Understand
Historically the Golden Triangle has been an area well-known for the growing of opium, and the name comes from a US State Department memo on the practice. These days, though, the place lives on the cultivation of tourists, and this is undoubtedly the largest tourist trap in northern Thailand.
The landscape is hilly, divided by the Ruak River that flows into the Mekong Mae Khong River. These rivers form a natural boundary between the three countries Laos to the east of the Mekong, Myanmar to the north of the Ruak, and Thailand to the west of the Mae Khong.
