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 What do you need before moving from the US to Thailand?
The Thaiger key takeaways The most common medical emergencies for expats in Thailand include motorcycle accidents, tropical diseases, and food or water-borne illnesses. Air pollution and heat-related conditions like heatstroke also pose serious seasonal health risks, especially in northern and...
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Phuket Lifestyle: St. Valentine’s Day
PHUKET: According to classics professor Noel Lenski of the University of Boulder Colorado, the lovers’ holiday traces its roots to a raucous annual Roman festival where men stripped naked, used goat – or dog-skin – whips, and spanked young maidens in the hopes of increasing their fertility. The annual pagan celebration, called Lupercalia, was held every year on February 15…
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Phuket Lifestyle: Nishamon Paiboonnukulkij
PHUKET: Nishamon ‘Eve’ Paiboonnukulkij was in Phuket recently to meet prospective customers before launching an Italian furniture store, Natuzzi. The showroom is the latest branch of Euro Creations, a Bangkok-based leading retailer and importer of high-end home furnishing. Nishamon, the company’s marketing manager, is charged with driving Natuzzi forward and making it known. Nishamon, 27, holds a degree in education…
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Phuket Property: Travel summit votes on key issues
PHUKET: The nation’s pre-eminent gathering of tourism and travel industry experts has concluded that while Thailand looks headed for its best year for tourist numbers and revenues ever, action to legalize gaming, improve infrastructure and attract ‘quality’ travellers was urgently needed ahead of moves to introduce the Asean Economic Community (AEC). More than 350 tourism industry movers and shakers attended…
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Phuket Property Watch: Tourism heads off to the mall
PHUKET: ‘Bling bling’ goes the ringing in my head, as I frantically search out my missing car in the massive underground car park at one of the island’s ubiquitous shopping malls. I am not at all prepared for the event, which has taken on a real life adventure of Stanley and Livingstone proportions. Where is Indiana Jones when you need…
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Phuket Humor: Learning about the birds and bees
PHUKET: Today I’m going to tell you how I learned about the birds and bees. All you young whippersnappers out there need to know how we learned about this important topic way back in prehistoric times, even before the Rolling Stones. Nowadays it’s easy for a young person to learn about sex. All you do is log onto the Internet…
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Phuket Lifestyle: Local bands – global battle
UPDATE: The Phuket Gazette has recently learned from the organizer that the GBOB Thailand Phuket show has been cancelled as one of the main investors pulled out at the last minute, and therefore the show could not go on as planned. PHUKET: The Global Battle of the Bands (GBOB) – one of the world’s largest independent music competitions – is…
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Phuket Blazing Saddles: The power of Yao
PHUKET: This week we head off Phuket to a quieter parallel universe called Koh Yao Noi where time seems to stand still and the cycling is relaxed and easygoing. For even the most party-loving souls, Phuket is becoming frenetic, crowded and often stressful. If you are a cycling aficionado this is especially true as pedaling around Phuket is always challenging…
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Phuket Health – Reality check of New Year’s resolutions
PHUKET: So January 1 has quickly passed and I wonder how many of you are still on track with your new year’s resolutions? The good news is you still have time to create lasting goals and redeem yourself if you’ve all ready fallen off the wagon! First, a ‘Reality Check’: Staying motivated and committed toward accomplishing your dreams is often…
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Phuket Property: “Student life” at dcondo Kuku
PHUKET: Sansiri’s latest dcondo development in Phuket – a campus-style resort in Kuku – is selling out fast with pre-sales for the project having reached 50% and continuing to rise, as of the beginning of February. The development’s design concept is inspired by dormitories at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge in the UK. Sansiri has previously launched one other…
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Phuket Books: Another man for all seasons
PHUKET: Hilary Mantel was a 56-year-old English novelist of indifferent success, when she sat down to write a novel about Thomas Cromwell, the chief adviser to Henry VIII. As she recounts in a recent profile in The New Yorker: “I was filled with glee and a sense of power, a sense that I knew how to do this… I knew…
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Phuket Gardening – Turning over a new leaf
PHUKET: Any New Year’s resolutions about gardening? Plenty. Everywhere in the garden I see Nature’s perfection and my imperfections. Mistakes a-plenty. Why, is there a gap in that flower bed? Ah! Because the multicolored acalypha I once put there succumbed to mildew and was never replaced. Why is the grass so threadbare near the fish pond? Because the area is…
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Chinese New Year: the year of the snake nears
PHUKET: As billions of Chinese around the world bid farewell to the year of the dragon tonight, they prepare to welcome tomorrow’s ‘invisible moon’, which marks the official start of a new year – the year of the snake. That’s right, the Chinese New Year officially begins tomorrow, February 10. The most important festival in the Chinese calendar, Chinese New…
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Phuket Lifestyle: Go with the flow… riding
PHUKET: Before a band of bronzed onlookers – clad in board shorts and tiny black dresses, sipping their drinks and dancing to Phuket House Mafia – professional indoor surfers from Singapore christened Phuket’s first wave pool at Surf House. That’s right. Never again do surfers have to stow their boards for the high season, now you can have it all.…
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Phuket Books – The grand old farce writer: Tom Sharpe
PHUKET: Tom Sharpe can be described as the heir of PG Wodehouse, the master of English farce. His first satirical novels, Riotous Assembly and Indecent Exposure, were written about South Africa to where he had moved, after attending Cambridge University, to work as a teacher and social worker in 1951. A decade later, he was deported for “sedition”. In 1976,…
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Phuket Humor: The good news about death
PHUKET: Death has received very bad press. Nobody has a good word to say about it, and everybody’s afraid of it. Fairness requires that somebody should point out the good points of this much-maligned condition. I’m told that death can significantly impact your life. It’s a tricky topic to write about, because nobody knows what it’s like. It may be…
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Phuket Property Watch: Khao Lak’s Ramada wins top award
PHUKET: The Ramada Resort Khao Lak achieved the honor of being a first-time two-time winner of the Top and Luxury Hotel categories by TripAdvisor in its 2013 travelers’ Choice awards, announced last week. Now in its eleventh year, the annual TripAdvisor Travelers’ Choice awards honor the world’s best hotels, earning their distinction from those who know them best – real…
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Phuket Property: New development targets beginners
PHUKET: Relieving much anticipation of the property market just north of Phuket Town, lifestyle home developer LH Muang Mai Limited (LH), the local subsidiary of trusted property giant Land & Houses, recently unveiled its third housing development on the island: Inizio – Koh Kaew. Pre-sales for the 590.8 million baht development were launched at the project’s site behind Phuket’s main…
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Phuket Lifestyle: Full cycle
PHUKET: While a certain Mr Armstrong may have brought shame to the world of cycling following recent revelations to a certain Ms Oprah, a certain Mr Mason will be doing just the opposite by using his bicycle to help raise funds for needy children. Tomorrow James Mason will leave Tiger Muay Thai camp in Chalong (one of his main sponsors)…
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Phuket Gardening: From weird to wondrous
PHUKET: Nobody rattles on about the weather with as much relish as the British. But in 2012, only one word was needed – weird. The year, rated the second wettest since the advent of records, began as it started. The Christmas skies in London, traditionally one of the drier spots in the UK, were permanently grey, and early risers were…
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Phuket Books: Hell in Latvia
PHUKET: Dr Gwendolyn Chabrier’s novel Behind the Barbed Wire (Orchid Press, Hong Kong, 2011, 203pp) is about the Holocaust. It is not true to say that bookshelves groan under the weight of books written about the Holocaust – whole libraries do. Amazon lists more than 5,000 titles on the subject. In comparison, the many more millions of Russians and Chinese…
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Phuket Environment: A slow boat to China – The loris pet trade
PHUKET: A recent Phuket Gazette article offered some encouraging news for environmentalists. The Deputy Mayor of Patong has acted to stop touts from charging tourists. For what? For having their photographs taken with slow lorises. He is on record as stating that ten arrests have been made, adding: “The crackdown will continue because such activities are upsetting and annoying to…
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Phuket Property: Singaporeans looking abroad
PHUKET: THE number of Singaporeans buying overseas property is likely to increase because of significant property cooling measures introduced by the government of Singapore, according to PropertyGuru, a leading Asian property website.The measures, which came into effect on January 12, include an immediate increase in stamp duties payable across the board between three and eight per cent. The government said…
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Phuket Property Watch: So near, and yet so far
PHUKET: As I write this, I can imagine the strange look of astonishment on my editor’s face as this column arrives – one which is actually about property. Perhaps a virtual high five will be forthcoming. More likely a collective sigh of relief, which can be heard high above the din of rush hour traffic on Thepkassatri Road. Worse yet…
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Phuket Lifestyle: The boat that rocks!
PHUKET: PGTV, in association with party organizers Fistpump Phuket, has a very special offer for all our local readers and fans. The Fistpump Sunset Boat Party will set sail again next Sunday, January 27. Built specifically for party cruises, the boat is as much a floating dance floor as a motorized fun palace and features a unique “Jacuzzi net” that…
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Phuket Gardening: Pottering with giant plants
PHUKET: I was recently asked about suitable terrestrial plants for large, even giant-sized pots. These glazed pots are hand-crafted by traditional methods, and are objets d’art in their own right. Not to be upstaged by mere plants. So what principles apply? First, preserve the integrity of the container by ensuring it is not camouflaged, or covered up by untidy festoons…
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Phuket Lifestyle: Life in the extreme – David Martin
PHUKET: NO SMELL, no life, no sound – except the booming of ice cracking and the wind – the South Pole is one of the most hostile environments in the world, but even here in this frozen abyss dreams manage to materialize. Few search for answers in so bleak a landscape, a place where one meter of snow is no…
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Phuket Pets: Mommy, I want the cute puppy
PHUKET: By the time you bring your new puppy home, say at eight weeks of age, it should already be accustomed to an indoor domestic environment (especially one with noises) and well-socialized with people. Similarly, house training, chew toy training, and tutoring in basic manners should be well underway. If not, your prospective puppy’s social and mental development is already…
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Phuket Property Legal: Collective Leasehold Structures – Overview
PHUKET: PHUKET and neighboring provinces contain some of the finest villa developments in Thailand. However, under Thai law, foreigners are generally prohibited from owning land. However, they are, as many are aware, allowed to own buildings. Therefore, a common method for foreigners to purchase a villa is to lease a land plot (or plots) from a Thai landowner, and purchase…
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Phuket Property: A touch of class and comfort
PHUKET: Founded back in 1996, Euro Creations, through its exclusive brand name products, is a leading player in high-end home furnishings in Thailand. It started as a niche player in the classical furniture business; the home furnishing company has a number of high-end brands under their banner, including Natuzzi, which has a store in the Häfele building opposite Phuket International…
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Phuket Property: Thailand’s first container mall
PHUKET: Thailand’s first ‘container mall’, the colorful new Boat Avenue Shopping Street, is taking shape as part of a Phuket’s cosmopolitan community in Cherng Talay, and is set to be finished by the end of the year. The mixed-use retail, commercial and residential development covering 25 rai is the latest community-style project by Phuket-based developer Boat Development. Director Mr Boon…
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