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

    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...

  • The wonderful world of puffies

    The wonderful world of puffies

    PHUKET: In World War I they called it shell shock. In World War II they called it battle fatigue. Nowadays they call it post-traumatic stress disorder (PST). Welcome to the wonderful world of puffies, where run-of-the mill words are puffed up into ornate phrases intended to impress, seduce, and deceive. I call them puffies; others call them euphemisms – or…

  • 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 Legal: Ensuring land claims are legit

    Phuket Property Legal: Ensuring land claims are legit

    PHUKET: In the last three to four weeks, some changes occurred in the application process and consequently the approval of registration for companies to purchase land, long term land leases, usufruct, superficies and/or lifetime living rights for foreigners. Depending on which land office one is applying for registration of certain rights, the current handling of such registration is not the…

  • 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…

  • Raising a rooftop garden – Phuket Gardening | Thaiger

    Raising a rooftop garden – Phuket Gardening

    PHUKET: The chances are you probably have a roof garden of sorts. As Phuket is increasingly dominated by blocks of concrete pretentiously known as condominiums, which necessitate the annihilation of all existing vegetation in the area, the chances are that your balcony or roof is the only repository of greenery you are likely to possess. So why not make the…

  • 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…

  • Double the fun from Belgium

    Double the fun from Belgium

    PHUKET: On Sunday (July 21), the beer will be exceptionally cold, the waffles and chocolates exceptionally sweet, and the french fries will ditch the French connection, changing their name to friets and being served in their original style – the Belgian style. Celebrations of Belgian National Day will be double the fun this year! Not only will Belgians be raising…

  • 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…

  • Mind over matter – Phuket Lifestyle

    Mind over matter – Phuket Lifestyle

    PHUKET: Among the most advanced and well-versed of Western Buddhist meditation gurus in the country and the region, if not the world, Andrea Capellari is Thanyapura’s esteemed Mind Trainer. Teaching meditation regularly to hundreds of students, the Italian-born, highly proficient, intelligent and disciplined Buddhist also leads intensive meditation retreats. The Phuket Gazette‘s Steven Layne recently enjoyed an enlightening lunch with…

  • 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…

  • Boom in budget hotels

    Boom in budget hotels

    PHUKET: The changing regional and domestic tourism landscape is creating a lot of business opportunities. More budget hotels are opening, with investors out to cash in on the rising number of middle-class and solo travellers, thanks to the tourism boom and economic prosperity.Most operators agree that this hotel segment has good prospects. Thailand is a key tourism destination in the…

  • “Business Landmark’ in the works on Bypass Rd

    “Business Landmark’ in the works on Bypass Rd

    PHUKET: Keep your eyes on the look-out – Bypass Biz Town, currently under construction right smack along the middle of one of the island’s most lucrative roads, is poised to be Phuket’s latest and greatest “Business Landmark”.Building on previous successes, reputable developer Boat Development Co Ltd, is fulfilling a much-needed real estate niche with its latest project, touted to be…

  • Phuket Books – A slow death by flashbacks

    Phuket Books – A slow death by flashbacks

    PHUKET: Well-bred, highly educated and cosmopolitan, a new generation of African women writers – chief among them, the Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – has recently claimed their right of place in the publishing world. The newest entrant to this elite club is Taiye Selasi. Half Ghanaian, half-Nigerian, born in London, raised in Boston, a graduate of Yale and Oxford,…

  • C’est la Fete! – It’s party time!

    C’est la Fete! – It’s party time!

    PHUKET: As the French saying goes – Un repas sans vin est comme un jour sans soleil – a meal without wine is like a day without sunshine. And even though there might not be quite enough sunshine in Phuket these days, there shouldn’t be a lack of wine and great food during the Bastille Day celebrations in Patong on…

  • Phuket Gardening: Bromeliads offer a true taste of the tropics

    Phuket Gardening: Bromeliads offer a true taste of the tropics

    PHUKET: I last wrote about bromeliads more than a year ago, but our focus on the letter “B” prompted a re-think. Apart from their deserved popularity as shade and house plants, I have re-focused my attention on this vast genus of more than 3,000 species for other reasons (click here for article). Recently I visited the Phuket Botanic Garden (click…

  • Phuket’s Airshow and Family Picnic sets the bar with record turnout

    Phuket’s Airshow and Family Picnic sets the bar with record turnout

    PHUKET: The Airshow and Family Picnic held at Phuket’s Air Park over the weekend was a roaring success, with organizers estimating that nearly 7,000 people had attended by the time the two-day event closed last night. Navy League Phuket President Pat James, one of the key organizers, said the event was the largest of its kind ever staged in Southern…

  • Traditions upheld at Baba Yaya wedding – Phuket Lifestyle [VIDEO] | Thaiger

    Traditions upheld at Baba Yaya wedding – Phuket Lifestyle [VIDEO]

    PHUKET: The Peranakan Association and the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) Phuket along with local government officials organized a mass “Baba Yaya” wedding ceremony recently at the Blue Elephant restaurant in Phuket Town. The event was held to celebrate over 200 years of local traditional weddings in the “Baba Phuket” style, and to promote the island as a wedding and…

  • Phuket Lifestyle: Rockin’ Railay!

    Phuket Lifestyle: Rockin’ Railay!

    PHUKET: For travellers looking for an active holiday, both Phuket and Krabi offer many solutions, such as snorkeling trips, scuba diving or kayaking, but many travellers have yet to try an experience that is rapidly gaining in popularity – rock climbing! Krabi and Phang Nga provinces are literally packed with dramatic limestone formations. In the last ten years, spots like…

  • Phuket’s Thanyapura serves chef weight loss

    Phuket’s Thanyapura serves chef weight loss

    PHUKET: Successful restaurateur Eduardo Vargas is a man who enjoys the finer things in life, and this includes food. Originally from Peru, he left South America in 1989 to embark on a journey that took him to cooking school in Toronto; Georgetown University, America where he aquired a Business Administration degree; Singapore and now Shanghai as a restaurant owner. When…

  • Industrial real estate demand on rise

    Industrial real estate demand on rise

    PHUKET: This fiscal year, the Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand (IEAT) has forecasted sales and rentals to cover between 3,600 to 3,800 rai (1,440 to 1,520 acres) of land in both its own and privately owned industrial estates. The 2013 Thai fiscal year began on October 1, 2012 and will last until the end of September, this year. IEAT governor…

  • How to legally own Thai land

    How to legally own Thai land

    PHUKET: I think there is a common misconception in Phuket, and in Thailand generally, that is often reinforced by many long term expats, who are always very eager to give their opinions to new-comers. It goes like this: As long as you remain a foreigner in this country, you will always have to use one of the available loopholes to…