Mekong River in the context of Cần Thơ

Don Det (Lao: ດອນເດດ) is an island in the Mekong River in the Si Phan Don ("Four Thousand Islands") archipelago in Champasak Province of southern Laos.

The Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone (Lao: ເຂດເສດຖະກິດພິເສດສາມຫຼ່ຽມຄຳ, Chinese: 金三角经济特区; pinyin: Jīnsānjiǎo Jīngjìtèqū, abbreviated GTSEZ) is located along the Mekong River in the Ton Pheung District of Bokeo Province in Laos. The zone has an area of about 3,000 hectares; it was created in 2007 by the Lao government together with the Hong Kong-registered company Kings Romans Group, with the stated goal of generating regional economic development.

At the centre of the zone is the Kings Romans casino and several hotels, which attracts mostly Chinese visitors. The local infrastructure is de facto Chinese, Mandarin is widely spoken and the Chinese yuan is the preferred currency. It is part of a wider trend of casinos emerging in the Mekong region, following the displacement of money laundering activities from Macao in 2014.

Stung Treng (Khmer: ស្ទឹងត្រែង, UNGEGN: Stœ̆ng Trêng [stɨŋ traeŋ]; Lao: ຊຽງແຕງ, Xiang Taeng, pronounced [sía̯ŋ tɛ̀ːŋ]; lit. "River of Reeds") is a province of Cambodia in the northeast. It borders the provinces of Ratanakiri to the east, Mondulkiri and Kratié to the south and Kampong Thom and Preah Vihear to the west. Its northern boundary is Cambodia's international border with Laos. The Mekong River bisects the province. The province is mostly covered by forest, but logging and fishing put high pressure on the forest and fishery reserves.

Isan or Northeastern Thai (autonym: ภาษาลาว/ພາສາລາວ, IPA: [pʰâː.sǎː lâːw]; Thai: ภาษาอีสาน, RTGS: Phasa Isan) refers to the local development of the Lao language in Thailand, after the political split of the Lao-speaking world at the Mekong River at the conclusion of the Franco-Siamese crisis of 1893. The language is still referred to as Lao by native speakers.

As a variety of the Lao language, Isan belongs to the Southwestern branch of Tai languages in the Kra-Dai language family. It is most closely related to (other than Lao) "tribal" Tai languages such as Phu Thai and Tai Yo. Isan is officially classified as a dialect of the Thai language by the Thai government. Although (Central) Thai is a closely related Southwestern Tai language, it falls within a different subbranch. Central Thai and Isan are mutually intelligible only with difficulty; even though they share over 80% cognate vocabulary, they have very different tonal patterns and vowel qualities, and many commonly used words in Isan differ from Thai, thus hampering comprehension.

Champasak (or Champassak, Champasack – Lao: ຈຳປາສັກ [t͡ɕàm pàː sák]) is a province in southwestern Laos, near the borders with Thailand and Cambodia. It is 1 of the 3 principalities that succeeded the Lao kingdom of Lan Xang. As of the 2015 census, it had a population of 694,023. The capital is Pakse, and the province takes its name from Champasak, the former capital of the Kingdom of Champasak.

Champasak is bordered by Salavan province to the north, Sekong province to the northeast, Attapeu province to the east, Cambodia to the south, and Thailand to the west. The Mekong River forms part of the border with neighboring Thailand and contains Si Phan Don ('Four Thousand Islands') in the south of the province, on the border with Cambodia.