For the past fortnight we have been privileged to travel to Thailand for a much-needed holiday. We were fortunate enough to live and work there some twenty years ago.
Since then, we have made regular trips back to reconnect with old friends, have a break and get our dental check-ups done. The moment we land at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport we feel right at home.
Thailand is internationally known as the Land of Smiles, and Bangkok, or Krung Thep, is known by most expats as the ‘Big Mango’, a nod to New York’s Big Apple, I guess.
It is a city of over 9 million people, although there is also a large population of people from Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia who work in the construction industry and are often illegal migrants.
Bangkok has a hugely diverse population with over 600,000 Chinese expats, about 40,000 Indian expats (mainly Sikh) and about the same number of Japanese. It’s hardly surprising, given that Thailand, like Myanmar, is sandwiched between the regional superpowers. The relationship with Japan goes back to World War Two, when parts of the country were occupied by the Japanese.
Thailand has been a hereditary monarchy for at least 10 generations, and the current King is the 10th of his line. Thailand is proud of the fact that it was never colonised by European nations, although the relationship with the UK, the Netherlands, the US and the Portuguese goes back centuries. Thailand fought some bitter local wars with both the Burmese and the Cambodians. That particular stoush continues to this day on their common border.
The country has been beset by numerous coups by the military, and whilst it’s a democracy, the monarchy, the army and the constitutional courts are the real power in the country.
With the large number of ethnic groups in Bangkok, there are also some very diverse religions. When we lived in Thailand, our son had a week of field trips to a Buddhist temple, a Catholic Church, a Muslim Mosque, a Jewish synagogue and a Sikh temple. When asked which religion he preferred, he replied, ‘The Christian one.’ Why? ‘Because you can eat anything you want.’
My strong impression is that, by and large, all ethnic groups get on well and coexist with little friction. Chinatown is across the road from India Town. The Japanese have their own quarter, with a number of establishments only open to Japanese. The same goes for the religions, although, for many years, due to British and Thai influence, the lower Thai provinces have been predominantly Muslim and have much more in common with Malaysia.
We in New Zealand can learn a lot from our Asian neighbours in how to coexist and prosper as a nation. We New Zealanders are a very young community and have a long and potentially difficult route ahead of us.
