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 HOMA redefines urban living with a holistic approach
HOMA is redefining modern urban living in Thailand with its innovative co-living concept. Designed for those seeking balance, connection, and a true sense of home, they are revolutionising long-term rentals by combining convenience, community, and sustainability. With that, they are...
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Across the land: Unusual times in Phuket tourism
PHUKET: A typical ‘high season’ in Phuket is usually from November to April every year, with the ‘peak season’ being December and January. However, this has not been the case for 2015/2016, where the high season and peak season has passed by hitting a large speed bump. Almost all businesses on the island – tour companies, sailboat hires, hair &…
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Keep it green: This sceptered isle – speedboats, sunloungers and jet-skis
PHUKET: I recently drove along Rawai Beach Road, and counted the number of speedboats hoovering up passengers for island day-trips to Ko Phi Phi and Racha. There were 27, mostly belonging to one company. Later that day, I took the ravishingly beautiful route round Prompthep Cape, down the twisting road to Nai Harn beach and on to secluded Ao Sane…
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Earth Day 2016 on the horizon
PHUKET: Next week, more than one billion people in 192 countries will take action to protect our shared environment. All across the globe, in big cities to small villages and everything in-between, people are organizing, demanding climate action, cleaning up their local communities, meeting with their elected officials, planting trees and teaching their children to protect our planet. This year,…
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Let’s not forget the younger expat sailors
PHUKET: There are plenty of young expats around that bring their own passion into the Southeast Asia regattas and races. Want a few names? Elizabeth Schoch, known as Liz to most, and her boyfriend, Alfie, who often crew on competing boats. They are true enthusiasts and communicate their passion for sailing with great vigor. How about Mig Wehrle and Meike…
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Property Watch: The property name game
PHUKET: It’s hard to trace the origin of the practice of naming people, places and things. Arguably you could start with Adam and Eve, and perhaps that first gated-estate village called the Garden of Eden. Yes, the branding gurus were hard at work, even way back then. I’ve been reading about the current backlash in Mainland China against the increasing…
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Profile: Live to ride, ride to live
PHUKET: As CEO of Power Station Motorsport, Erik Svensson is responsible for the commercial operations of Harley-Davidson of Bangkok and the newly opened Harley-Davidson of Phuket. However, this 74-year-old man’s love affair with motorcycles started more than 60 years ago, when he was at boarding school in Canada. Mr Svensson had picked up boxing after moving from his hometown in…
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Cracking Phuket’s hotel industry with reliable mega-data
PHUKET: Surveys are often seen as one of the lowest forms of data collection for a variety of reasons. Often respondents may not provide accurate answers or be comfortable providing answers that are perceived as unfavorable. Nonetheless, as STR Global has shown with more than 30 years of data collection in the hotel industry, important and valuable data can be…
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Keep it green: Water usage and disposal during Songkran
PHUKET: “Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink” would do nicely as a motto for Songkran. When my son and his partner paid a surprise visit from London a few years ago, they unwittingly chose to arrive on the day of the water festival. The motorbike trip from Phuket City to Rawai, a mere 16 kilometers, took three hours.…
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Property Watch: Influence of crime on land value
PHUKET: Reading through the news each week for Phuket, we all see the stabbings; suicides; drive-by shootings; drug hauls; crazed mini-van and other public vehicle smashes; horrific murders and assaults. Some elect to comment on these stories in the hope that those who can do something about the levels of crime will take action not just to deal with crime,…
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On Deck: Dive ban to impact yachting
PHUKET: “Move to regulate diving industry” was a recent headline and front page story in the Phuket Gazette. At first glance I thought; ‘fair enough’, until I read further. Following a spate of deaths and accidents, the Ministry of Tourism and Sports (MOTS) Phuket Office, headed by Santi Pawai, has taken it upon themselves to improve safety in the dive…
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Profile: Building high-end healthcare from grass roots beginnings
PHUKET: Dr Somrit Jantarapratin (MD, MBA) recently took on a new role as director of Bangkok Hospital Phuket. One might expect a position of such prestige to require extensive study and experience from foreign medical institutions, but this is not the case with Dr Somrit, who is an example of the world-class advancements that Thailand’s grass-roots medical institutions can help…
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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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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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Profile: Going against the cultural grain
PHUKET: DR. Rataporn de Jong, 41, is head of the Thai and Asean Studies program at the Prince of Songkhla University Phuket Campus. She has been a professor of sociology, anthropology, and ethnology for more than 15 years and has also conducted several studies related to ethnicity and group culture. Earning her doctorate degree from Heidelberg University, Germany, her thesis…
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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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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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Books: Our Man in Phuket – Autobiography of Alan Cooke
PHUKET: Our man in Phuket is the autobiography by Alan Cooke, a former British Honorary Consul to Phuket. Alan is a man who has done much for the island. He introduced the Hash House Harriers and British Businessman’s association. He helped build the deepwater port and create the PIMEX Boat Show. As consul, he was instrumental in getting the high…
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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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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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Diving: Protect our new divers
PHUKET: Countless instructors have posted stunning images of the ocean with a phrase similar to: ‘Welcome to my office’. Such romantic, well-promoted images on social media, of course, resonate with us restless office junkies, drawing us out of our cubicles to the wonders of the open waters. However, a series of small neglectful actions and breaches in standards will not…
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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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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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Property Watch: Realities of a dream clubhouse
PHUKET: When we think of a clubhouse, many of us start to dream. Sipping cocktails overlooking the hills, or even facing the sandy beaches and sea. A place where an agreed set of rules are adhered to by all with a sense of what is right and proper. Ladies wear comfortable but appropriate attire and the gentlemen will be similarly…
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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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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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