The MRFA and Vietnam-Indochina Tours
Announce Grand Prize
Free 10-day Ground Tour of Saigon and the Mekong Delta
Cost: $5.00 a raffle ticket. Tickets can be purchased by making your check or money order out to the MRFA and send to MRFA Raffle 1857 CO Rd A14, Decorah, IA 52101-7448, if you order your ticket or tickets prior to the reunion. You will receive your raffle ticket per mail per your request. If you do not attend the reunion and you are the winner, you will be notified by phone or e-mail, etc. Tickets will be sold at the reunion as well. Information will also be published in the Summer Issue of the River Currents. More Raffles to be held at the reunion 50/50 and more.
Grand Prize drawing: September 5, 2009 at the (Delta DMZ Dance?)
The below rules will be and must be followed:
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. This offer is only for members of the MRFA.
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 Trang Frobenius Vietnam-Indochina Tours at info@indochinatouors.com for details.
Valid for travel: Departing Los Angeles 2 November 2009. Non-transferable, non-redeemable for cash. Winner may reschedule tour from March 2010 through 15 October 2010 with payment of any additional airline ticket costs. Ground tour operated by Vietnam-Indochina Tours, providing tours to Vietnam for 15 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 2009 or 1 March and 30 November 2010.
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 a.m. prompt morning departure for the Cu Chi Tunnels, 30 km from Saigon city center. Tour the tunnels and Ben Duoc Temple dedicated to the nearly 50,000 NLF soldiers who died there. 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 a.m. 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 a.m. 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 a.m. 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 1-hour Xe Loi motorized cycle ride in Can Tho and the surrounding area accompanied by your guide on a separate Xe Loi.
Day 7: Free morning until 10:00 a.m. 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 a.m. 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 that 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 m 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 p.m. 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 cycle 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