that seething town where the endless din of the few car drivers blowing their horns to try force their way through the bikes and motorbikes swarns suddenly steeps us in one of the most amazing Asian towns for a Westerner.

After settling at the hotel, we undertake a tour of the town beginning with Saïgon, as the central district only is still officially called. We first call on the General Post-Office, then on the Cathedral of Our Lady, built between 1877 and 1883, the former Town Hall, now seat of the 'People's Committee', and the 'Palace of the Reunification'. The architecture of that former presidential palace makes it one of the most surprising places. It is the symbol of the South Vietnam governments and has been kept in the same condition since April 30th 1975, when the last South Vietnam government 'surrendered the keys' to the victors from the North. Then we visit the Museum of History where every step of the Vietnam cultural development is represented by a very important collection of objects dating from the Neolithic period to the last Emperor of the Nguyen Dynasty. All the different ethnic communities living in Vietnam are represented too.

To end up that first day, we suggest a tour round Cholon, the Chinese district. Sauntering along the medicinal plant shops and their stalls, you will look in wonder at the superb sign-boards of the Chinese merchants. There are a great number of Chinese style temples. We'll stop at the Quan Am pagoda, then at the Phuoc An Hoi Quan pagoda, which really deserve our visit. Here you will have too many restaurants to choose from for to-night's dinner.

DAY 6 : The Mekong Delta.

We have breakfast and set off for the Mekong delta. On our way, we stop at Ben Luc to visit the Caodaï temple with its sparkling colours, the seat of a very special minor religion founded in 1920 and based on a mixture of several religions and philosophies ( a synthesis of Taoism, Buddhism and Catholicism).
We soon arrive in the area of the Mekong delta divided into nine wide impressive arms, called the nine Dragons. Many waters-ways weave a real cobweb linking together the main branches, cutting through several thousands of islands and islets.

The vegetation is luxuriant and the local strenuous life is completely set on the river. The delta provides with rice not only its inhabitants but also all the Vietnamese. We'll navigate and visit the Cai Be floating market. We moor alongside a quay and we enter a rice biscuit and coconut sweet-making works. Delicious ! Then we are put ashore at Vinh Long to be transferred by road to our evening stopping-place, Can Tho. We settle at the hotel, not far from the town-centre. Can Tho, a welcoming very lively city is the most important urban centre in the area, the economic, administrative and cultural centre of the delta.
We have dinner at a restaurant alongside the river.

DAY 7 : From Can Tho to Ho Chi Minh city.

After a good breakfast we resume our trip on the river in a small craft which takes us, in one hour, to another very typical floating-market at Cai Rang. We have to be there by 9 a.m. to enjoy the busiest moment of the market. Many wholesale dealers specialized in fruit and vegetables advertise their goods by hanging at the top of the mast of their boat a pumpkin or a banana or any sample of the products they are selling. We spend quite a while winding our way around all those merchant boats to follow the buyers who navigate on their small engine-crafts to go marketing.

We soon go back on shore and after a stop to visit a Khmer pagoda, we take our way to Ho Chi Minh city. Let us remember that the delta belonged to the Khmer kingdom until the 18th century. On our way, we have a special lunch of 'elephant-eared' fish.
Free late afternoon in Ho Chi Minh city, with the possibility of doing some shopping ! Dinner in the town and night at the hotel.

DAY 8

After a magnificent breakfast, we are transferred to the airport for the retour journey back (or the continuation of the tour to North Vietnam, Cambodia or Thaïland).