Cambodia & Laos Family Adventure (IPM21)

Susadei! Welcome to Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Upon arrival at Phnom Penh Airport, your private guide and driver are waiting to meet you and your family, holding up a welcome signboard with your family names on it and take you directly to your hotel.

After checking-in, your family will have time to relax and adjust to the pace of Phnom Penh, the vibrant bustling capital of Cambodia. Situated at the confluence of three rivers, the mighty Mekong, the Bassac, and the great Tonle Sap, what was once considered the ‘Gem’ of Indochina.

There will be a short tour briefing this evening with your guide followed by a welcome dinner at Friends Restaurant, Romdeng. It’s a social enterprise based restaurant that empowers disadvantaged youth with vocational training amongst other support. Set in a beautiful colonial building surrounded by a lush garden and swimming pool, Romdeng is the ideal spot to escape – A true taste of Cambodia.

Please note: You must have both a passport and a visa to enter Cambodia. And your passport must also have at least six months’ validity remaining beyond the date that you enter Cambodia. You can get a visa on arrival in Cambodia. Make sure you have two passport-sizes photographs.

Overnight in Phnom Penh
Meals: (_/_/D)

Morning
After breakfast, meet your guide and head out to visit the most remarkable sights of Phnom Penh in a Cyclo (a three-wheeled bicycle taxi), an original Phnom Penh means of transportation and a fun way to explore this lively city.

The first stop is at the Pshar Kandal, Phnom Pen’s oldest market, to enjoy yummy local delicacies such as fried noodles, BBQ beef with papaya salad, noodle soup, and delicious rice and coconut treats. Then it’s a walk through the French Quarter, which will open your eyes to Phnom Penh’s colonial-era architecture. Admire Belle Epoque and Art Deco design, a train station built during colonial times as wells as the Buddhist Temple, Wat Phnom, the tallest religious structure in the city.

Next, proceed to visit the Royal Palace Compound built-in 1866 by the Predecessors of King Norodom, the most conspicuous feature and also one of the most impressive colorful Khmer-style Palaces. Nearside the Royal Palace is the Silver Pagoda (The Emerald Buddha temple), which displays plenty of Buddha Statues that were decorated and made by diamond, emerald, gold, and silver.

Continue to visit the National Museum, the distinctive red building with a beautiful Khmer architecture was built since 1917 containing more than 5000 art objects made of sandstone, bronze, silver, copper, wood, and others. Pass through the River Front Park whose scenery is much worth shooting.

Return to the hotel for a relaxing break during the midday heat.

Afternoon
Gain insight into Cambodia’s recent dark history on a visit to the infamous Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (also known as Prison S21) and listen to English commentary en route. The prison comprises 4 buildings with exhibitions in several rooms. During your visit, you will barely meet a single person who didn’t lose a member of their family during these years, yet they are all willing to talk openly about it with you. They wish you to hear about it and see these places, to ensure that it never happens again.

After an hour and 15 minutes at the museum, take a 40-minute drive to the Killing Fields, see a documentary on the Khmer Rouge regime. Under the leadership of Pol Pot, his government caused the deaths of more than two million people. There will be around 1 hour and 15 minutes to explore the site. An audio guide is available in 15 languages along with a map of the fields.

Overnight in Phnom Penh
Meals: (B/L/_)

Today your personal guide and driver will take you and your family on a full-day trip to the Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Center. Spend a day at this rescue center, where you will meet endangered & rescued animals up-close. This rescue center is considered one of the best in Asia. No small and dirty enclosures here. All animals are well-taken care off and we can tell you all about them and their histories.

Morning
After breakfast, your private guide and driver will meet you and your family again and transfer to a local market to buy some fruit for the animals. After that, continue driving directly to the rare wildlife of Phnom Tamao, Cambodia’s foremost rescue center. Located just 45 minutes southeast of Phnom Penh, Phnom Tamao occupies 1,200 hectares and is home to the world’s largest collection of pileated gibbons and Malaysian sun bears.

Upon arrival you will meet the local caretaker for a tour of the park and learn about the center’s work. Wander the spacious grounds, where the large animal enclosures are a refreshing change from some of the cramped zoos of Southeast Asia.

Hand-feed the center’s female elephants and observe how the staff here train them using gentle reward-based positive reinforcement when they change Chhouk’s prosthetic foot. Kids will love the elephants at the park.

Get up close with leopards, gibbons, otters and the other endangered animals that Wildlife Alliance has helped rescue and care for at the sanctuary.

While touring, your guide will explain the background to the animals and how they were rescued.

Have a delicious Cambodian-style lunch, enjoy fresh coconut water, and escape the heat of the day in our relaxing hammocks.

Afternoon
Visit the nursery in the rehabilitation area – a section closed to the public – and see the beautiful baby animals that the staff care for up close. Interact with rescued baby macaque monkeys in their enclosure as you feed them (at the guide’s discretion).

Finish the tour and transfer to the airport to board a short flight to Siem Reap, the gateway to ancient Angkor Temples.

Upon arrival at Siem Reap airport, your family be met a new private guide, and driver then transferred to the hotel for check-in.

Evening
Meet your guide again and head out for a scrumptious Cambodian dinner with the classical Apsara dancers depicting scenes from Khmer mythology at Angkor Village Theater.

Overnight in Siem Reap
Meals: (B/L/D)

Today you will have a full day of exploration in Siem Reap. You will experience the temple relics in a way that will really let you feel like you’ve escaped the 20th century and traveled a thousand years back to a time when life was simple and nature was surreal.

Morning
After an early breakfast, you’ll be you will be picked up by your private guide and driver. Start your discovery of the temple of the legendary city of Ta Prohm Temple, best known for its gigantic roots of vine that convent down the walls of a thousand years. Worn by time, rain, and overpowered by the jungle, this immaculate structure is hidden under the canopy will leave you feeling like you’ve stepped into the movie set of a treasure hunt adventure. Your private tour guide will give you the history and stories passed through oral tradition.

Leaving the Ta Prohm, pick up your bike and paddle through the hidden rainforest trails, get closer to the greenery and hear the sound of nature along the way to the city of Angkor Thom via the grand South Gate. Here you’ll explore the last capital of the once great Khmer Empire, with the 216 enigmatic faces of The Bayon at its centre. Still, within the ancient city walls, you’ll marvel at the view from the summit of Baphuon, the enormous temple mountain, affording unspoiled views over the surrounding ruins. You’ll round off the morning poring over the intricate bas-relief of the Elephant Terrace and Terrace of the Leper King, before having a Royal Khmer lunch at the fine-dining restaurant Le Grand. The fabled Royal Khmer cuisine, handed down over the centuries by the chefs of the Royal Palaces, uses only the finest ingredients carefully blended to create a distinct epicurean experience.

Afternoon
Be prepared to enjoy one of the Wonders of the Ancient World: Angkor Wat. At this point, you most probably have gotten glimpses of the towers over treetops and the gates in front of passing. But now you’ll finally get to satiate that curiosity that’s grown in the last few days.

With your guide, you’ll enter Angkor Wat and learn about the stories and amazing architecture that has stunned archeologists leaving more questions than answers. Angkor Wat possesses some of the most intricate and longest stone carvings in the world. This complex is four times the size of the Vatican City making it the largest religious site in the world. Spend the afternoon adventuring through the many passages, levels, and exploring chambers that once housed one of many treasures of the ancient world. It will be an experience that you remember for a very long time.

Finish the tour and transfer back to your hotel where the balance of the day is at your leisure. Chill out and relaxing at the hotel’s swimming pool.

Overnight in Siem Reap
Meals: (B/L/_) 

Today you will explore the unique communities and traditional villages dot the rural countryside near Siem Reap and promise an escape to another world.

Morning
After breakfast, you will be picked up by your private guide and driver, and transferred in a Lavender Jeep southeast to one of the largest and least-visited villages on the Tonle Sap Lake, Kompong Khleang, about 55km from Siem Reap. On the way, you will stop for hot sticky rice and then take a detour off the main highway into the countryside. You’ll wind through dirt roads and, in the rainy season, witness families working their rice paddies.

You will then continue to the Floating Village of Kompong Khleang with a population of about 10,000 people, all of whom make a living from the fishing industry. Upon arrival board a private motorized boat to visit the Kompong Khleang,  the two other floating villages, and the Great lake. Explore the canals (wet season) or streets (dry season) of this incredible town. In the wet season, the houses appear to be floating, as water laps at the verandas, but in the dry season towering stilts are revealed, the houses almost like wooden skyscrapers.

During the boat ride, you will make stops to see where Bridge of Lifeworks, visit a Cambodian pagoda and a stilted home in the village to learn a little more about local life. Cruise into the open water of the lake to see a small floating village and learn some more about this incredible natural flood barrier.

You’ll end your tour with a boat ride back to the habour where your driver is waiting to take you back to your hotel.

Afternoon
Spend your time to relax and chill out at the resort. Later, meet your guide again and head out to enjoy Champagne and canapes on the 20-minute gondola boat ride through the moats of Angkor to Prasat Chrung Temple to watch the amazing sunset. This lesser-known temple is set on top of a hill in the Angkor complex offering excellent views and it is an ideal spot to watch the sun go down.

Evening
Your tour guide and driver will transfer you to a local village on the outskirt of Siem Reap where you will enjoy a home-hosted dinner. Experience the simple Khmer village life, relaxing in a swaying hammock, or helping the local family to prepare dinner, picking fresh produce from their organic gardens. In this amiable and informal setting, feel free to ask the village elders about Khmer traditions and daily life in this community.

Overnight in Siem Reap
Meals: (B/_/D)

Morning
Free at your leisure. Enjoy the late breakfast and the facilities of your hotel. Check out of your room around midday.

Afternoon
Your family will be picked up and driven back to Siem Reap Airport for a short flight to Luang Prabang, Laos.

Upon arrival at Luang Prabang Airport, your private guide and driver are waiting to meet you and your family, holding up a welcome signboard with your names on it and take you directly to your hotel for check-in.

Evening
Head out for a welcome dinner at Friends Restaurant, KhaiPhaen. It’s a social enterprise based restaurant that empowers disadvantaged youth with vocational training amongst other support.

Please note: You must have both a passport and a visa to enter Laos. And your passport must also have at least six months’ validity remaining beyond the date that you enter Laos. You can get a visa on arrival in Laos. Make sure you have two passport-sizes photographs.

Overnight in Luang Prabang
Meals: (B/_/_)

Morning
Your private guide and driver will meet you and your family at the hotel and start your day with a visit to the Morning Market, a lively street where locals shop for everything from colorful vegetables and exotic fruits to live frogs.

From the energy of the market, you’ll step into the serene calm of one of the city’s most elaborate monasteries, Wat Mai, and then to the former King’s Palace, where you’ll discover the history and present life of Luang Prabang. Next, head to the ancient Wat Xieng Thong temple, which features a spectacular low sweeping roof. It’s Luang Prabang’s most distinctive and recognized monastery.

Afternoon
After lunch at a local restaurant, continue to explore the 16th century Wat Visoun temple, best known for its enormous stupa and its collection of old gilded Buddhas.

Pay a visit to the Traditional Art and Ethnology Centre (TAEC)**, the only independent resource center in Laos dedicated to the country’s many and diverse ethnic groups. If time permits, you can visit the Ock Pop Tock Living Craft Center, set serenely close to the Mekong, this beautiful, traditionally styled workshop, where weavers, spinners, and batik makers produce top-quality fabrics, offers free tours every half-hour.

Feeling suitably enlightened, end your day with a climb to the top of Mount Phousi, the city’s highest point where you’ll enjoy sweeping views of the city and the Mekong River below. After that transfer back to your resort where the rest of the evening will be at your leisure.

Overnight in Luang Prabang
Meals: (B/L/_)

Wake up early and head by Tuk-Tuk like a local to the peninsula to witness and attend almsgiving. Every morning, hundreds of monks from the various monasteries walk through the streets collecting alms. This ancient ritual is locally known as “tak bat”. After the ritual, return to the hotel for your breakfast.

Morning
Following your breakfast, your family will be picked up and driven to the famous Kuang Si Waterfall, one of the most spectacular swimming holes on the continent. The jungle around the waterfall remains lush and beautiful year-round.  The largest waterfalls in the area, Kuang Si comprises of three cascading tiers leading to a 50m (164ft) drop into spectacular azure pools, surrounded by lush jungle.

Upon arrival, take a guided trek along trails to the top of the waterfall, enroute picking herbs, mushrooms, bamboo shoots and other wild plants growing in abundance. Try a hand at fishing local style and help prepare a ‘jungle-style’ picnic lunch with your fresh ingredients.

Afternoon
After lunch, you will have plenty of time to swim, explore, and photograph the waterfalls as well as you stroll through the lush surrounding jungle. After that, the tour guide will take your family to the Bear Rescue Centre near the falls where you will be greeted by the manager who will personally guide you through the park. See one of Lao’s most endangered species; learn about the threats to these beautiful animals and what is being done to help protect Laos’s precious wildlife. You will also have a chance to meet the bears at close quarters and aid the keepers at feeding time.

Leaving the bear centre, your family will be taken to an organic farm where you experience the new Lao Buffalo dairy that produces cheese and a range of delicious dairy products. The diary provides income and a sustainable future for the Lao people involved. Your children can learn how to milk a Buffalo, cuddle a Buffalo for the perfect selfie and try some incredible ice cream.

Finish your day and transfer back to the hotel where the balance of the day is at your leisure. Just relax and enjoy the comforts of the hotel or join a traditional Laos Baci ceremony.

Overnight in Luang Prabang
Meals: (B/L/_)

Today your family will pay a visit to the Elephant Park Project located on the banks of the Khan River 15km from Luang Phabang, where your chilren will get an interesting introduction to another part of history. The “land of a Million Elephants” as Laos was called for many years before is slowly losing its biggest animals, the Elephants.

The Elephant Park Project is investing in community-based eco-programs in Luang Prabang to give Lao Elephants a new home. As forests disappear, the elephants used to log them can become neglected. The aim of the project is to give these elephants a brighter future!

At the Elephant Park, if you wish you can go out for a ride, enjoy the natural scenery and go on a short boat ride to visit the Tad Sae waterfalls.

Your visit does help Elephant Conservation in Laos and this experience promises a wonderful day.

Overnight in Luang Prabang
Meals: (B/L/_)

Morning
The Tuk-Tuk Library is a mobile library that includes library books to rural schools for the students to borrow. The library is supported by both the Lao Government and foreign charities. Today you will have a unique opportunity to join this Tuk-Tuk Library on a visit to a village school. The goal of this enterprising mobile library is to supply schools and their students in poor rural communities with much-needed books.

During the visit, you will be able t see the Tuk-Tuk librarians and volunteers hand-over a full book-bag of 100 books to the students, loaned for a period of two to six weeks. This means the schools get a continual supply of new books to read. The Tuk-Tuk team also spend the day with the children conducting fun reading games, teaching them how to respect books, teaching singing games, etc. They also play games with the students who teach teamwork, coordination, group involvement, and other skills – all conveyed through play.

Afternoon
After lunch head to Suan Phao Petanque playground where locals gather to play their favorite game, Petanque. This game originated in the South of France in the early 1900’s and is played widely across the country. Petanque is a game whereby players toss or roll heavy steel balls as close as possible to a small wooden ball, a cochonnet (literally “piglet”). Players must also stand inside a circle with both feet on the ground. Watching the locals play Petanque, your guide explains the game strategy, sharing some welcome tips before commencing play.

Finish the game and return to your hotel in the late afternoon where the balance of the day is at your leisure.

Overnight in Luang Prabang
Meals: (B/L/_)

Morning
After late breakfast and check out of the hotel, transfer back to Luang Prabang airport for a short flight to the capital of Laos, Vientiane. Upon arrival at Wattay Airport, your family will be picked up by your private guide and driver and taken to the hotel in the city centre for check-in.

The capital city of Laos, Vientiane, still feels like a sleepy city with relaxed charm, tree-lined boulevards, fascinating temples, and colorful markets. This city conjures up exotic images, with the curious mix of Lao, Thai, Chinese, Vietnamese, French influences.

Afternoon
Take a short sightseeing tour of Vientiane. Begin with a visit to Patuxai Monument, also called Anousavari, and enjoy a panoramic view over the city from the top. It is Vientiane’s own Arc de Triomphe that is located at the top of Lan Xang Avenue, the Champs Elysees of the Lao capital.

Next, visit Vat Sisaket, the only temple left intact after the Siamese invasion in 1828. It shelters hundreds of statues of Buddha within its walls.

Proceed to Wat Prakeo, now used as a religious museum where you can see Lao and Khmer works of art. It used to host the “Emerald Buddha” that is now on display at Bangkok’s Royal Palace.

Continue onto the iconic Pha That Luang, a gleaming golden stupa which is perhaps the most important national monument in Laos.

End your day with a guided visit to COPE Visitor Centre, a non-profit organization in Laos which provides prosthetic limbs, mobility assistance and rehabilitation for Lao people who can’t afford it. The war is still heavily present in Laos, the country that experienced the most bombings by the Vietnam War. Still today, a good deal of those unexploded ordnances (UXOs) explode as people work their fields and children play in the countryside. Laos is actively fighting the use of these cluster bombs and the COPE centre will depict and inform visitors on these issues.

Your visit to COPE Visitor Centre will open your minds and your hearts.

Overnight in Vientiane
Meals: (B/_/_)

Morning
After breakfast, your family will be picked up and transferred to an organic rice, fish, and vegetable farm, run by a Lao Non-Government Organization.

Upon arrival, you will be met by the friendly farmers who will take you on an in-depth and hands-on learning experience where you will participate in 14 steps of the rice cycle. If this visit coincides with the harvesting season, there’s an opportunity for you to cut and thresh your own rice supply for lunch! Your family visit and the joining experience will actively benefit locals from the community, maintaining their crafts in their traditional form.

Learn how to make sticky rice and papaya salad for a picnic-style lunch, prepared the traditional Lao way.

Afternoon
After lunch at the farm, you also have a chance to participate in other farming activities such as bamboo weaving, tool and trap making, fishing, and harvesting fresh duck eggs, seasonal organic vegetables.

Finish your day in the late afternoon and return to your hotel with unforgettable in-depth experiences.

Overnight in Vientiane
Meals: (B/L/_)

Morning
After breakfast, meet your local guide and driver and begin your day with a visit to the Talat Sao market where you have a chance to observe the daily commercial activities of local people.

Leaving the market, your guide will take your family to the Buddha Park (also called Wat Xieng Khouane) which is located 25 km south from Vientiane. Along the way, you can observe the Lao-Thai Friendship Bridge, built by the Australian government, which connects Vientiane with Nong Khai in Thailand.

Upon your arrival, take your time to stroll around the park. The latter is filled with more than 200 artistic statues linked to Buddhism and Hinduism, including an enormous statue of the 40-meter-high Buddha. All these works of art are mostly made of concrete or bricks coated with cement. Near the entrance is a building 6 meters high, called the Pumpkin Tower, which is divided into 3 floors: Hell, Earth and Paradise. At the top of this tour, you will have an amazing view of all this beautiful Buddha Park.

Back in Vientiane. Enjoy lunch at Friends Restaurant, Mini Makphet, a social enterprise based restaurant.

Afternoon
After lunch, your guide will take you to the weaving home-studio of an American textiles expert. Following a visit to Vientiane as part of a U.N. project to promote traditional Laos weaving, she established Lao Textiles Studio. Now employing over 40 local weavers, the studio creates naturally dyed and woven silk pieces reflecting traditional and diverse Lao designs. A guided tour allows us to observe the entire traditional weaving process.

Finish your day and transfer back to the hotel where the balance of the day will be at your leisure.

Overnight in Vientiane
Meals: (B/L/_)

Your private transfer greets you at the hotel after breakfast and escorts you and your family to Vientiane Wattay Airport International Airport where you board your flight home or travel on to more adventures, we will help you with the planning.

Meals: (B/_/_)