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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    Best 5 things to do for a restorative break in Bangkok

    Living in a big city like Bangkok, most people find themselves caught up in the daily grind. However, a restorative break from it all is something everyone needs once in a while. Luckily, the city has plenty of options for...

  • Born from the ashes of war – Phuket History

    Born from the ashes of war – Phuket History

    PHUKET: The Nine Armies’ War started in 1785 when the Burmese, taking advantage of internal strife and the overthrowing of King Taksin in Siam, invaded the country with forces numbering approximately 150,000 soldiers, divided into nine army groups. One of those armies marched straight for Thalang, then the largest town in Phuket, and laid siege to it. During that time,…

  • C is for colorful palette – Phuket Gardening

    C is for colorful palette – Phuket Gardening

    PHUKET: Both cordylines and crotons have been considered fairly recently in these columns. Time only for a whistle-stop tour. Suffice to say that they are two of the first foliage plants most tropical gardeners would choose, both for their dramatic and permanent leaf color and their trim form, which means that they can be put in large groups, lined up…

  • Phuket Health: Some like it hot!

    Phuket Health: Some like it hot!

    PHUKET: Yoga Republic, Phuket’s most contemporary hot yoga studio, is launching in Bang Tao Place on Monday, August 12. Its mission is to provide Hot Yoga and Power Yoga in a green and clean contemporary environment, with state-of-the-art infrared heating and internationally certified teachers. Yoga Republic will be the only hot yoga studio in Phuket to have an infrared heating…

  • Phuket Books: The Canadian Chekhov

    Phuket Books: The Canadian Chekhov

    PHUKET: At the age of 82, Alice Munro is the grande dame of Canadian literature. In her 14 books of short stories, she has been compared to Anton Chekhov. If I were Chekhov, I’d take it as a compliment. Dear Life (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2013, 309pp) continues her Chekhovian obsession with time. Her narrative voice is as confident…

  • Celebrate HM Queen Sirikit’s 81st birthday by donating blood

    Celebrate HM Queen Sirikit’s 81st birthday by donating blood

    PHUKET: The Phuket Regional Blood Center (PRBC) is celebrating Her Majesty Queen Sirikit’s 81st birthday with a special blood donations event. “This event will be held to show our respect to HM Queen Sirikit on her birthday and it will help us stock up more blood,” PRBC acting director Pornthip Rattajak said. “We will give young plants to the first…

  • Laguna Phuket conducts tsunami saftey drill for 700 staff | Thaiger

    Laguna Phuket conducts tsunami saftey drill for 700 staff

    PHUKET: Laguna Resorts and Hotels management team yesterday launched a mass tsunami evacuation drill code-named “Safe Haven”, with approximately seven hundred associates from Laguna Phuket’s collection of deluxe hotels participating.After a series of mass briefings were given to associates and all hotel guests were notified, the precisely-choreographed, mass drill was rolled out at 2pm, starting with communication checks, followed by…

  • Phuket Property: To raise one’s roof or not to

    Phuket Property: To raise one’s roof or not to

    PHUKET: I am often asked how much one should spend on a primary residence, and while this is an area open for debate, my answer usually surprises people. I have always been baffled by arguments about mortgage interest being tax deductible and many other reasons to sink way too much into one’s primary residence. This doesn’t mean I don’t think…

  • Phuket Property Watch: Things I hate about hotels

    Phuket Property Watch: Things I hate about hotels

    PHUKET: I have spent more nights in hotel rooms around the world than I could even start to remember. Barring a diary, an ankle-long list or a photographic memory, there are more than a few things that stick out, not unlike a Mohawk on a punk rocker or a toothpick out of a canape – small but deadly. Let’s start…

  • Phuket Property: Green living condo town

    Phuket Property: Green living condo town

    PHUKET: Rising demand for residential properties in Phuket is being driven by both locals and tourists, evidenced in the rapid growth in both Phuket Town and beach-side areas. Sam Kong is a popular residential neighborhood where there are a number of property projects under construction, including both houses and condominiums. One such project, the Green Place Condominium by local developer…

  • Phuket Lifestyle: Party on for superyachts

    Phuket Lifestyle: Party on for superyachts

    PHUKET: One of the highlights of the 2013 Asia Superyacht Rendezvous, sponsored by FEADSHIP Royal Dutch Shipyards, Asia Pacific Superyachts and Kata Rocks, will be the special Crew Party for the participating Superyachts on the final evening, December 18. The event will be held at the Boathouse RE KA TA Beach Club and will be sponsored by Sevenstar Yacht Transport,…

  • Phuket Raceweek: Racing with the wind – a wave of excitement

    Phuket Raceweek: Racing with the wind – a wave of excitement

    PHUKET: Winds gusting to 20 knots made for a perfect end to what has turned into one of the best Cape Panwa Hotel Phuket Raceweek yet. The weather conditions delivered fast and exciting racing throughout and after four days, the sailors of more than 15 nationalities were left tired and happy. Two races for all except the Classic class made…

  • Screening out the world – Phuket Gardening

    Screening out the world – Phuket Gardening

    PHUKET: Can you reel off the Seven Wonders of the World without looking them up? The one we all remember is the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Nothing to do with hanging baskets. The Babylon one was hanging because it rose to a great height, and its main plants were substantial trees, not municipal petunias or busy lizzies. It was described…

  • Modern words maketh the man – Phuket Humor

    Modern words maketh the man – Phuket Humor

    PHUKET: Legendary US comedian George Carlin, who died in 2008, was famous for his love of words and hatred of euphemisms and politically correct language. In his classic 2006 HBO special Life is Worth Losing he opened the show with this piece entitled Ode to the Modern Man:“I’m a modern man, a man for the millennium. Digital and smoke free.…

  • The secrets of DaVinci – Phuket People

    The secrets of DaVinci – Phuket People

    PHUKET: What is the secret of great, Italian cuisine? It’s all in the quality ingredients. “In Italy they say that a good chef doesn’t need to use more than three or four ingredients. It’s about freshness,” says Jana Sasikova, co-owner and manager of the DaVinci restaurant. Jana is the wife of the restaurant’s supervising chef and deli manager Claudio Pivotto,…

  • Phuket People: Renaissance man

    Phuket People: Renaissance man

    PHUKET: Goetz Bauer joined Renaissance Phuket Resort & Spa as general manager in April this year. The German national, who also speaks English, Italian and French, brings an energetic and youthful leadership style to Renaissance Phuket Resort & Spa. Goetz said his new role presents several challenges and he looks forward to taking them on.“The challenge is to learn how…

  • Phuket Property: Hideaway above Patong

    Phuket Property: Hideaway above Patong

    PHUKET: A new luxury 5-star hotel concept by Avista, the Avista Hideaway Resort and Spa in Patong Bay is located on Patong Hill close to Tri Trang beach. The new hotel will build on the island’s reputation for high-end tourism and its strong economic base. The contemporary ultra-luxury property is set on a peaceful hill, and designed in a style…

  • Sea-view condo in the heart of Patong

    Sea-view condo in the heart of Patong

    PHUKET: Sansiri last week unveiled their latest Phuket medium-rise project – “THE DECK”, a brand-new condominium to be built in the heart of Patong, setting its sights on Phuket’s holiday home market.Speaking at the project’s media-launch event, Mr Uthai Uthaisangsuk, Senior Vice President for Business and Condominium Project Development, Sansiri PCL, revealed that: “THE DECK Condominium has been created in…

  • Blazing Saddles pedals through Provence – Phuket Explore

    Blazing Saddles pedals through Provence – Phuket Explore

    PHUKET: The delights of Soi Bangla in Phuket’s party town of Patong are of course a source of continual distraction, yet even the most hardened acolyte must occasionally take a break from the pleasures of the amber nectar and recharge his batteries in quieter, more bucolic locales. So it was that I recently found myself on a cycling trip down…

  • Sabah: Journey to the land below the wind

    Sabah: Journey to the land below the wind

    PHUKET: When I was a child, the word Borneo would conjure up images of colonial explorers in pith helmets slashing their way through wild jungle teeming with exotic plants, ferocious animals and roaming tribes of headhunters. As I grew older, my mental picture was expanded by David Attenborough’s wonderful documentaries, which transported me to this remote island in the darkest…

  • Brighten up your rainy day – Phuket Fashion

    Brighten up your rainy day – Phuket Fashion

    PHUKET: Fashion is full of fleeting trends and new fads. So as the seasons change, it’s time to pick up the clothes that are “in” this season and toss out those that are not. On a tropical island like Phuket, the rainy season can be a gloomy time of year and somewhat depressing. The best antidote to the bad weather…

  • Phuket Lifestyle: The sky’s the limit for Les

    Phuket Lifestyle: The sky’s the limit for Les

    PHUKET: One of the undisputed highlights during the recent Phuket Airshow and Family Picnic charity event was a series of spectacular acrobatic performances by Les Vorosmarthy, the internationally famous stunt pilot originally from Budapest, Hungary. Highlights, including Les, from the recent Family Picnic charity event. Video: Phuket Today The Phuket Gazette caught up with Les at the Phuket Airpark shortly…

  • Phuket People: Introducing Andaman Cruises’ new GM

    Phuket People: Introducing Andaman Cruises’ new GM

    PHUKET: German born Christian Schwind, a marketing professional with 14 years experience in business management, marketing and PR, has been appointed as general manager of Andaman Cruises, a luxury yacht charter company based in Phuket. Prior to taking on the role of GM, he was the Managing Director of Andaman Travel, an Asia based luxury travel company which helped him…

  • Phuket Explore: Lessons from Penang

    Phuket Explore: Lessons from Penang

    PHUKET: Despite their many similarities – architectural and historical – in terms of modern-day tourism, old town Georgetown, Penang, beats the pants off the old quarter of Phuket Town. First of all, Georgetown got World Heritage status in 2008. You can’t get a better internationally recognized advertisement than that. Second, it knows what city tourists want and supplies it in…

  • Phuket to celebrate Lord Buddha’s wisdom

    Phuket to celebrate Lord Buddha’s wisdom

    PHUKET: Wat Chalong won’t be the only crowded temple in Phuket this coming Monday as Buddhists across the island celebrate Asaha Bucha to commemorate the Lord Buddha’s first teaching of Dhamma to his disciples. What started as a sermon for just 5 believers turned in to a world wide phenomenon with an estimated 400 million followers. The words “Asaha Bucha“,…

  • Phuket Property Watch: Same old game – new players, rules

    Phuket Property Watch: Same old game – new players, rules

    PHUKET: It’s been said that all that glitters is not gold and real estate is an example of the vast wealth that simple plots of dirt can conjure up. But bringing on the bling can certainly attract some of the more adventurous souls out there. Last week, an image of a Phuket property man’s life, which had taken a turn…

  • More ways to secure Thai land – Phuket Property

    More ways to secure Thai land – Phuket Property

    PHUKET: For those of you who read my article on obtaining Thai citizenship and aren’t going down that road, I promised to come back and write about the other ways of “buying” property in Thailand (click here for article). The fact is you can go right ahead and pay for land here, but the law is clear that the land…

  • Furniture firm sets bar high in Phuket

    Furniture firm sets bar high in Phuket

    PHUKET: Long standing property furnishing company, Modernform continues to raise the bar for local real estate, and is confident of hitting and maintaining its “beefy” monthly sales target of 8-10 million baht.With its 30-year track record in the industry, the Bangkok-based firm has several branches and dealers throughout the country, namely in Bangkok’s Central World, Sri Nakarin, Rangsit (outlet), Crystal…

  • Bee’s knees multi-purpose trees – Phuket Gardening

    Bee’s knees multi-purpose trees – Phuket Gardening

    PHUKET: Today it is the turn of several small trees, which not only bear unusual and edible fruit, but will double-up as ornamental and shade-generating presences in your tropical garden. Baccaurea motleyanais more familiarly known to Thais as rambai or mafai farang. In common with the other trees on parade today, it is primarily grown for its fruit. But its…

  • Save a life, get a friend

    Save a life, get a friend

    PHUKET: My name is Bianca Peace, I am 10 years old and I wanted to share something that I think is very important and must be stopped. At Phuket International Academy (PIA) our end of year project was on a topic of our own choice, but it needed to be about something global, so I chose to explore the dog…

  • Phuket Food: A sporty Sunday brunch

    Phuket Food: A sporty Sunday brunch

    PHUKET: Not too many Sunday brunches offer a side order of Zumba, Muay Thai, or Pilates, but Phuket’s Thanyapura brunch comes with a chance to work off the calories using a day pass to their world class sporting facilities and group fitness classes.But before that comes the food.Some of it comes direct from Thanyapura’s own organic farm in Surat Thani…