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 Planning to extend your Thai visa? Why health insurance is more important than ever
If you plan to stay longer in Thailand, having health insurance is now more important than ever. Thai immigration often asks for proof of medical coverage when you apply to extend your visa. This applies to many types of visas,...
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Phuket Lifestyle – monsoon season is here
PHUKET: While Thailand is internationally recognized for its cuisine, it is not generally famous for its fine wines, but Monsoon Valley wines are trying to change that preconception. At a Monsoon Valley wine dinner held at the Ruen Thai restaurant in the Dusit Thani, Laguna Phuket on December 1, German winemaker Kathrin Puff presented the best award winning wines from…
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Phuket Books – Through the gun smoke of Wyatt Earp’s wild life
PHUKET: Resident bookworm for the Phuket Gazette, James Eckardt reviews Jeff Guinn’s The Last Gunfight (Simon & Schuster, New York, 2011, 392 pp), the latest in a long line of books and articles about October 26, 1881, the day when Wyatt, Virgil and Morgan Earp along with Doc Holliday squared off against the four cowboys of the Clanton and McLaury…
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Island Investor – eighteen year property cycle
PHUKET: The holiday season is fast approaching and some of us will soon be heading back to colder climes to enjoy the festive period with our loved ones. Many of you will remain in Phuket enjoying your Christmas dinner in a tropical climate, whilst for those of us jetting back to the UK we hope to be able to put…
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Phuket Lifestyle – wreck diving in Khao Lak
PHUKET: The descent line disappeared below us after we splashed in above the Sea Charter, one of the few diveable wrecks off the coast of Khao Lak. There is a long moment between leaving the sunny surface of the Andaman Sea and the first hint of the ship’s shadow blackening the blue water below us. In that moment I found…
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Phuket Gardening – beautiful bauhinias
PHUKET: I was recently asked to offer my advice about landscaping the entrance area to an up-scale estate. After studying photographs of the site area and making a long list of possible plants, I paid a visit to my favorite nursery to discuss tactics, availability and prices with the Thai owner. She knows what she is talking about as her…
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Phuket Lifestyle – Executive Chef Puwin has heart
PHUKET: Mr Puwin Chunesiri, new executive chef of the Sawaddi Patong Resort on Phuket’s west coast, has traveled the globe gaining experience in the culinary arts. Chef Puwin’s career started at age 16 with no experience in cooking but plenty of passion. “I always found the art of cooking fascinating. I was born and raised in a Chinese-Hainanese family, and…
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Hairy Healer’s feelin’ Phuket
PHUKET: Globetrotting British clairvoyant and Reiki healer John Campbell is turning his attention to someplace new – Phuket. The bearded 49-year-old, once dubbed the “Hairy Healer”, towers at six-foot five inches yet he is softly spoken and exudes a calming tell-me-your-secrets aura. He has always been a clairvoyant, as he believes everyone is on some level, but picked it up…
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Phuket lifestyle – organic fashion is cool
PHUKET: Most people know that organic food is good for our health and great for the environment. This idea is spreading quickly from our pantries to our closets as more consumers become aware of the benefits of organic fashion. Major labels are now offering organic lines and top designers are hitting the runways with eco-friendly fibers. By participating in this…
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Phuket Books – Tortured Hemingway
PHUKET: Paul Hendrickson, a veteran journalist at the Washington Post, has written books on people involved in the Vietnam war and the civil rights movement. His first book, Seminarian, is a favorite of mine because I was a Catholic seminarian too and empathize with his insights about the long-term effects such rigorous training has on character. His latest book is…
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Phuket Lifestyle – the legend of Dark Fiber
PHUKET: Dark Fiber is every telecom executive’s nightmare. “When the internet works, fiber optic cables light up but when it is down or is unused it is known as ‘dark fiber’ and that’s not good news.” says Gary Crause. He’s an ex- telecoms expert whose office, at the entrance of Boat Lagoon, is next to Telecom company 3BB where rolls…
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TwoVillas multiply in Phuket
PHUKET: Since launching some of Phuket’s first affordable luxury pool villas in 2003, the Twovillas Group has expanded and added a flourish of trendy concepts. Twovillas is now widely recognized as a developer of vibrant communities. In just eight years, the Twovillas team of local architects has developed over 20 residential projects, with 264 pool-villas nestled in desirable neighborhoods around…
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Phuket Gardening – Wattle it be, mate?
PHUKET: Ask any Australian gardener about the Acacia and they will either look puzzled, or reply: “Aw, you mean a wattle, mate”. And they should know, because these ornamental trees come mostly from Oz. To confuse things further, the Acacia used to be classified in the genus of Mimosa, and in Mediterranean regions is still referred to by this name.…
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Phuket’s Eden Oasis is now complete
PHUKET: Developers of the Eden Thailand property development near Karon Beach recently announced that the 11 newly completed units of Phase Two of their Eden Oasis project are now for sale. Eden Oasis includes seven one-bedroom condominiums and four two-bedroom, two-level duplexes ranging in price from 4.9 million baht to 8.2mn baht. Eden Oasis is nestled on the hillside with…
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Taming Phuket’s savage condohotel beast
PHUKET: Nearly two decades ago, in 1993, Laguna Phuket started residential sales for their Allamanda condominium. Asia was a rising star, the baht surged in appreciation and foreign investment into Thailand property was still in its early days. Though residential-led hospitality, or condo-hotels, was hardly new on the scene, here the book was blank on how, why or what the…
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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 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 Dog Whisperer – His master’s voice?
PHUKET: As a canine trainer, one of the key things I hear people talk about is that their dog won’t come back when they call. I’ll spare you the training psychology behind this for today and focus on another important aspect to a failed recall. It might not be that your dog is blowing you off, he just might not…
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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’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 History – Kor Sim Bee’s new roads
PHUKET: Thalang Road has always been the pride of old Phuket Town because of its interesting history. Both sides of the narrow road, lined with old Sino-Portuguese shop-houses showcase the town’s unique architecture and cultural heritage. Thalang Road was one of the first roads in Phuket Town to be renovated when Phraya Ratsada-Nupradit (Kor Sim Bee) took charge as Phuket’s…
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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 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 Gardening – Thriving in stormy weather
PHUKET: Recently I enjoyed a visit to a Phuket spa with a South African couple who had come to live on the island. They pointed out that while many of the flowering shrubs are the same as in Cape Town or Johannesburg, they seem to be much less colorful in Phuket. There are reasons for this relative dearth of blooming.…
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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 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 Lifestyle – TEFL Courses: the good, the bad and the cowboys
PHUKET: Phuket has no shortage of expats who want to live and work here. Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) is a popular way to achieve this goal, which means that the competition for these jobs are fierce and wages are somewhat lower than those in other urban areas of Thailand. One way to improve the odds of finding…
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