Che Bella Tours - small group tours and custom itineraries

28/01/2025

The last stop on Che Bella’s 18-day Treasures of Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam Tour was HaLong Bay, cruising through emerald waters and thousands of towering limestone islands. It was a welcome rest after covering a lot of ground.

28/01/2025

28/01/2025

Vietnam and many parts of SE Asia and China are busily preparing for Lunar New Year, the celebration of the arrival of spring. This will be the year of the snake. People are traveling to their family homes, which are being scrubbed and decorated with tradition kumquat trees, peach-blossom branches, and offerings to their Buddhas to begin the Tet celebrations that will take place over the next 10 days. Every inch of the city is filled with flowers and flags. It’s impossible to capture the sheer amount of people in Hanoi, setting up picnics along the busy sidewalks, piling their motorbikes high with supplies, and zipping through traffic like I have never seen before. After 3 weeks of travel, we all seem to have adapted to this chaos and navigating the death-defying feat of crossing the street with surprising ease.

27/01/2025

Hanoi is a 1,000-year-old city with Chinese and French influences, peppered with remnants of past wars and invasions. It is transforming itself into a modern city and Che Bella was there to absorb it all.

26/01/2025

Vietnam was the first “television war” in the United States. Though the press had covered wars before, the uncensored and intensive coverage coming into our living rooms every night was new, and it had a significant impact on many Americans' views of the conflict. Che Bella experienced a powerful and emotional look at the history of this war, which the Vietnamese called “The American War”. We gained new insight into the struggles, suffering and resilience of the Vietnamese people. This was a particularly poignant part of the tour for me personally, as my father was drafted when I was 9 years old and served as an Army doctor there.

25/01/2025

The southernmost region of Vietnam is The Mekong Delta, where fertile rivers meet the East Sea. It is a vast and untamed land which invited Che Bella to explore its boundless horizons. We traveled by boat to the islands where we learned about the traditions passed down by generations.

24/01/2025

Che Bella is on to Saigon! We were introduced to this cosmopolitan city with a foodie tour, braving the traffic on Vespas.

23/01/2025

It was a tough day for us in Phnom Penh, as Che Bella visited the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. The Ho Chi Minh trail cut right through Cambodia, and was where the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong (VC) sanctuaries and supply lines were. To destroy this network, the United States conducted a secret bombing campaign from 1969 to 1973, known as Operation Menu. The U.S. never officially declared war on Cambodia. Even the U.S. Foreign Relations Committee was kept in the dark. Operation Menu was planned and executed by Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger, who secretly deployed more than 2.7 million tons of bombs that pummeled the Cambodian countryside, creating one of the worst genocides in the history of the world. Kent State protested; tue first articles of impeachment against Richard Nixon were about these secret bombings; and the destruction drove many Cambodians into the arms of the communist Khmer Rouge, let by Pol Pot. The soldiers: teenagers recruited from repressed rural areas to help “re-educate” the intellectual city-dwellers. Cambodia became a classless society, shattering 2000 years of culture. They killed intellectuals, doctors, artists … people who wore glasses were even considered a threat because they could read. Between 1975 and 1979, an estimated 2 million Cambodians died under Pol Pot’s rule and was one of the most devastating periods in Cambodian history.

22/01/2025

CheBella’s next stop on our Treasures Tour was Phnom Penh. A river cruise and dinner and the next day, a visit to a small village to watch the generations of silk makers. We also enjoyed a little downtime at our luxury hotel and a little tennis.

17/01/2025

Che Bella left Chiang Mai and headed to Cambodia. Our first stop: Siem Reap, where we spent the day at the ancient city of Angkor. The majestic monuments of Angkor, such as Angkor Wat and the Bayon, celebrate the majesty of the Khmer Empire's immense power and wealth, impressive art and culture, architectural technique, aesthetic achievements, and variety of belief systems. Ankor Wat served as a monument to the powerfu king, Suryavarman II and is the largest religious monument in the world. Ta Prohm, engulfed by giant strangler fig trees, brought out our inner Lara Croft. We then made a stop at the Ankor Artisans Center, which provides employment opportunities for rural youth while preserving traditional Khmer craftsmanship

16/01/2025

A lot of happy tears were shed today fulfilling lifelong dreams of playing with the elephants in Chiang Mai.

16/01/2025

Che Bella traveled to Chiang Mai. Boasting a history that stretches back over seven centuries, Chiang Mai was once the capital of the Lanna Kingdom, a proud civilization renowned for its unique architectural style, complex flavors, and deeply spiritual traditions.

14/01/2025

Day 3: Che Bella bid farewell to our Bangkok guide, Alif, and headed to Chiang Mai. Our first adventure: A Foodie tour through the city on Vespas. What a riot!

13/01/2025

Day 2 in Bangkok: Our 12 intrepid travelers were up early today. The morning began with a visit to the train market and floating markets. We finished our day winding through the city on Tuk Tuks, stopping to enjoy a few local delicacies, the flower market and the Wat Suthat Theowararam Ratchaworamahawihan (say that 5 times fast) for evening chanting.

12/01/2025

Che Bella kicks off 2025 with The Treasures of Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam Tour. We begin in Bangkok at the temples of Wat Pho and Wat Arun, the Grand Palace complex, a long-tail boat ride and of course, some Thai Massages.