Trip Report: Visiting the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone in Laos
Last August I crossed the Mekong river from Thailand into the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone in Laos. I had seen a few videos online about the place and read a few stories online about the place, but I still decided to go see it for myself.
It's essentially a casino city with Chinese signs, luxury cars without number plates, unfinished construction projects and hardly any normal tourism infrastructure. It has links to a Chinese billionaire with connections to organised crime etc.
There are rumors of human trafficking to operate scam centers, money laundering and anything you could imagine happens when the only security is paid for by the people running the area (the Laos police aren't allowed to enter). So naturally I thought why not walk around with a GoPro and film it...
In the center market area a group of guys from South India saw me and called me over to warn me about not filming and essentially to be on high alert there. Turns out they were actually scammers working there, I regret not asking them more questions about how they came here ect but I actually think it was smart not to ask too many questions incase someone started wondering why I'm asking too many questions with a camera and microphone recording the conversation
I never felt unsafe there, no one threatened me or caused me any problems but the whole place has a strange and eerie feeling about it. After talking to the guys from India I decided to go to the casino, have a quick look and then get in a taxi back to the river border crossing. Once I got back into Thailand you know I relaxed with a J and rethought my life decisions....
It's definitely not somewhere I would visit again and 100% not a place I would suggest others visit but somewhere off my list I guess