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Geography

TrailIndexPage | HomePage | Setting | Geography

South Vietnam

Much of your tour will be in South Vietnam, an area almost equal to the size of Germany, with a coast that stretches a distance equal to that of the eastern US from Boston to Miami. It is divided into three major regions. The Mekong Delta occupies the southern portion of the country. It is mostly fertile plains, which since it is not higher than sea level is cultivated with rice paddies down to the Ca Mau peninsula, where the plains give way to dense jungles and swamps. The Chaine Annamitque forms the second major region; it is a mountain range that ranges in elevation from 5000 to 8500 feet, with the southernmost spur extending from China and Tibet. This irregular terrain is covered in bamboo and tropical forests; expect to find rubber plantations and farms, also, dedicated to coffee, tea, tobacco, and vegetable cultivation. The last major division of Southern Vietnam is the coastal enclaves, extending from the spurs of the mountains. Again, expect to find rice cultivation in the area. There will be roads in places, left from the French colonization; most will, at some point or another, lead to the capital, Vietnamese capital (held by the NVA), Hanoi.

North Vietnam

Formed from the 1954 peace accords in Geneva, North Vietnam is hopefully where you will be when most of the fighting breaks out. It consists of the old Indochinese provinces of Tonkin and parts of Annam. Ho Chi Minh became the leader of the North, with his seat of power in the old French capital of Hanoi. North Vietnam consists mostly of highlands and the Red River Delta. Flowing from China through Vietnam to the South China Sea, the Red River flows generally southeast enters Vietnam through Lào Cai Province, and eventually passes by the eastern edge of the Vietnamese capital Hanoi. Tonkin is located on the river delta. In colonial days, the French and other powers attempted to establish the Red River as a trading artery with China, with some success. The Black River is the Red River's chief tributary.

Laos

Laos is a landlocked country, roughly the size of Oregon. It was formed from the remnants of an earlier civilization into the Kingdom of Laos. Joined together with Combodia and Vietnam into French Indochina, this country was basically left alone by its imperial masters. The northern half of the country is ocvered in rough hills an back limestone spires, which gradually give way to the Plain of Jars. This area is a black plain covered by ancient stone burial urns whose origins are lost in the mists of time. The southern half of the country narrows and empties into the Bolovens plateau, bounded on the east by the Chaine Annamitique mountains.

Cambodia

Cambodia is the size of Missouri, and shares borders with Thailand on the north and west, Laos on the northeast, and Vietnam to the east and southeast. Its most important topographical feature is teh plain formed by the Tonle Sap, measuring about 2500 square kilometers during the dry season, to about ten times that in the rainy season. This densely populated plain is devoted to wet rice cultivation, and constitutes the heartland of Cambodia.

Category: TheNam