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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    A healthy tomorrow starts today: Celebrate the great American Smokeout day

    The Great American Smokeout, held this year on November 17, is a nationwide event that encourages smokers to take their first steps towards a smoke-free life. If you’re an expat in Thailand, this day could be a timely reminder to...

  • Phuket artist highlights the evolution of fusion

    Phuket artist highlights the evolution of fusion

    PHUKET: Kathy Manthei Coulson arrived to Phuket in 1999. She has built her life on the island as an art teacher and a volunteer organizer for the Life Home Project, and has produced a significant body of visual art during the past 15 years. Her show at Villa Royale Gallery, which will be on display until mid-February 2015 (click here),…

  • On Your Mind: Tackling Phuket corruption

    On Your Mind: Tackling Phuket corruption

    PHUKET: The Phuket Gazette recently reported that the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) Phuket office called on resident expats to report cases of corruption involving local government officials. Tawichat Nillikan, an NACC representative, told the Gazette that many foreigners had been victims of corruption, and that by opening a Phuket office last year to investigate complaints, the government was “showing the…

  • Gardening: No paucity of pawpaws – Phuket’s famous hermaphrodite

    Gardening: No paucity of pawpaws – Phuket’s famous hermaphrodite

    PHUKET: I first encountered papayas as an exotic item in colorful bowls of dessert served up along with slices of kiwi and dragon fruit, chunks of pineapple and mango. That was many years ago. The venues? High-society restaurants in London’s Mayfair where the management was frantically vying with rival casinos to attract high rollers with sumptuous free meals. Not that…

  • Phuket Renaissance, giving peace a chance

    Phuket Renaissance, giving peace a chance

    PHUKET: Situated in Mai Khao, the Renaissance Phuket Resort and Spa is surrounded on all sides by the pristine nature of northern Phuket, “the island’s hidden gem”, explains Goetz Bauer, who joined the resort as general manager in April 2013. Designed by P49 Deesign Associates, considered to be one of Thailand’s foremost interior design practices, the hotel has been carefully…

  • Balance Matters: Phuket knows the many faces of infidelity

    Balance Matters: Phuket knows the many faces of infidelity

    PHUKET: Over the past 42 years, I have listened to stories of infidelity, both from the victims’ and betrayers’ perspectives. Whether from clients, my own personal experience or those of family and close friends, infidelity frequently washes up on our shores. Most victims that I have worked with become plagued with self doubt and intense anger. They frequently question their…

  • Blazing Saddles: The Grape Escape – Cycling from Phuket to Oz

    Blazing Saddles: The Grape Escape – Cycling from Phuket to Oz

    PHUKET: At first blush you’d be hard pressed to find a link between Phuket’s Chalong area and the world-famous Australian wine-producing region of Hunter Valley, some three hours’ drive north of Sydney. But there’s certainly one strong link in the friendly form of Greg and Liz Johnson, the founders of Delish Cafe located in the Fisherman Way Business Gardens on…

  • Environment: CSR project helps Phuket crab catchers cut out middlemen

    Environment: CSR project helps Phuket crab catchers cut out middlemen

    PHUKET: Phuket is one of the most charming and popular tourist destinations in the world, well-known for its gorgeous beaches. The number of people coming to Phuket increases every year, and while this is great for the economy, it has a direct impact on the environment, as well as local communities. However, there are positive aspects to being a world-renowned…

  • Island Fever: Phuket bows to smartphones

    Island Fever: Phuket bows to smartphones

    PHUKET: Heads bowed in silence have always seemed to elicit a tacit sense of reverence. Be it from religious fervor, or perhaps a strict upbringing, but some one-on-one time with God, the J-man or whatever icon takes your fancy remains a voice heard around the world. These days, though, tilted heads and quiet means only one thing: the invasion of…

  • Phuket artist steals famous faces

    Phuket artist steals famous faces

    PHUKET: Monthian Yangthong is one of Phuket’s most talented artists, known for his ability to create art using a variety of mediums. Currently, one of his collections – a series of woodcuts of the faces of well-known Western artists – is on show at Boathouse by Montara. “I find working with wood-cuts very interesting, as it’s possible to create a…

  • Titans line up for Phuket’s Asia Superyacht Rendezvous

    Titans line up for Phuket’s Asia Superyacht Rendezvous

    PHUKET: The impressive 72m luxury cruiser MY Titania has announced it will be joining the 14th Asia Superyacht Rendezvous, which begins tomorrow off Phuket’s Kata Beach. Launched in 2006 by Lürssen Yachts, the Titania will join other greats at the three-day event, including MY Moonsand, which was fully completed in 2004 and was the flagship of the Royal New Zealand…

  • Excuse Busters: How cheating can be good

    Excuse Busters: How cheating can be good

    PHUKET: The perfect diet is the diet which gets you results and suits your personality and lifestyle. I want you to know that you can cheat during a diet and still see the results you want. How strict do you really need to be to get great results? This, in my opinion, is one of the most important questions you…

  • Excuse Busters: Make goals, hit goals – stay beautiful Phuket

    Excuse Busters: Make goals, hit goals – stay beautiful Phuket

    PHUKET: Have you ever started a fitness program and then quit? If you answered yes, you’re not alone. Many people start fitness programs and end up stopping when they get bored or if it takes too long to see results. Here are a few tips to keep you motivated and looking good for those beautiful beach days in Phuket. SET…

  • Phuket Pads: Southern properties on the rise

    Phuket Pads: Southern properties on the rise

    PHUKET: The northwest region of Phuket has been the most popular area on the island for residential properties over the past 15 years, due to the many west coast beaches, the Laguna complex encouraging further nearby construction and the convenient proximity to Phuket International Airport. This high demand has led to the average three-bedroom villa along this stretch of coast…

  • Phuket Paramotoring: Para-normal skies above

    Phuket Paramotoring: Para-normal skies above

    PHUKET: Picture this. You are trapped in rush-hour traffic near Central Festival Phuket. It’s late afternoon, the skies are clear and the temperature perfect. But you are hardly enjoying these conditions as you slowly descend into Phuket’s first Bangkok-style highway underpass. Just before you go subterranean, however, you catch a glimpse of something soaring not too high in the sky…

  • Video Report: Phuket Superyacht Rendezvous making history

    Video Report: Phuket Superyacht Rendezvous making history

    PHUKET: To say that the Asia Superyacht Rendezvous, at just 14 years old, is soaked in history would be an understatement. As spectators look out across the bay from the Kata Rocks, the event’s host sponsor, this December 16-18, one boat sure to catch the eye is SY Sunshine, built as the “third sister” of the original Sunshine, floated 114…

  • Video Report: Phuket children go far in Thanyapura’s Junior Challenge

    Video Report: Phuket children go far in Thanyapura’s Junior Challenge

    PHUKET: Triathlon is up there with the most demanding, high-performance sports. The idea of combining an intense swim, a high-speed bicycle ride and a long run into one, exhausting race is not for the faint-hearted. Or is it? More than 200 children aged between 6 and 18 took part in the Thanyapura Junior Challenge on Saturday, proving that a triathlon…

  • Phuket residents shift toward Thalang

    Phuket residents shift toward Thalang

    PHUKET: Thalang is geographically the biggest of the three districts in Phuket – dominating 252 square kilometers of the island’s entire 576sq km land mass. Thalang begins at the bridges joining the mainland – the gateway to Phuket – and stretches to just past Heroines’ Monument in the Tah Reua subdistrict. This includes both the northwest and northeast sections of…

  • Para-normal Phuket skies: Part II

    Para-normal Phuket skies: Part II

    PHUKET: Picking up from where we left off last with “Up in the Air” (story here), let’s jump into the effect the southwesterly monsoon-season weather has on paramotoring… “The weather isn’t perfect every day, but when the skies clear the visibility is amazing,” explained Sky Club Asia co-owner Paul Derstoff, adding that safety was of paramount importance and that weather…

  • Phuket health: Top 10 liver questions you should be asking

    Phuket health: Top 10 liver questions you should be asking

    PHUKET: There are many world-class detox centers here in Phuket that attract people from all over the world to lose weight, feel better and recharge. Our bodies are constantly waging battle to detoxify themselves of foreign entities that enter the system through exposure to pollution, chemicals in processed food, as well as through pathogens and by-products of metabolism. The main…

  • Diving: Manta rays, whale sharks call Andaman’s best-kept secret home

    Diving: Manta rays, whale sharks call Andaman’s best-kept secret home

    PHUKET: The world knows of the Similan Islands and the spectacular diving that can still be had there. However, deep in southern Thailand, Hin Daeng, Hin Muang and Koh Haa are perhaps the Andaman’s best-kept diving secrets. Located about 100 kilometers southeast of Phuket, out of reach for most day-trip operators, Hin Daeng and Hin Muang manage to avoid most…

  • Video Report: Skal International’s “Saturday Night Fever… on a Friday!’ | Thaiger

    Video Report: Skal International’s “Saturday Night Fever… on a Friday!’

    SKAL Phuket’s favorite strippers will be back in action on Nov 28 for the charity fundraiser Saturday Night Fever… on a Friday at Nikki Beach Club. Video: PGTV PHUKET: Skal International Phuket and South Thailand will hold its annual charity dinner tomorrow evening. Dubbed “Saturday Night Fever… on a Friday!”, this year’s Skal Beach Charity Party will take place at…

  • Phuket’s high life: Amari Residences aim high in Patong

    Phuket’s high life: Amari Residences aim high in Patong

    PHUKET: Just when you think that it’s simply impossible to develop Patong further, there comes a company that does just that. And in the case of Amari Phuket, it’s done with style. The Amari Residences complex, rising quickly over Patong Bay, is set to take the game up a notch. “Amari Residences are the only luxury residences in the highly-developed…

  • Well-being: Phuket expert shows how to ‘unwind from the core’

    Well-being: Phuket expert shows how to ‘unwind from the core’

    PHUKET: Pat Thummanond, of Scottish-Thai heritage, faced a tough decision at the young age of 17. It was the big question that she and all of her classmates in Scotland had to answer before they walked out the doors of their high school for the last time: What do I want to be when I grow up? For Pat, the…

  • Phuket’s Patong Bay Hill, in the heart of the valley

    Phuket’s Patong Bay Hill, in the heart of the valley

    PHUKET: Mark June of 2015 in your calendars. It might be the very month when Patong begins changing for the better, all due to the launch of the beach town’s much anticipated Patong Bay Hill development. “We are very happy, as everything is going according to schedule. Patong Bay Hill is expected to be completed in May 2015, and after…

  • Shanghai Property Expo to showcase foreign investments

    Shanghai Property Expo to showcase foreign investments

    PHUKET: If you are looking to buy, sell or rent a property, then make a note on your schedule to visit the 2014 Shanghai Real Estate Expo from December 8-10, and check out the hundreds of properties on offer, all under one roof. The three-day free exhibition, which takes place in Shanghai’s financial district, will feature leading overseas developers, real…

  • Phuket boating: Like sailing? Join the club

    Phuket boating: Like sailing? Join the club

    PHUKET: Often the boats and the lifestyles featured in this boating column highlight how the “other half” lives. Well, not exactly the “one percenters”, but more like the “eight to 12 percenters”. Yet what lies behind all the luxury is the same common ground: the lure of the sea. What many people don’t know, including many long-term Phuket residents, is…

  • A bounty for the Phuket balcony

    A bounty for the Phuket balcony

    PHUKET: A few months ago Larry Flynn asked for suggestions in regard to potted plants for a balcony. The balcony in question was about one and a half meters wide and six meters long – the kind of setting I’m sure many other apartment dwellers here have to work with. Moreover, the balcony was overlooked by other buildings and did…

  • Make-A-Wish, catch a fish at Exotic Fishing Thailand charity tournament [video] | Thaiger

    Make-A-Wish, catch a fish at Exotic Fishing Thailand charity tournament [video]

    PHUKET: Just days after the Phuket International Fishing Tournament (PIST) concludes in Chalong this Saturday (click here), Exotic Fishing Thailand (EFT) will be hosting a tournament to raise funds for Make-A-Wish Foundation Thailand. Discover what lurks in the waters of the Phang Nga Fishing Lake. Video: PGTV The the main event is on November 25 from 8am to 6pm at…

  • Property: Conundrum of Phuket’s luxury landscape

    Property: Conundrum of Phuket’s luxury landscape

    PHUKET: In the travel and lifestyle industry, certain words are overused to the point where they become little more than verbal gloss; shiny adornments designed to entice people to part with more cash than they would normally choose to spend. The word boutique is one such term, now applied with abandon to everything from a modest eatery to a six-star…

  • Video Report: Sansiri targets Phuket’s high-end with Baan Mai Khao condo project

    Video Report: Sansiri targets Phuket’s high-end with Baan Mai Khao condo project

    PHUKET: With prices starting from 8 million baht and reaching up to 52mn baht, Sansiri’s latest Phuket development, the Baan Mai Khao seaside condominium in the island’s north, is targeting the high-end of the Phuket property market. “The high-end market begins at prices of more than 100,000 baht per square meter,” explained Uthai Uthaisangsuk, senior executive vice president, Business Development…