We thoroughly enjoyed our first river cruise along the Nile, so much so upon on our return we immediately started to investigate other river itinerary’s. One such trip that caught our eye was along the Mekong and having read some really inspiring trip reports about cruises along this river and the surrounding area, we decided that now would be a good time to indulge ourselves in river trip number two. Having just missed out on a free flight offer with AmaWaterwaterways on the AmaDara I decided to investigate alternative trips that were within our budget and after some solid research found APT’s Essential Vietnam and Cambodia, its labelled as a 14 day trip which is a little misleading as 2 of those nights are actually taken up by long haul flights but the itinerary still is still much the same as the Ama one albeit different boat and hotels either end of the cruise. We booked direct with APT and found the process very straight forward and the agent was very efficient, even providing the option of adding 2 extra nights at Siem Reap for just £70. The original return flights were showing a £65 per person surcharge so when the extra nights were priced at £100 each and with no surcharge for the flights back to the UK 2 days later it was a no brainer for us.
The boat itself (La Marguerite) will be 10 years old later this year and has recently under gone a soft refurb in 2018, and all the reviews I have managed to find suggest she is in good order and when complimented with a great crew (2:1 ratio) I think we are in for a real treat.
Because of the close proximity of the trip from booking we were fortunate to grab the last available A Grade cabin and were actually able to secure the cabin number this time, so for 7 nights we will be in cabin 204 on the upper deck (Saigon).
As I mentioned previously, 6 nights of this trip will be hotel stays which I have included in the itinerary list while the map lower down will also give you our locations along the way. The itinerary is available going in the opposite direction but we wanted to end with Siam Reap which is where our two extra days are. We wanted the trip to build as we headed towards Angkor Archaeological Park where we are eagerly looking forward to seeing the ancient temples.
| Date | Location | Arrival | Departure |
| Sunday, September 15, 2019 | Hotel Stay, Fusion Suites, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam | ||
| Monday, September 16, 2019 | Hotel Stay, Fusion Suites, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam | ||
| Tuesday, September 17, 2019 | My Tho, Vietnam | Embark La Marguerite | |
| Wednesday, September 18, 2019 | Cai Be & Cao Dai Temple, Vietnam | ||
| Thursday, September 19, 2019 | Tan Chau, Border Crossing from Vietnam to Cambodia | ||
| Friday, September 20, 2019 | Phnom Penh, Cambodia | ||
| Saturday, September 21, 2019 | Phnom Penh, Koh Chen, Cambodia | ||
| Sunday, September 22, 2019 | Oudong, Kampong Tralach, Cambodia | ||
| Monday, September 23, 2019 | Kampong Chnnang, Cambodia | ||
| Tuesday, September 24, 2019 | Hotel Stay, Shinta Mani Resort, Siam Reap, Cambodia | Disembark La Marguerite | |
| Wednesday, September 25, 2019 | Hotel Stay, Shinta Mani Resort, Siam Reap, Cambodia | ||
| Thursday, September 26, 2019 | Hotel Stay, Shinta Mani Resort, Siam Reap, Cambodia | ||
| Friday, September 27, 2019 | Hotel Stay, Shinta Mani Resort, Siam Reap, Cambodia | ||
| Saturday, September 28, 2019 | Hotel Stay, Shinta Mani Resort, Siam Reap, Cambodia | Overnight flight back to UK | |
Once again I am anticipating there maybe connection issues while we are travelling, there is free Wi-Fi at both hotels but the 7 days on La Marguerite could be a problem. For example, its not available in all areas of the boat and even then much depends on our location. I will take my Mi-Fi gadget just in case as it may be useful even if it allows intermittent WhatsApp message to come through.
Hi Wans
Great start to what I expect to be another fantastic blog..