OLIVER RAW PHOTO

Thailand's Golden Triangle

 

The Golden Triangle—where Thailand, Myanmar and Laos converge—has long occupied a place in the imagination as a lawless frontier, synonymous with opium caravans, warlords and illicit economies. For decades, this mountainous borderland functioned less as a set of fixed national boundaries than as a porous, shifting zone of competing interests, with insurgent armies, ethnic militias and state forces vying for control of territory and trade.

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I set out by scooter to explore Thailand’s northern frontier. Beginning in Mae Salong, a former Kuomintang stronghold settled by remnants of China’s “lost army,” I rode east to Thoet Thai—an ethnic Shan town that once served as the base of Khun Sa, the notorious opium baron—before climbing into Doi Tung, where former poppy fields have been replanted with coffee. Following the Myanmar frontier, I arrived at Mae Sai, a bustling border town and the country’s northernmost city, before continuing to the Lao border and the Golden Triangle SEZ—a modern enclave of casinos and murky cross-border commerce.

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You can read about my journey here.