Morning breaks over the Mekong, and a swimming pool at a luxury hotel on Khong island, Laos.

Market sellers prepare for their day at a floating market near Can Tho, Vietnam.

Women practice a fan dance at daybreak in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Visitors make a pilgrimmage to the Zaxiqiwa lake, the Tibetan spiritual source of the Mekong in Qinghai province, China.

A market seller makes a transaction at a floating market near Can Tho, Vietnam. New and improved roads make these markets increasingly rare.

Tibetan nomadic herders prepare to milk their yaks, on the bank of the "Dza Chu", the Tibetan name for the Mekong. They live fairly close to the source of the river in Qinghai, China.

A Vietnamese boatwoman paddling near Can Tho, Vietnam.

A ship rolls by on the Mekong near Can Tho, Vietnam.

A girl offers a flower in the "Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone", Laos.

A woman gathers flowers from the kapok (or cotton) tree on the banks of the Mekong in north-west Laos.

Khun Jan Fong gathers river weed in the Mekong near her village of Chiang Khong, Thailand. Supplies of river weed are diminishing as the ecology of the river changes, partly due to damming upriver.

Khun Jan Fong squeezes the water out of river weed, an important staple for people in northern Thailand and Laos.

A market seller organizes fish caught in the Mekong near Nakasong, southern Laos.

A market seller organizes fish caught in the Mekong near Nakasong, southern Laos. Fish is a primary source of income for many who live along the river.

Travel accommodation at the northern end of the "Si Phan Don" , Laos.

The Khone Phapheng Falls - the largest in south-east Asia. Southern Laos.

A man repairs his fishing nets, from his island home on the Mekong in northern Cambodia.

Kids at school on one of the island villages in the Si Phan Don area of Laos.

Women load boxes of vegetables at one of the Royal Projects in northern Thailand, near the Golden Triangle.

Women ride across the Mekong on the bridge to Can Tho, Vietnam. Before this bridge opened in 2010, people took a ferry boat, or, a long detour to get to Can Tho.

A woman picks chamomile flowers near the Golden Triangle in northern Thailand.

On relaxes with his grandson, Cam Huong at their home on one of the many Mekong-fed canals in Vietnam's Mekong Delta.

Men take a break from loading rice onto a canal boat near Chau Doc, Vietnam.

A boy at his daycare, where his mother works for a social enterprise that produces silk shawls, near Stung Treng, Cambodia.

Khun Gong weaves traditional Thai fabrics near Chiang Khong, Thailand. Now over 80, she's been doing this work her entire life.

At the market at Can Tho, Vietnam.

Manh tends her market flower garden near Sa Dec, Vietnam.

A damm being built on one channel of the Mekong at the Cambodia/Laos border. Locals worried about the impact of the dam on water levels, and the local endangered Irrawaddy dolphin population.

An Irrawaddy river dolphin - critically endangered in Laos and Cambodia - jumps near Kratie, Cambodia.

Laos workers unload coal from boats on the Mekong, at Nakhom Phanom, Thailand.

Tamchu Pamo with her family in her home that borders the Lancang river - the name of the Mekong in much of China. Juela village, Qinghai Province, China.

Boys relax with a swim after school at a mouth of the Mekong near Soc Trang, in southern Vietnam.

A woman unravels fishing net on a canal offshot of the Mekong, near Soc Trang, Vietnam.

Hue Lac helps Dieu Ngoc tie her robes, at their monastery near Can Tho, Vietnam.

Taea Rong feeds the chickens she is raising thanks to a local organization that helps women start businesses and save. Khao Phdao, an island in the Mekong, Cambodia.

The small border post on the Mekong on the route from Chau Doc, Vietnam, to Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

A boy helps his family harvest barley, on the banks of the Dza Chu - the Mekong in Qinghai Province, China.

Aerobics on the banks of the Mekong at Nakhom Phanom, Thailand. Many Mekong towns have developed public space on the riverbanks.

Road-side restaurant at the pleasant town of Chiang Rai, near the Golden Triangle in Thailand.

Eating at a popular fast-food chain in Chau Doc, Vietnam.

The fish market in Chau Doc, Vietnam. Fish merchants along the river say the fish stocks are in decline, likely due to over-fishing, and damming upriver.