SOUTHEAST ASIA 2024—MARCH 20-26, PHUKET TO BERLIN

MARCH 20 - 25:  When we arrived in Bangkok on the afternoon of March 13, we were scheduled to return to Berlin on March 15.  We quickly realized that 48 hours in Bangkok would simply not be enough, so we contacted Qatar to re-book. To make a long story short, for reasons of flight cost and availability, our best option was to extend our trip by ten days.  We re-booked a return flight on March 25 and decided to split the ten extra days between Bangkok and an island. 

After some frantic and what would prove to be insufficient research, we chose the island of Phuket, mainly because we could get a direct flight there from Bangkok.  We knew it was a very popular tourist destination and worried it might be a little too popular, something like Jamaica or Miami on Spring break, but we did not know it would be full of Russians.  And I mean FULL.

As The Guardian noted in August 2023,

Phuket, one of Thailand’s most famous tourist destinations, has always been popular among Russians. Menus and massage parlour listings are often written in Russian. There are supermarkets and restaurants selling anything from borscht and dumplings to Russian keyboards.

But as The Guardian goes on, since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022, the influx of Russians entering as tourists but seeking to become ex-pats or long-term residents has skyrocketed:

[H]undreds of thousands of Russians [are] estimated to have fled their country after the mobilisation of troops for the war in Ukraine, with many flocking to nearby Kazakhstan, Georgia or Turkey.

Thailand, although further away, has also experienced a rise in Russian visitors, with some appearing to be putting down more permanent roots in the country. Last year, Russians were the leading international buyers of property in Phuket, and during the first quarter of [2023], sales to Russian nationals increased 68% on the same period in 2022. The value of properties being sold has also risen, by 46.7% during the first quarter, according to the Thai Real Estate Association.

The effect on Phuket’s real estate market of this other kind of Russian invasion has been tremendous, as reported by Channel News Asia:

According to the Centre for Macroeconomic Analysis and Short-Term Forecasting, a Moscow-based think-tank, Russia saw a record net outflow of US$239 billion in 2022 alone, four times the outflow in 2021.

In this flight of capital to investment opportunities outside the Russian economy, which has been hobbled by sanctions, Phuket has emerged as one of the target destinations.

The luxury sector boom is astonishing. About 4,000 units of luxury villas are being developed in Phuket this year, which is a lot, as the number doesn’t include luxury condominiums.

When we extended our trip, I think we may have unintentionally booked one of those “luxury villas” catering to the Russian émigré investor market at Kiri Villas Resort. That's an educated guess based on the distinctly Western décor and the Christmas decorations still up on the first day of Spring.

Kiri Villas Resort's tract home development reminded me of The Truman Show.  The residents, however, appeared to have received an emergency evacuation order, because the resort was deserted.  We had dinner and breakfast on premises at the Dushanbé Cafe & Restaurant, which could have been designed by Wes Anderson.  This visit to Phuket was going sideways.  We needed to re-calibrate!

As is clear from my husband's face, we lasted exactly one night at Kiri Villas Resort and then we got the hell outta there.  We booked an accommodation at Kamala Beach Estate Resort, which was an oasis of tranquility and beauty.  But before I get to that, back to why there are so many Russians on Phuket.

Channel News Asia explains part of the reason Phuket is so popular with Russians is the relaxed visa requirements.  Thailand now issues Russian travelers a 90-day tourist visa on arrival and has made it easier to obtain one-year business or education visas, as well as longer-term visas, these for a hefty price:

Apart from investing, some wealthy Russians have sought to make a home on the island located in the Andaman Sea. Citing immigration officials, news site Khaosod English reported in September [2023] that 9,275 Russians living here have longer-term visas.

This would include visas known as the Thailand Privilege Card. Fees start at 900,000 baht (US$34,000) for a five-year period and go up to 5 million baht [US$189,000] for a stay of 20 years or more.

The influx of Russians leaving their homeland to avoid conscription to the “special operation” in Ukraine has caused economic, social, and cultural problems for Thai citizens.  Per this April 2024 article in Time Magazine:

In the first three months of this year, 366,095 Russians arrived at Phuket International Airport, almost double the same period of 2023 and transforming the island’s commercial and social life. (That figure doesn’t include the significant number who transferred via Thailand’s main gateway of Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Bangkok.) But while a boon for the macro economy, the influx has chafed with locals who increasingly complain that Russians are stealing jobs and upsetting cultural mores. Across Thailand, lurid headlines such as “Rabid Russian assaults police team in Phuket after going berserk at a city centre hotel” and “Russian tourist kicks pregnant Thai woman after asked to leave shoes outdoors” are both a symptom and cause of alarm.

Relaxed entry requirements have also attracted a criminal element. In early February [2024], Phuket police arrested five suspected Russian gangsters for the kidnapping and extortion of over $800,000 in cryptocurrency from a Belarussian couple that Akachai [the chief inspector of Thailand’s tourist police] says was retaliation for a financial dispute back home. And last month, a 42-year-old Russian man was found stabbed to death in a rented house that was being used as a cannabis farm. The chief suspect is a Tajikistani man who fled Thailand for Turkey just hours after the murder.

Yet Akachai says most crimes relate to illegal work involving Russians determined not to return home while the war rages but without the means to support themselves indefinitely—not least since international banking sanctions have rendered accessing savings more difficult. Many Russians have set themselves up as unofficial tour guides, car and motorbike rental services, real estate agents, hairdressers, or even sex workers, advertising online via Telegram groups.

So, yeah, definitely not what we expected when we chose Phuket and not at all to our liking. 

Thankfully, the tropical beauty of this island floating in the Andaman Sea and the apartment we rented at Kamala Beach Estate Resorts made Phuket more than bearable. 

 

 

The kitchen/living/dining room of our apartment faced the sea, and the bedroom overlooked a small pool (above).  The French couple who own it clearly love Eastern art and design.  Unlike the impersonal furnishing of the Kiri Villas apartment, this place was unique and exotic.

 

The view of the Andaman Sea from our apartment and the large deck was sublime.

The resort's grounds were lush, meticulously maintained, and decorated with Buddhas tucked into in niches along meandering stone paths. 

The best part was the pool (fed by a waterfall) located only 50 steps from our apartment.  I had it all to myself for five days.

The town beach, Kamala Beach, was only a 15-minute walk from our apartment.  The town was pretty hectic by day and at night, filled with beachwear, cheap souvenirs, sunscreen, hats, food stalls, bars, and tanned bodies showing too much sagging flesh.  It was an amorphous Anywhere, so indistinct in and of itself and so different from what we'd experienced at Koh Chang earlier in the month.   

So, all things considered, I would pronounce Phuket:  “F*ck it.” And to quote Kamala, "We're not going back!" 

MARCH 26:  That said, Bangkok and Koh Chang were wonderful, and I’d return in a heartbeat to see more of Thailand.  And Vietnam.  And Cambodia.  Not to mention other destinations in Asia.  Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, or Malaysia, anyone?  😊  But first, back to Berlin on March 26, with indelible memories of Southeast Asian sunsets.

Keep it real!

Marilyn