Mekong River
— — the river that finishes in nine arms.
Not only on a wall.
“In Vietnam the Mekong is called Cửu Long — the Nine Dragons — for the branches it sends to the sea across the southern delta. The river has run roughly 4,350 kilometres by the time it gets here, from the Tibetan Plateau through five other countries. At Cái Răng outside Cần Thơ, boats trade pineapples and rambutans on the water before the heat lifts. The current carries the colour of the silt all the way to the South China Sea.
Mekong River, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
The Mekong rises on the Tibetan Plateau and runs roughly 4,350 kilometres through China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, and Cambodia before entering Vietnam. The Vietnamese delta — Đồng bằng sông Cửu Long — covers about 40,000 square kilometres of southern Vietnam and is home to around 17 million people. The river splits into a network of branches and canals before reaching the South China Sea through nine principal mouths, which give the delta its Vietnamese name: the Nine Dragons. Most of the floor sits within two metres of sea level.
The delta produces roughly half of Vietnam's rice and most of its freshwater fish, and the water itself runs heavy with silt the river has carried from the Yunnan highlands. Tidal influence reaches as far as Cần Thơ, 80 kilometres inland, so the river runs two directions through the day. Salt intrusion in the dry months has become measurable as far north as Vĩnh Long since upstream dams began trapping sediment, according to the Mekong River Commission. The colour shifts brown to green by reach and season.
Most visitors reach the delta from Hồ Chí Minh City — about two hours by road to Mỹ Tho, four to Cần Thơ. The Cái Răng floating market on a branch of the Hậu river begins at first light and is winding down by eight; wholesalers hang a sample of what they are selling from a tall pole called a cây bẹo. Wooden sampans take passengers through the smaller canals around Bến Tre, where coconut and cacao groves run to the water. The rhythm of the day is tidal, not clock-bound.