Thai Life
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Phuket Dog of the Week: Chico
PHUKET: Chico is a cream male poodle mix, so if you are looking for a low shedding dog that’s intelligent, sociable with other dogs and affectionate towards children then this is your dog! Chico is about eight years old, and is a wise old dude, with a very relaxed temperament. He doesn’t bark a lot and is trained to stay…
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Phuket On The Menu: The Art of food
PHUKET: When checking in on Facebook one often comes across photographs of food; meals about to be consumed at restaurants and in homes. With the advent of ‘smart phones’ it seems everyone now has a camera ready to snap a shot of their dinner or their cat, or even their cat’s dinner. Among my Facebook friends is local artist Jayda…
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Phuket Gardening: Running the gamut from A to A
PHUKET: When I hit upon the not so original idea of listing an ABC of tropical plants suitable for Phuket’s gardens, I accepted the fact that there would inevitably be some overlap with previous articles. Just a different kind of taxonomy. But what I hadn’t bargained for was the sheer volume of relevant plants. Uamporn Veesommia’s cryptically named “Plant Materials…
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Phuket Books: Madness in Miami
PHUKET: After a career of nearly 20 years as a demented humor columnist for the Miami Herald, Dave Barry has turned to writing comic novels. Insane City (CP Putnam’s Sons, New York, 2013, 341pp) is his third. He dedicates it to “the people of this truly insane city of Miami, for making this book easy. Without you, this book wouldn’t…
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A festival of fitness for Phuket
PHUKET: The second Phuket Health and Fitness Festival, on May 18-19, will feature various events and activities, including yoga classes, lectures on well-being, raw food cooking classes, Zumba, a boot camp and the ultimate stand up paddle board (SUP) challenge. The event aims to give the local community a fun, informative weekend that appeals to all ages, and it is…
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Pirates of the Andaman
PHUKET: In the 1930s, the Thai government used the Andaman island of Tarutao as a prison to incarcerate the country’s most undesirable criminals. When the Japanese Imperial Army brought the Second World War to the footsteps of the kingdom in December of 1941, the Thai government under Field Marshall Phibun Songkram sided with the invaders against the allied forces (click…
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All systems go, Phuket
PHUKET: The Navy League Phuket (NLP) is pulling out all the stops in preparation for this year’s American Independence Day weekend celebrations, with a family picnic, live music and the grandest of air-shows on the cards. To celebrate the USA’s 237th birthday, the NLP will stage an unprecedented extravaganza in a carnival-like format on July 6 and 7 at the…
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Phuket Movies: Star Trek II – Into Kirk-ness
PHUKET: This week sees the release of the latest Star Trek movie, Into Darkness, the sequel to JJ Abrams reboot of the original TV series. Mr Abrams came in for an awful amount of stick for taking on the Trekkies golden calf, particularly after he admitted to not being a fan of The Original Series (TOS). Despite a few exceptionally…
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Outrigger gets new Executive Vice President
PHUKET: Global marketing expert Sean Dee has joined the Outrigger executive team as executive vice president and chief marketing officer. The new appointment was recently announced by David Carey, president and CEO of Outrigger Enterprises Group. As the company’s new global brand steward, Dee is responsible for developing and deploying the global marketing and brand strategies for Outrigger Enterprises Group,…
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Khao Lak finds its way forward
PHUKET: These days, everywhere you turn, the news is focused on Phuket fever. From soaring airport arrival numbers and surging hotel occupancy rates to, of course, the sordid underbelly of mass tourism. But the resort destination known as ‘Greater Phuket’ is no ‘one trick pony’. Nearby Khao Lak has certainly been kicking up its heels lately as Fortuna’s wheel of…
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Brave diving leads to wondrous discoveries in sands off Phuket
PHUKET: Turn your back on the reef. This isn’t an orientation dive to test your ability to get back to the corals. Turn your back on the safety of the gorgonian sea fans, staghorn corals and saffron-colored clam, and start kicking – be brave. Following the lead of Vince Moy from Kiwidiver, we stomp across the sand of Kata Beach…
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Phuket Lifestyle: Let’s lunch at La Moon
PHUKET: On the way to Surin Beach, as you pass through Cherng Talay, if you’re feeling a bit hungry you should make a stop at La Moon restaurant. La Moon’s owner ‘Khun Ging’ is sitting with some local Thai families, sharing a communal meal and exchanging the latest family news when we arrive. Ever the perfect hostess, Khun Ging soon…
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Phuket International Boat Show will be in January
PHUKET: The Phuket International Boat Show (PIMEX), ‘Asia’s favorite boat show’, which has been held in March for the last two years, will now return to its previous date slot and will next be held from January 9-12, 2014 at Royal Phuket Marina said Andy Dowden, show director. “Following feedback from the 10th anniversary show earlier this year, we have…
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The stork and the snail
PHUKET: As we all know to our cost, snails are the gardener’s bane. Today’s subject, however, is not about the common or garden variety creature that hides in the day and slides and slithers around at night to devour your seedlings, but another, more exotic species. Perhaps it merits a less disparaging mention in dispatches. The species in question is…
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Phuket Property: Asking for a second opinion
PHUKET: Many times prospective buyers of property in Thailand search online for legal information in regards to their purchase. They soon discover that online legal advice varies depending on the law office, lawyer or advisor providing the information. In some cases advice is given which recommends that to secure an investment in property a Thai company should be incorporated to…
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Phuket Property Watch: The season of our discontent
PHUKET: Anyone who has ever taken a cross-country road trip can certainly understand the blurred state of fatigue known as ‘white line fever’; late night driving as the music drums steadily into the oncoming darkness. This is the time that your imagination wreaks havoc in the mulched up madness of what can be summed up as “too far, too long…
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Phuket People: Prapa Hemmin
PHUKET: At the photo session prior to our interview, Prapa Hemmin looks dazzling in an electric blue dress and matching necklace. Still, she apologizes, “Sorry if I don’t look my best today. I am in the middle of an important project, the nature of which keeps me awake at night and the fatigue is ruining my complexion.” As Director of…
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Fine dining at Phuket’s NINE
PHUKET: In the three months since it opened, the NINE Wine Bar and Bistro, tucked away in a cozy corner at the Royal Place, has brought a fresh new dining treat to Phuket. For those of you who fly past the Tesco Lotus intersection to enter the bypass road speedway, try and slow down a bit and you’ll see the…
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Phuket Books: The new wave general
PHUKET: General David Petraeus is justly famous for introducing a sophisticated counter-insurgency strategy in Iraq that averted a catastrophic civil war and led to an orderly American withdrawal. Previously, American troops had been stationed in huge forts from which they would venture forth in under-armored vehicles, which fell prey again and again to roadside bombs. Petraeus introduced a badly needed…
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Phuket Gardening: The ABCs of plant names
PHUKET: “A” is for arbitrary – which is what the articles that follow will inevitably be. How else to describe in the same breath, an array of plants as different as acalyph (also known as the red cat’s tail) and the golden allamanda. “A” also represents excellence, so I hope the ensuing choice of plants will reflect that principle. In…
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Phuket Explore: Low-tech heaven
PHUKET: It is perhaps a little known fact that residents of Phuket, the island renowned for its sandy beaches and crystal clear water, are always on the lookout for a holiday getaway somewhere else. The reasons? Increasingly crowded beaches and expensive hotels that offer little value for money. So when a friend told us about a tent-hotel on an isolated…
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Phuket In Focus: Dreaming in black and white
PHUKET: Members of the Phuket Darkroom Club (PDC) will have their first exhibition of black and white photography at the Chalermraja Cultural Centre, Phuket Town from May 1-14. The works on display are portraits of heritage and culture that capture the love Phuketians have for their home, through the lens of a black and white camera. Audiences will enjoy rare…
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Phuket Tech: Woody retires but ‘Live Wire’ lives on
PHUKET: This week’s column marks the end of my eleventh year as a Phuket Gazette columnist and, as of the end of this month, I’m retiring in Thailand – something I probably should’ve done years ago. Just too many irons in the fire, and my family has had to put up with a lot. Although I’m hanging up my keyboard…
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AREA punctures bubble scare
PHUKET: Recent speculation that Thailand’s real estate market is on the verge of collapsing, is far from the current reality, the head of a major real estate services firm has insisted. The President of the Agency for Real Estate Affairs Company Limited (AREA), Dr Sopon Pornchokchai, PhD, has once again shunned news report warnings of an imminent property bubble burst.…
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Phuket Property: Cleat condos add to Krabi
PHUKET: The Cleat condominium, a residence in the Krabi Boat Lagoon, recently announced the exciting launch of a new phase of the project. Phase 1 was first launched in March of this year, with 15 units set to be complete by June. The Cleat offers low-rise waterfront condos, has four buildings with a total of 62 units, and is located…
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Phuket People: Rittidat Kodsan
PHUKET: Tucked away halfway up Rang Hill, in Phuket Town, is the small office of the National Broadcasting Services of Thailand, Phuket (NBTP), the production house of the town’s only national television station, Channel 11. The 15-year-old station is tiny and quaint – if somewhat run-down. Its setting is made more rustic surrounded by a virgin forest overrun with creepers…
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Phuket Gardening: Treasures in your garden
PHUKET: If you asked a stranger propping up a bar why he lived in Phuket, he would probably reply – in no particular order – the girls, the climate, the easy, smiley lifestyle and the cheap cost of living. I doubt he would mention the all-too ephemeral beauty of the place, or the sheer convenience of life on the island.…
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Phuket Pets: Dog(s) of the week – Angel and Silver
PHUKET: My baby (Angel) and I (Silver) are madly in love and spend most of our days curled up in the corner snuggling together. A few months ago we were found and rescued from a local animal holding facility. Our owners dumped us there in bad health, since they were going away on holiday and didn’t know what to do…
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Phuket Tech: The death of Windows – Live Wire
PHUKET: In the past week, the Windows world received quite a shock. First IDC, then Gartner – the two biggest names in computer industry prognostications – announced that, for the first time ever, shipments of new PCs had declined, year-on-year from the first quarter of 2012 to the first quarter of 2013. And the declines were substantial: somewhere between 11…
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Phuket Humor: In praise of sitting
PHUKET: A recent article claimed that too much sitting can kill you. It causes heart attacks, diabetes and a bigger bum. The author worried about the health of people who spend all their working days sitting in cubicles in front of computers, then go home to spend their entire evenings sitting in front of TV sets. Indeed, I have often…
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