RIVER

India's Brahmaputra River is the 29th longest river in the world at 2,948 km long, and has a discharge of 19,200 cubic litres per second which puts northern India's great waterway in the top 10 when it comes to volume. This is a massive waterway, being the only river on Earth clearly visible from the moon during the Apollo missions.

The Ganges River is the 34th longest river in the world at 2,620km, flowing down through the Himalayas to form the Gangetic Plain of North India eventually to discharge into the Bay of Bengal through Bangladesh. The Hooghly river connects the Ganges river to Kolkata with a ship lock as part of the Farakka Barrage that diverts water away from Bangladesh.

The Song Hong or Red River rises deep in the Yunnan mountains of south-west China to flow 714 miles (1,149km) across Northern Vietnam to discharge into the Gulf of Tonkin. It is an ancient trade route and was the route by which French explorers in the 19th century penetrated Yunnan, eventually reaching Kunming. Hanoi, capital of Vietnam straddles the river and close to its mouth lies Halong Bay, with its dramatic scenery.

The Mekong River is the 12th largest river in the world flowing 4,350km from SW China to discharge into the sea through a vast delta in Vietnam. Discharging 16,000 cubic meters per second this great beast of a river actually flows through or marks the boundaries of six different nations: China, Laos, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam

The Tonle River is the Mekong's main tributary that flows down from the Tonle Sap or "Great Lake" in central Cambodia. That giant body of water is 100km from end to end and in the rains it quadruples in size flooding much of the surrounding floodplain. The Tonle river changes direction twice a year: when the monsoon arrives, the flow from the Mekong backs up to the central plain and when the rains end, the river reverses direction and empties the flood back out into the Mekong.