Gay Group Trip: Discover Southeast Asia

After breakfast, we’ll set out on a city tour of hanoi. It’s packed with French, colonial-era architecture. At the Temple of Literature, you’ll see a temple dedicated to Confucius and scholarship. We’ll visit the Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum where the remains of Vietnam’s revolutionary leader are buried.

At the West Lake we’ll visit the 1,400-year-old Tran Quoc Buddhist Pagoda. After lunch, we’ll ride the streets of Hanoi on a vesper and then attend a famous water puppet theatre show.

In the morning we’ll take a four hour drive to Halong Bay. Limestone outcroppings form a strange landscape of stone and water. We’ll sail around the bay on a Chinese junk. Overnight on Halong Bay.

An early morning Tai Chi session will get the day off to a good start. We’ll stop to visit a natural cave on our way back to dry land. Yen Duc Village is worth a visit on the way back to Hanoi. We’ll have lunch at a local restaurant. Overnight in Hanoi.

In the afternoon we’ll fly to Hue and transfer to our riverside hotel. In the evening we’ll go for a rickshaw ride around the old town.

Our day begins with a short bike ride – a taxi is available if you’d prefer. In Kim Long Village we’ll see an ancient way of life that has been maintained to the present day. We’ll have lunch in one of the homes. After a tea break, we’ll visit the Thien Mu Pagoda. Dinner in the Forbidden City.

We’ll visit the citadel from which the Nguyen Dynasty ruled their empire. Taking the scenic route to Danang, we’ll explore the Cham Museum which contains ancient sculptures from the Hindu Champa Kingdom.

Overnight in Hoi An in a beachfront hotel.

At the My Son Sanctuary, we’ll see the thousand-year-old remains of the Champa Kingdom temples. We’ll return to Hoi An for lunch and explore the Old Quarter. This was a major mercantile hub for many years, and goods from all over the world were traded here. We’ll visit a lantern-making cottage and try our hand at making some lanterns.

This will be a day to relax after over a week of action-packed itineraries.

We’ll fly to Ho Chi Minh City from Danang Airport. When we’ve checked into our hotel we’ll visit the Colonial Residential Quarter and the Binh Tay Market. Dinner in town.

Today we’ll board a boat and sail the Mekong Delta Touring and cruise past little islands and villages. It’ll then be time to hop into a horse-drawn cart and explore some of the local villages. After lunch, we’ll see a performance by the AO Acrobats. Dinner on your own.

The Cu Chi Tunnels are one of the most dramatic remnants of the Vietnam War. An underground city forming a vast network of tunnels, it was used by the Viet Cong to ship armaments and as a communication channel during the conflict.

We’ll explore more architecture from the colonial period and then fly to Cambodia.

Today we’ll begin our exploration of the vast Angkor Wat temple complex. There’s nowhere else on earth quite like it. In the evening, we’ll see the Phare Cambodian Circus Show, a Cambodian take on rock music and acrobatics.

Today we’ll visit the famous Bayon Temple surrounded by 54 towers. The temple of Baphuon dates back to the 11th-century – it was recently restored by French archaeologists. We’ll also visit the Ta Phrom Temple which is surrounded – almost immersed, in fact! – in jungle.

We’ll have a farewell dinner to mark our last night in Cambodia.

This morning we’ll drive to the Tonle Sap Lake communities just outside of Siem Reap. We’ll take a small boat around the lake and visit villages like Kompong Khleang. You’ll find stilt houses in places where the water levels are highest.

If you aren’t heading to Laos you’ll be transferred to Luang Prabang airport for your flight home.

We’ll check into our hotel in Luang Prabang and begin our exploration of Laos, one of the most enigmatic countries in the world. Over four days we’ll visit Vat Xieng Thong Temple, sail the Mekong River, see the Buddha statues of Pak Ou and visit the Kuangsi Waterfalls. As well as attending a performance at the Royal Ballet Theatre, we’ll take a trip to the elephant village.

There’s nowhere else quite like Laos. It’s one of the world’s less visited countries and all the more fascinating for it.