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 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…
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Phuket Property Watch: 2013 property ponderings
PHUKET: When I lived and worked in the corporate rule, one of the true signs of executive prowess was the ability to read upside down. Now I’m not talking about taking up Japanese. Clearly that’s a country in decline. You can see it in the first installment of Die Hard. That’s where the trouble started. But look at me, an…
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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…
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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…
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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,…
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Phuket Gardening: Preserving Phuket’s plants
PHUKET: Odd how political correctness is responsible for changes in language. Take terms for indigenous people. When I was knee-high to a grasshopper, North Americans were called “Red Indians”. That was later changed to a more PC term –”Amerindian”. A bit of a mouthful, the expression in turn became “American Indian”. Now, and maybe finally, we talk about “Native Americans”.…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Phuket’s SMART Property and Lifestyle Expo is off and running
PHUKET: The SMART Property and Lifestyle Expo started December 27 and runs until December 30, 2012 at the Royal Phuket Marina (RPM). It’s billed as Phuket’s best extravaganza for accessible luxury. A showcase of best investment properties and “lifestyle” activities that epitomize luxury aspiration are on display. According to the organizer, Hoi Cheung, director, 3C Ltd, “In recent years Phuket…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Phuket Gardening: Say it with flowers
PHUKET: “SAY it with flowers” is a popular mantra of the florist business. And for most occasions and certainly for most ladies, a romantic bouquet of roses or lilies speaks louder than words. For Christmas though, and for the keen gardener, something a bit more practical is the order of the day. Indoor potted plants are always a sensible choice.…
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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…
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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…
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Phuket Property Watch: A home for the holidays
PHUKET: ‘Tis the season, here on the sunny island of Phuket yet again. I’m not quite sure exactly when the vanishing point starts to loom over life’s passage. Could it be 40? That’s well and truly passed like the aftertaste of one of those deadly tequila shooters that often ends a long night of social drinking. You can always recall…
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Phuket Property: Supercars zoom to SMART Expo
PHUKET: THE Phuket Gazette caught up with Mr Hoi Cheung, Director of 3:C who are the organizing the upcoming SMART Property & Lifestyle Expo to be held at the Royal Phuket Marina, from December 27-30, 2012. Phuket Gazette: What makes Phuket a good destination for the SMART Property & Lifestyle Expo?Hoi Cheung: Phuket in recent years has become known as…
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Phuket Lifestyle: Going for a “grubby’ Christmas
PHUKET: The holiday season is here and the Phuket geese are getting nervous. But tropical heat and looking good on the island’s beaches may require something a little lighter than all that turkey and Christmas pudding. As an alternative consider a Holiday Season dinner comprised of the local creepy-crawlies that many Phuketians love to eat. The Locust EatersInsects are full…
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Phuket Lifestyle: Flower power at Boathouse
PHUKET: Anyone who has ever tempted fate by trying the ersatz vegetarian food at Phuket’s annual Vegetarian Festival will more than likely agree that it’s all deep fried; it’s not actually very good for you; and while it may look like a sausage or a chicken drum-stick, it actually tastes like soaked cardboard.So when word got out that Marco Westmass,…
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Phuket Lifestyle: The trouble with Christmas tech
PHUKET: Choosing the best tech gadget for your Christmas treat can bring on the same sort of excitement a child exudes when he or she rips open their first present beneath the tree. Making an educated decision as to which of the range of gadgets is best for you can be a daunting task, especially when tech no longer comes…
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Phuket Pets: So… you’ve got a baby on the way
PHUKET: Having a baby is (apparently) a wonderful moment in one’s life. However, I’ve also heard that it can be quite stressful, emotional and very tiring. But, for those of you who also have dogs in the house, you need to think about them too. You are right to be concerned about your dog sniffing around the new addition. Just…
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Asia Superyacht Rendezvous over for another year
PHUKET: The final day of the Asia Superyacht Rendezvous started with the second race around the bay. Captains and crew were slightly concerned that the wind would be too light, but eventually it started to blow and the fleet set off.Twizzle finished first, just four boat lengths ahead of Yanneke Too, with Asia following closely behind in position three. Once…
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Phuket Arts: Wolfe goes after blood
PHUKET: Tom Wolfe made his name with four collections of magazine stories published in rapid succession between 1965 and 1970 that chronicled the wild 1960s in hyperventilated prose, replete with ellipses, italics and… exclamation points! These grandiose ‘New Journalism’ stylistic tics have persisted throughout the decades. Wolfe is now 81. But give him credit for honest, dogged research. His book…
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Phuket Property Watch: Weary wayward night owls
PHUKET: My mother always said, “nothing good happens after midnight”. For travellers, the witching hours, between the dead of night and the dawn, are a subtle or shall we say ‘sublime’ last call. In past lives I’ve worked the night shift; as a bartender, blackjack dealer and hotel clerk. It’s a unique microcosm of the secret lives of strangers. I’m…
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Asia Superyacht Rendezvous sends sublime ripples through Phuket’s lifestyle scene
PHUKET: The first night of the Asia Superyacht Rendezvous 2012 kicked off yesterday evening at the Angsana Laguna Phuket resort on the shores of Bang Tao Bay, on Phuket’s west coast.The annual three-day superyacht extravaganza began with the formal welcoming of local and international sponsors, media and guests, as well as the captains and owners of all the magnificent participating…
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Phuket Gardening: Native and imported plants
PHUKET: For the aspiring or experienced gardener, it’s always a good idea to go on a reconnaissance patrol to see what plants are thriving in your territory. And I refer not only to other gardens in Phuket, but also to everything else that fosters greenery – from roadsides, shore-lines, tree-clad slopes and scrub-land to plant nurseries. If a species is…
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Phuket Arts: The story of a teenage refugee
PHUKET: When Chris Cleave’s second novel The Other Hand (Sceptre, London, 2009, 378pp) was first published in the UK, it sold a mere 3,000 copies in hardback. Word of mouth spread, however, and by the time the novel was published in the US it became the top New York Times best seller. I had never heard of it, but a…
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Phuket Explore: Blazing Saddles
PHUKET: Welcome to Blazing Saddles as we take you on one of Phuket’s most famous and favorite bike rides, down to the charming southernmost beach on the island’s west coast, to Nai Harn. It’s a bleary 6am start as you clamber into your Lycra biking attire, adjust the funny codpiece bulging at the front of your shorts and wheel your…
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Phuket Property Watch: Welcome to my nightmare
PHUKET: “I’m as mad as Hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore.” Remember that infamous Hollywood line? Network – Peter Finch going out in a blaze of glory for the entire world to see. In this case what’s driven me to the edge of madness? The place inhabited by bums in torn clothes, religious zealots and all manner…
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