The morning sun rose high and bright above the mighty Mekong River, a 4,350-kilometer wonder of nature which starts in Tibet and crosses through China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam before finally emptying into the sea. “The murky water is full of sediments which fertilizes the land,” reveals our guide Trinh Hoang Hanh Nguyen. “Though it’s pretty when it’s bluish, due to its salt content at high tide, it is actually deadly for the crops.” he continues. Spanning over 40,500 square kilometers on the extreme southern end of the Mekong River is the sprawling Mekong Delta, dominated mostly by flat plains of fertile farmlands and rice fields, fruit orchards and bonsai gardens, mini-forests and sweeping swamps, surrounded by abundant waters, with complex systems of canals and tributaries, which has all attracted its very own local river bank communities of mainly farmers and fisherfolk, home cottage industries and innovative traders, in several fluvial villages.

Jarque, E. (2017, October 1). Life along: the mighty Mekong. The Philippine Star, p. F6.