Taking The Plunge

Two elite kayakers risk all as they take on the full might of the Mekong at the Khone Falls.

- Lachie Carracher

CONNECTING CHINA, LAOS, THAILAND, Cambodia and Vietnam, the 4,350km Mekong River has been a vital trade artery for centuries. But at the very southern tip of Laos, it abruptly changes character in an area called Si Phan Don, Laotian for ‘4,000 islands’. Here the river braids out into hundreds of channels and tumbles down the Khone Falls, Southeast Asia’s largest waterfalls by volume.

The falls effectively divide the Mekong into two rivers: the ‘Upper’ and ‘Lower’, for they are quite insurmountable in any ordinary craft. To a certain kind of kayaker however, the falls are an irresistible draw.