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 Why health insurance costs more each year and how expats in Thailand can save more money
Each year, many expats living in Thailand see their health insurance premiums go up and often without a clear reason. This can be frustrating, especially when you're trying to plan your budget. But by understanding why prices rise and learning...
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Hair-raising experience at Hollow Mountain
PHUKET: Hollow Mountain Extreme Adventure Park in Krabi has a perfect score on Trip Advisor, with 54 five-star ratings out of 54 ratings. That’s no feat to scoff at – particularly not these days when everyone wants free wireless internet and zero mosquitoes wherever they go – and it’s especially impressive considering that they’ve only been open for one year.…
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Thai animal cruelty campaign wins top honors at Cannes
PHUKET: An awareness campaign by Bangkok-based advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather won five awards at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity held late last month. Their video shows ‘Leatherworks’, a typical pop-up shop of luxury goods located inside a large shopping center in Bangkok. Unsuspecting shoppers are filmed browsing through rows of snake-skin shoes and crocodile-skin handbags, but once…
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Diving: To splurge or not to splurge
PHUKET: Like most people new to freediving, as well as many experienced divers, I have a desire to go deeper to set new personal bests. Also, like many divers, my head is so full of inaccurate and misleading information that a faulty premise on how to do this is floating in my mind: “I need to buy stiff, carbon fiber…
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Profile: Adisak Pitakrojananont – working his away atop the hospitality ladder
PHUKET: PHUKET: Adisak Pitakrojananont hails from Ratchaburi and is currently the general manager of Mom Tri’s Villa Royale at Kata Noi Beach, Phuket. He graduated from Ramkhamhaeng University with a Bachelor’s degree in hotel management and has more than 10 years of experience in the hospitality business, eight of which have been in management. “I was not born to be…
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Ready, steady, get Footloos
PHUKET: The multi-billion-baht Phuket tourism industry caters to adventurers and wellness seekers from across the globe, with a seemingly endless stream of tour companies offering a multitude of services. Now imagine if you could get all these services in a few clicks on a single platform. That, in short, is the idea behind Footloos, an online marketplace dedicated to an…
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Unemployed primate released into wild due to ‘depression’
PHUKET: Pom, an eight-year-old unemployed monkey raised by a Bang Jo couple since he was two, has been let go because the family who owned him could not bear to see him depressed. Pom used to work as a coconut picker and also helped to peel coconuts at his owner’s coconut oil factory. A few months ago, coconut prices shot…
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Boat Pattana announces new luxury villa project
PHUKET: Boat Pattana Co Ltd announced a new ‘limited edition’ high-end villa construction in progress in Phuket on June 13. “The project, named ‘Deva Escape’, will be located on the Bypass Road (Chalermprakiat Ror 9 Road) near IKEA, starting at 34 million baht for villas ranging 1157.6-1642.92 square meters,” said Panupong Kritchanarat, chief executive officer of Boat Pattana Co Ltd.…
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On Deck: Large trimarans to the fore
PHUKET: Multihull sailing isn’t something new to Phuket. In fact, some would argue multihulls are the ideal boats for Phuket’s waters. With their shallow draft they can more easily access some areas as compared to their monohull cousins. While everyone has different tastes in terms of size, brand and two hulls or three, what is relatively new to the local…
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Smart Life: Foundations of the next technological age
PHUKET: This is the first in a series of articles designed to engage the ultimate architects of smart cities: the mums and dads, the social workers, the councilors, small business owners… really the people that make up the city. The next technology revolution has the potential to manage, and maybe even unwind the damage caused by the last one. Many…
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Profile: Phuket’s Deputy Chief Judge Boonjuan Panich
PHUKET: Boonjuan Panich from Trang Province is the current deputy chief judge of the Phuket Court. He is also the president of the Trang-Phuket Club – a group of Trang natives living and working in Phuket. Now 49 years old, Mr Boonjuan has achieved much from a humble childhood as the second son of a rubber plantation worker in rural…
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Lub d hostel opens in Phuket
PHUKET: Lub d Phuket Patong is a new hostel set to open on July 19 with the aim of attracting modern-day backpackers who are looking for a laid back, affordable and convenient travel experience. Although the concept is a relatively new one for Patong accommodation, it is the latest in a line of similar successful hostels in Bangkok: Lub d…
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Gardening: Picking the perfect palm
PHUKET: There’s a maxim in the so-called ‘noble art’ that states that a good big ‘un will always beat a good little ‘un. But what is true about boxing will not necessarily be true for the inhabitants of your plot. Small gardens require small trees and shrubs – indeed, they tend to look lost in a grand environment. However, if…
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Blazing Saddles: When in Phuket, do as Brisbane does
PHUKET: Queensland’s capital city of Brisbane has a population of 2.3 million people, some four times the official figure for Phuket. Yet driving around Brisbane, as I did recently, you could be forgiven for thinking you were in a quiet country town. The traffic flows efficiently and there are rarely any bottlenecks, or congestion, with which to contend. Certainly Brisbane…
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Profile: Jiradech Chittawong – Born with the healing touch
PHUKET: Jiradech Chittawong, or Charlie Arm, as he is better known to his friends, is a physiotherapist from Hat Yai. Just 23 years of age, his clients refer to him as a ‘miracle worker’. He graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in physiotherapy from the Prince of Songkla University (PSU) Hat Yai Campus two years ago. “I spent my last year…
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Looking Back: A Brief History of Thong Dee (Part 2)
PHUKET: Picking up from where I left off in part one of the history of Thong Dee, in 1765, the Burmese invaded Siam with the aim of crushing Ayutthaya. King Ekkathat tried desperately to defend his country from the invaders. When Ayutthaya came under siege, the king sent word to Phraya Taksin for assistance. Taksin assessed the situation and believed…
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Across the Land: Property drivers for high season
PHUKET: Who will be the market drivers for property this coming high season in Phuket? Phuket has always been a hotpot mix of nationalities, whether it be the long-term residents, holiday home buyers or tourists. Long-term residents in Phuket basically fall into two broad segments. The first segment tends to be families from the surrounding Asian regions, such as Malaysia,…
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By the Book: Benefits of professional real estate photography
PHUKET: Professional real estate photography is more essential than ever before, when marketing any type of property for sale. Between 2008 and 2012 real estate searches on Google grew over 253 per cent, with 90 per cent of buyers beginning their searches online (nearly 30 per cent of those using mobile devices). Listings with professional photos generated an average of…
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On Deck: Optimize your boat, not your rating
PHUKET: Wise words from James Dadd, director of the RORC Rating Office, who recently took a detour from his Australia/New Zealand tour to stop over in Samui during the Samui Regatta and talk with sailors and event organizers about the IRC rating system prevalent in this area of the world. “We are cautious in our approach, introducing new ideas over…
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Profile: Santi hopes his legacy will continue
PHUKET: Santi Pawai has been working in Phuket since 2012 as the director of the Ministry of Tourism and Sports Phuket Office (MOTS). He was promoted last year to oversee Phuket tourism. Mr Santi, who is originally from Lopburi, is the head of Phuket’s Tourist Assistance Center at the airport, as well as the Tourism Business and Guide Registration Office.…
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Keep It Green: Getting our environmental act together
PHUKET: Whether it’s mantas or methane, protection or disposal, the world needs to get its act together. First some facts. Half of the world’s carbon dioxide is absorbed by the oceans. That the seas are a sink for CO2 is wonderful; it’s just that they are being damaged in the process. Hence, the dramatically increased levels of carbonic acid. One…
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Phuket divers do it in the monsoon season too
PHUKET: Though nearly a month late, the southwest monsoon season finally arrived in Phuket. With the annual torrential rains comes the standard question, “Is there still diving around Phuket?” The simple answer is, yes. Unlike the diving in Khao Lak, which pretty much has its shutters pulled down when the Similan Islands are closed, Phuket continues to offer excellent diving…
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Post-high-season autopsy on Phuket’s luxury property market
PHUKET: As I sit in my office on a faceless Saturday afternoon heading into low season, a song that flips up on Spotify grabs my attention – Ike and Tina Turner’s ‘River Deep, Mountain High’.My heart nearly skips a beat as Tina grittily sings the lines “And it gets stronger, in every way. And it gets deeper, let me say.…
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Profile: Making science easy, cheap and accessible for all
PHUKET: Asst Prof Dr Aree Choo-dum, 36, originally from Phatthalung, is currently a professor at Prince of Songkla University (PSU) Phuket Campus and also part of a team of researchers who invented cheap effective explosive test kits, for which they were awarded silver medals at the International Exhibition of Inventions Geneva 2016. Dr Aree is an expert in forensic chemistry…
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Consequences of committing immigration fraud
PHUKET: In February, Sittichai Boonkeian murdered his 13-year-old daughter and committed suicide by hanging himself from a ceiling fan. His wife, Chonrat Mungmart, believes that Mr Sittichai’s murder-suicide was a result of the anxiety and problems associated with their separation. Mr Sittichai and his daughter were living in Florida and his wife was in Thailand. Ms Chonrat was separated from…
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Dealing with the trash problem in Phuket
PHUKET: Hygiene and cleanliness are very personal, and judging by the aroma at the airport and on airplanes, often seem to be an optional affair. But living in our environment is a shared community exercise, and Phuket does suffer from the stresses and strains of tourism, as well as a lack of regard by certain sectors of the community to…
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Profile: Peejay Stanley says farewell to Phuket
PHUKET: For half a decade Texan soul singer Peejay Stanley has been entertaining Phuketians with a larger than life stage presence guaranteed to get audiences on their feet. Peejay’s singing style has been described as similar to Joan Armatrading, Tracy Chapman and Nina Simone, but she is probably best described as a motown, soul and blues artist with a voice…
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Marriott to launch new resort in Nai Yang
PHUKET: Marriott Hotels are launching the Phuket Marriott Resort and Spa, Nai Yang Beach, next month. Inspired by cultural and architectural characteristics of Thailand, the resort is located about a 10 minute drive from Phuket International Airport. It has 180 rooms and is designed as a combination of traditional Thai style and sophisticated, modern architecture, by using ‘relaxing’ earth tones…
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Gardening: Caring for plants in dry weather
PHUKET: This is the time of year when the prolonged dry weather stimulates certain flowering trees to bloom as if their very lives depended on it. In a sense this is literally true, since an exceptional drought will probably mean that fruits may not form, and even that mature trees may shed so many leaves that they die. Already the…
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Phuket International Academy to join global United World College network
PHUKET: Phuket International Academy (PIA), located within the grounds of Thanyapura, in the north of Phuket, is set to become the first and only United World College (UWC) in Thailand, after two years of preparations and discussions with the London-based organization. With an alumni represented by more than 55,000 graduates from all around the globe, UWC has gained a worldwide…
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Coboat: Combining business with pleasure
PHUKET: Imagine running your business from almost anywhere in the world. Now imagine being on an 82-foot electric-powered catamaran and sailing around the world while doing that. That’s the idea behind Coboat, which combines co-working with sailing, travel and adventure. Many of us may be familiar with the concept of co-working, or sharing a rented office space with others who…
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