On Location

The Golden Triangle: The three hundred thousand square miles of mountainous terrain across northwestern Thailand, northeastern Burma (now Myanmar), and northern Laos is home to hundreds of different ethnic hill tribes and remains the largest opium-producing region in the world.

Bangkok: Capital city of Thailand.

"The city of angels, the great city, the residence of the Emerald Buddha, the impregnable city (of Ayutthaya) of God Indra, the grand capital of the world endowed with nine precious gems, the happy city, abounding in an enormous Royal Palace that resembles the heavenly abode where reigns the reincarnated god, a city given by Indra and built by Vishnukarn."

"This was Bangkok. A city of extraordinary opulence and abject poverty."

"...astonishing elegance and extreme depravity living side by side. One had only to turn his head to pass from one to another."

"Bangkok, a city of dark shadows, abounding in brothels, gaming houses, and saloons, where mobsters and cops fraternized and boasted openly about their exploits, and girls, thousands, and thousands of young girls, sold themselves for the promise of a future."

Chiang Mai: Northern Thailand's largest and most beautiful city, nestled at the foot of majestic Doi Suthep Mountain, is the most famous city in the Golden Triangle.

Chiang Rai: Thailand's northernmost city, a few miles from the border of Laos, is as much a part of the Golden Triangle as the mountainous hill tribe villages.

Pattaya: A once sleepy beach town, only ninety miles south of Bangkok on the Gulf of Thailand, swelled with the start of the Vietnam War and quickly became the preferred R&R destination for U.S. troops and a vacation haven for tourists. The only business that mushroomed faster than the new resorts, bars, and massage parlors was prostitution.

Ban Su: This remote and nondescript hill tribe village, secluded in some of the most rugged hills of the Golden Triangle, was so small that it was never on any map.