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 Diving: A communal recovery from the myths of DCS
PHUKET: Recovered from her diving accident, Nicole still combs through the details of the day, searching for the tiny factors that might have contributed to the serious case of neurological decompression sickness (DCS Type II) she faced a year and half ago after a 22-meter dive in the Similan National Park. Unless it’s a ruthless horror story about DCS, where…
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Phuket Lifestyle: A Rotary roundup; Golf tourney
PHUKET: Members of the Rotary Club of Patong Beach recently purchased some much-needed necessities for the Banjo school for migrant workers with money raised by the club. “Supercheap arrived at the school and assembled the goods one hour before they were expected,” said Club member Patricia Mitchell. “Consequently, Stewart and I arrived to find the children and teachers happy and…
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Phuket Lifestyle: Rally round the family
PHUKET: Gentlemen, start your engines. A family event dedicated to making a positive difference is racing back to Phuket for the third straight year. The Phuket Invitational Car Rally is a family day out like no other. You won’t need to pack a food hamper or fix the ski rack, just fill up with fuel, bring the family and make…
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Phuket Lifestyle: St. Valentine’s Day
PHUKET: According to classics professor Noel Lenski of the University of Boulder Colorado, the lovers’ holiday traces its roots to a raucous annual Roman festival where men stripped naked, used goat – or dog-skin – whips, and spanked young maidens in the hopes of increasing their fertility. The annual pagan celebration, called Lupercalia, was held every year on February 15…
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Phuket Property: Travel summit votes on key issues
PHUKET: The nation’s pre-eminent gathering of tourism and travel industry experts has concluded that while Thailand looks headed for its best year for tourist numbers and revenues ever, action to legalize gaming, improve infrastructure and attract ‘quality’ travellers was urgently needed ahead of moves to introduce the Asean Economic Community (AEC). More than 350 tourism industry movers and shakers attended…
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Phuket Property Watch: Tourism heads off to the mall
PHUKET: ‘Bling bling’ goes the ringing in my head, as I frantically search out my missing car in the massive underground car park at one of the island’s ubiquitous shopping malls. I am not at all prepared for the event, which has taken on a real life adventure of Stanley and Livingstone proportions. Where is Indiana Jones when you need…
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Phuket Property: New deal for Marriott
PHUKET: Marriott International recently announced the signing of seven management agreements with TCC Hotels Group, which means the US hospitality company will operate seven TCC hotels across Thailand.These agreements make the TCC Hotels Group the largest owner of Marriott International hotels in Asia Pacific. The seven hotels are: The Imperial Queen’s Park Hotel, Bangkok, to be rebranded as Bangkok Marriott…
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Phuket Humor: Learning about the birds and bees
PHUKET: Today I’m going to tell you how I learned about the birds and bees. All you young whippersnappers out there need to know how we learned about this important topic way back in prehistoric times, even before the Rolling Stones. Nowadays it’s easy for a young person to learn about sex. All you do is log onto the Internet…
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Phuket Blazing Saddles: The power of Yao
PHUKET: This week we head off Phuket to a quieter parallel universe called Koh Yao Noi where time seems to stand still and the cycling is relaxed and easygoing. For even the most party-loving souls, Phuket is becoming frenetic, crowded and often stressful. If you are a cycling aficionado this is especially true as pedaling around Phuket is always challenging…
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Phuket Health – Reality check of New Year’s resolutions
PHUKET: So January 1 has quickly passed and I wonder how many of you are still on track with your new year’s resolutions? The good news is you still have time to create lasting goals and redeem yourself if you’ve all ready fallen off the wagon! First, a ‘Reality Check’: Staying motivated and committed toward accomplishing your dreams is often…
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Construction law practice in Thailand
PHUKET: Seeking a perfect home may be an arduous process but the complexities of building a property in Thailand are multiplied without a solid construction contract, as many homeowners and property developers will attest. A crucial part of any good contract is cost assessment and management. Many problems in construction projects occur because there is no written contract recorded between…
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Phuket Property: “Student life” at dcondo Kuku
PHUKET: Sansiri’s latest dcondo development in Phuket – a campus-style resort in Kuku – is selling out fast with pre-sales for the project having reached 50% and continuing to rise, as of the beginning of February. The development’s design concept is inspired by dormitories at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge in the UK. Sansiri has previously launched one other…
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Phuket Gardening – Turning over a new leaf
PHUKET: Any New Year’s resolutions about gardening? Plenty. Everywhere in the garden I see Nature’s perfection and my imperfections. Mistakes a-plenty. Why, is there a gap in that flower bed? Ah! Because the multicolored acalypha I once put there succumbed to mildew and was never replaced. Why is the grass so threadbare near the fish pond? Because the area is…
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Chinese New Year: the year of the snake nears
PHUKET: As billions of Chinese around the world bid farewell to the year of the dragon tonight, they prepare to welcome tomorrow’s ‘invisible moon’, which marks the official start of a new year – the year of the snake. That’s right, the Chinese New Year officially begins tomorrow, February 10. The most important festival in the Chinese calendar, Chinese New…
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Xenophobia strikes out in Phuket
PHUKET: Welcome to the brand new year of twenty thirteen. So far the twenties have been pretty disappointing. Music seems to have taken on an alter personality with televised ‘talent shows’ now taking us dangerously close to a purgatory known as ‘karaoke-land’. There are the movies, but sequels to mega-blockbusters seem to be rolling out faster than one of those…
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Phuket Lifestyle: Go with the flow… riding
PHUKET: Before a band of bronzed onlookers – clad in board shorts and tiny black dresses, sipping their drinks and dancing to Phuket House Mafia – professional indoor surfers from Singapore christened Phuket’s first wave pool at Surf House. That’s right. Never again do surfers have to stow their boards for the high season, now you can have it all.…
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Phuket Humor: The good news about death
PHUKET: Death has received very bad press. Nobody has a good word to say about it, and everybody’s afraid of it. Fairness requires that somebody should point out the good points of this much-maligned condition. I’m told that death can significantly impact your life. It’s a tricky topic to write about, because nobody knows what it’s like. It may be…
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Phuket Property Watch: Khao Lak’s Ramada wins top award
PHUKET: The Ramada Resort Khao Lak achieved the honor of being a first-time two-time winner of the Top and Luxury Hotel categories by TripAdvisor in its 2013 travelers’ Choice awards, announced last week. Now in its eleventh year, the annual TripAdvisor Travelers’ Choice awards honor the world’s best hotels, earning their distinction from those who know them best – real…
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Phuket Property: Dewa Karon changes name, management
PHUKET: MAI-BS (Thailand) has taken over management of what used to be known as the Dewa Karon Resort Phuket.The resort is currently going through a re-branding and repositioning period and will now be known as Karon Sovereign All Suites Resort. The high-potential All Suites Resort offers 49 luxurious one and two-bedroom suites and penthouses sized between 63 and 140 square…
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Phuket Property: New development targets beginners
PHUKET: Relieving much anticipation of the property market just north of Phuket Town, lifestyle home developer LH Muang Mai Limited (LH), the local subsidiary of trusted property giant Land & Houses, recently unveiled its third housing development on the island: Inizio – Koh Kaew. Pre-sales for the 590.8 million baht development were launched at the project’s site behind Phuket’s main…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Phuket Environment: A slow boat to China – The loris pet trade
PHUKET: A recent Phuket Gazette article offered some encouraging news for environmentalists. The Deputy Mayor of Patong has acted to stop touts from charging tourists. For what? For having their photographs taken with slow lorises. He is on record as stating that ten arrests have been made, adding: “The crackdown will continue because such activities are upsetting and annoying to…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Phuket Gardening: Pottering with giant plants
PHUKET: I was recently asked about suitable terrestrial plants for large, even giant-sized pots. These glazed pots are hand-crafted by traditional methods, and are objets d’art in their own right. Not to be upstaged by mere plants. So what principles apply? First, preserve the integrity of the container by ensuring it is not camouflaged, or covered up by untidy festoons…
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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…
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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…
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