Golden Triangle of South East Asia

Myanmar is to the left and Laos on the right 

The golden triangle near the North Eastern border of Thailand is actually a border of three countries - Myanmar, Thailand and Laos. If you are visiting Chiang Rai, I would recommend that you set aside a day to visit it. 

While I was already crossing borders between these countries, I was curious to see where all the three could be seen. And this was far from both border towns - Mae Sai (Myanmar border) and Chiang Khong (Laos border). So I took the local bus from Chiang Khong (fare 65 baht) which took 2 hours to get to Chiang Saen from where another 10 km by tuktuk (20 baht) took me to the famous (or infamous! ) golden triangle. You can also hire a taxi or motorbike from Chiang Rai and see the tribal villages on the way.

When you arrive at the Golden Triangle, there are many signboards announcing the same with photo opportunity. I took a few pictures too. 

This is also the place where the Ruak River from Myanmar joins the Mekong. The stark colour difference of the two rivers is clearly visible in the picture. 

The blue color is Mekong river and the muddy colored is the Ruak 

As was the tradition in Thailand, no place could be without Buddha, so you have some garish coloured structure housing Lord Buddha at the viewpoint of Golden Triangle. 

And since Buddha was not enough to protect the border, there was Lord Ganesha too 😂

It is also interesting to note the vast difference between Laos and Myanmar here. While the Laos side has a special economic zone and skyscrapers, the Myanmar side just has rudimentary border post and a few boats. 

The skyscrapers on the Laos side

The special economic zone on the Laos side

The crossing on the Myanmar side 

The border areas of these three countries have been known for opium cultivation - both legal and illegal, and have been a participant in the two Opium wars… Thailand and Laos have greatly controlled or rather curbed Opium cultivation by educating farmers on ill effects of Opium and giving them alternative crops. But Myanmar remains the highest cultivator of Opium, a large amount of it illegal. There is an interesting museum called Hall of Opium at the Golden Triangle entry to which is priced steeply at 200 baht, but it was worth the money for me, gave me an insight into the 5000 year old history of opium and how British and other Western countries used it to control their Asian colonies - China, India, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar. It was eye opening to learn about Opium wars even before world war 1.