Spirituality and indulgence go hand-in-hand in Thailand. And so do poverty and opulence, writes Nalin Verma



They were mesmerised by the dancers in dazzling costumes, swaying to the music at the magnificently decorated theatre. It was the ‘Alkazar Show’, a stage performance, which attracts huge crowds at a theatre at Pattaya in Thailand. The Indian delegates comprising politicians, airlines’ officials and journalists had flown on the inaugural Gaya-Bangkok flight on 18 December to Thailand for a three-day pleasure trip.

What pleased them more was the dancers’ offer to hold the Indian guests in their arms and have pictures taken for a payment of 100 baht (Thai currency) each. But it soon transpired that the dancers were not girls but boys posing as girls.

“Yeh to dhokha hai (It’s a fraud)”, murmured a guest in frustration while boarding the air-conditioned bus Indian Airlines had hired for site-seeing trips. Cox and King’s guide, Toni who was at the disposal of the guests confirmed: “The Alkazar Show dancers are not girls… they are lady boys.” But you will find real stuff (read girls) there,” Tony said, showing his index finger from the speeding bus towards a pub-cum-brothel where prostitutes were in abundance awaiting their customers. “Don’t feel shy,” Toni said with a broad smile. “Go and have fun… People come to Pattaya to enjoy life.” A few of the guests decided to get the real stuff. “Three hundred baht for suc****… three hundred baht for suc****…” This was how a scantily dressed ‘girl’ was shouting. “Why only suc****… I want go the whole hog,” said a guest shedding his shyness. But the “girl” was not ready to go beyond “suc****.” And at this stage, the guest sensed that this one too was not the “real stuff.” It too was a boy who had undergone surgery to pose as a girl in the sex market. “Yahan to dhokha hi dhokha hai (Here it’s fraud all around)”, hissed the guest. This was the sex bazaar of Pattaya, a nerve centre of sex tourism, which attracts a huge number of pleasure seekers from different part of the world. ‘Lady boys’ and girls are available in plenty at this beach city of Thailand.

Contradictions are galore in Thailand. You can find an array of pubs, go-go bars, massage parlours and brothels with girls striking deals with their customers in the open on one side of the road. And on the other are Buddhist monks in their saffron robes. There are men and women in their bikinis basking in the sun on Kolharn beach. But you also come across a poor and wrinkled-faced herb seller eating course grains and vegetables in a corner on the beach. Spirituality and indulgence go hand-in-hand in Thailand. And so do poverty and opulence.

Shiny Volvos, Coronas, Rangers and Mitsubishi cars, air-conditioned buses, towering skyscrapers, majestic hotels and restaurants and three to four-lane roads greet visitors in Bangkok (the Thai capital) and Pattaya. Probably, no Indian city can match Bangkok for the quality of roads, hotels, supermarkets and other civic amenities. But it’s hard to find a Thai-built car or bus or truck either in Bangkok or in Pattaya. Thai cities are just thriving markets. There is hardly anything Thai except the Buddhist temples. And of course, the girls and ‘lady boys’ selling pleasure to tourists.

Has Thailand been a destination of sex tourists since ancient days? “No, no, the Thai Government’s decision to open Pattaya to shelter US soldiers during the Vietnam war brought about a sea change in the life style,” said Suvit (50), a jewel merchant who was enjoying coffee with his wife Rapeephan at a restaurant on Silom road in Bangkok.

Suvit who has watched his country from pre-Vietnam war, said Pattaya was a simple sea beach inhabited by fishermen who eked out their livelihood by fishing. There was a very small market in Pattaya which catered to the needs of local people. Of course, prostitution did exist but not on this scale. And the sex workers were mainly upcountry poor women who had no other source of livelihood.

When the US soldiers came, they got the locals to open a number of pubs and recreation resorts. “They paid the sex workers in dollars,” said Suvit, adding: “Girls who were getting 50 or 100 bahts for entertaining a customer started earning $15 to $20 for the same work. That started the boom.” But are these girls happy massaging unknown men and entertaining five to six customers per day? “I will change the profession immediately if I get an alternative”, said Fun, a sex worker, adding dejectedly: “But I know I won’t get other jobs for I don’t know English.”

Traditional religion and Buddhist-based educational institutions became virtually obsolete with the advent of computerised supermarkets, modern hotels and restaurants, call centres and business offices. The traditional education system couldn’t have ensured jobs. And modern education which demands a knowledge of English and computers, is too costly for the lower middle class and poor sections of Thai society.

India is one of the favoured destinations for relatively poor Thai students seeking modern education. “More than 700,000 Thai students study in various universities and colleges of India,” said Ms Leela K Ponappa, Indian Ambassador to Thailand. Rich Thais send their children to the USA or other western countries for education.

The biggest beneficiaries of development were the poor fishermen of Pattaya who owned land on Pattaya’s and Kolharn’s beaches. “Investors and developers purchased their lands at the rate of 30 million baht per 1,600 square meter making the fishermen rich overnight. “The price of land during the pre-Vietnam war days was only one million baht per 1600 square meter”, said Suvit.

And Pattaya beach became a favoured destination for pleasure seekers for now it is easily accessible with the construction of high quality three to four-lane road and the introduction of high speed cars and buses between Bangkok and Pattaya. “I remember that it used to take more than six hours to reach Pattaya from Bangkok for the Bangkok-Pattaya road was narrow and broken. And there were a very small number of old vehicles plying on it. But now takes only two and half hours to reach Pattaya from Bangkok,” said Suvit. Pattaya is 140 kilometres from Bangkok.

Thailand has gained in terms of hotels and restaurants, supermarkets, towering skyscrapers and majestic buildings, roads and communications. But the gains have come at the cost of something “which the Thais cherished and loved.” “Thailand should have developed the way Japan or even China have developed”, said Rapeephan, Suvit’s wife with a sense of remorse. “But it’s too late now,” she says.

Nalin Verma
The author is the Statesman’s Patna-based Special Representative who was recently in Thailand.