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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Phuket to get two of eight new marinas planned for the south
PHUKET: Two new marinas are to be built in Phuket as part of the government’s plan to stimulate economic growth by turning Thailand into a marine leisure hub in the ASEAN region. The marina development plan, announced by Transport Minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith, includes construction of eight new marinas – four in the Andaman Sea and four in the Gulf of…
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Gardening: Lest we forget the magic of orchids
PHUKET: At my age, time seems to whizz by – about the only form of awareness that does. Recently it was the doleful anniversary of the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris. It seems only a couple of months ago, but memory plays strange tricks on the aging brain. For instance, when I checked, I found my last piece about orchids…
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Imagine: A World Without Boundaries
The winner of the Dublin Literary Award for Southern Thailand this year is 14-year-old British national Eve Whittaker, who is a Year 9 student at HeadStart International School. Eve and hundreds of other students took part in the writing competition, which asked the young writers to explore a ‘World With No Boundaries’. Currently studying for the World Scholar’s Cup, under…
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Blazing Saddles: Back in the saddle at Bang Tao
PHUKET: Quiet corners of our increasingly frenetic island are often sought by the gad-about Lycra Lout, for some gentle, meditative pedalling amidst lovely scenery and with the opportunity for a cold sunset beachside drink at the end of the ride. One area of Phuket that still offers these charms is the hinterland around the Bang Tao Beach region. The gateway…
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Property Watch: Leasehold vs freehold – revisited
PHUKET: Leasehold versus freehold has been a livewire in Phuket and continues to be so. Over 14 years ago when I arrived in Phuket, I saw my first lease offered by a developer to a ‘buyer’ written in English and was shocked. I had been practicing as a commercial property lawyer in London for two years, looking at long leases…
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By the Book: Benefits of vendor financing
PHUKET: Although the property market has recently been slow in Phuket, properties are still selling. In previous years, buyers would pay full cash for properties. However, in today’s climate, sellers are being more flexible to achieve a sale. One of the main head winds Phuket’s property market faces is that the majority of foreign buyers do not live here all…
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Excuse Buster: Problems of chronic inflammation
PHUKET: Last week I described an important test I often recommend to clients called HbA1c. As I wrote, this test is one marker for identifying blood sugar issues and a person’s tendency toward diabetes, but it is also now seen to be related to many conditions – including dementia and even cancer. Sugar strikes again. As a nutritionist, I spend…
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Keep it Green: Protecting Our Precious Wildlife [video]
PHUKET: The recent brouhaha about Phuket Zoo’s ‘missing’ orangutan highlights – as every high profile incident does – Thailand’s patchy record with regard to wildlife conservation and care. The facts of Milo’s case are all too familiar to naturalists. Suffice to say that when the primate’s presence in the Phuket Zoo was questioned by animal-rights activist Vicki Kiely, the 13-year-old…
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[Video Report] Profile: Knight from the wrong side of the tracks
PHUKET: The last thing on the mind of 14-year-old Nick Faldo, when he was on his knees rummaging around in bushes looking for lost golf balls so he could practice his swing, was to one day be kneeling in front of the Queen of England to receive a knighthood. Hailing from ‘the wrong side of the tracks’ in Hertfordshire, England,…
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Video Report: Trends in Phuket’s Sustainable Hospitality
PHUKET: Grace Kang is a managing partner at Greenview, a Singapore-based sustainability advisory company that specializes in tracking and measuring sustainability performance for hotels, convention centers and commercial buildings. Ms Kang shared some pearls of wisdom on sustainable practices with local industry specialists at the recent American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM) meeting at the Keemala Resort, Phuket.During her talk on…
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Across the land: Is Airbnb taking a slice of Phuket hotels’ profits?
PHUKET: For those not so active in the online community, Airbnb may sound completely alien, and you may well ask what they are selling. According to San Francisco-based Airbnb, it is a trusted community marketplace for people to go online and list, discover, and book unique accommodation around the world, using a computer, mobile phone, or tablet. And, whether you…
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Law and Order: Beware of double taxation
PHUKET: Clients who have businesses in multiple countries have called me in fear of the tax man. Their fears are based on the unknown. They don’t understand the tax laws in Thailand and fear the confiscatory powers of the revenue department for errors in their filings. For foreign nationals living in Thailand, Thai tax laws and forms are written in…
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Property Watch: Less is more for Koh Samui
PHUKET: We live in a world where percentages seem to matter and growth dominates our horizon. I still recall growing up and marking off on a wall in our house how tall I was. I could not wait to be older, and the irony today is how I wish that I could instead roll back the clock. In Phuket’s crowded…
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Profile: The Life of Pie – a profile of Susan Usher
PHUKET: The Aussie meat pie has an almost iconic status within the Pantheon of Australian idiosyncrasies, right up there with kangaroos (flying and earthbound) and Pom-bashing. How endearingly quirky it is then to find the quotidian Aussie meat pie well established here in Phuket, acting as an exotic taste of distant parts for some, while for others providing a comforting…
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Up in the Air: Phuket-Hat Yai: truly boutique flights
PHUKET: Bangkok Airways daily flights connecting Southern Thailand’s two busiest airports – Phuket (HKT) and Hat Yai International – are currently experiencing average load factors ranging from 60 to 70 per cent, with the overwhelming majority of passengers being Thai nationals, an airline executive has revealed. Pannaphorn Preechachan, Bangkok Airways chief of regional corporate communications for Southern Thailand, said the…
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Profile: Drifting from Australia to Asia
PHUKET: Anthony Cameron, originally from Melbourne, Australia has led an interesting life compared to most. Escaping from Melbourne in his early twenties to central Victoria, he designed and built a sustainable house and raised two sustainable children, before finally settling in Phuket in 2012. Over the years, Tony has worked as a sound engineer, fruit picker, tour manager, teacher, factory…
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On Deck: Proposing a jet-ski solution
PHUKET: Jet-skis are back in the news again with rarely a week passing without some issue, complaint or accident. The skeptic in me thinks it could be a PR ploy to keep jet skis in the public eye, yet that would only be true if you subscribe to the adage “all PR is good PR”, which it isn’t. And I…
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AccorHotels spreads its wings
PHUKET: AccorHotels has teamed up with Avista Resort and Spa Patong Co Ltd to manage three properties in Phuket. The newly-inked agreement brings two existing Phuket properties in Kata and Patong under the new brand and management, and paves the way for the building of a brand new hotel in Karon. One of the two resorts will be re-branded as…
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Gardening: Moving pageant in your garden
PHUKET: We all know how denuded of mammals Thailand is. Most have long since been hunted down for food. And while the same is not true of most insects or reptiles, it is still the case that anything remotely edible will probably end up fried or barbecued on someone’s dinner plate. Insects, such as water scorpions, crickets and locusts, tokay…
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Quality tourism trending
PHUKET: Last year was a favorable one for tourism in Phuket, boosting confidence throughout the hospitality and property sectors with a rise in ‘quality’ tourists and investors – a trend that appears set to continue in 2016. Arrivals at Phuket International Airport soared to 6.4 million – a record number of passengers passing through the province, according to the latest…
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By the Book: What is property valuation?
PHUKET: Valuation is a process of estimation of the most probable price that would be paid for a property under typical market conditions applicable at the date of valuation. The value of a property is the present value of all future benefits expected to be obtained from possession of the property. The ability to provide a professional and accurate valuation…
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Sansiri offers unique promotions at Central Festival Phuket
PHUKET: Sansiri Public Company Limited has launched its ‘Uniquely You’ residential campaign at Central Festival Phuket, which ends tomorrow. “The purpose of this event is to promote our outstanding designs,” said Suriya Wannabuit, Sansiri’s executive vice president of project management and marketing department. “For example, Burasiri Koh Kaew is surrounded by trees and hills, whereas the Base Height in Samkong…
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Profile: From penniless to priceless
PHUKET: Suriyan ‘Romadon’ Kos-anea, 41, originally from Phang Nga, is currently an art teacher at Phuket Vocational College. He also owns a tea shop and art gallery in Rawai. The special thing about him is the way he uses his body for painting. In 2012, he was chosen as one of the last six contestants in the show Thailand’s Got…
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Excuse Buster: Proper diet to battle cancer
PHUKET: In 2014 the British Journal of Cancer released a study that tested the relationship between a commonly used blood test for diabetics and pre-diabetics (HbA1c) and the development of several cancers. As has been widely published, diabetes increases the risks of developing several cancers, sotesting diabetes and pre-diabetes markers makes sense. The results concluded that high HbA1c did in…
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Ditching a brand for better marketing
PHUKET: Effective marketing is essential to securing occupancy numbers, both in high and low seasons, leading many resort and hotel owners to rely on established brands with loyal clientele. However, when those brands fall down on the marketing side, as one such international brand is perceived to have done for what is now known as the Amatara Resort and Wellness…
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Gardening: Dangers lurking in Eden
PHUKET: When I was knee high to a grasshopper in rural England, there were few dangers in the countryside. True, there were scary tales of deadly nightshade that would kill you if you ate the attractive purple-black berries, and of adders lurking in the hillside bracken with potentially lethal bites. Of course I was blissfully unaware that one third of…
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Across the Land: The persistent growing pains of Phuket
PHUKET: Last month, MasterCard Asia Pacific Destinations Index 2015 announced that Thailand is the most popular regional travel destination for 2015, with three of its cities making the top ten list. Bangkok was the most popular, followed by Phuket in fifth place and Pattaya in eighth. The survey was based on 167 destinations from 22 countries across Asia Pacific and…
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Keeping our sharks out of the soup
PHUKET: Movies and fascinating documentaries depict fierce predators lurking beneath the surface of azure waters just waiting to rip unsuspecting swimmers into fleshy ribbons with their hideous teeth. Well, that image is just plain wrong, according to Brendon Sing, spokesperson for Shark Guardian, a registered conservation charity. Brendon visited Palm House International School in Rawai last week to deliver this…
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On Deck: The case for in-water zones
PHUKET: Phuket’s ten per cent beach rule and the issue of beach and sea zoning has received a lot of attention recently and yet here we are mid high season and it’s easy to see the problems haven’t been fixed. Head down to Patong Beach any day of the week and you will see roped off swim areas. You might…
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Keep it Green: Mending our ways to save marine life
PHUKET: One could go on ad nauseam about the destruction of Phuket’s marine environment. Consider eutrofication, the remorseless process whereby the continental shelf surrounding our emerald isle is laced with chemicals from fertilizer and waste resulting in the growth of algae, and water so depleted of oxygen that few fish will tolerate it. Worse, the cement-laced sediment from land development…
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