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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Sponsored Is private health insurance in Thailand worth it? Real costs vs risks explained
Thailand has a strong healthcare system with both public and private options. Public hospitals offer affordable care, but many people, including expats, choose private health insurance for faster service, modern facilities, and more treatment choices. To decide if private health...
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Thalang turns on the waterworks
PHUKET: The Phuket Provincial Office is spending 40 million baht on extending local government water mains from Baan Pon, just south of Thalang Town, to Baan Mak Prok School, located near the eastern end of the runway at Phuket Airport. The project will allow local communities in the north of Phuket to start hooking up their local water networks to…
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Phuket investors to pour B2bn into Phang Nga hotels
PHUKET: KHAO Lak’s room count may double within two years. Phang Nga Tourist Association Vice President Prapruet Korphet said “We now have about 5,000 rooms in Khao Lak, the same number before the tsunami hit us. We expect to have another 1,000 rooms by the end of this year, and will have 10,000 rooms within two years.” “We continuously have…
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Phuket Technology: Gulliver’s guide to Phuket
PHUKET: Phuket pocket guides abound but occasionally one stands out from the crowd. Released last month, Gulliver’s guide to Phuket is a free iPhone / iPad app that is very user friendly. Simplified to include just enough information for a weekend break or a short trip, it includes more than 150 attractions, venues and topics, each with up-to-date (2011/2012 season)…
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Phuket Lifestyle – Bang Pae secret revealed
PHUKET: The Bang Pae Seafood restaurant has been a favourite among Phuket’s locals for sixteen years. This charming seaside place is run by a small family, headed by Mrs Prakorb Tiranon, who oversees daily culinary operations. A beautiful twenty-minute drive in the direction of Ao Por from the Heroines Monument through shady rubber tree plantations takes you to a small…
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Phuket horoscopes – November 26 to December 2, 2011
PHUKET: SAGITTARIUS (November 23-December 21): The world of work holds some unseen challenges for those born under the sign of Sagittarius this week. Tuesday and Wednesday are days when you could be faced with having to make immediate decisions, but the stars suggest that an earth sign colleague will provide useful insight. Those celebrating a birthday this week can look…
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Phuket property – Phanason aims high
PHUKET: Project developers Phanason Group are confident that the company’s first foray into the high-end market will deliver another success for the group, by targeting people with busy lifestyles looking to “get away from it all”. Phanason Resort is one of 11 developments created by Phanason Group, who has been among the leading housing developers in Phuket for more than…
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Phuket Book Briefs – Behavior Disorders and Harry’s War
PHUKET: Defiant disorder and conduct disorder create havoc in families and classrooms in our society today. In this book, Dr Marlow addresses these problems in a case study format, outlining therapy techniques and problem solutions for children, teachers and parents. The case studies are taken from real-life situations, though names and other identifying characteristics have been changed to protect the…
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Phuket’s urban style
PHUKET: Outside Central Festival Phuket last Saturday evening, a camera convention was winding up in an orgy of punters taking photos of other people taking photos of people posing for another group of people taking photos of people taking photos. It was like an Escher illustration; a digital dog chasing its own tail in a blur of camera flashes and…
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Phuket Lifestyle – Helping children to help themselves
PHUKET: The Yaowawit Boarding School was founded five years ago, post tsunami, to support those affected by the disaster. Today, the school continues to provide home and education to children from families who are unable to provide emotional and educational care. Located approximately two hours north of Phuket just outside the small village of Kapong, one of the more remote…
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Phuket Gardening – Chinese lanterns
PHUKET: Chinese Lantern is the common name for some varieties of abutilon. A member of the mallow family, this large shrub or small tree (here the distinction really is blurred), can reach ten feet in good conditions. Mostly South American in origin, the abutilon species are true tropicals, and do well in Phuket’s climate. Abutilon species will tolerate light shade…
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Phuket’s Tri Tim primed for LPT success
PHUKET: I’ve spent the last few issues telling you about what I’ve achieved so far in my personal odyssey of health and fitness leading me to my goal of completing the Laguna Phuket Triathlon on November 27. With only weeks to go before race day dawns, maybe now its time to talk about what actually goes into learning – from…
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Phuket Youth Acoustic contest
PHUKET: Life Home Project Foundation, the Phuket organization that cares for children and women affected by HIV, in association with Phuket Indy Market, Limelight Avenue and Phuket Provincial Public Health Office announced that they will be holding the AIDS Project – Acoustic Contest, a youth acoustic band contest, through November with the final to be held on World AIDS day,…
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Phuket’s corals and conscience now cleaner
PHUKET: The sandy seafloor suddenly gave way to the wall of wrecked coral skirting Coral Island. The forest of dead branching corals, which should have been a Mecca of sea life, was a ghost town. The site was haunting, but further along the reef, the barren coral landscape gave way to signs of life as a volunteer dive team carefully…
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Phuket Lifestyle: Sea creatures will soon have to swim for their lives
PHUKET: International marine scientists have warned that fish and other sea creatures will have to travel large distances to survive climate change or they will risk extinction.According to a new study by an international team of scientists, sea life, particularly in the Indian, Western and Eastern Pacific as well as the sub-arctic oceans are facing growing pressures to adapt or…
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Phuket Property: The Privilege Residences Patong
PHUKET: The Privilege Residences Patong is the sister project of successful luxury condominium project The Bay Cliff. After the first project sold out, Bay Cliff Development decided to launch another condominium development and take the definition of ‘luxury living’ to the next level.“Since we launched The Privilege Residences Patong in October last year, we have sold about 30 per cent…
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Phuket Lifestyle: Suey Restaurant, a beautiful fusion
PHUKET: Call me old-fashioned, but I have misgivings about so-called “fusion food”. I like my food the way it’s cooked traditionally: no added milk in my tom yum goong please, and I am very wary of mango sticky rice in the form of a shake. All that changes when a friend invites me to dine at Suey Restaurant in Phuket…
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Phuket Books – I am woman, hear me laugh
PHUKET: Those eminent contemporary philosophers Jerry Lewis and Christopher Hitchens have advanced the proposition that women lack a sense of humor. This notion can be shot down in two words: Tina Fey. The former Second City improp trouper, head writer for Saturday Night Live and creator and star of her own sitcom 30 Rock, has now produced her first book,…
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Phuket’s culinary arts festival
PHUKET: North Phuket Resorts will host its second Culinary Arts Festival of the year from December 2 to 4 on Mai Khao Beach to celebrate the culinary experiences and attractions of this unspoiled area of the island. Located just minutes away from Phuket International Airport on Mai Kao Beach, North Phuket Resorts hosts this festival twice each year, with the…
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Pearl of Thai reggae at Phuket’s Nai Yang Beach Club
PHUKET: Reggae fans can start preparing for a magical evening by the sea on November 25 when The Beach Club in association with Indigo Pearl launch the 2011 Nai Yang Beach Party Grand Opening Season. Headlining this event will be the hugely popular Job2Do. Indigo Pearl is the title sponsor of this initial collaboration between the award winning resort and…
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Phuket’s sea gypsies gain ground
PHUKET: After decades of struggle, Phuket’s sea gypsies may soon be allowed back into their ancestral fishing waters.Sea gypsy communities for centuries lived freely off the abundant sea life in Andaman waters with an unyielding respect for the source of their nourishment and an innate commitment to environmental preservation. With industrial development, tourism growth, the creation of new technologies and…
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Phuket’s jet-skiers play good samaritans
PHUKET: In a humanitarian effort, 13 members of the Patong Jet Ski Club traveled from Phuket to the flooded regions in and near Bangkok where they used jet-skis to rescue more than 600 people and distribute emergency food rations to stranded victims who were unwilling to leave their homes. Somkid Kueanun, a 36-year-old Phuket native and head of both the…
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Phuket Books – A mission of madness
PHUKET: Every grade school student is familiar with the epic voyage (1497-1499) of Vasco da Gama from Portugal around the Horn of Africa to India. What they are not so familiar with is the gruesome tale of naval bombardments, sea battles, siege, sack, piracy and mass mutilations that would follow. Launched only five years after the first voyage of Columbus…
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Phuket Gardening – It’s all about looking pretty
PHUKET: In the next few weeks, this space will be devoted to small trees suitable for your Phuket garden. The distinction between small trees and large shrubs is a blurred one. So what are the differences between shrubs and small trees? Both are perennials and both live for a number of years, but neither is a herbaceous perennial, as are…
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Phuket film low-down: Just In Time for Timberlake
PHUKET: A sci-fi flick about immortality starring Justin Timberlake is out now. It’s not great; it’s not terrible – if you have time to spare, then give it a go.Tick, tick, tick – six years have passed since Andrew Niccol, writer of the Truman Show and director of Gattica, did a project of note so it’s about time he got…
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T minus five weeks for Royal Phuket Marina’s Tri Tim
PHUKET: Now in his 20th week of training for the Laguna Phuket Triathlon (which started off with just a walk around the block), Tim’s activity rate has built up slowly but surely to where he is now stronger, a lot fitter and 12kg lighter. Although he continues to improve, it has not always been smooth sailing. The last four weeks…
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Phuket Lifestyle – Nail Art, fashion at your fingertips
PHUKET: Nothing completes a look like a great manicure. From subtle and chic to striking and bold, your nails say a lot about your style and character, and they can often make or break your look. As with any fashion accessory, the quality of the product should be the determining factor when making your decision. To ensure that you receive…
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Dining delight at D Phuket
PHUKET: D Phuket is a relative newcomer to the island’s restaurant scene. Opened last year by Mrs Panarat “Oom” Jairakpakde and her husband Suvich Prechaharn, it has already become a focal point for diners who appreciate authentic central Thai cooking. D Phuket’s concept is clear – Thai food “Bangkok style”. The word Bangkok when used in the same sentence as…
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Phuket lifestyle – Around the world with solar power
PHUKET: The MS Turanor PlanetSolar, the first solar-powered boat to attempt a circumnavigation of the globe, arrived at Phuket’s Ao Po Marina, en route to the Indian Ocean and the final legs of its 57,000-kilometer expedition. The voyage began on September 27, 2010 in Monaco and has been mapped with stopovers along the equator, where the boat can exploit the…
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Phuket Gardening – don’t be bamboozled by big bamboo
PHUKET: Like the coconut, bamboo is an indispensable part of Thai life. Essentially a lover of hot, monsoon climates, most of the genus Bambusa, or giant bamboos, come from the Asian region. Giant bamboo is used as a building material, as scaffolding or ladders, as a source of mats, and as a key ingredient in Thai cuisine, especially the huge…
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Female sleuth equal among Phuket police
PHUKET: Captain Nucharee Longkaew is the only female police detective in Phuket. The single, 27-year-old native of Nakhon Sri Thammarat has been working for the investigations department of Phuket City Police since May of this year and is also working on a master’s degree in law. Here she talks about the life lessons she has learned and what it is…
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