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.
-
Sponsored Limited-time deal: Save 20% on Cigna's expat health plans forever
Starting a new life abroad is exciting—new culture, new lifestyle, and new chances to grow. But living far from home also means taking steps to protect your health in unfamiliar surroundings. Without the right coverage, even small health issues can...
-
Phuket Lifestyle: Full cycle
PHUKET: While a certain Mr Armstrong may have brought shame to the world of cycling following recent revelations to a certain Ms Oprah, a certain Mr Mason will be doing just the opposite by using his bicycle to help raise funds for needy children. Tomorrow James Mason will leave Tiger Muay Thai camp in Chalong (one of his main sponsors)…
-
Phuket Gardening: From weird to wondrous
PHUKET: Nobody rattles on about the weather with as much relish as the British. But in 2012, only one word was needed – weird. The year, rated the second wettest since the advent of records, began as it started. The Christmas skies in London, traditionally one of the drier spots in the UK, were permanently grey, and early risers were…
-
Phuket Books: Hell in Latvia
PHUKET: Dr Gwendolyn Chabrier’s novel Behind the Barbed Wire (Orchid Press, Hong Kong, 2011, 203pp) is about the Holocaust. It is not true to say that bookshelves groan under the weight of books written about the Holocaust – whole libraries do. Amazon lists more than 5,000 titles on the subject. In comparison, the many more millions of Russians and Chinese…
-
Phuket Lifestyle: Food, games, music and fun, and all for charity
PHUKET: This weekend Royal Phuket Marina (click here for map: RPM) will be thronged with an extravaganza of fabulous food, fun and games for the kids and then later in the evening, superb music from The Legends of Siam, Moderndog and the internationally famous bluesmen from Australia Vdelli. As if all this wasn’t enough to make this one of Phuket’s…
-
Phuket Property: Singaporeans looking abroad
PHUKET: THE number of Singaporeans buying overseas property is likely to increase because of significant property cooling measures introduced by the government of Singapore, according to PropertyGuru, a leading Asian property website.The measures, which came into effect on January 12, include an immediate increase in stamp duties payable across the board between three and eight per cent. The government said…
-
Phuket Property Watch: So near, and yet so far
PHUKET: As I write this, I can imagine the strange look of astonishment on my editor’s face as this column arrives – one which is actually about property. Perhaps a virtual high five will be forthcoming. More likely a collective sigh of relief, which can be heard high above the din of rush hour traffic on Thepkassatri Road. Worse yet…
-
Phuket Lifestyle: The boat that rocks!
PHUKET: PGTV, in association with party organizers Fistpump Phuket, has a very special offer for all our local readers and fans. The Fistpump Sunset Boat Party will set sail again next Sunday, January 27. Built specifically for party cruises, the boat is as much a floating dance floor as a motorized fun palace and features a unique “Jacuzzi net” that…
-
Phuket Books: Indulging in OJ Simpson
PHUKET: The author of a dozen books, mostly about crime in high places, Dominick Dunne was a compulsive name-dropper. Ah, but what names! Princess Diana, Elizabeth Taylor, Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty, Annette Bening, Gregory Peck, Kirk Douglas, Nancy Reagan, Frank Sinatra, Tony Curtis and a whole slew of Hollywood and Euro-trash royalty. He died three years ago at the age…
-
Phuket Lifestyle: Life in the extreme – David Martin
PHUKET: NO SMELL, no life, no sound – except the booming of ice cracking and the wind – the South Pole is one of the most hostile environments in the world, but even here in this frozen abyss dreams manage to materialize. Few search for answers in so bleak a landscape, a place where one meter of snow is no…
-
Phuket Pets: Mommy, I want the cute puppy
PHUKET: By the time you bring your new puppy home, say at eight weeks of age, it should already be accustomed to an indoor domestic environment (especially one with noises) and well-socialized with people. Similarly, house training, chew toy training, and tutoring in basic manners should be well underway. If not, your prospective puppy’s social and mental development is already…
-
Phuket Property Legal: Collective Leasehold Structures – Overview
PHUKET: PHUKET and neighboring provinces contain some of the finest villa developments in Thailand. However, under Thai law, foreigners are generally prohibited from owning land. However, they are, as many are aware, allowed to own buildings. Therefore, a common method for foreigners to purchase a villa is to lease a land plot (or plots) from a Thai landowner, and purchase…
-
Phuket Property: Bold predictions for 2013
PHUKET: I believe Chinese zodiac signs went out sometime in the 1970s, though clearly citizens of Sedona and Byron Bay didn’t get the memo. We are about to enter the twelve year cycle of the Snake. From a quick look around the zodiac, the slimy reptile is still trumped by the Dragon, but nonetheless, words like mysterious, cattiness (love that…
-
Phuket Property: Thailand’s first container mall
PHUKET: Thailand’s first ‘container mall’, the colorful new Boat Avenue Shopping Street, is taking shape as part of a Phuket’s cosmopolitan community in Cherng Talay, and is set to be finished by the end of the year. The mixed-use retail, commercial and residential development covering 25 rai is the latest community-style project by Phuket-based developer Boat Development. Director Mr Boon…
-
Phuket Humor: Land of Smiles – A belated Christmas carol
” ‘Twas the day before Christmas and all was calm at the 91.5 FM studio in Kathu, with nothing to be heard but the occasional tuk-tuk and the odd tailor offering to make a suit, ‘Special price for Christmas, Sir’. The afternoon show hosted by The Doris was in full swing….”PHUKET: Then there came a knock at the door. “Is…
-
Phuket People: Somchai Yimpat
PHUKET: Photographer and retired lecturer Somchai Yimpat believes that in photography the argument over whether film is superior to digital has become moot. “People focus too much on mediums,” he says. “The concern should be about what the final presentation will be. If it’s for exhibition prints, then film is definitely superior to digital. For sharing on the internet, digital…
-
Phuket Lifestyle: Impiana’s Swasana Spa
PHUKET: If ever there was a true boutique spa, then this is it. It doesn’t make pretentious claims to be the biggest, or even the best spa in Phuket. Nor does it boast of having the widest choice of treatments. But what Swasana Spa is proud of is that it offers top-notch spa services fusing the very best techniques of…
-
Phuket Property: Land and Houses to explore new markets
PHUKET: Residential development will continue to be the core business for Land & Houses (L & H) while it invests in related businesses as well as others with future potential. “Our strategy is to manage our investment budget by balancing homes for sale and businesses that will generate a return in the long run,” said Naporn Sunthornchitcharoen, a senior executive…
-
Phuket Lifestyle: Call of the wild – a family’s journey out of captivity
for mapHUKET: This past year has been an incredibly busy time at Phuket’s Gibbon Rehabilitation Project (GRP), but fortunately, with the arrival of a new crop of enthusiastic volunteers to help out, the day finally came when the GRP were able to release the 2012 gibbon family (Cop, Jorn and baby Sherpa) into the wild. On the climb up to…
-
Phuket Lifestyle: Rolling the dice on Phuket’s roads
SPECIAL REPORT PHUKET: One lifestyle decision that anyone residing in Phuket (or even just on an extended holiday) will eventually come to consider, is whether or not to achieve transport independence – if not for the sake of convenience then certainly out of necessity.It’s no secret that getting around via public transport in other prime destinations of the Kingdom –…
-
Phuket Pets: Heed the breed
PHUKET: With centuries of domestication safely behind us, it seems that more and more households now have at least one dog. But many of the problems owners end up having stem from choosing the wrong breed. Most of the time the choice is made because “The puppy looked cute” or because of “Daddy, daddy I want that one…” Either way,…
-
Phuket Property: Malaiwana launch The Residences
PHUKET: Malaiwana is a luxurious development built on 28 rai overlooking Naithon beach on the north-west coast of Phuket. The Phuket Gazette spoke to Malaiwana’s managing director Stephen Paine about the estate.Phuket Gazette: What is the Malaiwana development? Stephen Paine: It is a project with three elements: 19 villas, 12 residences and a beach club. We began construction on the…
-
Phuket Property: IHG takes over the Evason Resort
PHUKET: The InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), the world’s largest hotel group by number of rooms, announced the signing of InterContinental Phuket Rawai Beach Resort recently, the first for the brand in Phuket, with JTM (Thailand) Limited, a member company of the LC Development Ltd (LC Dev) Group. Designed by award-winning architect Bill Bensley, who also designed IHG’s award-winning InterContinental Danang…
-
Phuket Lifestyle: A brief history of brunch
PHUKET: Brunch Upon a Time… for many of us living in Phuket, Sunday mornings were largely an unconfirmed rumor. Many of us who grew up in the seventies used to emerge from a standard Saturday night Bacchanal around two o’clock the following Sunday afternoon, wolf down some left-over pizza and whatever hadn’t been drunk the night before and collapse in…
-
Super Year – A sailor’s travel guide to seeing Asia
PHUKET: The Indian Ocean and Asia-Pacific regions are fast becoming some of the best cruising grounds in the world – a fact well known to those who have cruised them for many years, but something that is only now becoming common knowledge around the world. “Recent expansions in marina facilities have provided the kind of support today’s demanding professional captains…
-
Phuket Lifestyle: 2012 quiz answers
PHUKET: Answers to the Phuket Gazette’s 2012 Super quiz. 1) Iran 2) Spain 3) Germany 4) Novak Djokovic 5) Costa Concordia 6) Cairo 7) Declared bankrupt 8) The United States and Israel 9) Yahoo! 10) Royal Bank of Scotland 11) Facebook 12) Her 60th 13) Malév Hungarian Airlines 14) Greece 15) Harry Redknapp 16) Whitney Houston 17) Egypt 18) Germany…
-
Phuket Lifestyle: The ultimate 2012 quiz
PHUKET: Were you paying attention in 2012? Test your general knowledge with these questions compiled The Green Man quiz- master Howard Digby-Johns.In January1) The European Union adopted an embargo against which nation in protest of continued effort to enrich uranium? 2) Which Eurozone country reported the highest level of unemployment since they first started collecting the figures? 3) Which Eurozone…
-
Phuket Lifestyle: Three New Years for the price of one
PHUKET: Making (and often immediately breaking) New Year’s resolutions is an age-old tradition all over the world as we pass from one year into the next. Hope, and its close cousin, self delusion, are abundant at this time of year as we promise to be better and brighter versions of ourselves. In Phuket, in fact you get not just one,…
-
Phuket Diving: Into the New Year
PHUKET: With the world’s biggest single day reef cleanup behind us, not to mention numerous underwater adventures from discovering manta rays to testing out new gear, it is time to focus on what another year of diving will bring. As an hour underwater is never an hour wasted, it’s impossible to list all the goals a person should consider adding…
-
Phuket Books: The Cambodian book of the dead
PHUKET: A veteran journalist on the Asian beat, Tom Vater certainly knows Cambodia. In the crime novel The Cambodian Book of the Dead (Crime Wave Press, Hong Kong, 2012, 287pp), his descriptions of Phnom Penh, Kep and Siem Reap are spot on. The hero is Maier (no first name) who grew up in East Germany under the communist government, where…
-
Phuket Property: Tri Property launch Zcape X2 concept
PHUKET: Urban lifestyle condo concept developer Tri Property launched sales of the Zcape X2 Condominium in Cherng Talay on December 15, boasting unit reservations totalling more than 60 per cent over the first weekend of the two-week pre-sales period. Touted as perfectly priced condo units in a prime location, Tri Property CEO Adisorn Vivakanond said the Zcape X2 concept was…
Don't forget to check out some other things to do in Thailand - get help starting a business or finding a job in Thailand, buy Thailand property, rent a yacht or book a medical procedure worldwide.