The Mekong Delta is “iconic Vietnam,” says Earth Trekkers -- “rice fields as far as the eye can see, wooden houses on stilts located along the river’s edge, men and women in small boats, selling their produce.” The delta is a “water world that moves to the rhythms of the mighty Mekong,” explains Lonely Planet, “where boats, houses and markets float upon the innumerable rivers, canals and streams that criss-cross the landscape like arteries.”
Like all of Asia, the delta is changing fast, observes The Economist. Since its French colonial days, the Mekong has been “more of a backwater,” but the “life-changing development seen elsewhere in Asia” is spreading into this “mostly rural world.” This means that “pickup trucks are replacing bullock-carts, karaoke bars dot lonely two-lane roads, fishermen can catch up on soap-operas at night,”and it means that “people are getting richer, and their lives longer.”