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 Is private health insurance in Thailand worth it? Real costs vs risks explained
Thailand has a strong healthcare system with both public and private options. Public hospitals offer affordable care, but many people, including expats, choose private health insurance for faster service, modern facilities, and more treatment choices. To decide if private health...
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Looking Back: Turmoil in the Rakhine State part II
PHUKET: Let’s pick up the story of the Rohingya were we left off last month In year 1826, the British invaded and took control of Arakan after the first Anglo-Burmese War. By this time the Arakan region, plagued by war, was critically depopulated. Farms had been left untended for many years. The British encouraged native Bengali farmers as well as…
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Excuse Buster: Digging into intermittent fasting
PHUKET: Intermittent fasting is all the rage at the moment with diets such as the 5:2 Diet going mainstream and becoming a big hit. Could temporarily abstaining from food be healthy, or is this practice potentially setting a person up for trouble? As a nutritionist, it goes against one of the original rules we were taught to preach such as:…
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Temptations galore at Baba Iki
PHUKET: Iki is best described as an expression of simplicity, sophistication, spontaneity, and originality. The phrase iki is generally used in Japanese culture to describe qualities that are aesthetically appealing, and when applied to a person, what they do or have, constitutes a high compliment. It is a broad term that encompasses various characteristics related to refinement with flair. The…
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Video Report: Amazing fun at food festival
PHUKET: Food was aplenty when the Tourism Authority of Thailand’s (TAT) ‘Amazing Tastes of Thailand’ rolled through Phuket and onto Thalang Road in Phuket Town late last month. The fair, part of the TAT’s ‘Discover Thainess 2015’ campaign and an effort to bring locals and tourists together, panned out well as the streets were packed full of excited and hungry…
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Video Report: Upholding Phuket’s unique Baba culture
PHUKET: Few people in the world understand Phuket’s unique culture better than Assistant Professor Pranee Sakulpipatana, known to the general public simply as Ajarn Pranee. Though she is a historian, Ajarn Pranee doesn’t need to dig into other people’s past to understand the Baba culture that is quintessentially Phuket. Now 68 years old, Ajarn Pranee was born on Thalang Road…
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Dual expansion at Krabi Boat Lagoon
PHUKET: Two exciting projects will be unveiled by Krabi Boat Lagoon shortly, with one being a beach club near the marina and the other a third condominium building at the marina itself. Ms Sriya Yongsakul, Krabi Boat Lagoon’s deputy managing director, said at an exclusive interview with the Gazette last week that the long beachfront plot where the beach club…
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Keep it Green: Zoos save endangered species
PHUKET: Continuing my analysis of the value of zoos to man and beast, another important argument in favor of zoos is that they support the principle of conservation. Take an extreme example. There are about 2,300 tigers left in the whole of the Indian jungle, but in the state of Texas alone, there are some 2,000 tigers, all in zoos…
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By the Book: Tips on handling property transactions
PHUKET: With the island’s real estate market staying strong, some owners could be thinking of selling their property. If so, here are some tips for making this move. Establishing a Price Consider what you paid for the property, how long you have lived there, what similar properties have sold for, any improvements added, present condition of the property, ask the…
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Video Report: Sensational results from Trapani, Librodo Bohemian workshop
PHUKET: Social media was flooded with stunning and mesmerizing images following the wrap up of the Bohemian photography workshop at the Banyan Tree in Phuket last month Big name co-host and Sony ambassador for the Philippines Manny Librodo helped to draw a large crowd of participants and added a new dimension to the workshop, explained Adriano Trapani, who developed the…
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Getting a foreign divorce in Thailand
PHUKET: Recently our firm was hired to handle a divorce case. This case was different from the typical family law divorce. The Thai couple met in the United States while attending college. They fell in love and got married in the United States. They completed their university degrees, lived in the United States for a few years, and then returned…
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Property Watch: Hotel wars raging on Phuket
PHUKET: There is a war going on in Phuket. It’s not being fought on the street, or across the beaches, but in glittering hotel properties across the island. Both sides are squarely facing off against each other in trying to woo guests and conquer higher levels of occupancy and premium room rates. In this instance, the war is one between…
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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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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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Supply overload shakes budget condo sector
PHUKET: The budget condominium segment in Phuket and many other cities in Thailand is now suffering from the large supply that has inundated the market over the past 5 to 7 years, Phanom Kanjanathiemthao, Managing Director of Knight Frank Chartered Company, said this week. This low-end market, with units costing from about 1.1 to 1.8 million baht, has also very…
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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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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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Supalai Lagoon a star performer
PHUKET: Making waves all the way to Bangkok is the recently launched Supalai Lagoon Condo because it has turned out to be one of this listed developer’s best performing condominium projects this year. Supalai Plc’s Chairman and CEO Prateep Tangmatitham said at an exclusive interview in the capital last week that it is this project’s good location, not only fronting…
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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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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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Profile: Signs that real art still exists
PHUKET: Despite new technology and graphic design paving the way for creative printing reaching the masses, the art of hand-making signs is still alive and well. Pete Child, 59, from Atherstone, England, is a Phuket expat who has been keeping this art form alive since 1975. After moving to the island eight years ago with his sharp skills and handmade…
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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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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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Close encounter with the highly beautiful
PHUKET: In 1968, Jean-Claude Forest’s French comics were brought to the silver screen in the French-Italian science fiction film Barbarella: In the far future, a highly sexual woman is assigned to find and stop the evil Durand-Durand. Along the way, she encounters various unusual people. Nearly fifty years later, in Phuket, Thailand, Earth, a threesome of equally beautiful, futuristic space…
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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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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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