From Pattaya with love: forget sex trainers, meet the real Russians of Thailand’s party town
- The arrest of two ‘sex trainers’ – one claiming to have inside info on Trump’s election – has shone an unwanted spotlight on the Thai city’s Russian community
- Most Russians visit briefly but thousands have stayed, buying homes and starting businesses
This dissonance is even more pronounced inside, where the temperature seems to drop, silence descends and the bleached white light of the outside world is replaced by the flickering of dozens of candles. Murals adorn the ceilings and walls, flanked by a mixture of Thai and Cyrillic script.
Shelves are lined with hundreds of pocket-sized religious icons and books exalting the mission of the Orthodox Church. There is an abiding sense of peace – and plenty of decorative gold trim: gold altars, gold goblets, gold lecterns, gold on the carpets.
Father Roman Barodzich, on the other hand, wears only a plain black robe and a heavy crucifix around his neck. At 27, he seems young for a priest.
He has been in Thailand with his wife since November 2017, and the contrast between this most traditional of Russian environments and the decidedly un-Russian scenery outside is part of the appeal.
“Russian people like Pattaya. It was a small village but it’s now a big city,” he says. “The Thai people are very kind. I go out to the road and the Thai people are always smiling. It’s sunny all year, we have only summer here.”
