Thai Life
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Phuket real estate shrugs off Bangkok slowdown
PHUKET: In terms of property, Phuket seems to be worlds away from Bangkok, where the market has experienced a slowdown, mostly because the island is more affected by events outside of Thailand than inside the Kingdom, Robert Collins, managing director of Savills (Thailand), said earlier this week. Because the Bangkok market has dipped, three real-estate associations recently urged the government…
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Castlewood Group to open Phuket flagship, luxury hotel
PHUKET: Singapore commercial real estate developer Castlewood Group has announced the launch of their flagship luxury hotel development in Phuket, the Dream Phuket Hotel & Spa. This is the first project cementing the recently established strategic partnership with Début Hotel Group – a part of the New York-based Hampshire Brand, Hotel and Asset Management – for the development and operation…
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Looking Back: Turmoil in the Rakhine State part II
PHUKET: Let’s pick up the story of the Rohingya were we left off last month In year 1826, the British invaded and took control of Arakan after the first Anglo-Burmese War. By this time the Arakan region, plagued by war, was critically depopulated. Farms had been left untended for many years. The British encouraged native Bengali farmers as well as…
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Excuse Buster: Digging into intermittent fasting
PHUKET: Intermittent fasting is all the rage at the moment with diets such as the 5:2 Diet going mainstream and becoming a big hit. Could temporarily abstaining from food be healthy, or is this practice potentially setting a person up for trouble? As a nutritionist, it goes against one of the original rules we were taught to preach such as:…
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Video Report: Amazing fun at food festival
PHUKET: Food was aplenty when the Tourism Authority of Thailand’s (TAT) ‘Amazing Tastes of Thailand’ rolled through Phuket and onto Thalang Road in Phuket Town late last month. The fair, part of the TAT’s ‘Discover Thainess 2015’ campaign and an effort to bring locals and tourists together, panned out well as the streets were packed full of excited and hungry…
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On Deck: New name and new horizons
PHUKET: Phuket’s Ao Chalong Yacht Club has been at the heart of the island’s sailing scene since its inception 24 years ago. At a time when thatch roofs were all the rage, the original Ao Chalong Yacht Club (ACYC), known then as the Ao Chalong Cruising Yacht Club, was born and had its first official premises on the second floor…
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Video Report: Upholding Phuket’s unique Baba culture
PHUKET: Few people in the world understand Phuket’s unique culture better than Assistant Professor Pranee Sakulpipatana, known to the general public simply as Ajarn Pranee. Though she is a historian, Ajarn Pranee doesn’t need to dig into other people’s past to understand the Baba culture that is quintessentially Phuket. Now 68 years old, Ajarn Pranee was born on Thalang Road…
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Dual expansion at Krabi Boat Lagoon
PHUKET: Two exciting projects will be unveiled by Krabi Boat Lagoon shortly, with one being a beach club near the marina and the other a third condominium building at the marina itself. Ms Sriya Yongsakul, Krabi Boat Lagoon’s deputy managing director, said at an exclusive interview with the Gazette last week that the long beachfront plot where the beach club…
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By the Book: Tips on handling property transactions
PHUKET: With the island’s real estate market staying strong, some owners could be thinking of selling their property. If so, here are some tips for making this move. Establishing a Price Consider what you paid for the property, how long you have lived there, what similar properties have sold for, any improvements added, present condition of the property, ask the…
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On Your Mind: Look at China when weighing booze ban
PHUKET: China’s family planning policy, also known as the one-child policy, is a method to control population in that country. The policy was introduced in 1978 as a means of combating overpopulation, and while the policy has been somewhat successful in curbing China’s birthrate, it has fostered a host of other problems. Among these new issues are: leaving one adult…
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Video Report: Sensational results from Trapani, Librodo Bohemian workshop
PHUKET: Social media was flooded with stunning and mesmerizing images following the wrap up of the Bohemian photography workshop at the Banyan Tree in Phuket last month Big name co-host and Sony ambassador for the Philippines Manny Librodo helped to draw a large crowd of participants and added a new dimension to the workshop, explained Adriano Trapani, who developed the…
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Getting a foreign divorce in Thailand
PHUKET: Recently our firm was hired to handle a divorce case. This case was different from the typical family law divorce. The Thai couple met in the United States while attending college. They fell in love and got married in the United States. They completed their university degrees, lived in the United States for a few years, and then returned…
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Up in the air: Nok Air plans big push in Phuket
PHUKET: Low-cost carrier Nok Air hopes to better tap into the potential of Phuket’s large foreign market over the next high season, an executive told the Phuket Gazette recently. Pinyot Pibulsongkram, a Nok Air Vice President, told ‘Up in the Air’ that Nok currently has five daily flights between Bangkok and Phuket, with six flights on Fridays and Sundays. Nok…
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Island lunatics ready for Super Moon Super Blues
PHUKET: The super moon on Monday night is expected to draw out blues, jazz and rock lunatics for a night of music, drinks and soul food at Bliss Beach Club. The Super Blues Event will run from from 7pm to midnight, with Black & Blue, Pjae Stanley, K PJ and Bobby Blues all gracing the stage for the Rotary Club…
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On Deck: Multihulls here, there, everywhere
PHUKET: Looking around the marinas and anchorages of Phuket, it is apparent that there has been a significant shift in the type of boats that call Phuket home. It’s not an entirely new trend, but the move from single to multiple hulls has certainly gathered steam in recent years. A healthy local boat building industry with a predisposition to multihulls…
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Profile: “Under The Sun’ lips escape London
PHUKET: Lisa Allen emerged from the fantastical set of the Blue Peter garden, where she and a fellow BBC information technology employee had settled in for lunch. That was the day, or at least she thinks it was, in 1996 when she met the makeup artists for Celine Dion and the Bee Gees in the BBC Lottery Studio. “I decided…
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Gardening: Turning over a new leaf
PHUKET: Tropical gardens, for a variety of reasons, need plenty of attention. Take the case of Patima’s garden in a local housing estate. Her busy life as a computer expert means that she has little time for horticultural activities, and her partner is more interested in compression ratios than common oleanders. Get the picture? A low-upkeep garden which, laudably, Patima…
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Books: New T. C. Boyle an emotional dud
PHUKET: Since 1982, T. Coraghessan Boyle has written 15 novels, of which I’ve read ten. The first two – Water Music and Budding Prospects – are among the funniest novels ever written. The latter is about marijuana growers in northern California; the former, improbably enough, about 18th Century explorer Mungo Park’s expeditions up the Niger River. Boyle’s tone has since…
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Blazing Saddles: Discovering pathways to better biking
PHUKET: Governor Nisit Jansomwong’s recent announcement that work on eagerly awaited bike lanes will start in October 2016 with an approved budget of over 50 million baht, is terrific news. The Governor said, “Over 30 million baht from the 2016 fiscal year budget has been approved for the development of the Bang Wad Reservoir, which will include the installation of…
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Phuket Pads: Bargain Karon condo with beach view
PHUKET: Karon beach is the third longest on Phuket Island and located on the west coast between Patong and Kata. Karon Beach is also the second favorite holiday destination in Phuket. Recently, the Lonely Planet Guide named Karon Beach as one of the Top Ten Family Beach Holiday Destinations in the world. With its long beautiful beach and all the…
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Looking Back: Seeds of turmoil in Rakhine State
PHUKET: Rakhine, formerly the Kingdom of Arakan, is a region in northwestern Myanmar. Today the region borders Bangladesh and is home to the heavily persecuted Rohingya Muslims. Historically, the Arakan Kingdom was an independent state. In the year 1406, however, Minyekyawswa, the crown prince of Ava, led a Burmese army to invade Arakan. Narameikhla Min Saw Mon, the Buddhist Arakan…
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Excuse Buster: Got milk? Need milk?
PHUKET: ‘Milk is good for everyone’ is a common statement from all government bodies around the world. However, most humans have never tasted fresh milk from any source other than their mothers for almost all of human history. According to the United States National Institute of Health, more than 65 per cent of the human population has a reduced ability…
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RCoPB looking for new recruits
PHUKET: The Rotary Club of Patong Beach (RCoPB), Phuket’s only English speaking Rotary, is re-energizing its participation in the community and aiming to firmly debunk the image of Rotary as for older men only. We are doing this in two key ways: by actively aiming to increase the number of female members and by attracting younger members who can inject…
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On Deck: United front for greater good
PHUKET: Thailand’s marine industry has received intermittent support from the Royal Thai Government over the years – sporadic and rarely strategic. In 2004, when the astronomical taxes on importing boats to Thailand was reduced from more than 200% of the value of the boat to 0%, this happened on the back of a concerted effort by the marine industry to…
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Luxury real estate prospers
PHUKET: One thing that I love about Phuket is the ability for luxury to live side by side with abject casualness. You could be sitting next to a multi-millionaire or a packaged tourist on the bar stool, as the ties that bind are the flip-flops adorning your respective feet. Islands tend to have little social stratification, which can probably be…
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Keep it Green: Going to the zoo – part one
PHUKET: Today, I took the advice offered in the children’s nursery rhyme ‘Going to the zoo, zoo, zoo / How about you?’ It’s a long time since I did so. My last visit to Phuket Zoo some seven years ago resulted in my penning a piece which, while critical of some aspects of the place, made encouraging noises about others.…
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On your Mind: Phubbing phenomenon decoded
PHUKET: Ever had the unpleasant experience of seeing your dish of Pad Thai sitting at a pick-up window while your waiter spends time on his smartphone? How about lying barely clothed in a frosty room while your masseuse ‘preps’ for you by texting friends? Or maybe you’ve just gone to the local KFC with your buddies and are enthusiastically trying…
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Across the Land: Container homes anyone?
PHUKET: Researching shipping container homes on the internet was an eye opener and it was fascinating how cool and creative some of these homes can be. There are definitely sustainable benefits from building a home with recycled shipping containers, but can it be a real home? Well, it looks like some countries have taken shipping containers to another level. Out…
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Property Watch: Waking up the ever-looming giant
PHUKET: Technically there is no specific way to jump-start a snoozing behemoth. Sure, a stun gun might do the trick or a slap on the face, but look at poor little Jack who had to scamper down that beanstalk. In Thailand’s current property market there continues to be a strategic emphasis on fishing where the fish are. Look no further…
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Profile: Rendezvous with Ae Peerasak
PHUKET: There is little doubt that Phuket Town is in the throes of a revolution made manifest by a tidal wave of innovation and reinvention that is re-making it into a trendy, happening destination for the young, hip and cool. Walk down any of the ancient Sino-Portuguese streets of the Old Town that are renowned for confusing and losing the…
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