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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Up in the air: Nok Air plans big push in Phuket
PHUKET: Low-cost carrier Nok Air hopes to better tap into the potential of Phuket’s large foreign market over the next high season, an executive told the Phuket Gazette recently. Pinyot Pibulsongkram, a Nok Air Vice President, told ‘Up in the Air’ that Nok currently has five daily flights between Bangkok and Phuket, with six flights on Fridays and Sundays. Nok…
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Island lunatics ready for Super Moon Super Blues
PHUKET: The super moon on Monday night is expected to draw out blues, jazz and rock lunatics for a night of music, drinks and soul food at Bliss Beach Club. The Super Blues Event will run from from 7pm to midnight, with Black & Blue, Pjae Stanley, K PJ and Bobby Blues all gracing the stage for the Rotary Club…
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On Deck: Multihulls here, there, everywhere
PHUKET: Looking around the marinas and anchorages of Phuket, it is apparent that there has been a significant shift in the type of boats that call Phuket home. It’s not an entirely new trend, but the move from single to multiple hulls has certainly gathered steam in recent years. A healthy local boat building industry with a predisposition to multihulls…
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Profile: “Under The Sun’ lips escape London
PHUKET: Lisa Allen emerged from the fantastical set of the Blue Peter garden, where she and a fellow BBC information technology employee had settled in for lunch. That was the day, or at least she thinks it was, in 1996 when she met the makeup artists for Celine Dion and the Bee Gees in the BBC Lottery Studio. “I decided…
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Gardening: Turning over a new leaf
PHUKET: Tropical gardens, for a variety of reasons, need plenty of attention. Take the case of Patima’s garden in a local housing estate. Her busy life as a computer expert means that she has little time for horticultural activities, and her partner is more interested in compression ratios than common oleanders. Get the picture? A low-upkeep garden which, laudably, Patima…
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Books: New T. C. Boyle an emotional dud
PHUKET: Since 1982, T. Coraghessan Boyle has written 15 novels, of which I’ve read ten. The first two – Water Music and Budding Prospects – are among the funniest novels ever written. The latter is about marijuana growers in northern California; the former, improbably enough, about 18th Century explorer Mungo Park’s expeditions up the Niger River. Boyle’s tone has since…
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Blazing Saddles: Discovering pathways to better biking
PHUKET: Governor Nisit Jansomwong’s recent announcement that work on eagerly awaited bike lanes will start in October 2016 with an approved budget of over 50 million baht, is terrific news. The Governor said, “Over 30 million baht from the 2016 fiscal year budget has been approved for the development of the Bang Wad Reservoir, which will include the installation of…
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Phuket Pads: Bargain Karon condo with beach view
PHUKET: Karon beach is the third longest on Phuket Island and located on the west coast between Patong and Kata. Karon Beach is also the second favorite holiday destination in Phuket. Recently, the Lonely Planet Guide named Karon Beach as one of the Top Ten Family Beach Holiday Destinations in the world. With its long beautiful beach and all the…
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Looking Back: Seeds of turmoil in Rakhine State
PHUKET: Rakhine, formerly the Kingdom of Arakan, is a region in northwestern Myanmar. Today the region borders Bangladesh and is home to the heavily persecuted Rohingya Muslims. Historically, the Arakan Kingdom was an independent state. In the year 1406, however, Minyekyawswa, the crown prince of Ava, led a Burmese army to invade Arakan. Narameikhla Min Saw Mon, the Buddhist Arakan…
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Excuse Buster: Got milk? Need milk?
PHUKET: ‘Milk is good for everyone’ is a common statement from all government bodies around the world. However, most humans have never tasted fresh milk from any source other than their mothers for almost all of human history. According to the United States National Institute of Health, more than 65 per cent of the human population has a reduced ability…
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RCoPB looking for new recruits
PHUKET: The Rotary Club of Patong Beach (RCoPB), Phuket’s only English speaking Rotary, is re-energizing its participation in the community and aiming to firmly debunk the image of Rotary as for older men only. We are doing this in two key ways: by actively aiming to increase the number of female members and by attracting younger members who can inject…
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On Deck: United front for greater good
PHUKET: Thailand’s marine industry has received intermittent support from the Royal Thai Government over the years – sporadic and rarely strategic. In 2004, when the astronomical taxes on importing boats to Thailand was reduced from more than 200% of the value of the boat to 0%, this happened on the back of a concerted effort by the marine industry to…
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Luxury real estate prospers
PHUKET: One thing that I love about Phuket is the ability for luxury to live side by side with abject casualness. You could be sitting next to a multi-millionaire or a packaged tourist on the bar stool, as the ties that bind are the flip-flops adorning your respective feet. Islands tend to have little social stratification, which can probably be…
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Keep it Green: Going to the zoo – part one
PHUKET: Today, I took the advice offered in the children’s nursery rhyme ‘Going to the zoo, zoo, zoo / How about you?’ It’s a long time since I did so. My last visit to Phuket Zoo some seven years ago resulted in my penning a piece which, while critical of some aspects of the place, made encouraging noises about others.…
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On your Mind: Phubbing phenomenon decoded
PHUKET: Ever had the unpleasant experience of seeing your dish of Pad Thai sitting at a pick-up window while your waiter spends time on his smartphone? How about lying barely clothed in a frosty room while your masseuse ‘preps’ for you by texting friends? Or maybe you’ve just gone to the local KFC with your buddies and are enthusiastically trying…
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Across the Land: Container homes anyone?
PHUKET: Researching shipping container homes on the internet was an eye opener and it was fascinating how cool and creative some of these homes can be. There are definitely sustainable benefits from building a home with recycled shipping containers, but can it be a real home? Well, it looks like some countries have taken shipping containers to another level. Out…
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Property Watch: Waking up the ever-looming giant
PHUKET: Technically there is no specific way to jump-start a snoozing behemoth. Sure, a stun gun might do the trick or a slap on the face, but look at poor little Jack who had to scamper down that beanstalk. In Thailand’s current property market there continues to be a strategic emphasis on fishing where the fish are. Look no further…
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Profile: Rendezvous with Ae Peerasak
PHUKET: There is little doubt that Phuket Town is in the throes of a revolution made manifest by a tidal wave of innovation and reinvention that is re-making it into a trendy, happening destination for the young, hip and cool. Walk down any of the ancient Sino-Portuguese streets of the Old Town that are renowned for confusing and losing the…
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Up in the air: Lucky Air launches Phuket service
PHUKET: Good news for Phuket’s tourism industry came with the July 16 launch of thrice-weekly services between Kunming and Phuket by Lucky Air, China’s fastest growing airline. Lucky Air, with its hub at Kunming Changshui International Airport (KMG), is 40 per cent owned by parent company Hainan Airlines Group. In operation since 2006, it has demonstrated phenomenal growth in recent…
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Myriad designs becoming more popular
PHUKET: As most villa projects in Phuket are individually owned and cater to the requirements of the individual buyer, one sees a plethora of interior designs ranging from very conservative to highly modern. However, those that are influenced by Thai architecture stand in sharp contrast to replicas of European styles. “Rightly called the Isle of Million Dollar Homes, Phuket has…
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Food: Benny’s: a bite of classic Americana
PHUKET: Tucked away between four and five-star hotels by the sea in Surin, you’lll find Benny’s Cocktails and Grill. This eight-table eatery, created by gutting an old Thai-style house, offers a wonderfully intimate, cozy and comfortable ambiance, enhanced (somewhat uniquely for Phuket) by diner-friendly noise levels that enable conversation. “All of my cocktails are original recipes” says Italian proprietor Benedikt…
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On Deck: “Deck drain’ for Thai sailing
PHUKET: Thailand has a very strong national youth sailing team based in Sattahip in the Gulf of Thailand. Run by the Yacht Racing Association of Thailand (YRAT) they have had increasing success on the international stage in recent years. The breakthrough happened in 2010 when a young Thai girl called Noppakao Poonpat won the Optimist World Championships. Not only did…
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Property Watch: Island remains worthy investment
PHUKET: Like many Phuketians, I took a ‘green season’ break with my family. I chose Sydney and the Gold Coast, and inevitably a visit of this nature leads to comparisons with my home island of Phuket. Property investors interested in Phuket will also conduct their own comparisons and therefore agents, developers and owners who wish to sell should take note…
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Profile: Surf star searches for balance
PHUKET: Grom surf star Annissa (‘Anni’) Flynn, 17, took the local surf scene by storm in her younger years, regularly beating older, more experienced board riders. Now she is competing in the top regional competitions, most recently at the Quiksilver Challenge, which took place in June at Canggu in Bali. “I placed sixth at Canggu,” she says with a shrug.…
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Video Report: Sansiri launches mid-rise condo
PHUKET: There are panoramic views of the island with glimpses of the sea from the 14th floor of Sansiri Plc’s recently completed, mid-rise condominium The Base Height-Phuket, making it something truly special. With the starting price of a 30-square-meter unit, including all transfer expenses at the Land Office, coming to 1.99 million baht during a promotional period, this high-class condominium…
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Gardening: Sowing seeds: A classroom encounter
PHUKET: I recently received an unusual request. Would I talk to a class of pre-school children about plants? The name ‘pre-school’ is a bit of a misnomer since this United Nations of a class was already at the tender age of four to five attending school everyday. I hesitated for all of two minutes before emailing back and agreeing to…
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Phuket International Women’s Club gives away B2mn in scholarships
PHUKET: The Phuket International Women’s Club (PIWC) will reached out to yet another flock of young minds with more than 2 million baht worth of scholarships on August 19. “We want to give a better future to students in financial need. We work closely with schools, colleges and universities as we move through the selection process,” said PIWC Scholarships Chairman…
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Blazing Saddles: Better biking with Olympian Nick Gates
PHUKET: At the end of 2014, Thanyapura Phuket launched their Cycling Academy headed up by former Olympian and Tour de France star Nick Gates. Nick hails from Sydney and has over 15 years of experience in pro-mountain bike, adventure, track and road racing. He twice competed in the Tour de France for the Lotto-Domo team and has won the Commonwealth…
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Hacking density laws with mixology
PHUKET: Tom Auttayatamavittaya, also known as Tom Funk, won first place in Thailand, top ten in Asia Pacific and 49th in a galaxy of 8,500 contenders at the bartending competition Bols Around the World 2015. He recently moved house, so to speak, from Yaowarat Road in Phuket Town to a bigger venue on Phang Nga Road, and is now defying…
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Going up: Baba’s five-bedroom villas
PHUKET: Kicking into gear on Na Tai Beach, across the bridge in Phang Nga, is Charn Issara Development PLC’s riveting joint-venture project Baba Beach Club. The sales gallery has now been built and construction crews are busy building five-bedroom villas. Vorasit ‘Wan’ Issara, managing director of Sri Panwa resort, said that Charn Issara, which is developing the 42-rai project with…
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