AS sacrificial flowers and the smell of incense drift down a Mekong river flowing silver in the setting sun, it is easy to think everything is beautiful in An Giang.
But out on the edge of the towns, along the shady canals and up and down the banks of the vast Mekong itself are thousands of people in wooden boats making a living out of uncertainty and desperation.
They are the ethnic Vietnamese fishermen and traders who have spent much of their lives in Cambodia and consider themselves legal citizens.
They continue to return in their thousands, seeking shelter and survival on the Vietnam side of the border.
It is said the rice grows faster and the tomatoes and cucumbers larger in An Giang than anywhere else in Vietnam, but such abundance is elusive to the river people.
Haggard, gaunt and tired, they depend on the Mekong and its tributaries for everything; for food, drink, water for washing and space in a delta society where land is all that counts.
Surrounded by chickens and fish penned around a few tiny rooms, Nguyen Van Duc rocks his young daughter in his arms aboard his tiny house-boat under a blistering sun.
