Physician shares photos from 2 weeks in Thailand
Comparing locations by latitude, the Golden Triangle of Thailand – the country’s southeastern mountainous region, which borders the countries Myanmar and Laos – sits just north of Miami, Fla. And on this cold January day as I’m writing these words, it’s 80 degrees there. Nice.
Still lacking the tech to teleport, we can live vicariously through words and the pictures taken by Good Samaritan CMO Liz Withers, MD, MBA, who spent two weeks recently, including New Year’s, touring the region.
Where did you go?
“Thailand, for two weeks. We visited the Golden Triangle area, which included the cities of Chiang Rai, Chiang Saen, Ban Thaton, Fang, Chiang Mai, Phuket and Bangkok. For nine days, my husband and I were with a group of 17 people from all over the US. For the rest of the two weeks, we were on our own in Phuket and Bangkok for NYE.”
Why Thailand?
“I majored in Asian History in college and have a particular appreciation and love of visiting new places in Asia (and elsewhere!). I had only spent a night in Bangkok before on my way to Nepal and wanted to go back to spend more time. We wanted to do a biking trip and chose this trip with Backroads, which allowed us to both bike and see a lot of the country in nine days!”
How would you describe the people?
“Incredibly friendly, polite, quick to smile and great you. Incredibly service oriented. Such a friendly place to ride bikes and great roads. People rarely honk their horn and give you a lot of space on the road.”
What were your favorite moments?
“We visited an elementary school, and they were learning English. We answered their questions and had a great time interacting with a group of 10-to-13-year-olds who were incredibly curious and funny! I also loved all the moments when I forgot I was riding a bike because the scenery was so beautiful. Rice patties, tapioca fields and huge Buddha statues! I loved riding through a rural town and seeing the older women smile and greet us as if we were friends. Also, walking with the elephants in the elephant sanctuary in Chiang Rai was one of my favorite activities. Elephants are amazing. They live to be 60 to 80 years old, communicate by grunting and with other sounds, have 150,000+ muscles in their trunks and spend 80 percent of the day eating because they eat on average 400 pounds of food per day! Used for labor in the past, but they now have a lot of sanctuaries and protections. There are around 4,300 elephants in Thailand, and we did run into some on our bike too! We also almost ran over two cobras in the road, which was freaky! Finally, the food is amazing! I never got tired of breakfast curry!”
Do you recommend it to others?
“ABSOLUTELY! One of the most friendly, beautiful and interesting places I have been. Highly recommend visiting the Golden Triangle area especially!”