Cycling Ho Chi Minh to Phnom Penh 7D/6N - overland Cambodia

Today's ride allows us to explore perfect countryside settings with different sceneries through Ben Tre, Tra Vinh and rustic Dung island in Soc Trang. Firstly, the easy ride on bike paths lined-coconut trees that leads you through the rural villages. Enjoy small ferry boats crossing the water channels with many stops at the local home, running sweets, snacks, and other farming products before another ferry takes us to Tra Vinh City. Break for lunch in town.

Secondly, we can learn about Khmer culture and history by stopping at the ancient temples and seeing Khmer people working on farmlands and rice paddy fields on well-maintained crisscross paths, visiting the homes of locals, and experiencing their lives.

Thirdly, from Cau Quan, we will take a ferry to Dung Island,  where we'll explore the way locals earn a living on this Island. Ride past a betel garden, sugar cane plantation, vegetable farmlands and fresh fish farms before a ferry taking to Long Phu town. Our private vehicle is on standby here near this town. We get on our truck for half an hour driving to the City of Soc Trang.

We'll visit the Bat Pagoda and spend more time in its gardens to know why the bats have been coming and building their home for ages. Then we pick up the bikes, and experience local culture, immerse in truly countryside scenery, and enjoy the timeless landscape. Alongside the country roads, we'll see how locals raise free-range ducks on rice paddies, rivers, and canals. Then we continue to explore the removed undeveloped hamlets, and locals still live in thatch houses without running water or sanitation.

Stop along to taste plenty of organic fruits from farming orchards, bike on small paths by curving rivers, and race with grocery boats that advertise commodities with taped loudspeakers.  Lunch en route to Phung Hiep. Ride past ancient Khmer temples, make many stops at tiny markets, and chit-chat with locals through body language. We will get on support vehicles as we reach to Phung Hiep, for an hour's driving to Can Tho City.

Boarding a boat for a pleasure boat ride passes many stilt-house along the river bank to Cai Rang floating market. This is a chance you watch sampan boats, small ferries crossing the Can Tho River, and many boats cruising to Cai Rang. Watch the most significant and busiest floating market, as it is real. Then, your guide will choose the best route for a morning ride to Sadec. Travel through lush farmlands of sweet potato and peanuts plantation, stop at local homes, and learn more about the rear life of Vietnam and Chinses along the way to Sadec.

Break for lunch in Sadec town, enjoy lunch at Huynh Thuy Le House. It's the "Lover's house" in Vietnam's Mekong Delta town of Sa Dec, which well know in the film" The Lover". Marguerite Duras lived in Sa Dec between 1928 and 1932 when her mother ran a school there. In Sa Dec, Duras as a 15-year-old schoolgirl, met Huynh Thuy Le, 27, the son of a wealthy Chinese family. The two began a love affair that inspired Duras's 1984 Prix Goncourt-winning best-selling novel, The Lover (L'Amante), which has been translated into 43 languages and has sold 2.4 million copies.

Following lunch, take a leisurely bike to Cao Lanh City with a top at a flower village. The village offers various flowers, admires the vast, colourful flower fields, and experiences the way to take care of plants and flowers. Afterwards, we cycle past rustic country and Buddhist pagodas. Finally, you will transfer to Cao Lanh by ferry crossing the Mekong River.

Start your bike ride today by exploring scient countryside landscape through mango orchards, small villages, local workshops, and smooth tracks along the Mekong River. Stop at a small cafe by the Mekong River, and enjoy watching the peaceful life,  in the wetlands of Dong Thap. Farmers here make two rice crops at different times, and one of the rice crops has to be harvested before the flooding season comes, and the people also do a lot of fishing on rivers and rice fields. Cross the Mekong River by ferry to Gieng Islands. Continue experiencing people's lives and with stipping at local market. The French built charming colonial buildings, Cathedrals and Monasteries in Cu Lao Gieng between 1879 and 1889. The French priest had the materials from France, making the buildings look amazing.

Look over the Monastery, the first Monastery building in Indochina, established in 1874, visit the Cathedral, and be amazed at how people live here in the yearly flooded season, on stilt houses in the low wetland. Stopping at the bridge, view the scenery along river banks, and gaze down the fishing on the river before we hop on support vehicles driving to Cho Moi and have lunch in this town.

In the afternoon, we continue bicycling to Chau Doc, experiencing local life through green vegetation and Muslim villages, which is the home of Charm people in Chau Doc.

Today is the last ride in Vietnam, and we are saying goodbye to the Vietnam BackRoads team to continue the cycling adventure trip in Cambodia with our team there. We ride from the hotel in Chau Doc, ride on back roads along the canals of Vinh Te, pass thatch houses and stilt houses, and see buffalos working on rice paddy fields along the border.

We reach to Tinh Bien border around 10:30 AM. Immigration to Cambodia and, meet our team in Cambodia, enjoy lunch for the afternoon ride. We pedal on quiet back roads to Phnom Den. Bike routes through villages, passing local houses and temples along the way. Stay a night in Ta Keo town.

Note: Travellers still need a visa to Cambodia during the trip! Please bring 3 passport photos with you on the journey.

Please keep your passport, visa photos, and other related documents in your day bag for your visa application process. Your local guide will help you with exit/ entry and visa procedures at Vietnamese and Cambodian border gates.

- Exit point: Tinh Bien Border Gate

- Entry point: Phnom Den Border Gate

Our bike guide will lead you to ride on a small path, dirt track through villages, houses on stilts, and palm trees, and pass primary school and local markets. Visit some temples and stop at a cafe to enjoy local snacks. You can visit a local orphanage managed by 'New Futures'. Here you will learn more about their great educational work in the surrounding friendly villages. Have a transfer to Phnom Penh City in the late afternoon. Tour End!