This is the fastest river that I have seen in a long, long time. It is called the Mekong River, and we saw it in Thailand. We took a boat to a long flat island called Dong Kong Island, part of the four thousand islands. There are whirlpools that form on the surface of the river and twist the boats around a bit. When you are standing on the shore and look out at the river and watch the boats across the water come towards you, you can see the boats get swept downstream and have to fight their way back up.

The native people fish there. They place one line with a rock on it so that it stays there then they drift downstream, dropping lines as they go, that are all attached to one another - then at the last one, they drop anther rock and come back the next morning to see if they got anything.

In the evenings, my family and I would go to a restaurant that was right on the waterfront and watch as everyone came in for the night. One time people set off fire works. It was very beautiful. This is a good place to go. There are almost no people, the bikes are cheap to rent, and other than the wind, it is a great place to go for an all day ride. It’s a very flat island with only two major towns.  There are little villages around those.

It was very peaceful. I recommend it to anyone looking for a nice quiet week.

Gabriel Miller is a member of the Youth Travel Blogging Mentorship Program.

Photo courtesy and copyright Gabriel Miller