The MRFA and Vietnam-Indochina Tours

Announce Grand Prize

Free 10-day Ground Tour of Saigon and the Mekong Delta

Cost: $2 a ticket and on sale in Indianapolis
Grand Prize drawing: September 1st at the Delta DMZ Dance
You have to be a MRFA member to participate and you cannot give the ticket to someone else. The winner has to use the ticket. You have to attend the reunion to participate

Ground Tour Includes: Tours of: Saigon – Cu Chi – My Tho – Dong Tam – VC Island – Tan An – Ben Luc – Can Tho – Vung Tau
10-nights three-star hotel accommodations
All breakfasts
All airport transfers
Private air-conditioned ground transportation
Private guide and private tours
All admissions
All boat transportation

In lieu of the Mekong Delta tour, $1,000 towards the cost of a ground tour to I and II Corps can be substituted. Saigon and IV tour can be customized. Contact Vietnam-Indochina Tours at info@indochinatouors.com for details. Valid for travel between: 1 September and 30 November 2007 or 1 March and 30 November 2008. Non-transferable, non-redeemable for cash.

Ground tour operated by Vietnam-Indochina Tours, providing tours to Vietnam for 12-years. For further information contact:
Vietnam-Indochina Tours
info@indochinatours.com
Tel: 360-570-2096
Olympia, WA

Vietnam
Saigon – Cc Chi – My Tho – Dong Tam – VC Island – Tan An – Ben Luc – Can Tho – Vung Tau
This is a private tour. Price includes: single occupancy hotel accommodations as indicated on the itinerary, all breakfasts, all airport transfers, private air-conditioned ground transportation, all boat, ferry and train transportation as noted, admissions to all noted attractions, daily English-speaking guides except where noted, and accommodations for guides and drivers. Costs do not include: visa costs, airport departure taxes, meals other than breakfast and items of a personal nature. Tour does not include transpacific airline flights. Valid for travel between: 1 September and 30 November 2007 or 1 March and 30 November 2008. [Itinerary: VN-MRFA]

Day 1: Arrive at Tan Son Nhut Airport. Clear customs and immigration, meet guide and driver and transfer to your hotel. Free balance of the day.

Day 2: Meet guide and driver and transfer to your hotel. Balance of the day Saigon City tour including the fantastically ornate Hotel de Ville serves as Saigon’s city hall, the turn of the century Opera House, Dong Khoi Street shopping area of the French colonial period and of today, Notre Dame Cathedral (1880) and the spectacular turn-of-the-century Colonial French Post Office, the historic Continental, Rex and Majestic Hotels, view Reunification Palace from the outside, the Saigon Riverfront and Dragon House, Binh Tay Market and the Thien Hau Pagoda (Cantonese pagoda) in Cho Lon and the Sri Mariamman (Hindu) Temple and the Saigon Central Mosque. Return to your hotel for a free evening.

Day 3: 8:00 am prompt morning departure for the Cu Chi Tunnels, 30 kilometers from Saigon city center. Tour the tunnels and Ben Duoc Temple dedicated to the nearly 50,000 NLF soldiers who died here. Continue on to the Cao Dai Holy See nearby the Cambodian border. Attend the “high-noon” service in the Great Temple. The religion fuses Christianity, Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism, native animistic beliefs into an amalgam of color and splendor.

Day 4: 8:00 am departure for the northern gateway to the Mekong Delta, the city of My Tho. Proceed south through the lush rice fields of Long An Province to My Tho, stopping at Tan An and Ben Luc for visits. Continue onto to My Tho and tour the city followed by a visit to Dong Tam. Return to Saigon for a free evening.

Day 5: 8:00 am departure for My Tho and Thoi San Island. Upon arrival in My Tho transfer to the My Tho Docks to board your boat to Thoi San Island in the middle of the Song My Tho River, the northernmost distributary river of Mekong’s five-major distributary rivers. Tour the island, its hamlets and tropical fruit orchards on foot. Return to My Tho via boat and meet your vehicle and driver. Cross the newly completed My Thuan Bridge, the first bridge to cross any of the Mekong’s major distributary rivers and continue onto the Bassac River. Cross the Bassac on a 100-ton ferry and enter Can Tho. Transfer to your hotel and check-in your hotel. Free evening.

Day 6: 7:30 am prompt departure via your personal rivercraft to the Cai Rang Floating Market, a cacophony of chaos with hundreds of boats buying and selling everything from bananas and coconuts to freshly slaughtered pork and sugar cane. Return to Can Tho via boat. Balance of the day Can Tho tour including the Ninh Kieu Wharf the busiest commercial wharf in the Mekong Delta, the Can Tho Market on Hai Ba Trung Street, the Cantonese Congregation Pagoda on the riverfront and the Munirangsyaram Pagoda, followed by a one-hour Xe Loi motorized cyclo ride in Can Tho and the surrounding area accompanied by your guide on a separate Xe Loi.

Day 7: Free morning until 10:00 am check-out and return to Saigon via vehicle stopping at places of interest enroute. Arrive Saigon and check-in your hotel. Free balance of the day.

Day 8: 8:00 am departure from the Saigon docks via high speed hydrofoil through the Saigon River to the seaside town of Vung Tau. Disembark and meet your driver and proceed on an all day tour of Vung Tau including:

Downtown Vung Tau: Vung Tau’s colorful harbor with its fishing fleet at Bai Truoc (Front Beach), the “Chinese” Cathedral, the Central Market, and the Bach Dinh Villa which was built at the end of the 19th-century for the Former French Governor-General Paul Doumer.

Nui Nho: Nui Nho, or Small Mountain, is at the southern tip of the Vung Tau Peninsula and is its tip is noted by a statue aptly called “Giant Jesus” which at 28-meters high towers over the mountain; a journey up the steps for a spectacular vantage point over the South China Sea; Hon Ba Temple rests on a small island off Nui Nho in the South China Sea and can be reached only by foot at low tide. Return to Saigon on the 4:00 pm hydrofoil. Arrive Saigon, transfer to your hotel for a free evening.

Day 9: Free day for shopping.
Day 10: Free day until check-out and transfer to the Tan Son Nhut Airport to connect with your returning flight home.

Bon Voyage!
Hotel Accommodations: Saigon Kimdo Hotel *** in the heart of Saigon *** Can Tho Golf Can Tho Hotel ***

Entrance fees, miscellaneous tour costs, etc.
Cu Chi Admission, Cu Chi Tunnels
My Tho Sampan ride
Can Tho Xe Loi cyclo ride
Can Tho Private Rivercraft
My Tho My Thuan Bridge
Saigon-V. Tau Hydrofoil ticket
Vung Tau Bach Dinh Villa
V. Tau-Saigon Hydrofoil ticket