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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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: Drilling for a response
PHUKET: Groundwater drilling operators have not received any response from the government to help solve the conflict with Natural Resources and Environment (NRE)’s. Udomsak Naddasena, managing director of Surat Badaal, a groundwater drilling service company, said, “We have not received anything back since I handed the official letters to Phuket Governor Tri Augkaradacha and the senate Pol Gen Sunthorn Saikwan,…
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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 Media Watch: Will Phuketians eschew meat?; Supalai eyes Phuket
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Phuket Lifestyle: Turning away from meat? Phuket Gazette / The Nation PHUKET: More and more meat eaters are turning their backs on steaks and even fish in favor of healthy vegetarian fare as part of their personal healthcare regime. However, many complain there are not many…
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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: Genesis turns out a revelation
PHUKET: When I was asked to review a new production on Soi Bangla, I was a little nervous as I have yet to learn how to gracefully fend off the many invitations from very lovely and much younger Thai ladies (or ladyboys) who suggest I spend a few hours in their company. What a surprise then when I approached the…
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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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Phuket Books: The Boy Wonder’s sad decline
PHUKET: The 1960s were Tom Wolfe’s decade, the stage upon which the founder of the New Journalism strutted with The Electric Kool Aid Test. The 1970s belonged to Hunter Thompson and the Gonzo journalism of Fear and Loathing in Los Angeles. Wolfe eventually turned to turgid meta-fiction and Thompson to shameless potboilers. But the 1980s saw the rise of P.J.…
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Phuket Lifestyle: Hogan’s hues of a brighter future
PHUKET: Having enjoyed a tour of the newly refurbished Angsana Laguna Phuket resort it was suggested to me by General Manager Jerry John, with a certain degree of pride, that the Kids Club was worthy of particular attention. While on holidays, every parent appreciates facilities for their children that provide entertainment, and are secure and well attended. Angsana’s Kids Club…
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Phuket Lifestyle: Take the art – leave the real antiques here
PHUKET: A dispute about the export of art and religious objects between the Thalang National Museum and a Phuket shop was tentatively set to rest after a meeting on December 15. The museum’s concerns that there was a risk of valuable national treasures being illegally exported from Thailand was looked into during the meeting headed by Vice Phuket Governor Somkiet…
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Phuket Books: Killing off the ‘Quiet People’
Phuket Gazette’s James Eckardt review of archeologist Brian Fagan’s book Cro-Magnon “How the Ice Age Gave Birth to the First Modern Humans”. Modern man, people like us, known as Cro-Magnon, entered Europe from the Near East around 45,000 years ago. Waiting on the scene were the Neanderthal shorter, stouter, much stronger but way less intelligent who’d had the continent to…
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Phuket Lifestyle: Ingenious forms of jeans
PHUKET: Everyone has their favorite go-to pair of jeans, great for weekends and perfect for an array of casual events always held in Phuket. Denim is a classic material that is versatile and flattering for every age, figure, gender or style. It’s always changing and giving us new reasons to fall in love with it again and again. No matter…
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Phuket Lifestyle: Where the seafood’s @
PHUKET: Kan Eang @ Pier is a Phuket institution and has been so for more than 30 years. Originally called ‘Kan Eang 1’, this famous Phuket seafood restaurant underwent a major renovation and name change in 2007. The sprawling grounds stretch more than 200 meters along Chalong Bay just south of the pier and here you’ll find several al-fresco and…
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Phuket international airport expansion set to bring 12.5mn visitors
PHUKET International Airport (PIA) will be able to receive 12.5 million visitors per year by 2014 following a planned 5.7 billion-baht expansion, Thailand’s deputy transport minister told reporters during a recent visit to the island. Kittisakdi Hathasongkorh said the airport’s runway would be lengthened by 700 meters to allow the new generation of “superjumbos”, the Airbus A380 and Boeing 747-8,…
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Phuket Property: Boom in Pattani?
PHUKET: When news about Thailand’s deep South breaks in the press, images of strife and unrest are quickly conjured up. And while this article is an update about a massive uprising in the heart of downtown Pattani, one of three troubled provinces near Thailand’s border with Malaysia, this latest development does not feature any unrest, but rather cranes and concrete…
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Phuket Property Watch: Rocking or rolling this season?
PHUKET: Whenever anyone mentions ‘The Rock’ I am always inclined to think of that other island just off the dock by the bay – Alcatraz. Certainly there is little resemblance between that former maximum security prison island and our own destination resort of Phuket. Getting off this rock is invariably easier than swimming in shark infested waters, though the proliferation…
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Phuket Gardening: Drying the seeds of success
PHUKET: A recent email from Clive in Karon poses a question about seeds. “Why do seeds need to be dried before planting?” he inquires and adds that he has seen lots of them drying in the sun here in Phuket. The answer is more complex than you might expect. Seeds are produced by most plants and they vary in size…
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Painting a brighter future for Thai kids
PHUKET: Guests and visitors of Angsana Laguna Phuket have been summoned to paint their way into posterity on a mural designed by acclaimed Australian artist, Christopher Hogan, as money is raised for local Thai kids with artistic promise. In celebration of its recent opening, the 350 tile mural will take pride of place in the resort’s newly refurbished lobby. The…
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Phuket Lifestyle: Google’s top 10 searches of 2011
PHUKET: It is that time of year again when people look back at the year that’s been and compile lists. Google have been doing this for the past 11 years and call their compilation of year’s most popular searches the Year-End Zeitgeist which means “the spirit of the times”. To compile the 2011 Year-End Zeitgeist, Google will use the aggregation…
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Floods won’t harm Phuket construction sector: P-REA
PHUKET: Following a seminar held recently, Phuket real estate developers are less worried about the impacts of the flooding in central Thailand on the construction industry supply chain. Tanan Tanphaibul, President of the Phuket Real Estate Association, said members had worried that massive government-funded reconstruction of parts of Bangkok and the Central Plains region might have a negative impact on…
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Istana Phuket design claims global award
PHUKET: Prism Estates have won the Best International Architecture Award (Multiple Residence) as developers of the Istana Phuket residential estate at Naithon Beach. The International Property Awards (IPA) ceremony was held on December 12 at the Savoy Hotel in London, England and produced in association with Bloomberg TV and Google . The award validates the architectural vision of Richard Shearer,…
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Phuket Lifestyle: Decor – thinking inside the box
PHUKET: Being an interior designer often involves “thinking outside of the box” yet sometimes the opposite is true. Heading up such a team of designers and artists is Irish-born Brian Woulfe who, after two years in Phuket, recently held the lavish opening of his “Designed by Woulfe” offices at Baan Wana Park in Thalang. On arrival at his plush, purple,…
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Phuket Indigo’s new pearl revealed
PHUKET: Phuket’s Indigo Pearl, in partnership with Bensley Design Studios, have unveiled their latest design creation. The hotel’s much anticipated new private pool villas are a key phase in the resort’s multi-million dollar transformation to position Indigo Pearl as an “all suite and villa” property. Each of the seven secluded private pool villas is set within a walled garden, offering…
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Phuket Movies: An impossible sequel
PHUKET: FOR lovers of a good action movie Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol hits all the right buttons. Directed by Brad Bird (The Incredibles and Ratatouille), the film is about Russian terrorists who steal nuclear missile launch codes to try to start World War III. The IMF is shut down when it’s implicated in the bombing of the Kremlin, causing…
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