General Information
Duration: 7 Days/6 Nights
Start/End: Ho Chi Minh City/Ho Chi Minh City
Tour Route: Ho Chi Minh City – Mekong Delta – Community Service – Dalat – Multiple Outdoor Activities – Yoga Sivananda – Ho Chi Minh City
Tour Customizable: Absolutely! (Tell us your specific requirements in the inquiry form)
Brief Itinerary
Day 1: Saigon arrival (D)
Day 2: Saigon – Mekong Delta Community works (B, L, D)
Day 3: Mekong Delta Farming – Saigon (B, L, D)
Day 4: Saigon – Fly to Dalat – Hiking, Kayaking & Camping (B, L, D)
Day 5: Yoga at the Sivananda Yoga Vietnam (B, L, D)
Day 6: Dalat Biking – Fly back to Saigon (B, L, D)
Day 7: Explore the Insider of Saigon then Departure (B, L)
Full Itinerary
Day 1: Saigon arrival (D)
On arrival at Tan Son Nhat airport in Ho Chi Minh City, students and teachers will be greeted and driven to our hotel in the city centre. After a short rest, we will visit Notre Dame Cathedral and Old Post Office, the two sites that we can ignore when we visit the city. Dinner and overnight in Ho Chi Minh City.
Day 2: Saigon – Mekong Delta Community works (B, L, D)
The program will start with boat cruise along the small canals in the Mekong Delta. Then, an optional stop can be made at local workshops where you can see how to make rice paper, coconut candy and pop-rice, popcorn...It is so interesting to visit the handicraft village where you can see how they make some special products: making rice-net for spring rolls, fish sauce & Soya sauce, cooking salt, sewing coconut-leaves for cottage roof... Lunch will be served at local house.
After lunch, we will take a boat or bike to the project site (toilette building or wall painting for a kindergarten or school). Our Leaders will divide in small groups. We start to our project. This will take the form of practical building and some laboring tasks as we construct a house for an impoverished family in this remote region.
Breaking into groups, there will be a variety of tasks to undertake each day of the project from layering bricks, mixing cement, assembling frames, hammering, sawing and transporting of materials… Local tradesmen and tour leaders will be supervising and assisting throughout the project, often identifying students with particular skills to perform the more difficult or skill orientated tasks. Groups will be rotated throughout the project.
The days will be long and the results rewarding as we see our project come to fruition and as curious villages from all around come to watch and assist us.
Back our homestay located in lust garden, relax, refresh before a leisurely dinner cruise in the river. Overnight in the Homestay.
Day 3: Mekong Delta Farming – Saigon (B, L, D)
After breakfast at the homestay, we will take 5-Km cycling to Phuoc Hau vegetable village and work with the local farmers on their field like raking soil, harrowing soil, transplanting vegetable and scooping water with different scoopers. Talk with the local farmers via our guides about their daily life and the importance of agricultural works in the Mekong Delta.
Back to our homestay at around noon, we will say goodbye to the friendly host and drive back to Ho Chi Minh City with lunch at the Mekong Restop en-route.
On arrival in Ho Chi Minh City, we will have visit the huge Ben Thanh market. Dinner and overnight in Saigon.
Day 4: Saigon – Fly to Dalat – Hiking, Kayaking & Camping (B, L, D)
Today, we will take an early flight to Dalat (VN 1380, 6.50 – 7.40), on arrival, we will be welcomed by our guide and drive along picturesque scenic roads to the Pinhatt Mountain Trailhead, where we start our journey. The first section of trail is around 3 hours through minority farms and pine forest. Don’t be alarmed if you meet an elephant along the way. They live at the lake and are tame.
You will be treated to a picnic lunch of fresh veggies and fruits, baguettes with an assortment of toppings and a French-style pastry to satisfy your sweet tooth.
After lunch and a rest on the mountain-top, we descend and you will notice a very dramatic difference in the flora and fauna. The valley you enter is no longer pine forest, but the jungle that Vietnam is so famous for.
Before becoming the explorer, you will learn more instruction from our guide about the paddling skills. After getting definite understanding about the kayaks, we spend the remainder of the day exploring the many inlets and secrets spots on the lake about 2 hours to the far end of the lake for dinner in the dark. A dinner in the dark style will be prepared by you. Stopping at campsite to prepare everything there to survive in the dark nature such as pitch tent, set fireplace, fishing, food…After completing all of our works as the sun goes down, we will sit around the bonfire to enjoy diner, hot soup and chat to together. We spend the night in our tent in Tuyen Lam Lake area.
Day 5: Yoga at the Sivananda Yoga Vietnam (B, L, D)
Wake up in the morning and transfer to the Sivananda Yoga which is also nearby Tuyen Lam Lake.
5:30 am: Wake-up bell
6:00 am: Satsang
8:00 am: Asana & pranayama class
10:00 am: Organic vegetarian brunch
11:00 am: Karma Yoga (opportunity to serve the Ashram)
4:00 pm: Asana & pranayama class
6:00 pm: Organic vegetarian dinner
8:00 pm: Satsang
9:30 pm: Finish
After that, we will drive to our hotel in city for overnight accommodation.
Day 6: Dalat Biking – Fly back to Saigon (B, L, D)
After breakfast at hotel, our driver will welcome us back and continue our today’s adventure.
Get on your bike and fly on wheel in the dawn sunshine passing Nguyen Huu Hao Tomb, Cam Ly waterfall. Biking on the quiet, beautiful road through green vegetable and flower farms of the Van Thanh flower village with a quick stop for looking at colourful flower kinds blooming inside green houses.
After lunch, we will back to Dalat and visit Crazy House which was built by its owner – architect Dang Viet Nga and became one of the world’s ten most bizarre houses voted by People’s Daily Magazine. It does not comply with any convention about house building with ten themed guest rooms, each one having an animal as its theme.
After that, we will be driven to the airport to board the flight back to Saigon (VN 1385, 16.45 – 17.35). On arrival, we will have dinner and spend the last night in Saigon.
Day 7: Explore the Insider of Saigon then Departure (B, L)
To have a glimpse of Saigon with its hide-away characters, cultures that are not normally seen on classic tourist route. Vespa tour will make you see Ho Chi Minh City different eyes.
The tour today start at the hotel by Vespa driver and tour guide then we stop at first at Tao Dan Park to visit the bird lover club which is join here from 6am to 9am only. Then we transfer to Thich Quang Duc Monument. Thich Quang Duc was a Vietnamese Mahayana Buddhist monk who burned himself to death at a busy Saigon road intersection on 11 June 1963. Photographs of his self-immolation were circulated widely across the world and brought attention to the policies of the Diệm government. After that, the Vespa driver will stop at Flower market where we can have some good photos of various flowers selling here.
On our journey today, we also visit Ong Bon pagoda & Nhi Phu Temple which was built by the Fujian Congregation. This pagoda is full of gilded carvings, burning incenses and local people come here to praise for their good fortune and health… Later we have a walk through the fabric, tailor material alley and before being back to hotel, we visit the Chinese medicine street market where we have idea about “thuoc bac”. “thuoc tau”….
After lunch, we will then transfer to the airport in good time for departure flight. Tour ends.
