CHECK OUT MY SPONSOR: Rocket money go to www.rocketmoney.com/hoe and use my code hoe Every day, thousands of Chinese visitors cross the border to Mong La in northeast Myanmar. And it’s obvious why: You can get anything here, from bee’s nests full of wiggling larvae to liquor served out of vats containing dead cobras to a complete crocodile carcass soaked in wine. Mong La is a 5,000-square-kilometer fiefdom in the Golden Triangle region ruled by a communist guerrilla turned drug lord. It’s infamous for the flagrancy of its sin-based industries like prostitution, drug trafficking, and the selling of endangered animals. Along the town’s neon-soaked streets there are dozens of garish hotels, seedy gambling halls and nightclubs, and—further out of town—flashy casinos. Everything here is geared toward Chinese visitors, who cannot legally gamble in their home country: Signs are in Chinese, the currency and phone networks are Chinese, and clocks are set to Beijing time. Sources https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2024-golden-triangle-special-economic-zone/?embedded-checkout=true https://www.rfa.org/english/news/laos/golden-triangle-11252022131629.html https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3195932/laos-criminal-casino-empire-chinese-gangsters https://thediplomat.com/2021/04/chinese-casino-magnates-empire-set-to-expand-in-laos/ https://thediplomat.com/2023/09/un-report-details-massive-scale-of-southeast-asias-scamdemic/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Triangle_(Southeast_Asia) https://www.crisisgroup.org/asia/south-east-asia/stepping-south-east-asias-most-conspicuous-criminal-enclave https://time.com/6899646/scams-trafficking-drugs-southeast-asia-golden-triangle/ https://www.rfa.org/english/news/laos/golden-triangle-sez-scammers-08122024171757.html https://eia-international.org/news/eia-at-40-lifting-the-lid-on-sin-city-laos-notorious-playground-for-illegal-wildlife-trade/ BUY MY COFFEE IT’S DELICIOUS https://tablowroastingco.com/products/stakuyi-lewis-dark Travel with me Travel to Germany with me https://trovatrip.com/trip/europe/germany-and-austria/germany-with-steven-bell-nov-2024 Subscribe to my channels and let me know what more you would like to see. We organize games through discord: https://discord.gg/BJsRA6UpXx Twitch https://twitch.tv/stakuyi Podcast: https://historyofeverythingpodcast.com/