Mekong River

Southeast Asia's mother river, from the Golden Triangle on the Thai–Lao border downstream through Luang Prabang, Vientiane, Si Phan Don and Cambodia to the Vietnamese delta.

The Mekong rises on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (called the Lancang River in China), flows through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand and Cambodia, and enters the sea in Vietnam. For travelers, the "Mekong region" usually means the middle and lower reaches outside China, Southeast Asia's classic slow, cross-border travel region. The main sections are: the Golden Triangle at Chiang Rai in Thailand and the two-day slow boat from Huay Xai to Luang Prabang; the alms-giving ceremony and temples of the World Heritage town of Luang Prabang; That Luang and the Mekong night market in Vientiane, the Lao capital; Wat Phou near Pakse in southern Laos and Si Phan Don (Four Thousand Islands), where Khone Phapheng Falls has the largest volume of any waterfall in Southeast Asia; Kratie in Cambodia, where you can see endangered Irrawaddy dolphins, and Phnom Penh, which sits at the confluence of the Mekong and Tonlé Sap rivers; and the Can Tho area in Vietnam, with the delta's floating markets and orchards. Doing the whole thing takes 3–4 weeks, and it is usually split into sections: northern Thailand to Luang Prabang by slow boat 3–4 days, southern Laos to Cambodia 5–7 days, and the Vietnamese delta 2–3 days. Transport is mainly long-distance buses, slow boats and the China–Laos Railway; most land border crossings offer visas on arrival or e-visas, but check in advance. In the rainy season, roads on some branch routes are hard to travel, and in the dry season the slow boats may also be rerouted because of low water.

Destinations

Itineraries