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.
-
Sponsored What is the 5 year visa for the digital nomad in Thailand?
The Destination Thailand Visa (DTV) is a great option for digital nomads, remote workers, and freelancers who want to stay in Thailand for a long time. This multiple-entry visa is valid for five years, allowing stays of up to 180...
-
Property Update: Urban-style condo launched in the heart of Phuket
PHUKET: Location, location, location is every property expert’s mantra, and Sansiri knows it well. They prove it with their latest Phuket project – THE BASE, located in the very heart of the island. Situated on five rai of land on the bypass road, THE BASE Uptown is in the middle of Phuket’s retail action, just a stone’s throw away from…
-
Thailand Property Awards recognize Phuket developers
PHUKET: Phuket developers and developments won the lion’s share of acclaim at this year’s Thailand Property Awards with four wins and six Highly Commended awards. Most notable among award winners was Point Yamu Villas by COMO Hotels & Resorts who won Best Villa Development and Best Hotel Architectural Design, and were Highly Commended for Best Residential Interior Design. Setting a…
-
Shaking off the crime beat with a Phuket spa treatment
PHUKET: As a hard news reporter, who witnesses the dirty side of Phuket daily, a good massage and spa treatment is essential after a week on the beat. A spa is the one place where everyone, including me, can escape the stress of the outside world and enjoy an hour or two of being under the spell of a masseuse…
-
Reaching the end of an era as Bill Barnett’s Property Watch column comes to an end
PHUKET: The older I get, the more the concept of time simply seems to accelerate at a fast and furious pace. Does all that caffeine I’m drinking bring me closer to the end of days, or did someone mysteriously pump up the pace? Over the past seven and a half years I have written this property column, I’ve witnessed the…
-
Phuket’s pedaling pioneer
PHUKET: Martin Brot, the owner of Siam Bike Tours, is an extraordinary man. He is undoubtedly one of the pioneers of long-distance recreational cycling in Thailand, and his company has built an international reputation which lures hundreds of cyclists to Thailand and Phuket, every year. Meeting Martin is a joy in itself… he’s a vital, energetic ball of wiry fitness…
-
As fate would have it
PHUKET: Our lives are rife with twists and turns. Many of us wander down paths which we would never have expected to find ourselves on. Chiang Mai native Jessi Cotterill hadn’t an inkling that she would one day forgo her English teaching position at Chiang Mai University and ease into domestic life in Chumphon, only to end up as a…
-
Best Western Patong – quality and affordability reunited
PHUKET: It’s easy to spend big bucks in Phuket. Those who arrive to the island with the popular misconception that “Thailand is cheap” might be sorely disappointed when faced with local prices. They can be easier to swallow when you get what you pay for, such is the case of many high-end resorts and restaurants. Less so, though, when the…
-
Boating: Multihulls move on up in Phuket
PHUKET: Anyone paying attention to the number of entries in Phuket Raceweek or the King’s Cup Regatta in recent years could not have failed to notice the continually rising number of catamarans entered in the events. Cats and other multihulls are on the rise in the Andaman, and Phuket has become their haven. “They excel in so many areas,” explains…
-
Diving: House reefs – providing junkies their dive fix
PHUKET: Most of us have only a few precious days a year to get a fix for our diving addictions. Of course, those in the profession spend more days in the water than out of it, but for the rest of us, it comes down to one or two diving holidays a year. After six months of day dreaming about…
-
Phi Phi: To party or not to party?
PHUKET: Koh Phi Phi Don – better known by the nickname Phi Phi – is loaded with surprises no matter why or how you end up there. Despite being less then an hour’s journey from Phuket by speedboat, or a two-and-a-half-hour ferry ride, Phi Phi is in Krabi province. It is composed of two main islands: Phi Phi Don and…
-
Phuket Health: Let your three planes of motion take flight
PHUKET: A few weeks ago, I tried to convince members of the Phuket fitness community to ditch the gym and convert to functional training. When I was explaining what exactly functional training is, I mentioned something called the three planes of motion (story here). Since then, I have received a slew of comments and questions regarding the three planes of…
-
New rainforest weekend retreat 15 minutes from Phuket
PHUKET: A new rainforest weekend holiday experience with a touch of class is coming soon, just a short 15-minute drive from Phuket’s Sarasin Bridge. The Valley Phang Nga is a new back-to-nature retreat under development just off the main highway (Phetkasem Road) between Phuket and Phang Nga, which will feature hillside camping and cabins with stunning views, nature trails and…
-
Opinion: Set a baseline for Phuket’s reef research
PHUKET: Southeast Asia’s reefs are next on the list for “street view” mapping, Richard Vevers, executive director of the Catlin Seaview Survey and CEO of Underwater Earth, told Sci-Tech Today earlier this month. The Phuket dive community, and industry, must push for the Similans and our other reefs to be at the top of the list when the surveyors arrive.…
-
Property Watch: Too tents? Back to the romance of nature
PHUKET: I’m not quite sure what happened to the age-old art of counting sheep, which can effectively – and quickly – put one in a blissful slumber. This was of course in days past, before Xanax. Looking back at romantic notions – such as the classic folk adventures of Aladdin and Sinbad in One Thousand and One Nights – you…
-
Gardening: Hydrophilic herbage along the isthmus of Thailand
PHUKET: Many of you will know that the narrowest bit of the Kingdom – within touching distance of both the Andaman Sea and the Gulf of Thailand – has among the heaviest rainfall in the country. This week I drove to Ranong and the windscreen wipers had no respite for the entire journey. Once there, the heavens stayed open for…
-
Damaged submarine cable to blame for slow internet
PHUKET: Slow internet getting you down? Internet users in various Southeast Asian countries, including Thailand, may be suffering from reduced transmission speeds as a result of a damaged submarine cable off the coast of Vietnam. The 20,000-kilometer-long Asia-America Gateway (AAG) cable, which supplies data transmission between the US and Southeast Asia via Hawaii and Guam, was damaged on September 15,…
-
Phuket Health: Don’t just cast away cardio
PHUKET: Cardio has been getting a bad rap in the fitness industry lately, and with all the strength and conditioning gyms popping up on the island – Unit 27, Titan, TFW and more – there have been less and less joggers frequenting the path around Nai Harn Lake. The rumors about cardio came about when members of the fitness community…
-
History: The Thai army’s struggle for power over the navy
PHUKET: Thailand has witnessed many attempted and successful coups since the end of absolute monarchy in 1932. In 1938, Field Marshall Plaek Phibunsongkhram, a military strongman, rose to power and became Thailand’s prime minister. Phibunsongkhram, or as many Western historians prefer to call him, Phibun, was a controversial figure. He led Thailand into the Second World War by openly siding…
-
Samui’s tourism market hits mid-year glitch
PHUKET: While many of Thailand’s resort destinations think they are immune to what happens in Bangkok, the reality is that they are sadly mistaken. There is little doubt that the events which played out in the nation’s capital had a profound impact on tourism. Be it from martial law or the globally publicized curfews, there has been fallout in the…
-
Diving: A diver’s tale – chasing the dream of a lifetime in Phuket
PHUKET: There comes a time for some of us, the lucky ones, when the finances are settled and we have already waded through a midlife crises to be reborn. The world is our oyster… and rather than blowing the 20 to 40 years of hard work at the proverbial oyster bar, some turn to the diving industry. Martin Edwards is…
-
Phuket Well-Being: To soy or not to soy?
PHUKET: With a multitude of media sources voicing arguments both for and against soy products, it is very easy to become confused about what’s best for your body. However, given the mounting evidence against soy as a healthy diet option, I urge everyone to be very cautious about accepting the ‘big soy’ spin as nutritional gospel – especially in a…
-
The day of the dahlia
PHUKET: Thais are seriously superstitious. There are lucky days when big decisions must be made and unlucky days when everything must be put on hold. Lotteries are a national obsession. Ghostly presences haunt every soap opera, bringing misfortune to those who fall foul of them. Good or bad karma is part and parcel of daily experience. There are, predictably, a…
-
Angel’s Trumpets: Alluring but…
PHUKET: While perusing old photographs of Chiang Mai, I came across some views of Doi Inthanan. This mountain, at 2,564 meters, is not only the highest in Thailand, but boasts some spectacular montane forests and flowers. At the summit, the twin Chedis appear to float, disembodied, in swirling mists that are more reminiscent of a Scottish “haar” than a tropical…
-
![Sansiri launches Child-Friendly Space in Phuket [Video] | Thaiger](data:image/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB4bWxucz0naHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmcnIHZpZXdCb3g9JzAgMCAxNDcgMjIwJz48L3N2Zz4=)
Sansiri launches Child-Friendly Space in Phuket [Video]
PHUKET: Living up to the standards set by it’s own Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program “Sansiri Social Change”, which aims to help support and improve children’s lives, Sansiri launched its new Child-Friendly Space in Mai Khao to provide education in a safe environment for the children of construction workers. The project, located near the construction site of Baan Mai Khao…
-
A journey back to our old town
PHUKET: One of my earliest memories of theater is the three-act play Our Town by Thornton Wilder. It’s simple, direct and economical in its depiction of life, love and death in a small town. One of the most notable facts about the play is how the author used metatheater. Metatheater is a technique often used in narrative forms, which can…
-
Phuket Gardening: Papering Over the Cracks – plants to cover the ground
PHUKET: In my humble opinion, the two best ground cover plants are purple leaved spiderwort (tradescantia spathaceae) and purple heart or purple queen, now known botanically as setcreasea pallida. Naturally there are many other choices for the tropical gardener. For instance, I use pandanus pygmaeus as an edging plant: grass-like in appearance, it is very tough, grows in clumps and…
-
Put down your wallets Phuket, pick up functional training
PHUKET: The Phuket fitness community has been buzzing about the new exercise trend functional training, also known by the name “integrated training”. Its popularity has skyrocketed due to the various benefits it offers – and it only requires two things: your body and a space in which to exercise. There is no room for excuses when integrated exercise is an…
-
Killing Phuket’s reefs one slice of bread at a time
PHUKET: Thousands of small sergeant-major fish frantically banqueting on sopping, wet slices of bread floating on the ocean surface is not an uncommon sight for tourists taking boat trips from Phuket to discover the wonders of the Andaman Sea. Everyday, hundreds of tour boats bring thousands of tourists to islands along the Andaman coast. Many of the boat operators, perhaps…
-
Getting them going: From a seed to a plant
PHUKET: Recently, we considered propagation using cuttings taken from the parent plant (story here). A great method if it works. But some shrubs resolutely refuse to take root from pieces of stem immersed in potting mix. What then is the alternative? Seeds are the obvious answer: in fact, most gardeners would opt for seeds as their first choice. Simplicity itself……
-
Total body transformation at Thanyapura
PHUKET: Many have tried it, few have made it and all of them have proven the maxim – losing weight and getting in shape is no easy task. But, as with any difficult task, it’s easier if you have somebody to lean on. This is why Thanaypaura Phuket has extended a helping hand to all those people out there who…
![Sansiri launches Child-Friendly Space in Phuket [Video] | Thaiger](https://thethaiger.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/8_2014910143142453_uXgKchgOopoORWpoEpyWrYnZbGZnzGpSJFrPFQkP_jpeg.jpeg)
Don't forget to check out some other things to do in Thailand - get help starting a business or finding a job in Thailand, buy Thailand property, rent a yacht or book a medical procedure worldwide.