Thai Life
Thailand guides, travel tips, cultural insights, and essential local information—discover everything you need to know about living, visiting, and experiencing the Land of Smiles. Get the latest from The Thaiger, your trusted source for Thailand guides.
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Phuket Property Watch: Finding the center of gravity
PHUKET: When I was in school, science classes usually just elicited a big yawn and most likely you’d find me ditching the enforced boredom for a smoke out back of the gym. Be it biology, physics or even branching out to those other affiliated headaches like algebra, calculus. My short breaks became afternoon off’s. Ferris Bueller only dabbled in this…
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Phuket Property: B1bn condominium in a prime location
PHUKET: The recently founded, Bangkok-based Able Asset developer group has announced plans to launch a billion baht, low-rise condominium project on a centrally-located parcel of prime Phuket real estate. Touted to be the biggest project of its kind on the island, the ‘Centrio’ condo will be developed on a plot that spans some 2,100 square meters, just opposite Central Festival…
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Phuket Books: A head-spinning adventure
PHUKET: So far, Colin Cotterill has written seven novels in the Dr Seri Series, which tell of the misadventures of the National Coroner of Laos who emerges from thirty years in the jungle with the Pathet Lao after their victory in 1975. Now he’s has switched to a new Jimm Juree series in modern day Thailand. Jimm Juree is a…
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Phuket Gardening: Ecstatic aquatic
PHUKET: When I first came to Phuket, it was well nigh impossible to find ceramic pots that were completely waterproof. Indeed, I recall filling the drainage holes in glazed pots with cement in order to prevent leakage. I was reminded of this recently by Richard, a fellow Englishman, who is marketing a range of giant ceramic pots, so large that…
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Phuket Lifestyle: Life Home Project preps for World AIDS Day
PHUKET: At the British International School (BIS), CAS students are making Christmas cards for Life Home Project, a Phuket-based charity that cares for mothers and children affected by HIV/ AIDS. CAS stands for ‘Creativity, Action, Service’ and is an integral part of the school’s IB program as CAS student Visnu Khanijou explained: “We are making the cards to help raise…
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Phuket Lifestyle: SKÃ…L members give up their shirts for charity
PHUKET: Phuket’s Skål club is planning some playful revelations at their gala charity fundraiser on Saturday, December 8, at Bliss Beach Club on Bang Tao beach. The Full Monty is the name of the event and yes, it means that some of the island’s most attractive hotel managers will be taking it all off to benefit both the club’s scholarship…
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Phuket Property Watch: The secret lives of wallflowers
PHUKET: A few days ago I fell off a cliff. Never mind the ominous sounding fiscal cliff that is now the global buzzword as we move into Obama Part 2. Hopefully the Pres can keep on walking the tightrope as he has deftly done for the past three years. Apparently Teflon doesn’t tarnish. My perilous downfall was much more surprising,…
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Phuket Property: Kata Rocks gets new “Sky Villa’
PHUKET: Kata Rocks’ first “Sky Villa” comes with sleek louvres and tinted glass panels that wrap around a clean, modern “Ocean Loft” design. The Sky Villas range from one to four bedroom units. Located on Phuket’s west coast, Kata Rocks is a stunning collection of 34 luxurious oceanfront Sky Villas designed by architect Adrian McCarroll. The villas nestle within the…
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Phuket Diving: Dive Bunny takes plunge
PHUKET: A lion fish is out in the open just over the sands of Kata Beach, but before a photo can be taken there is a sudden commotion. Dive instructor ‘Scuba Nick’, eyes wide-open, rips off his mask and reaches for his student’s regulator. Ex-British military, Nick is a big guy, with big hands going for the second stage of…
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Phuket Lifestyle: Watching the birds disappear
PHUKET: As we left Chao Fah Road and turned onto a dirt path, a truck carrying sand drove past, bobbing under its own heavy weight as it negotiated muddy potholes, made as a result of the recent heavy rainfall.“This sand is ‘pillaged’ from the lagoons around here,” says my nature photographer friend Rat, emphasizing the word ‘pillage’.We are here to…
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Thai Gallery: Charn Ditkajan
PHUKET: The young tattooing master, Charn Ditkajan, exudes an air of grace and calm authority. He has just performed a four-hour-long tattoo inscription for an Italian gentleman, but shows no sign of fatigue. “I silently chant mantras during the session to keep me focused and restore my energy,” he explains with a distinguished Supanburi accent known among Thais for its…
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Phuket lifestyle: Emptying the Tank
In England there is a children’s TV series called Thomas the Tank Engine about a plucky railway engine called Thomas. In the USA there is another story called The Little Engine That Could. In Phuket we have our own cuddly DJ ‘Tom the Tank’ who is also bravely puffing “I think I can, I think I can, ” as he…
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Holiday Inn opens in Ao Nang
PHUKET: The Holiday Inn brand has arrived on the coastline of Krabi with the company taking over the 55-guestroom Sala Talay Resort and Spa on Ao Nang beach recently. “We are pleased to announce the initial phase of the opening of our first Holiday Inn property in this beautiful region of Krabi.” says Steve Ng, the general manager of the…
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Phuket Property Watch: Location, location, location
PHUKET: Reading the above headline you would have to believe that either I somehow suffered a momentary nervous breakdown, or else those three drinks before dinner were triple shots. Does the truth lay at the bottom of a glass, obscured from sight by the swirling ghost of a melting ice cube? Probably not. There isn’t much poetic license in real…
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Phuket Gardening: Adding yet more green to your living spaces
PHUKET: For years – five to be precise – I have kept about fifteen plants, potted in ceramic containers, on the patio outside my front door. The original idea came from my Thai partner who wanted “lucky plants” to grace and guard the entrance to the house. So we slowly acquired some of these talismans, mostly with unknown botanical names.…
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Phuket Books: The resident fashionista of Guantanamo
PHUKET: Norman Mailer was never known for his generosity to young writers. The one author he did adopt was the convict Jack Abbott, author of the prison memoir, In the Belly of the Beast. Mailer championed his cause and when Abbott was released from prison, he promptly stabbed a waiter to death. But Alex Gilvarry has been named a Norman…
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Phuket Tech: A 3G auction in a 4G world
PHUKET: In last week’s Live Wire, I talked about the recent “3G auction,” wherein AIS, DTAC and TrueMove each acquired three of their own channels near the 2.1 GHz frequency, for delivering 3G services. The auction, plagued by delays, infighting, legal drama, bureaucratic wheel spinning, political machinations, and an unknown amount of tea changing hands, has finally brought legitimate HSPA/HSPA+…
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Phuket Property: Looking to expand in Asia
PHUKET: After an absence of two and a half years, Regent Hotels & Resorts is setting its sights on finding three properties to manage in Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Hua Hin. The company currently manages a property in Phuket which is expected to open in December. Regent Phuket Cape Panwa offers 105 rooms and expects to keep 50 per cent…
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Phuket Property: Let it spin, spin, spin…
PHUKET: I’m in the midst of Sunday Bloody Sunday. Yes, the day journey to the crux has left me on the virtual edge of the cliff. There is no turning back. Is this jig up? Mastering the art of confusion takes practice. Jumping onto the turntable of life just keeps you returning back to the start all over again. This…
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Phuket Diving: Rise into Cathedral’s darkness
PHUKET: Our dive team surfaces into the blackness of “The Cathedral”, torch beams bounce off the yellow walls and catch stalactites hanging from the ceiling like delicate icicles well above us. With BCDs inflated the team relaxes. Below, the water glows, changing from a sapphire blue to an emerald green within the depths – this is Koh Haa Yai. In…
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Phuket Gardening: The three o’clock flower
PHUKET: Today we consider two purple bloomers new to these columns. One, the Indian rhododendron (melastoma malabathricum), with flowers a glorious shade of deep magenta, was discovered by your correspondent in a garden center on Chao Fa West, south of Phuket Town, better known for its range of rustic stone. For a moment I wondered whether it was the same…
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Phuket Life: 100 US Navy service projects in Phuket
PHUKET: THE USS Peleliu returned to Phuket recently and conducted the US Navy’s 100th Community Service Project in the greater Phuket area. In June 2006, the Rotary Club of Patong approached the US Navy Attaché’s office in the US Embassy in Bangkok about doing community service projects together with the US Navy ships that visited Phuket for rest & relaxation.…
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Phuket Lifestyle: Charity golf drive to empower rural school
PHUKET: The Phuket Real Estate Association (P-REA) will hold a charity golf tournament on Saturday at the Phuket Country Club in Kathu to raise money to support Koh Mapraw School. A press conference was held by the P-REA on October 12 at Phuket Country Club where P-REA president Thanusak Phungdet told the gathered media about the objective of the ‘P-REA…
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Phuket Gardening: More entries in the Annual Report
PHUKET: Last weeks’ list of annuals in the Phuket Gazette were predictable choices. The only surprise was that all of them even the so-called African marigold originated in America. Impatiens balsamina is a bit different, not just because it is Asian, but because it took me a while to discover its identity. But it is not uncommon. In fact the…
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Phuket Diving: Re-breather revolution
PHUKET: The pool is silent. Three divers, but not a sound. Then, right before our ascent, we flip the switch on our regulators to open-circuit. There is a roar of bubbles that destroys the silence – it’s inappropriate. Yet in reality, up until my recreational re-breather “Try Dive”, a cacophony of bubbles ballooning in my face was all I had…
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Phuket Food: Chalong’s Rimtang
PHUKET: The first thing you notice when walking into Rimtang@Chalong, Phuket, is its smart ambiance. Past the intricately carved wooden door, is a light and airy space, tastefully decorated with Thai objet d’art and minimalist furniture. Tall glass windows invite in the surrounding flower garden and the tantalizing views of Wat Chalong beyond. Talking to the staff, we learn that…
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Phuket Punchline Comedy: Sit down for stand-up
PHUKET: Seasoned stand-up comedians Eddy Brimson, Mickey Hutton and Marcus Ryan are in town for one night of no-holds barred, stand-up comedy at the Holiday Inn, Patong on Wednesday, October 24 at 8pm. This latest onslaught of close-to-the-funny-bone humor features the very best of the UK comedy circuit, namely: Mickey HuttonNewcastle-born comedian Mickey Hutton has performed all over the world…
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Phuket Gardening: An annual event
PHUKET: It’s been about a year since we talked about annuals. So that’s my excuse for returning to them today. The reason annuals don’t get much exposure in these columns is because they only exist for one year and will, like Wimbledon, make their statement – a floral one in this case – just once during that time. Shrubs, on…
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Phuket Books: A question of savages
PHUKET: I picked up Don Winslow’s Savages (Simon & Schuster, New York, 2010, 358pp) with a good deal of eagerness, having just finished the much-lauded prequel The Kings of Cool, which impressed me with its zany energy, veering between screenplay, poetic stanzas and wise-guy syncopated prose, deeply empathic with the surfer/grass dealer ethos of Laguna Beach, California. Winslow is a…
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Phuket Tech: Please play fair
PHUKET: The competitive business world can easily be compared to elite sports. In both, the stakes for winning or losing are extremely high, with people being stretched to constantly deliver their best results. At sports events, ethical behavior and values such as respect, honor and sportsmanship, get utmost importance. Cheating is not tolerated in world-class sports. And, in exactly the…
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