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’s healthcare system is well-regarded across Southeast Asia, with options ranging from public hospitals to world-class private facilities. But when it comes to foreign residents or tourists, healthcare access isn’t as straightforward. So, do foreigners get free healthcare in Thailand?...
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The secrets of DaVinci – Phuket People
PHUKET: What is the secret of great, Italian cuisine? It’s all in the quality ingredients. “In Italy they say that a good chef doesn’t need to use more than three or four ingredients. It’s about freshness,” says Jana Sasikova, co-owner and manager of the DaVinci restaurant. Jana is the wife of the restaurant’s supervising chef and deli manager Claudio Pivotto,…
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Phuket People: Renaissance man
PHUKET: Goetz Bauer joined Renaissance Phuket Resort & Spa as general manager in April this year. The German national, who also speaks English, Italian and French, brings an energetic and youthful leadership style to Renaissance Phuket Resort & Spa. Goetz said his new role presents several challenges and he looks forward to taking them on.“The challenge is to learn how…
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Phuket Property: Hideaway above Patong
PHUKET: A new luxury 5-star hotel concept by Avista, the Avista Hideaway Resort and Spa in Patong Bay is located on Patong Hill close to Tri Trang beach. The new hotel will build on the island’s reputation for high-end tourism and its strong economic base. The contemporary ultra-luxury property is set on a peaceful hill, and designed in a style…
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Phuket Property Legal: Ensuring land claims are legit
PHUKET: In the last three to four weeks, some changes occurred in the application process and consequently the approval of registration for companies to purchase land, long term land leases, usufruct, superficies and/or lifetime living rights for foreigners. Depending on which land office one is applying for registration of certain rights, the current handling of such registration is not the…
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Blazing Saddles pedals through Provence – Phuket Explore
PHUKET: The delights of Soi Bangla in Phuket’s party town of Patong are of course a source of continual distraction, yet even the most hardened acolyte must occasionally take a break from the pleasures of the amber nectar and recharge his batteries in quieter, more bucolic locales. So it was that I recently found myself on a cycling trip down…
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Sabah: Journey to the land below the wind
PHUKET: When I was a child, the word Borneo would conjure up images of colonial explorers in pith helmets slashing their way through wild jungle teeming with exotic plants, ferocious animals and roaming tribes of headhunters. As I grew older, my mental picture was expanded by David Attenborough’s wonderful documentaries, which transported me to this remote island in the darkest…
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Brighten up your rainy day – Phuket Fashion
PHUKET: Fashion is full of fleeting trends and new fads. So as the seasons change, it’s time to pick up the clothes that are “in” this season and toss out those that are not. On a tropical island like Phuket, the rainy season can be a gloomy time of year and somewhat depressing. The best antidote to the bad weather…
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Raising a rooftop garden – Phuket Gardening
PHUKET: The chances are you probably have a roof garden of sorts. As Phuket is increasingly dominated by blocks of concrete pretentiously known as condominiums, which necessitate the annihilation of all existing vegetation in the area, the chances are that your balcony or roof is the only repository of greenery you are likely to possess. So why not make the…
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Phuket People: Introducing Andaman Cruises’ new GM
PHUKET: German born Christian Schwind, a marketing professional with 14 years experience in business management, marketing and PR, has been appointed as general manager of Andaman Cruises, a luxury yacht charter company based in Phuket. Prior to taking on the role of GM, he was the Managing Director of Andaman Travel, an Asia based luxury travel company which helped him…
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Phuket Explore: Lessons from Penang
PHUKET: Despite their many similarities – architectural and historical – in terms of modern-day tourism, old town Georgetown, Penang, beats the pants off the old quarter of Phuket Town. First of all, Georgetown got World Heritage status in 2008. You can’t get a better internationally recognized advertisement than that. Second, it knows what city tourists want and supplies it in…
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Phuket to celebrate Lord Buddha’s wisdom
PHUKET: Wat Chalong won’t be the only crowded temple in Phuket this coming Monday as Buddhists across the island celebrate Asaha Bucha to commemorate the Lord Buddha’s first teaching of Dhamma to his disciples. What started as a sermon for just 5 believers turned in to a world wide phenomenon with an estimated 400 million followers. The words “Asaha Bucha“,…
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Double the fun from Belgium
PHUKET: On Sunday (July 21), the beer will be exceptionally cold, the waffles and chocolates exceptionally sweet, and the french fries will ditch the French connection, changing their name to friets and being served in their original style – the Belgian style. Celebrations of Belgian National Day will be double the fun this year! Not only will Belgians be raising…
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More ways to secure Thai land – Phuket Property
PHUKET: For those of you who read my article on obtaining Thai citizenship and aren’t going down that road, I promised to come back and write about the other ways of “buying” property in Thailand (click here for article). The fact is you can go right ahead and pay for land here, but the law is clear that the land…
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Furniture firm sets bar high in Phuket
PHUKET: Long standing property furnishing company, Modernform continues to raise the bar for local real estate, and is confident of hitting and maintaining its “beefy” monthly sales target of 8-10 million baht.With its 30-year track record in the industry, the Bangkok-based firm has several branches and dealers throughout the country, namely in Bangkok’s Central World, Sri Nakarin, Rangsit (outlet), Crystal…
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Bee’s knees multi-purpose trees – Phuket Gardening
PHUKET: Today it is the turn of several small trees, which not only bear unusual and edible fruit, but will double-up as ornamental and shade-generating presences in your tropical garden. Baccaurea motleyanais more familiarly known to Thais as rambai or mafai farang. In common with the other trees on parade today, it is primarily grown for its fruit. But its…
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Mind over matter – Phuket Lifestyle
PHUKET: Among the most advanced and well-versed of Western Buddhist meditation gurus in the country and the region, if not the world, Andrea Capellari is Thanyapura’s esteemed Mind Trainer. Teaching meditation regularly to hundreds of students, the Italian-born, highly proficient, intelligent and disciplined Buddhist also leads intensive meditation retreats. The Phuket Gazette‘s Steven Layne recently enjoyed an enlightening lunch with…
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Phuket Food: A sporty Sunday brunch
PHUKET: Not too many Sunday brunches offer a side order of Zumba, Muay Thai, or Pilates, but Phuket’s Thanyapura brunch comes with a chance to work off the calories using a day pass to their world class sporting facilities and group fitness classes.But before that comes the food.Some of it comes direct from Thanyapura’s own organic farm in Surat Thani…
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Boom in budget hotels
PHUKET: The changing regional and domestic tourism landscape is creating a lot of business opportunities. More budget hotels are opening, with investors out to cash in on the rising number of middle-class and solo travellers, thanks to the tourism boom and economic prosperity.Most operators agree that this hotel segment has good prospects. Thailand is a key tourism destination in the…
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Preserving Phuket’s old streets
PHUKET: As sprawl and congestion take full-hold of our island, Phuket city municipality planners and engineers strive, yet struggle, to preserve the last remnants of urban historical heritage, yet continue to face a number of obstacles obstructing the way ahead. Indeed, the narrow streets in Phuket’s Old Town district are currently undergoing a drastic makeover. The electrical wires that currently…
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“Business Landmark’ in the works on Bypass Rd
PHUKET: Keep your eyes on the look-out – Bypass Biz Town, currently under construction right smack along the middle of one of the island’s most lucrative roads, is poised to be Phuket’s latest and greatest “Business Landmark”.Building on previous successes, reputable developer Boat Development Co Ltd, is fulfilling a much-needed real estate niche with its latest project, touted to be…
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C’est la Fete! – It’s party time!
PHUKET: As the French saying goes – Un repas sans vin est comme un jour sans soleil – a meal without wine is like a day without sunshine. And even though there might not be quite enough sunshine in Phuket these days, there shouldn’t be a lack of wine and great food during the Bastille Day celebrations in Patong on…
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Phuket Gardening: Bromeliads offer a true taste of the tropics
PHUKET: I last wrote about bromeliads more than a year ago, but our focus on the letter “B” prompted a re-think. Apart from their deserved popularity as shade and house plants, I have re-focused my attention on this vast genus of more than 3,000 species for other reasons (click here for article). Recently I visited the Phuket Botanic Garden (click…
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Phuket’s QSI graduates ready for the world
PHUKET: QSI International School Phuket graduated another group of six secondary students recently. The graduation ceremony was held at Centara Karon Resort where 100 guests attended the ceremony, which included several singing and dancing performances by QIS students. After receiving their diplomas, two of the graduating students, Jasmin Jadick and Jakob Klaic gave speeches thanking the school, their teachers and…
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Phuket’s Airshow and Family Picnic sets the bar with record turnout
PHUKET: The Airshow and Family Picnic held at Phuket’s Air Park over the weekend was a roaring success, with organizers estimating that nearly 7,000 people had attended by the time the two-day event closed last night. Navy League Phuket President Pat James, one of the key organizers, said the event was the largest of its kind ever staged in Southern…
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Phuket Lifestyle: Rockin’ Railay!
PHUKET: For travellers looking for an active holiday, both Phuket and Krabi offer many solutions, such as snorkeling trips, scuba diving or kayaking, but many travellers have yet to try an experience that is rapidly gaining in popularity – rock climbing! Krabi and Phang Nga provinces are literally packed with dramatic limestone formations. In the last ten years, spots like…
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Phuket’s Thanyapura serves chef weight loss
PHUKET: Successful restaurateur Eduardo Vargas is a man who enjoys the finer things in life, and this includes food. Originally from Peru, he left South America in 1989 to embark on a journey that took him to cooking school in Toronto; Georgetown University, America where he aquired a Business Administration degree; Singapore and now Shanghai as a restaurant owner. When…
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A moment with Map Abday – Phuket Lifestyle
PHUKET: Art is the expression of human creative skills and imagination, typically in something that can be experienced visually, such as drawing, painting or sculpture. Such works are appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power. Indeed, many people try to define what art is, but its meaning is constantly evolving, and the concept of art means different things to…
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Industrial real estate demand on rise
PHUKET: This fiscal year, the Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand (IEAT) has forecasted sales and rentals to cover between 3,600 to 3,800 rai (1,440 to 1,520 acres) of land in both its own and privately owned industrial estates. The 2013 Thai fiscal year began on October 1, 2012 and will last until the end of September, this year. IEAT governor…
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Phuket Regional Blood Center calls for life saving blood donations
PHUKET: The Phuket Regional Blood Center (PRBC), often called upon to save the lives of Thais and foreigners, is low on stocks of blood type A Rhesus-negative“As this is the beginning of [the Thai school] semester period, we got blood [donations] from students that makes us have sufficient stock of blood as we maintain a daily minimum stock of 200…
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Phuket airport’s expansion progress to ease overcrowding
PHUKET: The Airport Authority of Thailand (AoT) has accelerated the construction of a temporary terminal building at Phuket International Airport (HKT) in order to ease passenger overload ahead of the next tourism high season. Quoted in a recent report by BangkokBizNews, AoT Board Director Sitha Tiwaree announced that the construction schedule for the temporary terminal had been tightened due to…
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