The Golden Triangle is the name for an area of 350.000 square kilometres,
where Thailand be conterminous with Laos and Burma (Myanmar).
For centuries the golden triangle was one of Asia´s main illegal opium producing areas.


golden-triangle.jpg
Foto: Sign at the burmese border in Mae Sai – North Thailand 1998

In the Year 1998 we went to the small town of Mae Sai in North Thailand
at the burmese border, which is something like the center of the golden triangle.
Ten years later, in April 2008 we visited Mae Sai again
and we´ve been very surprised that the Golden Triangle sign has been gone.
The Sign has been replaced by a thai-style archway with the inscription:
The Northern Most Of Thailand

the-northern-most-of-thailand.jpg

While years before the Thai tourism industry
used the dubious and thrilling Term “The Golden Triangle”
to attract tourists,
now it looks like the war on drugs has already be won,
For sure there are less poppy plantation over last decades,
but a new drug swammped all over Thailand about 20 years ago.
Ya Bah is an amphetamine/crank mostly produced in burmese drug kitchens
and then smuggled to Thailand and even to the USA.
The drug Ya Bah is a big problem in Thailand and not just with Thai kids.

The Golden Triangle is still alive,
just the sign is gone.

2leep.com

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