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World

The Golden Triangle’s Sin City is a nightmarish place

30 March 2025

3:55 PM

30 March 2025

3:55 PM

A rickety boat took me across the murky, brown waters of the mighty Mekong River from Chiang Saen in Thailand, with its giant golden Buddha perched on the hillside, to the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in supposedly communist Laos. But the SEZ is neither particularly communist, nor even really a part of Laos.

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