HOLIDAYING WITH A DIFFERENCE ON THE ROAD TO MANDALAY

It was romantic enough for the world to sing songs about it and adventurous enough for Hollywood to immortalise it, and decades on its allure has little waned with thousands still drawn today to the legendary Road to Mandalay.

Far Horizons have a 32-day fully-escorted tour from Angkor Wat in Cambodia through Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar (formerly Burma) later this year that incorporates a journey by road and river through much of what was home to the fabled Road that ran from Rangoon (now Yangon) to Mandalay.

Highlights include the 81ha temple complex of Angkor Wat, Phnom Penh’s Royal Palace with its floor of 5000 silver tiles, a boat ride on the Mekong River, Ho Chi Minh’s war museum, the French colonial hilltop retreat of Dalat, ancient trading ports and outposts, Hanoi (“the Paris of the Orient,”) a 3-day cruise on Halong Bay on a classic wooden junk, the 2500-year old Shwedagon Pagoda, and a hot air balloon ride over the temple city of Bagan that’s considered one of the world’s greatest archaeological sites.

The tour concludes with a 2-day cruise aboard the boutique 48-passenger Pandaw II on the Irrawaddy River from Bagan to Mandalay.

The tour departs Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide on October 19 this year with prices starting from $25,500pp twin-share including air and taxes, ground transport, all meals, a Far Horizons escort and local guides, entry fees and gratuities; accommodation includes select Orient-Express and Raffles hotels.

For full details – including itineraries and prices ex-Brisbane and Perth –  phone 1800 083 141 or visit www.farhorizons.com.au