Everyone is different, right? We all have our own individual tastes, interests and comfort levels. That is why we believe your experience with Purple Dragon should be as unique as you are. You have probably already noticed that we have programs for honeymooners, people who enjoy food and cooking, and for those who want more active adventures.
Programs that involve boat travel, elephants and shopping are our most popular
special interests, so we are happy to offer several "theme" programs below. Everyone else's interests have not escaped us. If you are a bird-watch, orchid enthusiast, golfer,
a foodie, bicycle adventurer, polo fan or just about anything else, Purple Dragon can
customize many of our other packages to create personalized private tours to
match your individual interests. Just ask!
Boats
Travel by water has always held a special allure for many of our guests. Not only is it pleasantly relaxing and often luxurious, but it gives passengers special opportunities to see things they would not normally see through the window of a bus. Although luxury ocean liners are rarely seen in our part of the world, we still have opportunities for customers who want enjoy the pleasures of traveling by boat.
Beyond Luang Prabang 
This is an overnight side trip from Luang Prabang. Travel upstream to the tiny, landlocked village of Kamu, where you spend one night in a safari-style eco-lodge. You can hike, pan for gold, or simply watch the rice grow. This trip is supremely relaxing and gives you an up-close look at both the mighty Mekong, and rural life in Laos.
Way Beyond Luang Prabang Journey from Chiang Rai by road to Chang Khong and across the Mekong River to board the Luang Say, a comfortable but speedy river craft destined for Luang Prabang. Along the way you overnight in a luxury eco-lodge adjacent to a colorful rural village. The boat also stops at one or more small villages, where you can see the authentic Laos. You can travel downstream or up. Meals, snacks and breathtaking scenery are all included.
River of Dreams An overnight cruise from Bangkok to Ayutthaya, Thailand's ancient capital, in a beautifully resorted teak rice barge. You can enjoy a scenic up the Chao Praya, Thailand's River of Kings, dock overnight at a 400 year old temple, then continue to Bang Pa In the following Morning. Our guide meets you there for a day of touring one of the royal family's oldest palace complexes, the remains of the old walled city, and much more. Dinner, snacks and breakfast served aboard.
Cruise the Irrawadi Sail between Bagan and Mandalay (Burma/Myanmar). One and two night cruises, depending on whether you travel upstream or downstream. We work with two different luxury cruise companies that operate these and longer itineraries in Myanmar.
Halong Bay We offer several different options to see spectacular Halong Bay during a stay in Hanoi. Although we offer a day trip, we encourage our customers to spend the night there. As an overnight trip you may stay in a hotel in Halong City and enjoy an afternoon of sailing on the first day, and a morning cruise the following day. Our Grand Hanoi program includes two days of cruising on a sleep-aboard boat with all meals included. If you take one of our other programs you may substitute the sleep-aboard option at a small additional cost. Although not yet on our website, we also offer
optional luxury sleep-aboard vessels, both private and shared with a small group of other passengers.
Yangtze River We are asked regularly about Yangtze and Three Gorges cruises in China.
While you have a number of options for personalized private tours in China, the
Yangtze River will not be among them. We have long considered adding these to our regular China programs, but have decided against doing so for several good reasons. The river has become an environmental disaster. According to one official newspaper in China, about three tons of sewage pour into the river every minute. (Official newspapers cannot be relied upon for accurate reporting, so the figure is probably much higher.) Most of the boats on the river are suited only for Chinese tourists. And considering the overnight stay that may be required at the beginning and/or end of a cruise, the entire trip usually takes five days. There are so many more wonderful things to see in China, that we believe most of our guests will find their time is better spent seeing things of greater importance.
800 Miles on the Ganges From September 2009 through March 2010 you can experience an eight hundred mile, fourteen day cruise of India's holiest river. Sail from Kolkata (Calcutta) to the holy city of Varanasi aboard the luxurious RV Bengal Pandaw, including all meals, guided shore excursions, and many extras other cruise lines typically charge extra for. This is a remarkable experience well worth the the cost. We can easily add extended stays in Darjeeling before departing Kolkata, or in the Golden Triangle and other destinations in Rajasthan at the end of the cruise. Contact us for further details.
Day Trips on the Water If you cannot get enough of seeing Asia via its waterways, we have plenty of day trips that include sightseeing by boat. In Guilin, for example, you make a day trip to Yangshou on the Ly River through scenic gorges. In Hue you explore the summer villas of dead emperors by boat on the Perfume River. Or how about awesome Pangnga Bay near Phuket.
We also offer a trip from Ho Chi Minh City to Phnom Penh on a custom basis for guests using our packages in Vietnam and Cambodia.
House Boats and Floating Hotels Take our two-night trip to Kanchanaburi and the River Kwai and you will stay in a very unusual hotel built on gigantic bamboo rafts. It is surprisingly comfortable and the river is just outside your door. In India you can stay in an expansive and luxurious house boat on Lake Dal in Kashmir and take day trips by boat on the lake. Kerala, in Southern India, offers opportunities to travel by houseboats through "backwater" jungles. We offer both on a custom tour basis.
Elephants
Over the year we have learned that many of our guests are crazy about elephants and long to get up close and personal with a pachyderm. If your
special interest is limited to just an elephant ride, it is easy to arrange that in Phuket, Angkor
Wat or Ayutthaya. However, if you want more, we have several options for you to choose from:
Our Cool Charming Chiang Mai package includes a day with elephants. You travel into the countryside to the best of several elephant camps in the area. There are about thirty animals in the camp and the mahouts show off the intelligence of the pachyderms, which perform numerous tricks, including painting pictures and playing musical instruments. This is followed by a ride of almost an hour through the adjacent forest.
In nearby Lampang you can spend two or three days working with elephants at an elephant rehabilitation center. This is hard work and the living conditions are not luxurious, but you get to bond with the animals you work with. We can arrange this on a custom basis. Please give us two months advance notice.
Contact us for more information.
Shopping
Our Managing Director loves to say that "shopping is my religion. If you are of the same faith, our part of the world is one of the best places to worship
and you have plenty of options for personalized private tour
programs. There are so many opportunities to buy unique, wonderful things in our eleven countries that we cannot single out any of them as special. Handicrafts are still a part of Asia's cultures and have not been forgotten in the past. Village artisans still thrive in a world that seems to have given into factory made plastic junk.
If you love to shop and are looking for specific kinds of things, please let us know in advance so that we can weave
your wish into the program we create for you. This could be anything from custom made clothing in Thailand (which now rivals Hong Kong) to custom made jewelry,
carpets, textiles of every description, to container loads of ceramics or teak patio furniture for your shop back home. We probably already know where to find the things you are looking for. Incidentally, we do not take any of our guests to fake "factories" that sell poor quality merchandise to tourists at inflated prices and pay big commissions to tour guides. Our guides know our rules that prohibit this common, yet corrupt tradition of tourism here.
And Everything Else
If you have a special interest we have not anticipated please give us as much information about what you would like to do as possible. We will do our best to offer an itinerary that includes as much to satisfy your personal interests as possible. We have not been stumped yet! All you have to do is ask us!
You will not be the first guest who is interested in photographing orchids or collecting bird cages. We are serious about making your Purple Dragon experience as unique as you are!
