Same Same... but Different
Meditations on mediations, from another End of the World...
“Just as a snake sheds its skin, we must shed our past over and over again.”
~ Siddartha Guatama
Joel Bowman, with today’s Note From the End of the World: Bangkok, Thailand...
Deep fakes... cheap fakes... and fake news all around...
The deplorable state of the mainstream news (and their sub-propaganda ministers in the “fact checking” departments) represents a marked decline in the quality of information available to the voting public.
Upon this basic premise, both sides appear to agree. Only, it is always the “other” side that is doing the lying, the cheating, the razzle-dazzle double-dealing. “Our” side is pure – and pitiable – as a lost lamb. If only...
We spill a good deal of our virtual ink in these pages calling out lickspittles and partisans hacks in the far fallen fourth estate. But today, we will do no such thing.
Rather, we will add to their steaming pile. That is, instead of hurling rocks from our own crystal castle, we shall instead join the rabble, walking arm in arm with our chattering coevals in dispensing unqualified claims, anecdotal observations and armchair opinions.
After all, we are here in Southeast Asia, a strange man in a stranger land. What more could we do than admit of a stupendous ignorance?
Herewith, a series of uncorroborated, ad hoc assessments, blind assertions and impressions made of guesswork, whimsy and ignorance. With a cheeky splash of humor, for good measure...
Same Same... but Different
It’s been 17 years since we spent any significant time in this region. And my, oh my... how the world turns!
Far from the marshy backwater we encountered in the mid-’00s, we find today – to our delight and bewilderment – a region humming with industry and aspiration.
Where we once saw whole families crammed onto sputtering scooters, belching smog down potholed sideroads and dodging lunatics in oncoming tuk-tuks... we now see the latest Porsches, BMWs and Mercedes, cruising down newly laid freeways... dodging lunatics in oncoming tuk-tuks.
Where we once saw corrugated lean-tos and flimsy fishing shacks on stilts, we now see breathtaking structures of glass and steel, towering into the skies and casting long shadows over neighboring construction lots. One cannot walk a block without dodging a jackhammer, passing a crane or disobeying a “hard hat only” sign.
Where we once ate phat thai and... more phat thai, our senses are now assaulted with an array of international gastronomical delights that would bring a tear to the late Anthony Bourdain’s eye. High end eateries abound in this gourmandizer’s paradise, with sky bars dishing out Beluga caviar, Maine lobster and Hokkaido scallops to restaurants crawling with dapper locals and the chic, international business crowd.
And all this makes sense. After all, this is not the same Southeast Asia we left. Not by half. In 2007, Thailand’s GDP stood at ~$260B. Today, having grown at between roughly 4-6% per year, it is literally twice the size it was back then. Neighboring Laos (where we head next) grew more than fourfold over the same time, from a tiny $4B GDP in 2007... to $18B in 2021. Vietnam, meanwhile, more than quintupled... from $77B to $410B in 2022.
Greater China
“The Chinese, they are owning all the businesses.”
Our “source” is a kindly Grab driver, himself Chinese-born, who spirited us from the new capital city (Bangkok) to the old one (Ayutthaya) and back again earlier this week. (Dear wifey loves an ancient temple...) Raised in the mainland until he was a tender teen, “Eddy’s” parents brought him to Thailand seeking a better life.
“Looong time ago,” Eddy laughs, perhaps recalling a distant childhood under harsh circumstances. “Now, Chinese people everywhere.”
Indeed, China is by far the single largest foreign investor in Thailand, with last year’s foreign direct investment (FDI) hitting a five year high. An actual source (no offense, Eddy) confirms this. From Nikkei Asia:
BANGKOK – Applications to invest in Thailand climbed 43% to a five-year high of 848.3 billion baht ($24 billion) in 2023, driven by Chinese capital, the latest official data shows.
Foreign direct investment accounted for 663.2 billion baht of the total, up 72%. China was the top applicant by value at 159.3 billion baht.
Thailand's Board of Investment, which released the figures, attributed the influx partly to geopolitical issues prompting multinationals to relocate operations to the Southeast Asian country. Frictions between the U.S. and China are among the contributing factors.
The story is similar across the region, with China pouring capital (by the billions), citizens (by the millions) and concrete (by the megaton) and into a vast moat along its southern border. A lot of this is simply China investing in its own “backyard.” A lot has to do with the gargantuan Belt and Road project. Either way, it’s hard not to think of the entire region as a kind of “Greater China.”
Then again, a lot of the world feels that way, too. In fact, 120 countries count China as their single largest trading partner...including fellow BRICS countries, Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa. Throw in Saudi, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and, oh, the EU, and we begin to get the feel of a real and rising empire.
As the world’s single largest trading economy (that is, an economy which makes actual stuff... as opposed to one that simply prints money), China accounts for 18% of the globe’s GDP. And still it grows…
The Older World
Under the cloudless Ayutthaya sky, we spend the day wandering the endless wat (temples) of the long declined capital. Considered by Europeans as one of the three great powers of Asia, the Ayutthaya Kingdom emerged during the late 13th century and grew in strength as a maritime trading authority, reaching its “golden age” during the 16th and (with the introduction of Chinese trade and, notably, capitalism) the 17th century.
The grounds are enormous, far too much for a single day’s sightseeing. Especially given that it’s 96 degrees out (but “feels like 104” with the humidity). We ramble the halls of the ancient Royal Palace, now partially reclaimed by creeping vines and trees, which grow through the cracks and crevices of the crumbling red brick. Wat Phra Si Sanphet, with its series of three giant chedis, leaves us breathless. By the time we reach Wat Mahathat, where we see a Buddha head encased in the roots of a tree (photo top of column), we can’t be sure we aren’t hallucinating from heat exhaustion and/or dehydration.
Among its core teachings, the ancient school of Theravada Buddhism teaches of the Four Noble Truths:
There is dukkha (suffering, unease)
Tanha (craving) is the root cause of dukkha
Through nirodha (cessation) of craving, one can overcome suffering and
There is a magga (path) to follow to bring this about
Musing on the similarities between these ancient tenets and those found in many western philosophies/religions, we begin to contemplate a middle way, a path between extreme asceticism and hedonistic, sensual indulgence... then we remember we have a dinner reservation back in the new capital!
Bright Lights, Big City
Counted again among Bangkok’s 10 million hustling, bustling souls, we feel again the pressing urgency of a country, a region, growing at breakneck pace. Bright lights. Big city. A smart phone in every hand and a digital display reflected in every iris. Below us swim strange fish, above us glide odd birds, and around us swirls the uninterrupted babble of a thousand foreign tongues. The metropolis is a heaving throng of tenses, past, present and future.
Having consumed more than our fair share of 5 baht satay sticks these past few days, we’ve decided to treat dear wife and daughter to a special dinner. A fancy pants place across town, Le Du, will delight the senses with a tasting menu of traditional Thai cuisine featuring, according to the website, “the extraordinary agricultural bounty of Thailand and the centuries-old culinary cultures that have taken roots here.” A luxury car will even pick us up and chauffeur us to the front door.
Only... the heavens open and down comes the rain in plump, tropical drops, bringing Bangkok’s notorious peak hour traffic to a near standstill. With no way to get across town on time, we stand to lose our reservation and forfeit our deposit. Until the past arrives to rescue us... in the form of a lunatic in a tuk-tuk.
Stay tuned for more Notes From the End of the World...
Cheers,
Joel Bowman
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AC
Oh my gosh, I enjoy your writing! I went to Bangkok in 1982 on a University tour back when everything was "a marshy backwater, with families crammed onto sputtering scooters, corrugated lean-tos and flimsy fishing shacks on stilts." Our world is so full of amazing history and change! You are traveling and telling us about it all, so that we get to enjoy it through the lens of your pithy philosophy and talented authorship. What a joy to be on the ride with you and your little family. Thank you!