I Saw Tomorrow’s World, And It’s Beautiful
© Getty Images / Lauren DeCicca
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I have exited the gates of my hotel and found myself in India. Then, in maybe fifteen minutes, I was already in China, that was furiously celebrating its New Year (end of festivities are in evidence this week).
I have exited the gates of my hotel and found myself in India. Then, in maybe fifteen minutes, I was already in China, that was furiously celebrating its New Year (end of festivities are in evidence this week). And at the last stage of that short journey by taxi I’ve entered a kind of a little Russia.
The city I’m describing is Pattaya in Thailand, a big sea port in the Gulf of Siam. To me, that was a visit to a possible world of tomorrow. And there is a good story behind that trip.
The thing is, I’ve accidentally stumbled into writing a novel about the world after the current Hybrid World War Three, maybe the world in 2030 or something around that. You need a good venue for such a thriller, and my trip to the beaches of Thailand seemed to be right that. So I partially spent that much-awaited holiday writing down my impressions from a long beach in the island of Chang, with subsequent transit home through Pattaya.
A beach with international fame is a perfect setting for a novel about the future, since it’s a place where tourists and legal (or illegal) residents from all over the world meet and match.
Goa and, maybe, Maldives is one example, as well as Bali in Indonesia. It’s a kind of a neutral ground, where folks of all races start their life anew and learn to live next to each other and respect some kind of common rules, the rules establishing themselves in the course of that global interaction in a relatively limited space on foreign territory.
One basic rule here is respect to each other’s lifestyles and, indeed, to each other’s existence. Such attitude may be very different from what goes on at home or nearby places. Thing is, the people on the beach usually know quite well they are not at home and have to leave their illusions and animosities behind, building themselves a kind of a new world.
The best example may be Russians and Ukrainians, their states still at war with each other. Both have formed, long ago, permanent communities in different areas of Thailand. There are about 14 thousand Russians living on the island of Phuket in the Indian Ocean, says Ms. Tatiana Kim, the current chairlady of the Alliance of Russian Compatriots in Thailand.
But, she adds, there are also about seven thousand of Ukrainians on the same island. And they do not fight each other, sometimes they meet and talk. Some of these Ukrainians come to her to discuss certain small problems, and it is just like it was before the war, when Ukrainian citizenship did not mean that people did not consider themselves Russian.
And that is a sensation in itself. Thing is, in the year 2022, when the hostilities started, millions of Ukrainians trekked to Russia, but other millions went to Europe.
The general atmosphere in Europe was, and to an extent still is, such that Ukrainians, as well as locals, were supposed to stage violent demonstrations against Russians, living there or coming as tourists. European governments were actively sponsoring that political pressure, at the same time gradually strangling Russian tourism in the Western direction.
As a result, Russian tourism went east, be it the Middle East, or Thailand, or anywhere else. If you see a European-looking tourist in any place of Thailand, you have a 50-50 chance of hearing Russian speech from that person. The permanent Russian community there stands at about 60-70 thousands, while the number of annual visitors is close to 2 million. And if you want proof of Russia’s pivot to the east, all you need is a stroll along a beach or a tourist street in Thailand, Indonesia and other such places.
You won’t see many Americans there, and European presence looks very much diminished now. These Western folks have obviously not anticipated a situation when Russians, instead of being isolated and boycotted world over, becoming kings of Eastern tourism economy. What’s important, that’s the way Russia is learning to love Eastern cultures and vice versa.
Russians are dominating the North of Pattaya, with street signs being proof of that. But, as I said, the South part of that city is absolutely Indian, judging by smells and signs it could belong to any other place around the Indian Ocean. But, still, it’s Bangkok that is the center of Indian Thais.
The roots grow very deep. You may read that India’s ties with Thailand date back around 2,500 years, when Emperor Ashoka sent Buddhist missionaries (Bhikkhus) to Suvarnabhumi. While today any Russian with zero basic knowledge of Asian cultures will just have to wonder at the Indian-looking Thai temples, which are Southern Buddhist. Many years ago I wondered myself at the statue of Lord Krishna playing the flute, that statue being the symbol of the hotel I normally choose in Pattaya. My colleagues are dropping hints at the lost opportunities of the great Indian-based Angkor culture, that could have spanned most of continental South East Asia.
Bangkok, now – here I would refer you to a feature of a nice local Indian lady. She speaks about the Pahurat district, part of Bangkok’s Old Town and affectionately known as the city’s unofficial ‘Little India’. As a fourth-generation Indian, she writes, I’m regularly lured to Pahurat by the tantalising aroma of freshly fried samosas.
“My visits usually start at the golden-domed Sikh gurdwara, where I help out at the free kitchen and commune, and pick up the latest gossip before heading over to Royal India restaurant – a longstanding local icon – for some Indian sweets and a steaming cup of cardamom tea,” she says.
If you want bare facts and figures, you’ll discover from another source that, as of 2024, the population of Indians in Thailand stands at 2.10 lakh, making up approximately 2% of the expatriate population. According to the Thai Census, about 65,000 Indian Thais hold full Thai citizenship. However, broader estimates suggest that around 400,000 persons of Indian origin reside in Thailand.
The majority of Indians in Thailand are descendants of those who migrated during the 19th and 20th centuries. While many came from Tamil Nadu and other parts of Southern India, others hailed from Delhi, Punjab, Rajasthan, and Gujarat in Northern India. The Pahurat district in Bangkok, often referred to as “Little India,” is a bustling fabric market and the hub of the Indian commercial community, dominated by Sikhs.
Chinese in Thailand, now – their story is similarly long, spanning centuries. Yes, there is a Chinatown in Bangkok, too, which makes that city being a bit like Kuala Lumpur, where the old Chinatown and Little India stand side by side, divided only by one long street.
In Pattaya, I saw the Chinese dominating the back streets of the city center, making it red and terribly noisy, since the Year of the Snake was in. But, normally, that community, though very much present in finance and the rest of big business, is not so visible.
The Thais, a wise nation numerically vastly dominating the Indians and Chinese in their own Thai territory, always accepted them, probably, as two windows to the great world.
Nationals of both countries may get in visa-free these days, same with Russians, noticeably dwindling the Western presence. For us, Russians, to repeat, such trip is a chance to see the Asian world in all its beauty and intricacy.
Getting back to my future novel, I already have some ideas about the tomorrow's world, since I’ve had some glimpses of it in Thailand. I beg to disagree with the great poet Leonard Cohen, with his famous “I’ve seen the future, baby, and it’s murder”. To me, the future, the one in the making on neutral grounds like Goa, Bali, Chang or Pattaya, is not bad at all.
Dmitry Kosyrev is a Russian writer, author of spy novels and short stories. He also did columns for the Pioneer and Firstpost.com
