Travel Guides: May 12

Travel Guides tonight take a luxury river cruise down the Mekong River from Cambodia to Southern Vietnam, discovering their history, culture and food.

This episode will balance its usual humour with tears by learning of the horrors of the Khmer Rouge regime -and a guest appearance from Luke Nguyen in Vietnam.

Beginning in the small tourist town of Siem Reap in Cambodia, our Travel Guides are greeted with a tuk tuk ride taking them to an authentic Buddhist water blessing. This is no ordinary water blessing and some of the Guides regret wearing white.

Drying off, our travellers are introduced to the ancient Khmer warrior martial arts, including scarf-wielding fighters and crossbow experts.

It’s hard to walk around tropical Cambodia without running into a few bugs – literally. After getting a little too close and personal with a scorpion, our Guides hit the tourist strip for an afternoon snack … of glazed scorpions and deep-fried tarantulas.

The highlight of their trip to Cambodia is the world-famous Angkor Wat temple complex. Deep in the jungle lies the very site where the Hollywood blockbuster Tomb Raider was filmed, and our Guides attempt to stride in Lara Croft’s footsteps. At a nearby temple some of them have another run-in with the local wildlife.

Finally, it’s time for the luxury cruise down the Mekong River. With huge suites to relax in, fine dining and onboard bars, there’s very little reason to disembark. But our Guides are lured back to shore by an entire village dedicated to the craft of making silk.