Every year the “mighty Mekong River floods two-thirds of the delta,” notes Traveller, “dumping rich sediment that provides three crops of rice a year.” The river is a “vast, vibrant life-support system, from its beginnings in the snowmelt of the Tibetan Plateau down through China, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam, where it issues into the South China Sea 2,703 miles later,” writes Condé Nast Traveler.
The river’s delta is home to 17 million of Vietnam’s 94 million people, explains Condé Nast Traveler. “Most of the country’s fish, fruit, and rice come from the region, and it shows: Almost everywhere something is flowering, fruiting, or being harvested … women in classic non la straw hats steer loads of rice on low wooden craft to a husking mill on the bank; larger vessels carry fish with the family laundry flapping across the stern.”