Thailand. We are on a long boat in the Golden Triangle which is an area where the Mekong and Ruak rivers cross. From the middle of the river you can see Laos to the east in the background mountains, Myanmar(Burma) to the north and Thailand to the west.
You can also see this very big Buddha which was sadly built as a tourist attraction in 2006. We passed on the tour of the Buddha.
What is remarkable about this area, is the amount of opium production. Most of the heroin in the world was produced here until recently when Afganistan took over as the leading heroin producer. Burma is still the second largest producer of opium today.
We went through numerous police checkpoints on the roads in Thailand where the police are looking for drugs. The day we flew out, we read about 4 Burma drug smugglers being killed by Thai police trying to cross the border. It was then Mom remembered she heard gun shots the night before. No wonder the security was so high at the resort! Lions and tigers and bears, oh my.