This story appears in the May 2006 issue of National Geographic magazine. I've always believed the best way to know a river is to paddle it, to feel its undercurrents and speed, to take in the ...

On a pale blue dawn on the Irrawaddy River in Myanmar (Burma), Maung Lay crouched at the front of his canoe, rapping the gunwale with a short stick. He then made a throaty, high-pitched purr, like the ...

Sunrises dazzle in the morning river fog. Sunsets do the same when filtered through smoke rising from the burning stubble of rice fields. You find pleasant splashes of color everywhere during a voyage ...

Earlier this year, the last Irrawaddy river dolphin in a transboundary pool between Cambodia and Laos became entangled in fishing gear and died, signifying the extinction of the species in Laos. The ...