I’m on Evergreen Island, close to the town of Tan Chau, in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, on day two of a Mekong River cruise, when I meet a chatty farmer who offers me rice wine whiskey, a stool to sit on, and plenty of local insight, as chickens peck at my feet.
Although this is a region prone to flooding (he shows me the patched-up dinghy he’s had since the 1980s that still serves him well), his current life looks idyllic: his fields of taro are blooming with yellow flowers, his cows are fat, and his youngest daughter has just got married (a poster-size wedding photo hangs next to the family altar), but this wasn’t always the case.
