(VOVWORLD) - Small ship itineraries along Ha Long Bay, the Red River and the Lower Mekong River in Vietnam were named among the top four best Southeast Asia cruises by the US travel guidebook series Frommer’s.
 UNESCO World Heritage Site Ha Long Bay. (Photo: Internet) |
During the 10-day itinerary to explore the Red River and Ha Long Bay, a small ship covers several hundred miles between Ha Long Bay and Hoa Binh province in northern Vietnam, spending a few days in the picturesque and otherworldly limestone karst-studded Ha Long Bay.
The series also revealed several rewarding ways to spend time off the ship, including village walks, kayaking in Ha Long Bay, watching a traditional water puppet show, taking tours of heritage sites, and getting a close-up look at traditional methods for making ceramics, furniture, rice liquor, knives, and noodles.
Meanwhile, on the classic weeklong Mekong itinerary cruises between river points near Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and Siem Reap, Cambodia, the riverscape varies from remote and pastoral on the Cambodian side - where passengers can spot people bathing and slapping laundry against stones at the river’s edge - to the more industrial and bustling Vietnam part of the river.
On excursions, passengers can walk through villages and past picture-perfect rice fields and venture into pungent wet markets and floating fish farms, the series said.