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.
-
Sponsored Weekend road trip routes across Thailand [2025]
Weekend road trips in Thailand are a great way to enjoy beautiful scenery, local culture, and quick getaways without much travel time. From winding mountain routes in the north to coastal drives in the south, every journey brings new sights...
-
Bumper to bumper in Myanmar – Phuket Property Watch
PHUKET: There is nothing quite like raw, naked ambition. Well not exactly, but that’s perhaps best left for another time and place. Last week I found myself straight in the middle of boomtown – Yangon, Myanmar. Stopping off as I usually do for an afternoon coffee at the historically-twinged Strand Hotel, the smiling waiter pulled out his smartphone and showed…
-
Building for sustainability – Phuket property
PHUKET: The earth possesses a finite amount of natural resources – ores, timber, oils, for example – but our demand for those resources is growing exponentially. It is time we start looking at serious alternatives to help reduce the amount of waste we produce in our quest for ever more buildings. It doesn’t take a great deal of imagination to…
-
Good music is forever – Phuket Events
PHUKET: Mamma mia, Phuket’s gone crazy! The tickets for the upcoming Abba Forever show sold out in days. Guests from as far as Manila, Paris and Shanghai are coming to the island to sing along and dance to the evergreen hits of the legendary Swedish pop group – Abba! But not to worry – if you missed the chance to…
-
Lock and load for dive high season – Phuket Diving
PHUKET: Lock on your tanks and load that gear on the boat because the Phuket diving high season is officially here. This year’s season was ushered in with the annual ruckus parties and dive show equipment suppliers, all brought to the industry pros of the entire Andaman region by Dive Supply and Aqua Master. Free flow drinks and all-you-can-eat grub…
-
Figs for all tastes – Phuket Gardening
PHUKET: One of the stranger aspects of attempting an alphabetical survey of plants is that you end up with some odd bedfellows. Take the letter “F” for example. It embraces the huge genus of figs or ficus to give the family its botanical appellation. In Plant Materials in Thailand, no fewer than 24 different varieties are listed; they dominate the…
-
Hats off to the PIWC
PHUKET: While Australia’s Melbourne Cup is regarded as one of the great horse races of the world, equally important is what goes on off the track. And it’s all to do with fashion – or more particularly, the hats. The focus of this colorful extravaganza is known as Fashions on the Field, a tradition at every function that celebrates this…
-
The evolution of Phuket’s MAMILS
PHUKET: One of the more amusing acronyms that the current boom in all things cycling related has spawned is “MAMILS”. MAMILS are of course “Middle Aged Men In Lycra” and if the tabloid media are to be believed, the Western world is awash with these rather dubious sounding creatures. Certainly Phuket has not been spared this plague, as a brief…
-
Phuket’s middle path – Lifestyle
PHUKET: Right beside Kathu Waterfall, there exists a Phuket culinary gem. Krua Pailin, or Pailin’s Kitchen, is a long-standing establishment that has been serving authentic Phuket food to discerning locals for almost two decades now. But what actually is authentic Phuket food? We all know of the Peranakan version, influenced by Chinese tastes – noodles and such – which is…
-
Royal Phuket Marina taps into rental market
PHUKET: Royal Phuket Marina (RPM) plunged into the island’s property rental market, releasing scores of luxury apartments for rent since the beginning of this year. There are almost 100 units in the RPM complex, and of these 40 units are available for rental, though currently only 20 per cent remain vacant. Formerly RPM was focused on property sales but since…
-
Phuket’s ACE condo holds all the cards
PHUKET: ACE condominium, a nine storey building planned on Pang-meangsai Kor Road in Patong, on Phuket’s west coast, aims to attract people seeking an independent, fast-paced and fun, urban lifestyle. Deputy Managing Director of Patong Centre Co Ltd, Ms Alisa Likitittiruks,stated that the company expects to sell as much as 80-90 per cent of the project’s units this coming high…
-
Phuket Events: Royal music concert
PHUKET: The King Rama IX and Princess Sirindhorn Music Library is organizing a mobile music exhibition entitled “The 8th King Rama IX Royal Compositions” which will be held from October 31 to November 2 at Saphan Hin Park in Phuket Town (click here for map). The highlight of the event will be an impressive musical fountain and traditional dancing. The…
-
Phuket Explore: World of small wonders
PHUKET: Founded more than 20 years ago by well known local doctor Prasit Koysiripong, Phuket Butterfly Garden and Insect World was the first tourist attraction of its kind on the island and is still thriving today. Six years ago Dr Prasit’s son-in-law Jaipet Hatthakham and his wife took over the business and have been steadily improving it to keep pace…
-
Phuket Property: A fine finish for your pool
PHUKET: Currently expanding their operation in Phuket, Pebble Pools is leading the charge to bring an innovative and superior swimming pool surfacing product to the Thailand Market. Trained and certified by market-leading American company Pebble Technology Inc, Pebble Pools’ staff are able to surface any pool in Thailand with a patented, fine aggregate pebble finish – which has been developed…
-
Phuket Events: Filling the gap
PHUKET: One basic need we share as humans, besides the bare necessities of food and shelter, is to tell and to hear stories – we all need some culture, some entertainment and fun to make our lives complete. In Phuket the shelter and food part are well taken care of, but the culture part sometimes seems to be a bit…
-
Phuket Property: Best of the best 2013
PHUKET: Thailand’s real estate industry came together on Thursday, September 19 to acknowledge the best of the best at the 2013 Thailand Property Awards tand awards presentation ceremony held at the Centara Grand & Bangkok Convention Center at CentralWorld. In total, 33 awards were on offer, including regional awards for best condominiums and villa developments in Phuket, Hua Hin, Samui,…
-
Phuket gardening: pure, natural ingredients
PHUKET: Though it is a 19th century Bavarian concept, there are plenty of beer gardens or biergarten around Phuket. Some really are gardens in delightful sylvan settings under mature tamarind or flame trees. Think Nikita’s in Rawai, or the row of hostelries along the hilly road from Nai Harn to Rawai. But I am more interested in a different kind…
-
A walk in the (bird) park
PHUKET: I’m by no means a bird aficionado. Sure, I enjoy the chirping of birds in the morning and I was pretty stunned to see a tiny, humming-bird-sized sun-bird feeding on some flowers in front of my house the other day, but you won’t find me crawling through a bush with a pair of binoculars in search of a Great-billed…
-
Ma Song on their way for Phuket’s Vegetarian Festival
PHUKET: Final preparations are underway as the annual Phuket Vegetarian Festival draws closer. This year the festival will start on October 5. According to tradition, it will continue for nine days and draw to a close on October 13. Director of the Tourism Authority of Thailand Phuket Office, Mr Chanchai Doungjit said: “This year we expect an influx of tourists…
-
Phuket Property: Local retail sector booming
PHUKET: Our paradise island has been famed (and defamed) the world over for its many “s” attractions (and distractions) – sea, sun, sand, surf, sailing and sport… among others. Nowadays, the island is increasingly associated with one more “s”: shopping. Although residential projects – condos, housing subdivisions, hotels and luxury villas – continue to make up most of the island’s…
-
COMMON SENSE: Bright future for solar power
PHUKET: We modern Homo Sapiens are addicted to energy. Energy is the main driver for development and economic growth and for over a century, we have been powering our addiction with fossil fuels. As someone that comes from an oil producing country and having worked with different indigenous communities in the Ecuadorian Amazon that have been affected by oil production,…
-
Venturing into the unknown: reflections by Don Battles
PHUKET: NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft recently became the first human-made object to venture beyond the boundaries of our solar system and into what is known as interstellar space, a part of space that our sun has little to no influence on. The 36-year-old probe is now about 12 billion miles (19 billion kilometers) from our sun. New and unexpected data…
-
Think globally, act locally – Environment
PHUKET: Let’s draw attention to some local happenings. First some negative ones. “Tainted Tide”, a recent Phuket Gazette front page article, revealed that Patong’s already polluted beaches had suffered yet another setback – a patch of brown, unwholesome water in the bay, perhaps a mindless discharge of sewage from local hotels, or a build-up of plankton, courtesy of contaminants in…
-
Fruit: Food of the gods – Phuket Gardening
PHUKET: As any journalist worth his salt will tell you, it is always easier to amplify or pad out a piece than to abridge it. Unless you are very careful, condensing a piece can result in a lack of clarity, in stylistic obfuscation or worse, some painful wrenching of the sense. When, in response to a reader’s question last week,…
-
Phuket In Focus: Outgoing Hon Consul Larry Cunningham
PHUKET: Australia’s Honorary Consul in Phuket, Larry Cunningham has announced that he will resign his post on September 30 after nine years on the job. During his time as Honorary Consul, Mr Cunningham has been a consistent and outspoken critic of the corruption and criminality facing visitors to the island. In an interview with the Phuket Gazette he said that…
-
Laguna Park project unveiled
PHUKET: Project plans and fully-furnished show units of the island’s latest middle-upper income residential project, Laguna Park, were previewed this morning at the project’s sales office. Developed by Laguna Property, part of the Laguna Resorts and Hotels and the Banyan Tree Group, the project will be the island’s largest residential community, comprising up to 2,000 homes when fully completed. Located…
-
Hurry up to register for Turtle Fun Run
PHUKET: Mai Khao Marine Turtle Foundation and JW Marriott Phuket Resort & Spa are pleased to extend an invitation to the general public to participate in the Turtle Fun Run and Mini Marathon 2013, which takes place on Sunday September 15 at Pru Jeh San Lake on Phuket’s beautiful Mai Khao Beach. You can register for the 9th edition of…
-
Enjoy the fruits of your labor – Phuket Gardening
PHUKET: Sepp writes to say that he owns three villas in Phuket and “would like to change the gardens to [include] more fruit trees, fruit bushes and nice flowers”. He adds: “Can you help me to find the right ones?” and asks “which books could I buy?” Well, Sepp, even to attempt an answer all your wide-ranging queries would take…
-
A bright horizon – Phuket Property
PHUKET: Southeast Asia continues to see upbeat investment sentiment with Thailand seeing real estate owners inject assets into property funds while overall commercial real estate transaction volume in Asia Pacific declined by 11% q-o-q to US$19.2 billion after an unusually strong Q1 2013. The market remained active and the quarterly total was in line with volumes recorded last year, according…
-
Snot squeezes and secrets – Phuket Diving
PHUKET: There was an issue before we even boarded the boat. We had been waiting all weekend to photograph the artificial reef at Viking Cave off of Phi Phi Island and weather delays had pushed us back to our last day on the island, and now, looking at the pile of green mucus in my tissue, it was clear there…
-
A worthy initiative – Phuket Gardening
PHUKET: Any initiative which includes the planting of new trees is to be welcomed. There is a plan afoot, initiated by Mr Songjit Suppakit of Phisut Technology and supported by Phuket’s Governor Maitri Inthusut, to connect Sirirat Road (near Le Meridian Beach Resort) to remote and spectacular Tri Trang and Freedom beaches. The most ecologically sensitive proposal is to replace…
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.