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 Do foreigners get free healthcare in Thailand?
Thailand’s healthcare system is well-regarded across Southeast Asia, with options ranging from public hospitals to world-class private facilities. But when it comes to foreign residents or tourists, healthcare access isn’t as straightforward. So, do foreigners get free healthcare in Thailand?...
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Phuket Travel: Camp like a champ
PHUKET: In high season everyone is attempting the paradise-island cliche of beating the crowds. So standing on the beach front of Khao Lampi-Hat Thai Mueang National Park it’s time for an umbrella count. Nothing on the right, nothing on the left – that was easy enough. But perhaps it’s unfair to compare a pristine national park beach area with the…
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Video Report: A Phuket lesson in abstract love
PHUKET: As part of its Valentine’s Day celebrations, Jungceylon is staging a four-day exhibition by two renowned local artists.Watcharin Rodnit and Anuwat Sirirattanajitt have been friends for over ten year; in fact it was Anuwat who introduced Watcharin to Phuket a decade ago. Abstract art for the new year. Video: PGTVDespite their long friendship, this new exhibition – Duo Abstract…
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February 14: Phuket’s an island alight
PHUKET: February 14 – it’s that time of year again: a time to laugh and love for many, but certainly a time to live for all. That’s a cue to power down your tablets and smartphones, and slap on your mojo suits. This year, it’s not just Valentine’s Day we have to look forward to tomorrow, but two more important,…
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Urban lifestyle options dominate Phuket Real Estate Expo
PHUKET: The latest condos, compact houses and home building supplies catering to Phuket’s urban living trend have launched their new year promotions at the Phuket Real Estate Show 2014 held at Central Festival Phuket, which ends tomorrow, February 12.City dwellings dominated the rows of properties and products at the expo featuring affordable accommodation options under 2 million baht for young…
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Phuket Property Watch: Out of the room and into the fire
PHUKET: Did you get the memo? For god’s sake, why didn’t you just fall into line and do like everyone else does? Like it or not, hotel life can pretty much be summed up in these two sentences; Go to work, disconnect all logic and brainpower and just follow the leader like a xanaxed-out flock of sheep. A few days…
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Phuket Boats: Set a course for adventure aboard the Argo
PHUKET: With a crew of 26 university students, most who had never been aboard a yacht, the 112-foot schooner Argo sailed out of Yacht Haven Marina mid-last month, set on a course for adventure and education on the high seas. The Bangkok-built ship was launched in 2006 and was designed and commissioned to be the flagship for SeaMester, a unique…
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Phuket Old Town Festival begins today
PHUKET: The annual three-day Phuket Old Town Festival kicks off this evening with a parade to celebrate the unique culture of Phuket’s residents. With Queen Sirikit Park the heart of the festivities, events will be held along Thalang Road, Soi Rommanee and Krabi Road – the heart of the Phuket Old Town area. Tonight’s opening parade starts at 5pm at…
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Beatle Mania: Phuket, are you ready for tonight?
PHUKET: Preparations are complete for what looks set to be a fantastic show tonight and tomorrow night when the curtains open on the fabulous Beatles tribute band at 7pm, in the grand marquee at the Phuket Boat Lagoon. The seated tickets (1,500 baht) are completely sold out for both nights, and the lounge tickets for this Gazette Headline Event are…
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Bangkok Hospital Phuket making strides towards specialized health care
PHUKET: The Bangkok Phuket Colorectal Disease Institute officially opened to the public on January 9. Located on the third floor at Phuket’s Bangkok Hospital in Samkong, the institute specializes in the diagnoses and advanced treatment of a multitude of colorectal diseases including colon and prostate cancer.Founded and directed by Dr Art Hiranyakas, the institute offers patients state-of-the-art medical care by…
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Phuket Property: Living it up in the Ozone
PHUKET: According to chemistry and geology textbooks, “ozone” is a pale blue gas – an inorganic compound comprising three atoms of oxygen – which plays a crucial role in the earth’s stratosphere, absorbing much of the sun’s deadly radiation to make this planet habitable for humans. Perhaps this “life enabling” property is what developer Phuket Pro Property had in mind…
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Centara signs three new Krabi properties
PHUKET: Centara Hotels & Resorts is set to greatly expand its presence in the Southern Thailand province of Krabi following the signing of management contracts for three new properties within the same master development in Klong Muang, Krabi.The properties are Centara Pelican Bay Resort & Spa Krabi, Centara Pelican Bay Residence & Suites Krabi, and Centara Pelican Bay Villas Krabi.Perry…
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Phuket Property Watch: The Medium is the Message
PHUKET: A crash back in time in our memory machine today takes us back to the 1960s and the groundbreaking work of Marshall McLuhan. His forward looking views on the effects of popular mass culture continue to be relevant to this day, over half a century later. Little did readers of The Medium is the Message realize, that the speed…
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Blazing Saddles: Khao Lak Attack
PHUKET: Gadabout pedal-philes living in Phuket are continually in search of more benign, cyclist-friendly venues in which to enjoy their passion. Naturally enough, many such cycling getaways tend to be found across the Sarasin Bridge, which a waggish friend recently described as being “where Thailand really starts”. Almost as soon as you do cycle across those 1,500 meters of turquoise…
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Phuket Property Watch: Sitting on the outside looking in
PHUKET: Exclusive or inclusive? For the hospitality industry, the burning question about all-inclusive resorts is becoming a hot global topic once again. You need to go back no further than the dawn of the global financial crisis and the surge in the consumer class to test the theory of value added sales propositions. If you wind back the clock to…
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Phuket Property: Green Walls – It’s alive!
PHUKET: Last November, an energetic Chilean man came into the Phuket Gazette offices to pitch his vision and innovation – a simple yet potentially revolutionary solution for Phuket’s increasingly congested, polluted and unappealing urban spaces. Ignacio Espoz Babul, director of Santiago-based LatinGreen – a patent holder, innovator and installer of “Green” walls, roofs and buildings – passionately talked of his…
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Phuket Property: Building materials index “unrealistic’
PHUKET: Provincial authorities seek a revision to the central price index for construction materials, pointing to outdated and inaccurate value estimations for building supplies imported to the island. Meanwhile, the Revenue Department reported collecting 9.6 billion baht in tax revenue in Phuket in 2013, exceeding their target by 5%.The economic issues headlined the agenda at the latest Phuket meeting of…
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London’s Fab BEATLES ready to play in Phuket
PHUKET: Phuket isn’t exactly famous in the music world. The island doesn’t really boast any world-renowned acts and the occasional musical tour that does find its way here is usually electronic or just a “well-known” DJ. But music lovers in Phuket are in for a special treat. Following their enormously popular, sold-out ABBA Forever concert, promoter Events International has lined…
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Phuket Event: Books in the Old Town festival tonight
PHUKET: Local literary and history enthusiasts should head down to the Lard Yai Walking Street this Sunday evening for the “Books in the Old Town” festival.Scheduled from 4-10pm, activities will take place in three areas along historical Thalang road: in front of the Thawinha-Nung Len shop; inside and in front of the “2521” book shop and in front of the…
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Phuket Escape: Crowd dodging at Koh Racha
PHUKET: It’s almost a defining characteristic of an expat, not wanting to go where the tourists go. Hey, we know better. We know the best local restaurants, the shortcuts, the secret beaches. We refuse to be wedged among the throngs. And yet, in some cases the throngs have got it right. Not with the cashew-factory perhaps (at least, not more…
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Phuket Diving: Diving into the deep end
PHUKET: A woman stands at the edge of one of the enormous limestone cliffs of Etretat, the salty Dutch air whipping her blond hair across her face. She’s been in the banking industry for 10 years – and it’s come to this: make a down payment on a house back in the UK and pay the mortgage for years to…
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Phuket Education: On a Mission to sail
PHUKET: If you have been past the British International School Phuket (BISP) campus in recent weeks, chances are you’ve spotted the giant steel ship, Ixdos, that first appeared on December 4 and now occupies a prominent position on the school’s grounds. The arrival of the ship is a result of the collaboration between former BISP teacher and self-described “boat-person” Patrick…
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BIS students perfrom
PHUKET: In early December, another successful musical theater production was staged at the British International School Phuket (BISP). Hoodwinked, a funny musical tale based on the story of Robin Hood, was performed three times to an audience totaling 1,000 people over three afternoons. At the dress rehearsal, the young actors, aged between eight and 11, were a little nervous as…
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A perfect model of island life
PHUKET: Hailing from another tropical paradise on the opposite side of the globe, Jamaican-born Tracy Dawkins is no stranger to island life. She has achieved some fame in Phuket as a model, actress and erstwhile PR and marketing executive and now calls the island home. In an exclusive interview, we spoke with Tracy about island life, competing to be Miss…
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Phuket Humour: Is there anybody out there? Yes, apparently
PHUKET: There is a video on YouTube that shows Morgan Freeman explaining a new theory in quantum physics (click here to see). The universe might be conscious. In fact, scientists think it might be a sort of cosmic brain that is constantly expanding and evolving. I had lots of questions about this. But I couldn’t interview the universe because the…
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Phuket AA: Party till you drop
PHUKET: Phuket is renowned for its party scene, especially during the holidays, when tourists venture from around the globe to enjoy the island’s nightlife, and expats let their hair down. For many people, the annual revelry is marked by a few heavy drinking sessions followed by a few hangovers – and a new year resolution to take it easier next…
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Phuket gardening: Heliconia and hibiscus
PHUKET: I have deliberately kept the heliconia for another day. Why? Because, despite the name, the connection with the sun is less obvious than with the sunflower brigade. I can only assume it is because one common variety has chrome yellow spikes, much used as a cut flower by florists. But whatever the reason, the heliconia is a favorite here…
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Consultant says gray out, green in for Phuket’s real estate boom in 2014 and beyond
PHUKET: Back in November, an energetic Chilean man paid a visit to the Phuket Gazette offices. Identifying himself as Ignacio Espoz Babul, the Director of (Santiago-based) LatinGreen – a patent holder, innovator and installer of “Green Walls” – the man passionately talked of a coming “Green Revolution” that he had envisioned for Phuket and the whole of Asia. In the…
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Hotels support coastal water safety
PHUKET: Several Phuket hotel general managers and marine industry stakeholders met recently to discuss coastal waters safety, agreeing that there will be a renewed push to move the island’s safety standards to the next level – and that they would give their full-hearted support to the recently launched Safer Phuket campaign. Also, see related story here. The meeting was held…
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Phuket Property: Laguna park condominiums launched
PHUKET: Laguna Park Condominiums, the latest development by Laguna Property, was launched as the final component of the Laguna Park master plan’s first phase.The condominiums follow the recent and successful introduction of townhomes and villas to the project’s plan. “With the Laguna Park condominiums, we are targeting single residents and young couples with the appeal of the integrated Laguna lifestyle…
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Outlook bright for Dubai property expo
PHUKET: The 10th International Property Show (IPS), which will coincide with the Annual Investment Meeting 2014, from April 8-10 in the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Center, will attract 300 companies from 80 countries. The Phuket Gazette and PGTV are proud media sponsors of the exhibition, which this year will be the biggest edition since its inception. Supported by the…
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