A Journey of Water, Stone and Lanterns Across Vietnam & Cambodia

A beginning in Hanoi

The November departure of Citibond’s Delights of Vietnam & Cambodia began in the suspended hours between London and Hanoi: the quiet rituals of an overnight flight, the first glimpse of a new horizon, the anticipation that gathers before a journey properly takes shape. By the time guests arrived in Vietnam’s capital, the city was already moving around them — scooters threading through avenues, vendors arranging their morning goods, the air carrying the layered scent of coffee, incense and street-side cooking.

Hanoi offered no single introduction. It unfolded in contrasts. Outside the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, history stood in solemn architectural form; nearby, the delicate One-Pillar Pagoda seemed almost weightless by comparison. In the Old Quarter, a rickshaw ride brought the group close to the city’s living tempo: narrow streets, bright shopfronts, market baskets, sudden flashes of colour and sound. Later, the traditional water puppet show gave a different kind of language to Vietnam’s stories — wooden figures dancing over water, folklore carried by music, humour and rhythm.

Halong Bay: limestone, light and open water

From Hanoi, the road led east to Halong Bay, where the landscape altered dramatically. The city’s movement gave way to an expanse of emerald water punctuated by limestone formations rising sheer from the sea. Boarding the cruise around midday, guests settled into the slower grammar of the bay: the soft push of the boat through water, lunch served on board, decks warmed by the afternoon sun.

At Tra Bau, some took to kayaks, gliding close to the limestone cliffs where the scale of the formations could be felt from below. Others chose stillness — watching the changing light on the water, listening to the muffled hush that seems to settle between the islands. As evening approached, the deck became a shared gathering place. A cooking demonstration brought Vietnamese flavours into focus, while the sunset shifted across the bay in tones of gold and blue. After dark, the mood turned playful: squid fishing, stargazing and karaoke beneath a wide night sky.

The following morning began quietly with Tai Chi on the cruise, bodies moving in measured arcs as the bay slowly brightened. A visit to the Cat Ba Biosphere and Trung Trang Cave added another layer of texture before the return to Hanoi, where the Temple of Literature offered a contemplative counterpoint — courtyards, stone stelae and centuries of learning held within its walls.

Caves, borders and imperial memory

The journey then turned south by flight to Dong Hoi, gateway to one of Vietnam’s most remarkable underground worlds. Paradise Cave revealed the drama of the region’s karst landscape from within: immense chambers, mineral formations and a cool, hushed atmosphere that invited both awe and silence. It was a reminder that Vietnam’s beauty is not confined to its coast or cities; some of its most striking scenes lie hidden beneath the earth.

From Dong Hoi, the route continued through places shaped by modern history. At the Hien Luong Bridge and Quang Tri Citadel, within the former Demilitarised Zone, the past was no abstraction. These sites asked for attention and restraint, their significance rooted in division, endurance and loss. The scenic drive onward to Hue offered time to absorb what had been seen before entering the former imperial capital.

Hue carried itself differently from Hanoi. Its pace felt measured, its grandeur softened by gardens, waterways and old stone. In the UNESCO-listed Imperial City, guests walked through the legacy of the Nguyen Dynasty, where gates, courtyards and palace structures spoke of ceremony and power. The Celestial Lady Pagoda brought a spiritual stillness, while the Tomb of Emperor Minh Mang, set amid greenery, offered perhaps one of the journey’s most reflective pauses — architecture arranged in harmony with landscape, memory held in water, trees and stone.

Over the Hai Van Pass to lantern-lit Hoi An

The drive from Hue to Hoi An via the Hai Van Pass was one of the journey’s great scenic transitions. The road curved between mountain and sea, with views towards Da Nang appearing through shifting weather and light. It was travel in its most cinematic form, though never merely for spectacle; it connected the imperial north of central Vietnam to the trading world of Hoi An.

Hoi An’s Old Quarter, a UNESCO-listed former port, greeted the group with a softer glow. Its streets invited walking rather than rushing. Wooden-fronted houses, small temples and riverside life formed a townscape shaped by centuries of exchange. The lantern-making workshop became one of the most personal memories of the tour. In choosing colours, shaping frames and learning a local craft by hand, guests created something tangible to carry home — not a souvenir in the ordinary sense, but an object touched by patience and place.

Nearby, My Son Sanctuary added another historical dimension. The Hindu temple remains, set within a green landscape, spoke of the Cham civilisation and the long cultural currents that moved through this region. Later days around Hoi An brought the elevated views of Ba Na Hills and the Golden Bridge, held aloft by giant stone hands, reached by a remarkable cable car journey across lush mountain scenery. At Marble Mountain, caves, pagodas and limestone peaks offered yet another meeting of geology, devotion and panorama.

Saigon, the Mekong and the weight of recent history

Flying south to Ho Chi Minh City — still called Saigon by many — brought the group into a different Vietnam again: energetic, vertical, restless, marked by colonial architecture, modern movement and memories that remain close to the surface. The Cu Chi Tunnels offered a visceral encounter with wartime ingenuity and hardship. To stand near this underground network was to understand history not as a distant chapter, but as something engineered into the soil.

The city tour deepened that encounter. At the War Remnants Museum, Reunification Hall and Notre Dame Cathedral, guests traced the complex intersections of conflict, faith, occupation and national identity. The Mekong Delta excursion, part of the southern chapter of the journey, widened the sense of Vietnam as a country shaped by water — rivers sustaining movement, food, trade and daily life.

Angkor: stone, roots and morning light

The final international flight carried the group from Ho Chi Minh City to Siem Reap, where Cambodia’s temple landscapes awaited. Angkor is often described in terms of scale, but its power also lies in detail: a carved lintel, a corridor of shadow, the softened face of a stone deity, the persistence of roots around ancient walls.

At Angkor Thom, the South Gate led towards Bayon Temple, where enigmatic faces look out in multiple directions, serene and unreadable. The Terrace of the Elephants evoked ceremony and royal procession. Ta Prohm offered a different kind of drama, its stonework entwined with tree roots in a long conversation between architecture and forest. Angkor Wat itself, explored in the afternoon and remembered in the source as a sunrise vision, brought the journey to its most monumental expression: towers mirrored in water, galleries carved with devotion, scale held together by astonishing precision.

Further exploration of Srah Srang, Ta Keo, Preah Khan and Banteay Srei revealed the variety within the Angkor world, from monumental complexes to exquisitely detailed carving. A visit to a local handicraft village returned the emphasis to human hands — makers, materials, continuity. On the final day, the boat journey on Tonle Sap Lake to Kampong Phluk showed another Cambodia: stilt houses, floating schools and lake life adapted to water’s seasonal rise and retreat.

By the time the group began the journey back to London, arriving on Day 18, the memories were not arranged simply as landmarks visited. They were sensory and emotional: the hush of a cave, the gold of lantern light, the salt air of Halong Bay, the gravity of the DMZ, the carved faces of Bayon at Angkor Thom. Across 18 days and 17 nights, Vietnam and Cambodia had revealed themselves through beauty, resilience, craft and memory — a journey held together by the people and places that gave it depth.