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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Thailand is a popular destination for expats due to its affordable lifestyle and excellent healthcare system. However, settling in a new country often brings health concerns. To ensure you’re covered for the most common medical needs, understanding what expat health...
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Phuket Lifestyle: Classical music hits high note in Phuket
PHUKET: There is good news for those who appreciate European classical music: Mom Luang Tri Devakul is again welcoming Phuket residents and visitors to his luxury estate at Villa Royale tonight for an evening of music and fine dining. Mom Tri has long supported the arts on the island with his Baan Kata Artsfest, a celebration of music, art and…
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Phuket Lifestyle: Eye to eye contact
Doctor Captain Wiriyaluppain is launching a series of articles to help educate Phuket Gazette readers about eye health and what to be beware of. The articles will also explain advances in eye treatment technologies. Here is the first in the series. PHUKET: As an eye doctor who has practiced in Phuket for many years, I have found that the patient…
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Phuket Lifestyle: BAKE brings uniquely Thai handcrafted coffee to Phuket
PHUKET: Since opening two years ago, BAKE by Twinpalms has become a go-to spot for Phuket island residents and visitors who love a selection of freshly baked goods, sandwiches, salads, chocolates, desserts, juice, smoothies, coffees and teas. They have now announced the addition of another sensory delight to their repertoire of premium baked goods with their new coffee roasting and…
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Phuket Lifestyle: Vladi good fish at Palau
PHUKET: There’s a brand-new, gorgeous-looking, blue-and-white seafood outlet down in Nai Harn Village called Palau Fish. It turns out that the restaurant is named after a Pacific island some 800km east of the Philippines, one of the world’s youngest states. Pub quiz aficionados take note… Palau is way over the top, design wise, with billowing white curtains complementing its peripheral…
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Phuket Lifestyle: Count Snape gets his teeth into opera
PHUKET: Dressed in a flowing black cape, a certain Mr Snape mingled with the New Year crowds in Patong on New Year’s Eve, but Andrew Snape has no relation to the character in Harry Potter. Yes, they are both teachers, wear black capes and have English accents. But “Count Snape”, as Andrew calls himself when dressed as a vampire, performs…
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In memory of Bjorn Täckmann
PHUKET: Bjorn Täckmann, an important member of the dive community in Phuket and Thailand, passed away on January 6 in a hospital in Surat Thani. He had been diagnosed with cancer last year. Mr Täckmann started diving in 1983 and moved from Denmark to Thailand in 1993 as a PADI Dive Instructor. Since then he has ushered thousands into the…
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Phuket Lifestyle: Bottom time is now family time
PHUKET: Everyone can learn to dive, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Diving is like everything worth doing, there are obstacles to overcome. Sometimes those obstacles are mental, sometimes they are physical and sometimes they are both. For Emil Engahl aged 10 it was no different. For years Emil has been coming to Phuket with his parents Mette and Lars…
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Phuket Lifestyle: Enter the dragon
PHUKET: Just when you thought all the festivities linked to the New Year were over, here they come again in the guise of Chinese New Year with celebrations to go on for 15 days. Today we enter the 4,709th Chinese year and the “Year of the Dragon”, according to the Chinese zodiac. Chinese New Year, the most important of all…
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Phuket Property: Sansiri set to invest heavily this year
PHUKET: Residential developer Sansiri has earmarked 24 billion baht to launch 44 projects worth 46bn baht this year and to buy land for more projects next year. “This year we will expand our products to cover all market segments, including units priced lower than 2 million baht and over 10 million baht. This will stress our number one quality brand…
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Phuket Gardening: I say paw-paw, you say papaya
PHUKET: When I was young, papayas (pronounced papaiya) were considered very exotic, rarities that occasionally came along with other fresh fruit – mangoes and kiwi fruit, at the end of an expensive dinner. Here papayas (stress on the last syllable please) are the most available of fruit. In Isarn, a meal without green shredded papayas in the mix is almost…
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Phuket’s Simon Star Cabaret opens with a flourish
PHUKET: Simon Star Cabaret, Phuket’s third ladyboy extravaganza, opened with two performances and a lavish feast at the Phuket Orchid Gardens & Thai Village, behind Phuket Rajabhat University in Rassada. Phuket Governor Tri Augkaradacha presided over the ribbon-cutting ceremony, which was also attended by Phuket MP Anchalee Vanich-Thepabutr and other dignitaries. They were joined by Phuket Simon Cabaret chairperson Wirat…
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Phuket events / What’s on
A weekly digest of important events to be enjoyed in Phuket over the coming days, plus many more can be view here. New Year on January 23. The Cove Restaurant Take part in the festive celebration for prosperity, happiness and fortune. Enjoy our special Chinese buffet dinner with a great variety of delicacies such as whole suckling pig, Peking duck,…
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Phuket Lifestyle: Cables and canopies
PHUKET: Zipping along with the sea on one side and forest on the other is something residents and visitors do everyday on the roads interlinking Phuket’s beaches. Now they can do the same thing while flying over 40 meters in the air, propelled by nothing more than gravity. The island’s newest adventure attraction opens a door into Phuket’s often overlooked…
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Phuket History: From tin to tourism
PHUKET: Compared to industries such as tin and rubber, tourism is relatively new in Phuket, although its growth over the past few decades has been phenomenal. The island has come a long way from the backpacker’s haven it once was and today has found its place amongst the world’s leading tourist destinations. Its white sand beaches and top class hotels…
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Phuket Lifestyle: Teachers taught ‘trauma release’ exercises
PHUKET: Children at Yaowawit school in Phuket Town are now undergoing a new therapy to release trauma by participating in specific morning exercises. The trauma exercises were introduced to teachers and a few children at a one-hour workshop held recently. The workshop was run by Christine Von Aufsess, a psychotherapist from Germany, who was visiting her son, a volunteer at…
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Phuket Lifestyle: Two sugars, please
Former England cricket international and celebrity Phil Tufnell spins a yarn or two at The Village Coconut Island Sport brings many different characters to the table from those who are utter professionals and perfect role models, for the general public at least, and those who are themselves on and off the pitch and exude character and charisma constantly. Phil Tufnell…
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Phuket Lifestyle: The Yankees are coming!
PHUKET: Patong’s already wide selection of international cuisines just got a little larger, with the opening of its first New York-style delicatessen. Big Bill’s Deli, which officially opened for business in early December, is run by Dokmai “Flower” Khamkheukong, long-time companion of one of Phuket’s one-of-a-kind expats: William Sawyer. Better known as “Big Bill” or “Large William”, Mr Sawyer has…
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Czech beauties make a splash in Phuket
PHUKET: Fourteen finalists in the Miss Czech Republic Beauty Pageant 2012 who were busy doing photo shoots in Phuket and around Phang Nga Bay this weekend fly out of Phuket today. The beauties, who landed in Phuket last Wednesday, have spent the past five days taking part in publicity activities carefully orchestrated by the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT). On…
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Phuket Books: A short but happy life
PHUKET: The Spanish novelist Susana Fortes has won many literary awards and her latest novel entitled Waiting for Robert Capa (HarperCollins, New York, 2011, 201pp) is set to be made into a film by director Michael Mann. On the book cover is a photograph of a slender blond woman in beret and military fatigues crouched asleep upon a road marker…
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Phuket Movies: Leaving a lasting impression
PHUKET: The Millennium Trilogy has been a publishing sensation, selling millions of books and was adapted into film in its native Sweden in 2009. The original film adaptation was one of the most successful Swedish films ever made. Now Hollywood has made its own English-language adaptation with David Fincher (Fight Club, Seven, The Social Network) directing. Based on the Swedish…
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Phuket property market is strong despite floods
PHUKET: Samma Kitsin, director-general of the Real Estate Information Centre (REIC), said recently “The floods last year are having a lingering effect on home-buyers’ decision-making this year.” But demand for homes in tourist destinations, especially Phuket, is still strong, according to a survey by the Agency for Real Estate Affairs (AREA). Samma said most home-buyers who are considering projects in…
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Phuket Property Watch: Stand up and deliver
PHUKET: Winter has hit the northern hemisphere and somehow the “Occupy Wall Street” movement looks to have lost momentum. Was it the chilly weather, or fractured interests of an aggravated monster with no head proverbially chasing its own tail? Round and round we go, and where we land, no one knows. It’s like bursting into a crowded room and shouting…
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Hotel industry keeps growing in Phuket
PHUKET: The hotel and retail businesses in Phuket grew significantly and most property firms expanded their investments in the province, according to Knight Frank Phuket. Among the new projects are Patong Promenade, developed by Baan Sukhothai at Patong Beach Co Ltd, on Bangla Road. It will be a shopping, dining and entertainment complex, with room for 150 retail shops over…
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Phuket Gardening: Enter the Dragon’s Eye
PHUKET: From blocked canals to poor flood management, the debate rages as to why Thailand suffered the floods of 2011. And while the arguments continue, the plight of many fruit farmers has attracted little attention, even though their livelihood has disappeared with the receding waters. Fruit trees, like most plants, suffocate through lack of oxygen if submerged for any length…
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Phuket Gardening: Stating the bleedin’ obvious
PHUKET: How often do we overlook the obvious? How many times have you gone shopping in Phuket City, or even to Bangkok, for an essential purchase, then discovered that you could have found exactly what you wanted just down the road? Maybe it’s just me.I’ve even found myself deciding to take holidays outside my adopted home country of Thailand and…
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Special Report: Caring for the unknown dead of Phuket
PHUKET: The unidentified body of a Caucasian male, recovered from the sea south of Phuket at the beginning of November, was finally laid to rest on December 14. The red-haired foreigner, dressed only in a black singlet and gray shorts, was discovered by the crew of Thai fishing boat Sor Naja as it sailed between Racha Yai Island and Koh…
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Phuket Property Watch: For better or for worse
PHUKET: I remember sitting in a restaurant quite a few years ago with a brief flame who was knock-out-dead gorgeous. Without a doubt she was out of my league. Chit chat conversation was the rule of engagement here, but suddenly I found myself surrounded by a wall of silence as this was a decade before the iPhone and the age…
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Phuket Property: Scribing the way to a clear handover
PHUKET: Once your dream home has been built, the builder or seller may require a swift inspection of the property and acceptance that all construction work has been completed. This is often the case as the acceptance of the construction works is typically the last hurdle making the final payment due. However, Phuket buyers normally want a physical due diligence…
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Phuket Lifestyle: No reservations – the life of a hotel English teacher
PHUKET: Tucked away on the idyllic white sand beach of Kata Noi, a very chilled out and softly-spoken Jacob Ritter works as a communications specialist and English teacher for the Katathani Beach Resort. Flanked by palm trees and with an ocean sunset behind him, Ritter sat down with the Gazette to share his insights into the luxurious life of a…
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Phuket Lifestyle: The perfect steak out
PHUKET: In this so-called “New Age” of raw food fads, organic salads and whole grain sustainability sometimes it is necessary to go all out for what all macho real-red-meat- eaters really crave – a great big juicy steak. We hear there is a new steak venue on the island and as part of our New Year celebrations my male colleague…
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