Thai Life
Discover the latest regional stories and happenings in Thailand with The Thaiger, your source of credible, informative, and reliable updates. Stay informed about important local events, political happenings, social issues, cultural highlights, and entertainment stories, all curated to ensure you never miss out on what’s happening in the Land of Smiles. Our journalists will keep you informed with all the essential Thai life updates and allows you to connect with the community and experience Thailand like a local.
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Sponsored Do foreigners get free healthcare in Thailand?
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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Profile: Aaron Hooper – Striving for the joy of pure creation
PHUKET: Aaron Hooper is an award-winning chef, originally from the US. Having moved to Thailand and worked in the restaurant business for nearly 15 years in Phuket and Bangkok, he has recently refocused his interest toward writing and photography. Aaron was an English major in college, where he also studied photography. Choosing then to take a sabbatical, he travelled around…
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On Deck: Samui – The unpolished marine jewel of Thailand
PHUKET: Samui is an island of coconuts and a microcosm of Thailand’s modern tourism industry, with facilities geared to backpackers at one end of the scale, right up to five-star resorts at the other, and everything in between. From a marine perspective, it is – to some extent – an unpolished jewel. If Samui Island was on Thailand’s east coast,…
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Infinity Condominium launches new project in Bang Tao
PHUKET: Infinity Condominium held the grand opening of its seven-storey condo project in Bang Tao late last month. The project will comprise of 78 units ranging from 59 square meters to 60.6sqm and include one bedroom, two bedroom, and two bedroom deluxe condominiums. “Construction will start by end of the year and is expected to be completed in two years.…
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Profile: Mexican Ambassador Jaime Nualart meets with the Gazette team
PHUKET: Jaime Nualart is currently the Ambassador of Mexico to Thailand. Born in Mexico City in 1952, Amb Nualart remembers his childhood with fondness. “I went to a good school and was among the top three students in my class. I had good friends, but I was also very shy. That is perhaps the reason my mother decided to enroll…
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On Deck: Submersibles for the average Joe
PHUKET: Submarines are a hot topic in Thailand right now. These hulking underwater “monsters” have been top of the Royal Thai Navy’s shopping list for a long time and now, finally, they have been given the green light to buy. There’s been plenty of debate in the last few years, but previous attempts were ultimately shot down. The two main…
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Footloose: The hidden wonders of Koh Lipe
PHANG NGA: Koh Lipe is situated in the Andaman Sea, about 85 kilometers off the coast of Satun Province. The tiny island is part of the Adang-Rawi archipelago. In recent years Koh Lipe has grown to become a popular destination among backpackers and travellers looking for the raw and authentic island experience. Unlike some of the more familiar islands in…
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Phuket wedding planners’ conference draws global vendors
PHUKET: Phuket hosted the 4th Annual Destination Wedding Planners’ Congress 2017 (DWP Congress 2017), a conference of global wedding planners that brought luxury destination wedding planners, leading suppliers and creative partners under one roof. More than 450 global wedding planners from 65 countries participated in the event, which was held from May 2-4 and was the first of its kind…
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On Deck: Phuket’s East coast offers year-round activities
PHUKET: Phuket’s tourism is very much West coast focused. The beaches are whiter and sandier, resorts and hotels aplenty. The East coast, however, is more of a year-round destination. What it may lack in beaches, it makes up for in islands, most of which are easily accessible by boat. This renewed interest is driven by the marine industry. Phuket’s four…
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Property Watch: Thailand at a crossroads in property investment
PHUKET: Thailand is and will remain an attractive property market to invest in. The geography lends itself well to a good quality of life, especially if income to support that lifestyle isn’t an issue. However, it does have neighboring competition and is in the process of assessing its options to revise laws to continue developing its economy. The way in…
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Looking Back: The role of the Garuda in Thai history
PHUKET: The Garuda is a common symbol in Thailand. It can be found on bank notes, government documents and official flags, as well as government and private offices. The emblem of the Thai government is a frontal image of the Garuda in red, adopted in 1910 during the reign of King Rama VI. The legend dates back thousands of years,…
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Excuse Buster: Getting your kids to eat more vegetables
PHUKET: I am slated to give a talk on nutrition at one of Phuket’s international schools soon. One question I always get asked when speaking to parents is: “How do I get my child to eat vegetables?” Having two children myself, I know the struggles of encouraging children to eat more from this critical food group packed full of nutrients.…
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Across the Land: Luxury villa rentals picking up in Phuket
PHUKET: This year, the luxury villa rental inquiries are coming in early. By March, agents had already started calling around asking for rental rates over the holiday season of December 2017 to April 2018. Luxury villa rentals over the last two holiday seasons have been somewhat disappointing, with villa owners either not achieving any rentals for their properties at all…
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By The Book: Property market trends in the second quarter
PHUKET: As we enter the second quarter of 2017, the real estate market in Phuket remains slow. There are ‘pockets’ of demand: there is demand for freehold condos and discounted resale properties. Inquiries from the Thai domestic market are picking up and the condo market in Bangkok is doing well, with many developers there reporting strong sales so far this…
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Gardening: A problem of identification
PHUKET: One of the more fascinating aspects of writing this column is that it brings you into contact with members of the local gardening fraternity. Some of the questions they pose are quite teasing. Take Chris, who sent me a photograph of a pot plant which has suddenly and inexplicably decided to bloom. He says, “I never really cared about…
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Recent highlights of Thailand’s marine industry
PHUKET: The Singapore Yacht Show, held just before Songkran, has become a leading marine industry event. It is a place where global brands are present and also where many from Thailand’s marine industry attend. With two-and-a-half days of conferences, it’s very much a business event, distinct from Thailand’s boat shows which focus more on the experience of owning a boat,…
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Profile: Achirawit Churmung – Seeing beauty in black and white
PHUKET: Achirawit Churmung is currently working as a professional photographer as well as a university lecturer teaching photography courses at Prince of Songkla University and Phuket Rajabhat University. He is also one of the organizers of ‘The Quiet Beauty’, a photography exhibition being held in Phuket till the end of this month, featuring more than 70 black and white photographs…
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Law, Life & Society: Have fun, but don’t break the law
PHUKET: Songkran was originally a Thai religious festival marking the beginning of the Buddhist New Year. Now it has morphed into a week-long holiday, water fights and parties. Large numbers of tourists come to Thailand to join in the festivities. It is a time where people let loose and civility is secondary. In response, Thai police are present in large…
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Handy tips for online shopping in Phuket
PHUKET: Online shopping is so easily accessible these days that even those residing on islands can benefit from its perks while enjoying island life to the maximum. While websites like eBay and Amazon are dominating the West, e-commerce is only starting to grow here in Southeast Asia. According to Statista, the number of users in Thailand’s e-commerce market is expected…
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Keep It Green: Now is the time to act
PHUKET: Bad news for conservationists: the most powerful man in the universe is not only a non-believer in climate change, but is drastically reducing the US budget devoted to environmental issues. And one of Trump’s advisers calls ecologically aware people “like Hari Krishna… they’re glassy-eyed and they chant”. Big business and environmental concerns just don’t mix – globally or locally.…
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Profile: Manop Suwannachit ready to take on the Xterra challenge
PHUKET: Manop Suwannachit, 31, is the brand ambassador for ‘Xterra Asia Pacific and World Series 2017–Road to Hawaii’ which is being organized by Xterra Thailand and Active Management Asia (AMA) in Phuket today. Mr Manop is also participating in the races – he is a well-known sportsman who has won many competitions throughout his career. Last year, he took part…
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SNAKES! But not all snakes are deadly, most aren’t
A friend discovered a snake on his balcony the other day and asked me what it was. With alternate broad bands of yellow and black and a triangular-shaped body, it could only have been a banded krait. Fortunately, he stood well back and allowed the creature to slither away into the garden. I say fortunately because all kraits are extremely…
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Profile: Dr Tanwa Apornthip’s love of science and Phuket
PHUKET: Dr Tanwa Apornthip is currently a faculty member at Prince of Songkla University (PSU), Phuket campus. He recently obtained his PhD from the University of Virginia and joined the interdisciplinary graduate school of Earth System Science and Andaman Natural Disaster Management (ESSAND) at PSU. Hailing from a scientific family, Dr Tanwa says he has always looked up to his…
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Law, life and Society: Reassessing the Thai education system
PHUKET: The Thai education system was recently featured in the Economist. The article, titled ‘Poor schools are at the heart of Thailand’s political malaise‘, was published on January 19, 2017 and discussed Thailand’s international education rankings in the recently released ‘Program for International Student Assessment’ (PISA). Thailand’s scores have plunged to an overall ranking of 54 out of 70 assessed…
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Across the Land: Latest trends in Phuket hospitality
PHUKET: Based on C9 Hotelworks’ Phuket Hotel Market Update last month, total inbound passengers through Phuket International Airport in 2016 were 7,549,346, with 54 per cent from international flights and 46 per cent from domestic arrivals. This is an 18 per cent growth rate in 2016, compared with 13 per cent in 2015. The top five geographic source markets are…
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Profile: Not your average tuk-tuk driver
PHUKET: Sophon Pol Kaew In, or Pol, as he is better known to his friends and customers, is currently a taxi and tuk-tuk driver in Phuket and somewhat of a favorite with foreigners. Originally from Krabi, he moved to Phuket at the age of 18, more than 25 years ago. “I came to Phuket as a young, carefree boy. I…
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On Deck: Unprecedented boom in ocean waste
PHUKET: I’ve written on the topic of ocean waste before. In fact, I first wrote on the topic more than 18 months ago, but it appears that little has changed. Ocean waste is everyone’s responsibility – not just divers, sailors, or swimmers, but everyone who in some way makes a living from the island of Phuket. Phuket’s lifeblood is tourism,…
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Property Watch: Keeping Phuket property dealings honest
PHUKET: I have written quite a few articles over the years, hopefully in a balanced way, on reservation deposits, property investments and purchases in Phuket, which have always included a word of caution about how practices in Thailand on property deposits can vary significantly from other Asian property investment destinations, such as Hong Kong and Singapore. Certain elements of Phuket’s…
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Looking Back: History of the Emerald Buddha
PHUKET: The Emerald Buddha is one of Thailand’s most revered artifacts. Contrary to its name, it is actually carved out of jade. It is a figurine of the seated meditating Buddha. A beautiful and ancient piece of art, it draws tens of thousands of visitors to the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew every year. No one really knows who…
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Excuse buster: The miracles of nature’s ‘super foods’
PHUKET: One thing in common at nearly all the centers I work at in Phuket is giving clients Apple Cider vinegar. Either clients have it as a salad dressing or it’s given with water before meals. A lot has been written about its remarkable healing properties. Is it a true health wonder or is it mostly fiction? I am always…
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Keep It Green: Small initiatives to clean up the environment
PHUKET: In one of his last essays, “Civilization and Its Discontents”, Sigmund Freud, one of the greatest minds of the twentieth century, argued that mankind had a ‘death wish’, a willed capacity for self-destruction. “Civilization’s aim was,” he said, “to combine single human individuals, families, then races, peoples and nations into one great unity, the unity of mankind”. But he…
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