At Cai Be floating market in Vietnam, small wooden boats bursting with fruits and flowers jostle for position, and the incessant calls of traders attempting to sell their wares fills the air. Life along the Mekong is all about the river: villages on stilts rise out of it, splendid temples and pagodas emerge from its banks, and miles of rice paddies are flooded by its water every summer.
The Mekong begins in the mountains of Tibet and descends through China, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam; but it’s this last bustling stretch of the river that makes for the best trip.