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 5 ways retirees in Thailand lose money (and how to stop it)
Retiring in Thailand can be affordable and enjoyable, but many retirees lose money due to common mistakes. High living costs, scams, and unexpected expenses can quickly drain savings. There are five ways that retirees in Thailand can lose money and...
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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: Dewa Karon changes name, management
PHUKET: MAI-BS (Thailand) has taken over management of what used to be known as the Dewa Karon Resort Phuket.The resort is currently going through a re-branding and repositioning period and will now be known as Karon Sovereign All Suites Resort. The high-potential All Suites Resort offers 49 luxurious one and two-bedroom suites and penthouses sized between 63 and 140 square…
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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 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 Lifestyle: Food, games, music and fun, and all for charity
PHUKET: This weekend Royal Phuket Marina (click here for map: RPM) will be thronged with an extravaganza of fabulous food, fun and games for the kids and then later in the evening, superb music from The Legends of Siam, Moderndog and the internationally famous bluesmen from Australia Vdelli. As if all this wasn’t enough to make this one of Phuket’s…
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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 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 Books: Indulging in OJ Simpson
PHUKET: The author of a dozen books, mostly about crime in high places, Dominick Dunne was a compulsive name-dropper. Ah, but what names! Princess Diana, Elizabeth Taylor, Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty, Annette Bening, Gregory Peck, Kirk Douglas, Nancy Reagan, Frank Sinatra, Tony Curtis and a whole slew of Hollywood and Euro-trash royalty. He died three years ago at the age…
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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 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: Bold predictions for 2013
PHUKET: I believe Chinese zodiac signs went out sometime in the 1970s, though clearly citizens of Sedona and Byron Bay didn’t get the memo. We are about to enter the twelve year cycle of the Snake. From a quick look around the zodiac, the slimy reptile is still trumped by the Dragon, but nonetheless, words like mysterious, cattiness (love that…
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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 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 Lifestyle: Impiana’s Swasana Spa
PHUKET: If ever there was a true boutique spa, then this is it. It doesn’t make pretentious claims to be the biggest, or even the best spa in Phuket. Nor does it boast of having the widest choice of treatments. But what Swasana Spa is proud of is that it offers top-notch spa services fusing the very best techniques of…
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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: 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 Pets: Heed the breed
PHUKET: With centuries of domestication safely behind us, it seems that more and more households now have at least one dog. But many of the problems owners end up having stem from choosing the wrong breed. Most of the time the choice is made because “The puppy looked cute” or because of “Daddy, daddy I want that one…” Either way,…
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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 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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Super Year – A sailor’s travel guide to seeing Asia
PHUKET: The Indian Ocean and Asia-Pacific regions are fast becoming some of the best cruising grounds in the world – a fact well known to those who have cruised them for many years, but something that is only now becoming common knowledge around the world. “Recent expansions in marina facilities have provided the kind of support today’s demanding professional captains…
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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: 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 Diving: Into the New Year
PHUKET: With the world’s biggest single day reef cleanup behind us, not to mention numerous underwater adventures from discovering manta rays to testing out new gear, it is time to focus on what another year of diving will bring. As an hour underwater is never an hour wasted, it’s impossible to list all the goals a person should consider adding…
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