The morning goes to the Cu Chi Tunnels, where you go down into part of the underground network and hear how it was used during the Vietnam War. Back in the city, a guided walk takes in Dong Khoi Street, the Reunification Palace, Notre Dame Cathedral and Ben Thanh Market.

Head down to the Mekong Delta for a day among palm-lined canals, village temples and market stalls. Lunch is cooked from produce grown nearby. There is also a stop at a Cao Dai temple, whose architecture is like nothing else in the country.

A flight to Danang is followed by a pretty drive on to Hoi An, then a walk through streets where Chinese, Japanese and French building styles sit side by side.

In a quiet pocket of Hoi An, paintings cover the walls, the lanes and the alleys. From there it is on to Thanh Dong Organic Farm, where the village still works the land the old way. Talk with the farmers and try the jobs yourself.

A short flight lifts you from Danang up to Hanoi, where the landmarks of the capital wait: the Ho Chi Minh complex, then the notorious Hoa Lo Prison, nicknamed the 'Hanoi Hilton.' The Temple of Literature follows, and the day closes inside the Opera House over afternoon tea.

The road from Hanoi out to Ha Long Bay runs through farmland and village life. At the pier you board a comfortable junk, sit down to lunch and set off among the 3,000 islands that rise straight out of the water. Later, take your own cabin, the top deck or the bar.

Begin with Tai Chi on the sundeck as the sun comes up, then brunch before the boat returns to port. A transfer brings you back to your Hanoi hotel. The afternoon is spent on foot in the old quarter and around Hoan Kiem Lake, ending with a farewell dinner together.

Fly to Luang Prabang. Sightseeing opens at Wat Xiengthong, followed by the climb on foot up Phou Si Mountain. A traditional Baci ceremony comes next, then a tuk-tuk ride to dinner at Bamboo Experience.

An early start puts you on the street as townspeople hand morning alms to monks in orange robes. After breakfast, walk to the market for snacks, then look round the National Museum and Wat Mai. A boat runs up to the Pak Ou caves; lunch is a picnic, followed by petanque, the local favourite, and drinks at sunset.

Kuang Si waterfalls fill the morning before the transfer to the airport and the flight to Siem Reap. The evening belongs to Phare, The Cambodian Circus, whose cast mixes theater, music, dance and contemporary circus skills into Cambodian stories, some historical, some drawn from folklore, some entirely of today.

Another early start, this time for sunrise above Angkor Wat, with breakfast afterwards at a local restaurant. You enter the 'Great City' of Angkor Thom by its southern gate, where stone faces 23m (75-foot) tall look down on the road, used as a location for the film Tomb Raider. Bayon, the state temple raised in the 12th century, stands at the middle of it all, carrying hundreds of huge carved faces. Ta Prohm ends the day and stays with you: giant trees have driven their roots deep through its walls.

Beong Mealea Temple opens the day, a Buddhist sanctuary of the 12th century whose neatly cut sandstone blocks still lie half swallowed by the forest. There is time for a local market and a meal at a local restaurant. Afterwards you reach a remote settlement of three villages standing on stilts, cut off by water from Aug - Feb. A small boat carries you through the flooded mangroves, home to plenty of wildlife. The day ends with a performance of ancient Khmer culture and the best food in town.

The trip ends here, though the stories go home with you. A transfer runs to the airport in good time for your onward flight.