Spacious and indulgent, yet intimate enough to feel entirely exclusive, the Aqua Mekong incorporates relaxed yet refined lounging and dining areas, and can accommodate a maximum of 40 guests plus crew. Modern navigation technologies and the highest cruise ship standards as well as our experienced river pilot and crew ensure smooth travel and safety on the water.
| Cabin | Cabin size | Bed size | COST |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Suite First Deck | 30.0 m2 | Queen size bed and Twin beds |
/pax
|
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Cabin size: 30.0 m2
Bed size: Queen size bed and Twin beds
First Deck: 10 Design Suites each measuring 30 sqm / 322 sq. ft., 4 with balcony and 6 without balcony.
Design Suites without balconies all have river facing panoramic windows and an interior daybed.
Design Suites with balconies all have panoramic windows and an exterior daybed.
Cabin Facilities:
- Bathrobe
- Beauty mirror
- Complimentary Drinking Water
- En-suite Bathroom
- Hair-dryer
- Hot water
- In-house Telephone
- Individual controller air-conditioning
- Mini bar
- Safety box
- Shower
- Slippers
- Toilet
- TV & DVD Player
- Wardrobe
- Wine
Design Suite Second Deck
Cabin size: 30.0 m2
Bed size: Queen size bed and Twin beds
Second Deck: 10 Design Suites each measuring 30 sqm / 322 sq. ft., 4 with balcony and 6 without balcony.
Design Suites without balconies all have river facing panoramic windows and an interior daybed.
Design Suites with balconies all have panoramic windows and an exterior daybed.
Cabin Facilities:
- Bathrobe
- Beauty mirror
- Complimentary Drinking Water
- En-suite Bathroom
- Hair-dryer
- Hot water
- In-house Telephone
- Individual controller air-conditioning
- Mini bar
- Safety box
- Shower
- Slippers
- Toilet
- TV & DVD Player
- Wardrobe
- Wine
Cruise Tour:
Day 1 : Afternoon arrival at Phnom Penh Meeting Point
Your guides greet you and our porters collect your luggage for delivery to your suite. Board our air-conditioned bus for the short ride to the pier where we meet the Aqua Mekong.
Welcome to the laid back luxury of the Aqua Mekong. Settle into your elegantly appointed, river facing suite as the vessel begins to cruise and thus begins one of life’s most memorable and photogenic adventures. Ascend to the Observation Deck if you wish, to sip sundowners with our 7-Night guests against the backdrop of Phnom Penh’s skyline.
Join us in the evening for a performance by renowned Cambodian apsara dancers who continue an ancient tradition venerated on the intricately carved walls at Angkor Wat.
Meals: Dinner
Day 2 : Tonle Sap Lake – koh Chen – Kamong Chnang
This morning, we embark by skiff to visit Koh Chen, or ‘Chinese Island’ in Khmer. The inhabitants of this riverside village are renowned throughout the region as silver and coppersmiths. They purchase the precious metals in Phnom Penh and return here to make ornamental items such as the cups, boxes and delicately engraved tropical fruits used in Buddhist ceremonies and marriage blessings. Each family member carries out an aspect of these ancient methods and the intricate, beautiful workmanship belies its humble origins. Purchase whatever catches your eye before we continue on to the pagoda. If the monks are in residence, we will experience an authentic Buddhist blessing ceremony.
Later in the day, we continue exploring Khmer riverside life in the floating village of Kampong Chhnang, meaning Port of Pottery. Archaeological findings here link this now sleepy area as far back as the Dvaravati kingdom, dating to the 6th through 11th centuries when Kampong Chhnang was an important coastal stop on the trade route linking China and India. More recently, Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen was born in this province. Colorful shrines with gilded Buddhas, villagers sporting conical hats more often associated with Vietnam and simple houses on bamboo stilts are among today’s striking sights along the waterfront.
Meals: Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner
Day 3 : Kampong Chhnang – Chnok Tru – Mouth of the Tonle Sap Lake – Cambodia
We continue exploring remote communities around the Tonle Sap River, an ecological hot spot designated as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 1997. Today we travel by skiff to the village of Chnok Tru, as photogenic as it is remote and thus completely self-sufficient.
Here we “slide” into an ice factory, the importance of which will be obvious after a few days in Southeast Asia. As local factory workers explain how they make and use the ice for fish preservation, our expert guides translate and get answers to your questions about this livelihood so different from ours. Also be on the lookout in this lake village for floating schools, riverside churches and pagoda, and even the karaoke bar and police station. Literally everything and everyone in Chnok Tru travels by small boat through the intricate network of canals crisscrossing this tiny town.
Onboard the Aqua Mekong, we cruise onward to the remote fishing village of Moat Kla. We climb back into the skiffs and head for the shore where our expert guides act as translators, allowing you to pose questions to the people of Moat Kla about their lives.
You may be surprised to see that although most communities on the Tonle Sap are quite isolated, even Moat Kla has floating ‘convenience’ stores stocked with fishing tackle, cooking utensils, rice, beer, candy, fruits and vegetables. Along the water, there are also small merchants like egg vendors, women selling bamboo stalks stuffed with sticky rice and even divers hired to search for lost objects.
Moat Kla is the last village in Siem Reap Province on the southeastern end of the lake and only accessible by water. The community is largely of Vietnamese descent, owing to its settlement long before the nuances of international borders.
Aqua Expeditions has made special arrangements for our guests to attend the blessing ceremony conducted at Moat Kla’s Buddhist temple, home to only four monks.
Meals: Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner
Accommodation: Aqua Mekong Cruise
Day 4 : Tonle Sap Lake – Siem Reap – Cambodia
This may be our last day but the adventure is far from over as we head off by skiff after breakfast into the 22,000-hectare Prek Toal Core Bird Reserve on Tonle Sap Lake, one of the largest freshwater bodies in Asia and the last refuge in Southeast Asia for large waterbirds like the spot-billed pelicans, milky stork, black-headed ibis and the elusive masked finfoot. Along the way, we visit floating houses and fish farms, and learn about sustainable development initiatives like Saray, a cooperative of women who weave water hyacinth into 100% organic mats and home accessories for some of Southeast Asia’s finest hotels. Visitors like us are invited to test our knotting skills, usually to the amusement of the resident experts.
We return to the Aqua Mekong to pack up then disembark for the road journey to Siem Reap
Meals: Breakfast
Accommodation: NA
VIEW PHNOM PENH TO SAIGON »
Day 1 :Afternoon arrival at Phnom Penh meeting point
Your guides greet you and our porters collect your luggage for delivery to your suite. Board our air-conditioned bus for the short ride to the pier where we meet the Aqua Mekong.
Welcome to the laid back luxury of the Aqua Mekong. Settle into your elegantly appointed, river facing suite as the vessel begins to cruise and thus begins one of life’s most memorable and photogenic adventures. Ascend to the Observation Deck if you wish, to sip sundowners with our 7-Night guests against the backdrop of Phnom Penh’s skyline.
Join us in the evening for a performance by renowned Cambodian apsara dancers who continue an ancient tradition venerated on the intricately carved walls at Angkor Wat.
Meals: Dinner
Accommodation: Aqua Mekong Cruise
Day 2 : Vinh Xuong – Mekong Border Crossing – Chau Doc – Bassac River
Say ‘Good morning, Vietnam’ as we cruise to the Vinh Xuong border and onward to Chau Doc village, which sits along the Hâu River, a tributary of the Mekong. After breakfast on board, perhaps a steamy pho soup in honor of our arrival, we head to the shore by skiff then by road for a change, about six kilometers, to the 230 meter (755 feet) high Sam Mountain, the highest point in the Mekong Delta, and home to dozens of pagodas that dot the mountainside, some even set in caves.
We make the easy climb to the mountaintop for the most captivating views of the surrounding countryside’s rice fields, and into Cambodia. We won’t be alone up here. As this is border territory, there is a military outpost on the summit. This legacy of the Khmer Rouge era confers a slightly anachronistic aura, which allows us some insights into the tensions of that horrific period, although these soldiers appear far more relaxed. If you ask, they will likely pose for your photos, assuming you have a few cigarettes handy as payment for their impromptu modeling duties.
Still at the top of Sam Mountain, Aqua Expeditions guests have the unique privilege to sit with the venerable Mahayana Buddhist monks at Long Son Tu Temple for a private audience. Enlightened, we head back down at the foot of Sam Mountain, stopping to visit the Temple of Lady Xu, one of the major religious sites of the Mekong Delta. According to a legend, in the early 1800s, villagers found a statue of a lady dating to the 6th century in the forest. In 1820 they completed this temple, originally built of bamboo and leaves, to honor her and in hopes that she would bring them better crops, thus improve their lives. Even today, the marble statue of Ba Chua Xu, meaning “country lady” is worshipped, with Vietnamese coming year round to ask for her protection and benediction.
Our chef heads into the local market here, along with any gourmet minded guests interested to explore an authentic Vietnamese wet market, its copious baskets of the day’s catch from the river, crisp vegetables and luscious tropical fruit.
Meals: Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner
Accommodation: NA
Day 3 : Gieng Islet – Sa Dec – Mekong River Cruise – Cai Be
Though we are in the heart of Vietnam, French colonial architecture stands all around us today as we board the skiffs along the Tien River to a 40 square kilometer riverine island called Gieng Islet. Walk or cycle around this peaceful religious enclave on the Mekong Delta.
Together we visit Cu Lao Gieng Church, built in 1875 with materials imported from France. It is impossible not to admire its imposing bell tower that appears to pierce the sky high above its low-rise neighbors. At the Convent of the Providence Order and Catholic Church, interact with Sisters or Father to learn of the religious influences on the surrounding communities, which we may visit to admire the indigenous pagodas and wooden houses built in the early twentieth century in traditional Vietnamese design and shaded by bonsai trees, as was the local custom.
After lunch on board the Aqua Mekong, we continue our time travels back on shore with a tour on foot around the town of Sa Dec. We roam around the fresh produce and exotic spices on sale at the local market and make our way to the colonial house once occupied by French writer Marguerite Duras. The house, built in late 19th century, is interesting in itself as a harmonious combination of Western and traditional Vietnamese architectural styles.
Perhaps no one has done more to associate themselves with the Mekong Delta than Duras. Born in Gia-Dinh, as Saigon was formerly known, because her parents had responded to a campaign by the French government encouraging people to work in the colony, Duras’ early life here in Sac Dec was one of extreme hardship. Her father fell ill soon after the family arrived here and returned to France where he died shortly thereafter. Her mother remained in Indochina with Marguerite and her two siblings, eking out a meager living as a schoolteacher. It was here in Sa Dec that the teenaged Duras and Huynh Thuy Le, a rich Sa Dec merchant began their affair that Duras wrote about in her most famous work The Lover.
Meals: Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner
Accommodation: Auqa Mekong Cruise
Day 4 : Cai Be- My Tho – Saigon
Here in the Mekong Delta, people rely on flat-bottom wooden boats called sampan to get around and transport goods to market. On our last morning together, we climb aboard to paddle through Cai Be floating market, where more than 400 sampans gather every day, starting in earnest from 5 a.m.. Each boat has one bamboo stick on the front to display that vendor’s product, be it Vietnamese fish sauce, rice paper for dumplings, or colorful sweet confectionery.
We continue our exploration of this area on foot or by bicycle for more up close glimpses of daily life of Mekong Delta dwellers, and even take up the invitation of local friends of Aqua Expeditions to dine in their traditional home.
We return to the Aqua Mekong and continue cruising towards My Tho. Here, we pack up and bid farewell to the crew to take the van transfer to Saigon, stopping en route to visit the Dong Tam crocodile and snake farm about nine kilometers west of My Tho. Officially known as the Medicinal Plants Cultivation and Research Centre of Military Zone 9, the largest center for snake rearing and snakebite treatment in the Cuu Long River Delta was established in 1979 in an area full of mines and barbed wire left by the United States Army. Since then, the 12 hectare farm has been engaged in scientific research that involves rearing and conserving precious species of snakes, medicinal plants and animals, as well as producing traditional medicines and providing first aids and treatment for people who are bitten by poisonous snakes. Learn about the various types of snakes slithering around the Mekong Delta, watch the production of cobra venom for medical purposes and from a safe distance, admire the center’s efforts to preserve endangered King cobras.
We continue onward by air conditioned bus through the Vietnamese countryside and into the bustling metropolis of Saigon.
Meals: Breakfast
Accommodation: NA
Important Notes:
- PROGRAMS & SCHEDULES SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT PRIOR NOTICE