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 Why retirees in Thailand are choosing long-term health insurance over quick fixes
Retirees in Thailand are increasingly seeing the importance of health insurance in protecting their well-being during retirement. With insurance requirements for retirement visas and rising healthcare costs, many are moving away from short-term plans and choosing long-term coverage. Long-term health...
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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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Phuket Humor: Land of Smiles – A belated Christmas carol
” ‘Twas the day before Christmas and all was calm at the 91.5 FM studio in Kathu, with nothing to be heard but the occasional tuk-tuk and the odd tailor offering to make a suit, ‘Special price for Christmas, Sir’. The afternoon show hosted by The Doris was in full swing….”PHUKET: Then there came a knock at the door. “Is…
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Phuket People: Somchai Yimpat
PHUKET: Photographer and retired lecturer Somchai Yimpat believes that in photography the argument over whether film is superior to digital has become moot. “People focus too much on mediums,” he says. “The concern should be about what the final presentation will be. If it’s for exhibition prints, then film is definitely superior to digital. For sharing on the internet, digital…
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Phuket Property Watch: 2013 property ponderings
PHUKET: When I lived and worked in the corporate rule, one of the true signs of executive prowess was the ability to read upside down. Now I’m not talking about taking up Japanese. Clearly that’s a country in decline. You can see it in the first installment of Die Hard. That’s where the trouble started. But look at me, an…
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Phuket Property: Land and Houses to explore new markets
PHUKET: Residential development will continue to be the core business for Land & Houses (L & H) while it invests in related businesses as well as others with future potential. “Our strategy is to manage our investment budget by balancing homes for sale and businesses that will generate a return in the long run,” said Naporn Sunthornchitcharoen, a senior executive…
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Phuket Lifestyle: Call of the wild – a family’s journey out of captivity
for mapHUKET: This past year has been an incredibly busy time at Phuket’s Gibbon Rehabilitation Project (GRP), but fortunately, with the arrival of a new crop of enthusiastic volunteers to help out, the day finally came when the GRP were able to release the 2012 gibbon family (Cop, Jorn and baby Sherpa) into the wild. On the climb up to…
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Phuket Lifestyle: Rolling the dice on Phuket’s roads
SPECIAL REPORT PHUKET: One lifestyle decision that anyone residing in Phuket (or even just on an extended holiday) will eventually come to consider, is whether or not to achieve transport independence – if not for the sake of convenience then certainly out of necessity.It’s no secret that getting around via public transport in other prime destinations of the Kingdom –…
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Phuket Gardening: Preserving Phuket’s plants
PHUKET: Odd how political correctness is responsible for changes in language. Take terms for indigenous people. When I was knee-high to a grasshopper, North Americans were called “Red Indians”. That was later changed to a more PC term –”Amerindian”. A bit of a mouthful, the expression in turn became “American Indian”. Now, and maybe finally, we talk about “Native Americans”.…
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Phuket Property: Malaiwana launch The Residences
PHUKET: Malaiwana is a luxurious development built on 28 rai overlooking Naithon beach on the north-west coast of Phuket. The Phuket Gazette spoke to Malaiwana’s managing director Stephen Paine about the estate.Phuket Gazette: What is the Malaiwana development? Stephen Paine: It is a project with three elements: 19 villas, 12 residences and a beach club. We began construction on the…
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Phuket Property: IHG takes over the Evason Resort
PHUKET: The InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), the world’s largest hotel group by number of rooms, announced the signing of InterContinental Phuket Rawai Beach Resort recently, the first for the brand in Phuket, with JTM (Thailand) Limited, a member company of the LC Development Ltd (LC Dev) Group. Designed by award-winning architect Bill Bensley, who also designed IHG’s award-winning InterContinental Danang…
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Phuket Lifestyle: A brief history of brunch
PHUKET: Brunch Upon a Time… for many of us living in Phuket, Sunday mornings were largely an unconfirmed rumor. Many of us who grew up in the seventies used to emerge from a standard Saturday night Bacchanal around two o’clock the following Sunday afternoon, wolf down some left-over pizza and whatever hadn’t been drunk the night before and collapse in…
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Phuket’s SMART Property and Lifestyle Expo is off and running
PHUKET: The SMART Property and Lifestyle Expo started December 27 and runs until December 30, 2012 at the Royal Phuket Marina (RPM). It’s billed as Phuket’s best extravaganza for accessible luxury. A showcase of best investment properties and “lifestyle” activities that epitomize luxury aspiration are on display. According to the organizer, Hoi Cheung, director, 3C Ltd, “In recent years Phuket…
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Phuket Lifestyle: 2012 quiz answers
PHUKET: Answers to the Phuket Gazette’s 2012 Super quiz. 1) Iran 2) Spain 3) Germany 4) Novak Djokovic 5) Costa Concordia 6) Cairo 7) Declared bankrupt 8) The United States and Israel 9) Yahoo! 10) Royal Bank of Scotland 11) Facebook 12) Her 60th 13) Malév Hungarian Airlines 14) Greece 15) Harry Redknapp 16) Whitney Houston 17) Egypt 18) Germany…
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Phuket Lifestyle: The ultimate 2012 quiz
PHUKET: Were you paying attention in 2012? Test your general knowledge with these questions compiled The Green Man quiz- master Howard Digby-Johns.In January1) The European Union adopted an embargo against which nation in protest of continued effort to enrich uranium? 2) Which Eurozone country reported the highest level of unemployment since they first started collecting the figures? 3) Which Eurozone…
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Phuket Lifestyle: Three New Years for the price of one
PHUKET: Making (and often immediately breaking) New Year’s resolutions is an age-old tradition all over the world as we pass from one year into the next. Hope, and its close cousin, self delusion, are abundant at this time of year as we promise to be better and brighter versions of ourselves. In Phuket, in fact you get not just one,…
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Phuket Gardening: Say it with flowers
PHUKET: “SAY it with flowers” is a popular mantra of the florist business. And for most occasions and certainly for most ladies, a romantic bouquet of roses or lilies speaks louder than words. For Christmas though, and for the keen gardener, something a bit more practical is the order of the day. Indoor potted plants are always a sensible choice.…
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Phuket Books: The Cambodian book of the dead
PHUKET: A veteran journalist on the Asian beat, Tom Vater certainly knows Cambodia. In the crime novel The Cambodian Book of the Dead (Crime Wave Press, Hong Kong, 2012, 287pp), his descriptions of Phnom Penh, Kep and Siem Reap are spot on. The hero is Maier (no first name) who grew up in East Germany under the communist government, where…
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Phuket Property: Tri Property launch Zcape X2 concept
PHUKET: Urban lifestyle condo concept developer Tri Property launched sales of the Zcape X2 Condominium in Cherng Talay on December 15, boasting unit reservations totalling more than 60 per cent over the first weekend of the two-week pre-sales period. Touted as perfectly priced condo units in a prime location, Tri Property CEO Adisorn Vivakanond said the Zcape X2 concept was…
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Phuket Property: The start of “Hobbit housing’ in Phuket
PHUKET: Jingle Bill, Jingle Bill. The very merry season is here again – already! Apparently so, given the greenscape in every retail space my eyes come to rest on. This year the epic film the Hobbit is upon us. Hobbits and Asian real estate have been simpatico for quite some time. Certainly this year in Thailand ‘entry-level condominiums’ have dominated…
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Phuket Property: Supercars zoom to SMART Expo
PHUKET: THE Phuket Gazette caught up with Mr Hoi Cheung, Director of 3:C who are the organizing the upcoming SMART Property & Lifestyle Expo to be held at the Royal Phuket Marina, from December 27-30, 2012. Phuket Gazette: What makes Phuket a good destination for the SMART Property & Lifestyle Expo?Hoi Cheung: Phuket in recent years has become known as…
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Phuket Lifestyle: Going for a “grubby’ Christmas
PHUKET: The holiday season is here and the Phuket geese are getting nervous. But tropical heat and looking good on the island’s beaches may require something a little lighter than all that turkey and Christmas pudding. As an alternative consider a Holiday Season dinner comprised of the local creepy-crawlies that many Phuketians love to eat. The Locust EatersInsects are full…
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Phuket Lifestyle: Flower power at Boathouse
PHUKET: Anyone who has ever tempted fate by trying the ersatz vegetarian food at Phuket’s annual Vegetarian Festival will more than likely agree that it’s all deep fried; it’s not actually very good for you; and while it may look like a sausage or a chicken drum-stick, it actually tastes like soaked cardboard.So when word got out that Marco Westmass,…
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Phuket Lifestyle: Children’s Christmas wishes
In the mouths of babes, sweet truths are laid… just behind the list for Santa.The Phuket Gazette asked local kids what they would like in their stockings this Christmas. PHUKET: There are, of course, quite a few iPads on Phuket wish-lists this year, but the Gazette tried hard to convince these choosy children that other brands were equally good and…
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Phuket Pets: So… you’ve got a baby on the way
PHUKET: Having a baby is (apparently) a wonderful moment in one’s life. However, I’ve also heard that it can be quite stressful, emotional and very tiring. But, for those of you who also have dogs in the house, you need to think about them too. You are right to be concerned about your dog sniffing around the new addition. Just…
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Asia Superyacht Rendezvous over for another year
PHUKET: The final day of the Asia Superyacht Rendezvous started with the second race around the bay. Captains and crew were slightly concerned that the wind would be too light, but eventually it started to blow and the fleet set off.Twizzle finished first, just four boat lengths ahead of Yanneke Too, with Asia following closely behind in position three. Once…
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