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 5 ways retirees in Thailand lose money (and how to stop it)
Retiring in Thailand can be affordable and enjoyable, but many retirees lose money due to common mistakes. High living costs, scams, and unexpected expenses can quickly drain savings. There are five ways that retirees in Thailand can lose money and...
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BTS will have to break up, whether they like it or not, and fans are not happy
Even though they’ve been making music since their debut back in 2013, it’s the last two years BTS, aka Bangtan Boys (or Bangtan Sonyeondan for Korean pronunciation), have gone from zero to hero in the pop music world. Now they’re riding their success on the crest of a wave that has defied conventional pop marketing and ‘western’ white-washed music standards.…
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14% of condos around Bangkok are empty – good time to buy
Looking for a condo around Bangkok? Now might the right time to take the plunge with the head of the Appraisal and Estate Agents Foundation saying some areas have between 8-14% vacancy rates, some areas of Bangkok up to 17.5%. Dr Sophon Pornchokchai made the remarks at a news conference yesterday. “Adding developer price wars, plus inducements to purchase, this…
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Jeans for sale, yours for 200,000 baht
PHOTO: www.menshealth.com Social media in Thailand was thrown into a tizzy yesterday when Facebook user Sarn N Tong posted a pair of Levi’s jeans for sale – for the grand sum of 200,000 baht. The Thai-language daily Matichon reports that the same man has already sold another pair of jeans for 150,000 baht. As part of its report, the newspaper…
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Prachin Buri roadside flower seller gives yesterday’s earnings to Thai flood victims
PHOTOS: INN News A roadside flower seller in Prachin Buri, just to the north east of Bangkok, is giving all his earnings from yesterday to help flood victims in Thailand’s north east provinces. INN News reports that he was wearing a sign… “All earnings from today will be given to flood victims”. Flower sellers are often seen at red lights…
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Lilly wages war on Thailand’s plastic
PHOTOS” AFP “Mindsets have started to shift this year with the deaths of several marine mammals whose stomachs were lined with plastic, stirring emotions.” by Sophie Deviller Skipping school to glide through a dirty Bangkok ‘klong’ on a paddleboard, Lilly fishes out rubbish in her mission to clean up Thailand, where the average person uses eight plastic bags every single…
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Historic discovery of earliest sound films shot in Thailand
PHOTO: Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation / University of South Carolina “Film historian Dome Sukhawong discovered the films in 2018, in the University of South Carolina archives.” Four films made nearly 100 years ago are believed to be the first sound films recorded in Thailand. The films were screened at the Thai Film Archive for the first time on Monday. Film…
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Muay Thai gains momentum in Nepal
“Muay Thai fighters are so strong, they can knock down a tree with a single kick.” Gymkhana, with the help of Nepal National Muay Thai Association, organised the first semi-professional competition and plans more in the future. While still a child Rahul Moktan heard his father talking about the Thai sport of Muay Thai, which has since paved his way…
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Australian newspaper reports on Thai minister’s criminal drug past
The Deputy Agriculture Minister Thammanat Prompow has had his accounts about his role in a 3.2 kilogram heroin-smuggling ring challenged by an Australian newspaper. The events back in 1993 landed Thammanat in a Sydney jail for four years. Thammanat Prompow is the Palang Pracharath MP for Phayao province in Thialand’s north. The article by the respected Sydney Morning Herald, “From…
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Thai monks receive alms then sell them back to traders… mmmm
PHOTOS: Sanook Just another day in Thailand with a social media post about monks seated along a city street appealing for alms at the Asoke market in the business hub of Bangkok. Sanook reports that there were many monks on the footpath as mostly Chinese tourists paid their respects and offered the monks food bought at the market. But an online…
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Thai school girls – longer skirts, bigger blouses
The Thai Education Ministry is telling teenage female students to dress “appropriately” and stop wearing dresses that are too skimpy. The Ministry has made amendments to the Child Protection Act to codify the length of dresses and the tightness of blouses, rather than leaving it up to school boards to come up with their own guidelines (you can imagine those…
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Changing Thailand’s helmet culture
by Patrick Mattimore On a recent trip to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, I was struck by an interesting phenomenon traveling from the airport to my hotel. I saw perhaps more than a thousand motorcycle riders and passengers, and only one person was not wearing a helmet. Yet, the entire two weeks I spent in that city, I didn’t see…
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Hua Hin property market stabilises
The condominium market in Hua Hin is returning to a “balanced state” thanks to a slow down in the launch of local developments in the coastal town. This follows the opening of many developments in 2011 and 2012, causing demand to fall behind the supply. Knight Frank Thailand’s director of research Risinee Sarikaputra says that in the middle of 2019, the…
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New hotel and condo developments flood Phuket’s property market
by Bill Barnett The continuing wave of developers bringing hotel investment grade real estate to the Phuket real estate market is escalating. Notable new entries include 74 units at the Melia Phuket Karon Residences that are now for sale. Pricing for one and two bedroom units starts at 8.4 million baht. A 7% three-year guarantee is offered with 30 days owner usage. Meanwhile,…
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Digital technology is drastically reshaping Thai media
“…journalism has never died despite the disruption. It’s just that media organisations and reporters are unable to survive because they cannot adjust to changes.” The Thaiger is a news and information portal, just one of a growing number of ‘disruptive media’ replacing traditional media and news outlets. It would be a very brave businessperson (with deep pockets) in the 2019…
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BTS, Jonas Brothers, Taylor Swift and Ariande Grande – winners at 2019 VMAS
In the pop music world you’re on top if you win at the 2019 VMAs, the annual MTV Video Music Awards show. The annual award show has had its ‘moments’ – with Madonna’s onstage kiss with Britney Spears in 2003 and and Kanye West storming the stage in 2009 to tell Taylor Swift that her award should have gone to Beyonce. This year…
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Asia’s trash couture – Thailand and China’s recycling supermodels
“He inspires others to challenge the norm, to break the mold, and to explore new and exciting possibilities.” Apichet “Madaew’” Atirattana grew up among the rice fields in Thailand’s Isaan region. Growing up as a teenager anywhere is a challenge. But deciding to take your village trash and turning it into high-fashion was always going to turn heads. That’s what…
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Songkhla soi dogs heading to the US
PHOTOS: Workpoint News | Thai Street Paws Rescue 5 dogs out of 29 that had been left to die in an abandoned home in Songkhla are now heading to the US to meet their new owners. Officials from the Division of Animal Welfare and Veterinary Service and Smiledog Home volunteers report that the 29 dogs and 8 cats were abandoned…
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“No stimulus for property sector” – Thai finance minister
The Finance Minister Uttama Savanayana told a seminar in Bangkok yesterday that the government’s stimulus packages were for the ‘grass roots economy’ and the property sector can cope on its own, without any government assistance. He was speaking at a property seminar hosted by the Krungthep Turakit newspaper yesterday. He said that that the real estate sector could readily adjust…
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Official complaint filed with the DSI over The Peaks Residences Condominium in Phuket
PHOTO: Inspections at the property in March this year – Kritsada Mueanhawong Bangkok MP Sira Jenjaka has gone ahead and filed a long list of formal complaints over The Peaks Residences Condominium project being built in the hills above Kata Noi in Phuket. The Palang Pracharat MP has also claimed to have had death threats made against him over his…
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Hong Kong’s protests have been good for Bangkok’s luxury condo market
High end Hong Kong investment is turning away from the Chinese business hub and looking outside for new investment opportunities. Thailand’s high-end luxury condo market has been one of the beneficiaries. Keerin Chutumstid, from the Bangkok-based Magnolia Quality Development, says about 40% of the condos in a 52 storey Bangkok luxury tower development that opened last week have already been sold…
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‘One Night In Bangkok’. The song, 35 years later
PHOTO: Doi Kuro, Bangkok 1980 When ‘One Night In Bangkok’ was released in 1984 it was an unlikely hit- the opening song from a (at the time) little-known stage pop-opera called ‘Chess’. The song made Number 1 in South Africa, West Germany, Switzerland and Australia, and Number 3 in Canada and the United States. It has remained a staple of…
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Palang Pracharath MP chastises Karon Police for not offering protection during condo visit
VIDEO & SCREENGRAB: M Today The Palang Pracharath member of parliament from Bangkok, Sira Jenjaka, had an argument with Lt Col Pratuang Polmana, Deputy Superintendent of Karon Police during his inspection to the controversial Peak Condominium in the Karon area of Phuket. MP Sira was surveying the construction site of the project and the sales office, which also serves as…
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Phuket’s lifeguards say goodbye to a champion of local beach safety
PHOTOS: Phuket Lifeguard Service A commemoration ceremony has been held for Prathaiyuth Chuayuan, a local Phuketian who helped drive Phuket’s first beach lifeguard services. He passed away on Friday morning after a heart attack. He first experienced chest pains whilst delivering his daughter to school in Phuket Town on Friday morning, drove himself immediately to the Vachira Hospital nearby but…
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Bank of Thailand relaxes Loan to Value to boost sluggish property market
PHOTO: booking.com The Bank of Thailand says it will relax the Loan to Value (LTV) for homebuyers purchasing residences together and that borrowers or co-borrowers applying for a loan under the first home buyers rule and who do not own any other residence would be given a 90% mortgage on a condominium and 95% for a single detached house and…
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Thailand, the land of festivals
Fireworks, colour, smoke, noise, costumes, absence of occupational health and safety. That could describe any of the many, many festivals held around Thailand each year. Different regions, different festivals. Some reflect an ancient culture and a rich history, other make absolutely no sense but we enjoy them anyway. We’ll go through some of the main ones and a few you’ll…
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Thai developers revising strategies after a drop in Q2
Some of Thailand’s largest property developers have reported drops in revenue and profit in Q2 2019. The slump follows commercial banks in Thailand reining in loan approvals in response to a new loan-to-value regulation that took effect on April 1. • AP (Thailand) reported total Q2 revenue of 4.8 billion baht, down 25.9% compared to last year’s 6.48 billion baht,…
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BTS are breaking up…
…temporarily. The announcement about BTS was made on Twitter by their South Korean management company and label Big Hit Entertainment. Don’t stress AMRY, they’ll be back together in a couple of months! Big Hit says the kings of pop need time to regroup and recharge their batteries. The announcement followed another dazzling display of their finely-tuned pop skills at the Lotte…
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AMLO warns about fake investment certificate
The Anti-Money Laundering Office (AMLO) Acting Secretary General is warning that there has been a group creating fake English certificates, claiming that it comes from the AMLO and being sold to foreign companies. The scammers would approach the foreign companies that expect to invest in Thailand and tell them that they need the certificate from AMLO. So far, there’s already…
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Radisson brand add another Phuket hotel to its portfolio
The Radisson Hotel Group has signed a deal for a 222 key mixed-use hotel on Phuket’s north west coast at Mai Khao. Set to open in early 2023, the hotel has sales and leaseback units under a hotel residences program. Radisson Phuket Mai Khao Beach is being developed by Thai-Chinese Property Holdings. Phuket’s ongoing development surge continues to attract Chinese…
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Amnesty program for unlicensed Thai hotels finishes September 9
PHOTO: We needed a photo of a small hotel. So this is The Small Hotel in Krabi (already licensed!!) The Thai government has issued guidelines for unlicensed hotels under their amnesty program. Hotels must submit applications and complete improvements before September 9, so time is of the essence. Baker McKenzie Thailand has outlined the process and guidelines which we are republishing…
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