Indochina & Mekong Guides

Over the the last 20 years we’ve worked with some of the best and most experienced guides across the IndoChina region.

If you’re looking for a skilled, professional, English speaking guide for Angkor Wat and surrounds in Cambodia, Dien Bien Phu in North Vietnam or anywhere in Laos, we have a trusted guide we have personally used many times and can recommend.

We’ve selected the 3 most skilled, honest, professional and licensed guides we’ve ever worked with in the region to recommend.

They will be your guide and translator, organise your local transport, and can even get you a good deal on a hotel, minibus, or anything else you may require.

Drop us an email with your proposed dates and we’ll respond with a quote and the guide’s availability. Email us here

Laos: – anywhere

Xangnoi (“little elephant”) – Director of Mekong Kayaks & Lao Guide Supremo

Xangnoi at Khone Falls

Xangnoi is one of the top guides in Laos. Whenever there’s a VIP in town that the Government wants to impress, Xangnoi is called in. From Presidents, to Ministers, Ambassadors to editors of international travel magazines, Xangnoi is guaranteed to get you home again.

He learnt English while studying as a monk and for the past 12 years he’s been guiding people to some of the more remote corners of  Laos.

As an experienced motorcyclist, he’s also guided many motorcycle trail bike groups or European BMW tours, all over Laos.

If it’s your adventure of a lifetime and want to ensure you enjoy it safely, use Xangnoi.

Believe us, with over 18 years trail bike riding across the region a lot can go wrong very quickly in remote areas, where nobody speaks English, and if you are injured and your bike is broken, parts need to be either made or imported (and can take months to arrive) to get you back to civilisation, assuming you can even explain where you are.

Vietnam: – Dien Bien Phu and surrounding battle grounds

Hoan and captured French tank

Hoan Do Ngoc is an English speaking tour guide from Dien Bien Phu, in North Vietnam. He graduated from Hanoi Tourism College in 1999, and Law University in 2008.

He is an extremely knowledgeable local guide and covers the extensive battle grounds at Dien Bien Phu, where the French made a last ditch stand and were defeated by the Viet Minh communist guerrillas in May 1954, which then led to the US involvement in Vietnam.

French General’s bunker at Dien Bien Phu

From the French General’s porcelain bath in his private bunker, to the extensive network of caves where General Giap and his generals planned the strategy to defeat the French, Hoan can show you all the key battle sites, on the hills around Dien Bien Phu; – each one named after the General’s many mistresses.

A Dien Bien native, Hoan has a lifetime of experience on the battle field history and the many ethnic minorities’ different customs and cultures who live in the surrounding area. He has welcomed so many tourists from different countries, especially western journalists and returning French veterans and their families.

Cambodia: – Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, Ta Prohm Temple (Jungle Temple), and River of a Thousand Lingas in Siem Reap and surrounds

Wibol at Banteay Kdei Temple close to Ta Prohm Temple (Jungle Temple) at Angkor Wat

Ek Wibol grew up in a small village beside Angkor Wat and used to play there as a child. His village had to be moved when Angkor Wat was declared a World Heritage site and for the last 15 years he has been sharing his intimate knowledge of the temples and surrounding area with thousands of tourists.

You’ll be impressed with Wibol’s gentle charm and his warm, yet always professional manner, especially after the suffering he experienced as a 6 year old child when he was imprisoned in a bamboo cage in the water and lost many members of his family during Pol Pot’s brutal rule.

Put Angkor Wat on your bucket list now. It’s a fascinating place to visit, where you can see how around 1100 AD this massive stone city was built , which became the largest city in the world with a population over 1 million, and then simply disappeared about 400 years later. It was rediscovered all overgrown and virtually deserted by French explorers Garnier, Delaporte and Lagrée on the French Mekong expedition (1866–1868).

Elephant ride through Victory Gate at Angkor Thom near Angkor Wat

If you’re visiting allow at least 3 days to see the key sites, take an elephant ride through the Victory Gate at Angkor Thom, see the largest religious monument in the world at Angkor Wat, and the amazing trees dripping down walls like mercury at the Jungle Temple. This is the famous Ta Prohm Temple – as seen in the movie Lara Croft Tomb Raider with Angelina Jolie.

Then as a special treat get Wibol to take you on a day trip to Beng Mealea about 60 kms outside Siem Reap where there are very few tourists and see the little known River of a Thousand Lingas (a linga is a penis), where water flows over thousands of stone penises carved into the river bed, to be purified before it reaches Angkor Wat.

Dripping tree roots strangling the Jungle Temple (Ta Prohm) at Angkor Wat