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 Is private health insurance in Thailand worth it? Real costs vs risks explained
Thailand has a strong healthcare system with both public and private options. Public hospitals offer affordable care, but many people, including expats, choose private health insurance for faster service, modern facilities, and more treatment choices. To decide if private health...
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Profile: Wicky Sundram – Boat Lagoon’s new brand builder
PHUKET: Last week, the Global Marina Institute (GMI) announced that Wicky Sundram, the new executive director at Phuket Boat Lagoon, was the latest ‘Certified Marina Professional’ (CMP) to join its ranks. Wicky is only the sixth person in Asia to receive this accolade and the first in Thailand. That’s a fine achievement for someone who, when he first joined the…
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Banyan Tree launches new luxury villas
PHUKET: Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts launched ‘Angsana Villas Resort Phuket’ as an addition to the Angsana family on August 1. It was rebranded from the former Outrigger Laguna Phuket Resort and Villas. The resort has 48 villas and suites, with all rooms featuring living areas. Guests can opt for one, two and three-bedroom suites or three and four-bedroom villas…
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By The Book: Pricing your property accurately
PHUKET: When listing your property for sale, one of the most important things to do is establish an asking price. As the seller, you don’t want to set the price too low and miss out. Equally, you must not price too high as you can put off potential buyers. The first step to correctly pricing a property is to have…
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Laguna to hold charity concert
PHUKET: Laguna Phuket is holding a charity concert at Laguna Grove on Saturday, August 13. The ‘Big Body + Charity Concert’ and will feature Thai rockers ‘Bodyslam’ and ‘Big Ass’, as well as up and coming artist Justin Pongumpai. Part of the proceeds of the concert will go to Phuket Punyanukul School located in Pa Khlok, a special school for…
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Law, Life and Society: Waiver for prostitution
PHUKET: In my immigration practice, I assist many US citizens obtain visas for their Thai spouse or fiance. Last month, a client went to the final interview and came out distraught and crying. During the interview, the officer informed my client that they received an anonymous message from someone informing them that she was engaged in prostitution. My client was…
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Movenpick Karon certified as Asian leader in sustainability
PHUKET: Movenpick Resort & Spa Karon Beach Phuket was named Asia’s top performer in certified sustainable practices by Green Globe, an industry renowned certification body. Green Globe’s 2015 report on Movenpick Hotels & Resorts revealed that the Karon-based resort has an overall compliance score of 86 per cent, while the group’s overall average compliance score is 84 per cent, 2.5…
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Diving: Becoming a super dive master
PHUKET: If you’re going to be a super Dive Master (DM), going from zero to hero isn’t the ticket – at best you’ll end up as Aqualad, making his debut in the 60s as the sidekick of the already lame Aquaman. However, that doesn’t stop the trend of people going from non-divers to professionals in a couple of months in…
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Profile: Lisa Haydon – Bollywood superstar in Phuket
PHUKET: Supermodel, Bollywood star and host of ‘India’s Next Top Model’, Lisa Haydon has an enjoyably hectic professional life. Riding the wave of her popularity gives her little time to relax, however, particularly following her critically acclaimed role in the 2015 movie ‘Queen’ and her appearance in this year’s top-grossing madcap comedy-romance ‘Housefull 3’. But when the star does squeeze…
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King’s Cup holds course as marquee sailing event
PHUKET: The prestigious Phuket King’s Cup was first held in 1987 to mark the auspicious 60th birthday of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the world’s longest-reigning living monarch. His Majesty the King was a passionate sailor and created yachting history in 1967 when he and his daughter Princess Ubolratana Rajakanya won a gold medal in the OK dinghy class at…
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Light up your bathing experience
PHUKET: Many of the villas I have inspected have had one light for a good size bathroom, no wonder we guys miss the toilet so often. If you’re updating, there are many wonderful options. When you visit a lighting supply house you may get a headache from the mind-numbing task of looking at all of the delightful lighting fixtures. To…
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Locals, tourists team up to clean up
PHUKET: The Rawai Nai Harn Business Community organized a beach cleaning event last weekend at Nai Harn Beach. Supported by the Rawai OrBorTor and moderated by DJ Tom Tank of Radio 89.75, more than two tonnes of rubbish were collected from the front and back of Nai Harn Beach. Spearheaded by Claude Baltes of Sunsuri Phuket and in cooperation with…
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On Deck: Better co-ordination in the marine industry
PHUKET: Almost three weeks of back-to-back yachting events in Phuket sounds great, right? December is set to be a veritable orgy of regattas, boat shows, lavish cocktail parties, gala dinners, pomp and glam – it’s an all-out marine love-in and it starts with the 30 year old Phuket King’s Cup Regatta from December 3-10 at Kata Beach Resort & Spa.…
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Profile: Simon James – Phuket’s jet-setting race officer
PHUKET: The yachts may change, the weather always, but one constant in the Phuket yacht racing firmament is Race Officer Simon James. Up at the crack of dawn and ready on the start line as the racers roll out their sails, Simon James has officiated at almost every regatta in the Andaman and the Gulf of Thailand since the turn…
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B9mn allocated for pier improvements
PHUKET: A budget of 9 million baht has been allocated to spruce up Chalong Pier with plans to improve facilities for the hundreds of tourists who visit the ferry point daily. Transportation Division Chief Prasit Yotharak of the Phuket Provincial Administrative Organization (PPAO) said last week that renovation plans include more seating, more toilets, shower stalls and a Muslim prayer…
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Across the land: Expats hit by Brexit fallout
PHUKET: Two days after the United Kingdom held a referendum to leave the European Union (EU), now famously known worldwide as ‘Brexit’, the global financial markets suffered US$3 trillion in paper losses. The aftermath is eerily quiet. The consequences of Brexit will unfold in the coming months and years ahead, and they will be far-reaching. Good or bad, they will…
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Gardening: Erotic undertones of orchids
PHUKET: The epithet ‘sexy’ is much overused, not to say abused. It appears in contexts that have nothing to do with people’s erotic appetites at all. Inanimate objects can apparently fit the bill; cars, dishes or even flowers. ‘No Orchids For Miss Blandish’, a raunchy 1939 novel, invoked orchids in its title because author James Hadley Chase knew they possessed…
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Profile: DJ Retro hits the Phuket stage
PHUKET: Jeff Retro, a DJ from a top night club in Las Vegas, performed for thousands of guests at Illuzion night club in Patong on July 9. Jeff has been a DJ for about 15 years now. He was born in Ohio and comes from a musical background. He was raised by a single mother who majored in music in…
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Excuse Buster: Energizing smoothie to jump start your day
PHUKET: A lot of people ask me about how to make the perfect smoothie. Here are my steps on how to build a great green smoothie that is a meal containing fibrous carbs (veggies), protein and good fats, and is packed full of nutrition. A lot of my clients start the day with this formula and tweak it to suit…
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Blazing Saddles: Cycling and your sex life
PHUKET: There is no doubt that cycling is tremendously beneficial for your body and you only have to look at the fine physiques of such super-cyclists with strong Phuket associations as Chris McCormack, Clint Kimmins, Belinda Granger and Anan Duangsopa in order to see how true this is. But how good is cycling for your sex life and does it…
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Looking Back: The siege of Chantaburi
PHUKET: In the year 1767, the Burmese had laid siege to the ancient capital of Siam for many months. Eventually they were able to breach the city’s walls. What followed was an orgy of violence and destruction as the invaders laid waste to the once magnificent city. Ayutthaya was torched, its treasures plundered and hundreds of thousands of its inhabitants…
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On Deck: BREXIT and the Phuket marine industry
PHUKET: Rather a lot has changed since my last column, at least in Europe. BREXIT. Lots has been said and written – lies, assumptions, crystal ball gazing and all the political back-biting that comes with such a momentous decision. I won’t go through the details here – there are many better qualified than myself for that – but I will…
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Profile: Trailblazer in Phuket journalism
PHUKET: Janjira Sittabutr, originally from Songkhla, is the president of the Phuket Reporter Club. She has been working at Manager Newspaper for more than 20 years. She’s written many articles about Phuket, especially in-depth and developing stories during and after the 2004 tsunami. “I never expected to end up being a reporter. But it’s been so long that it feels…
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Keep It Green: Care for the natural environment
PHUKET: I was once sitting in an open-air Chalong eatery when six uniformed girls arrived for lunch. Obviously part of a team, they ordered a communal dish, which duly arrived: a large steaming bowl of “tom yam kung” and six smaller bowls. One girl took it upon herself assiduously to clean each bowl by rubbing it with three pink tissues.…
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By the book: The market is ripe for the picking
PHUKET: “The time to buy is when there’s blood in the streets.” – Baron Rothschild. “You pay a very high price… for a cheery consensus.” – Warren Buffett. While there certainly isn’t blood in the streets here in Phuket, the property market remains slow with a consensus to wait on the sidelines. A faltering global economy, the weakness of the…
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Hair-raising experience at Hollow Mountain
PHUKET: Hollow Mountain Extreme Adventure Park in Krabi has a perfect score on Trip Advisor, with 54 five-star ratings out of 54 ratings. That’s no feat to scoff at – particularly not these days when everyone wants free wireless internet and zero mosquitoes wherever they go – and it’s especially impressive considering that they’ve only been open for one year.…
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Thai animal cruelty campaign wins top honors at Cannes
PHUKET: An awareness campaign by Bangkok-based advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather won five awards at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity held late last month. Their video shows ‘Leatherworks’, a typical pop-up shop of luxury goods located inside a large shopping center in Bangkok. Unsuspecting shoppers are filmed browsing through rows of snake-skin shoes and crocodile-skin handbags, but once…
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Diving: To splurge or not to splurge
PHUKET: Like most people new to freediving, as well as many experienced divers, I have a desire to go deeper to set new personal bests. Also, like many divers, my head is so full of inaccurate and misleading information that a faulty premise on how to do this is floating in my mind: “I need to buy stiff, carbon fiber…
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Profile: Adisak Pitakrojananont – working his away atop the hospitality ladder
PHUKET: PHUKET: Adisak Pitakrojananont hails from Ratchaburi and is currently the general manager of Mom Tri’s Villa Royale at Kata Noi Beach, Phuket. He graduated from Ramkhamhaeng University with a Bachelor’s degree in hotel management and has more than 10 years of experience in the hospitality business, eight of which have been in management. “I was not born to be…
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Ready, steady, get Footloos
PHUKET: The multi-billion-baht Phuket tourism industry caters to adventurers and wellness seekers from across the globe, with a seemingly endless stream of tour companies offering a multitude of services. Now imagine if you could get all these services in a few clicks on a single platform. That, in short, is the idea behind Footloos, an online marketplace dedicated to an…
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Unemployed primate released into wild due to ‘depression’
PHUKET: Pom, an eight-year-old unemployed monkey raised by a Bang Jo couple since he was two, has been let go because the family who owned him could not bear to see him depressed. Pom used to work as a coconut picker and also helped to peel coconuts at his owner’s coconut oil factory. A few months ago, coconut prices shot…
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