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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Sponsored Chef Fabio Genghini takes over Portofino at Le Meridien Phuket for an Exclusive 2-week residency
Food lovers, prepare your taste buds for a gourmet Italian feast! From July 2 to 13, acclaimed Chef Fabio Genghini will take over Le Meridien Phuket’s beloved Italian restaurant, Portofino as a guest chef. It’s a chance for you to...
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Phuket Books: One more head for the chopping block
PHUKET: In my last column, I reviewed Hilary Mantel’s extraordinary novel Wolf Hall, winner of the 2009 Man Booker Prize (click here), which chronicled the rise of Thomas Cromwell from a blacksmith’s son to trusted advisor to King Henry VIII. Three years later, Mantel won a second Man Booker Prize for her sequel Bring Up the Bodies (Henry Holt and…
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Phuket Diving: A communal recovery from the myths of DCS
PHUKET: Recovered from her diving accident, Nicole still combs through the details of the day, searching for the tiny factors that might have contributed to the serious case of neurological decompression sickness (DCS Type II) she faced a year and half ago after a 22-meter dive in the Similan National Park. Unless it’s a ruthless horror story about DCS, where…
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Phuket Lifestyle: A Rotary roundup; Golf tourney
PHUKET: Members of the Rotary Club of Patong Beach recently purchased some much-needed necessities for the Banjo school for migrant workers with money raised by the club. “Supercheap arrived at the school and assembled the goods one hour before they were expected,” said Club member Patricia Mitchell. “Consequently, Stewart and I arrived to find the children and teachers happy and…
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Phuket Lifestyle: Rally round the family
PHUKET: Gentlemen, start your engines. A family event dedicated to making a positive difference is racing back to Phuket for the third straight year. The Phuket Invitational Car Rally is a family day out like no other. You won’t need to pack a food hamper or fix the ski rack, just fill up with fuel, bring the family and make…
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Phuket Lifestyle: Nishamon Paiboonnukulkij
PHUKET: Nishamon ‘Eve’ Paiboonnukulkij was in Phuket recently to meet prospective customers before launching an Italian furniture store, Natuzzi. The showroom is the latest branch of Euro Creations, a Bangkok-based leading retailer and importer of high-end home furnishing. Nishamon, the company’s marketing manager, is charged with driving Natuzzi forward and making it known. Nishamon, 27, holds a degree in education…
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Phuket Property: Travel summit votes on key issues
PHUKET: The nation’s pre-eminent gathering of tourism and travel industry experts has concluded that while Thailand looks headed for its best year for tourist numbers and revenues ever, action to legalize gaming, improve infrastructure and attract ‘quality’ travellers was urgently needed ahead of moves to introduce the Asean Economic Community (AEC). More than 350 tourism industry movers and shakers attended…
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Phuket Property Watch: Tourism heads off to the mall
PHUKET: ‘Bling bling’ goes the ringing in my head, as I frantically search out my missing car in the massive underground car park at one of the island’s ubiquitous shopping malls. I am not at all prepared for the event, which has taken on a real life adventure of Stanley and Livingstone proportions. Where is Indiana Jones when you need…
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Phuket Property: New deal for Marriott
PHUKET: Marriott International recently announced the signing of seven management agreements with TCC Hotels Group, which means the US hospitality company will operate seven TCC hotels across Thailand.These agreements make the TCC Hotels Group the largest owner of Marriott International hotels in Asia Pacific. The seven hotels are: The Imperial Queen’s Park Hotel, Bangkok, to be rebranded as Bangkok Marriott…
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Phuket Lifestyle: Local bands – global battle
UPDATE: The Phuket Gazette has recently learned from the organizer that the GBOB Thailand Phuket show has been cancelled as one of the main investors pulled out at the last minute, and therefore the show could not go on as planned. PHUKET: The Global Battle of the Bands (GBOB) – one of the world’s largest independent music competitions – is…
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Phuket Blazing Saddles: The power of Yao
PHUKET: This week we head off Phuket to a quieter parallel universe called Koh Yao Noi where time seems to stand still and the cycling is relaxed and easygoing. For even the most party-loving souls, Phuket is becoming frenetic, crowded and often stressful. If you are a cycling aficionado this is especially true as pedaling around Phuket is always challenging…
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Phuket Health – Reality check of New Year’s resolutions
PHUKET: So January 1 has quickly passed and I wonder how many of you are still on track with your new year’s resolutions? The good news is you still have time to create lasting goals and redeem yourself if you’ve all ready fallen off the wagon! First, a ‘Reality Check’: Staying motivated and committed toward accomplishing your dreams is often…
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Construction law practice in Thailand
PHUKET: Seeking a perfect home may be an arduous process but the complexities of building a property in Thailand are multiplied without a solid construction contract, as many homeowners and property developers will attest. A crucial part of any good contract is cost assessment and management. Many problems in construction projects occur because there is no written contract recorded between…
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Phuket Books: Another man for all seasons
PHUKET: Hilary Mantel was a 56-year-old English novelist of indifferent success, when she sat down to write a novel about Thomas Cromwell, the chief adviser to Henry VIII. As she recounts in a recent profile in The New Yorker: “I was filled with glee and a sense of power, a sense that I knew how to do this… I knew…
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Phuket Gardening – Turning over a new leaf
PHUKET: Any New Year’s resolutions about gardening? Plenty. Everywhere in the garden I see Nature’s perfection and my imperfections. Mistakes a-plenty. Why, is there a gap in that flower bed? Ah! Because the multicolored acalypha I once put there succumbed to mildew and was never replaced. Why is the grass so threadbare near the fish pond? Because the area is…
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Chinese New Year: the year of the snake nears
PHUKET: As billions of Chinese around the world bid farewell to the year of the dragon tonight, they prepare to welcome tomorrow’s ‘invisible moon’, which marks the official start of a new year – the year of the snake. That’s right, the Chinese New Year officially begins tomorrow, February 10. The most important festival in the Chinese calendar, Chinese New…
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Xenophobia strikes out in Phuket
PHUKET: Welcome to the brand new year of twenty thirteen. So far the twenties have been pretty disappointing. Music seems to have taken on an alter personality with televised ‘talent shows’ now taking us dangerously close to a purgatory known as ‘karaoke-land’. There are the movies, but sequels to mega-blockbusters seem to be rolling out faster than one of those…
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Phuket Books – The grand old farce writer: Tom Sharpe
PHUKET: Tom Sharpe can be described as the heir of PG Wodehouse, the master of English farce. His first satirical novels, Riotous Assembly and Indecent Exposure, were written about South Africa to where he had moved, after attending Cambridge University, to work as a teacher and social worker in 1951. A decade later, he was deported for “sedition”. In 1976,…
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Phuket Humor: The good news about death
PHUKET: Death has received very bad press. Nobody has a good word to say about it, and everybody’s afraid of it. Fairness requires that somebody should point out the good points of this much-maligned condition. I’m told that death can significantly impact your life. It’s a tricky topic to write about, because nobody knows what it’s like. It may be…
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Phuket Property Watch: Khao Lak’s Ramada wins top award
PHUKET: The Ramada Resort Khao Lak achieved the honor of being a first-time two-time winner of the Top and Luxury Hotel categories by TripAdvisor in its 2013 travelers’ Choice awards, announced last week. Now in its eleventh year, the annual TripAdvisor Travelers’ Choice awards honor the world’s best hotels, earning their distinction from those who know them best – real…
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Phuket Property: Dewa Karon changes name, management
PHUKET: MAI-BS (Thailand) has taken over management of what used to be known as the Dewa Karon Resort Phuket.The resort is currently going through a re-branding and repositioning period and will now be known as Karon Sovereign All Suites Resort. The high-potential All Suites Resort offers 49 luxurious one and two-bedroom suites and penthouses sized between 63 and 140 square…
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Phuket Lifestyle: Full cycle
PHUKET: While a certain Mr Armstrong may have brought shame to the world of cycling following recent revelations to a certain Ms Oprah, a certain Mr Mason will be doing just the opposite by using his bicycle to help raise funds for needy children. Tomorrow James Mason will leave Tiger Muay Thai camp in Chalong (one of his main sponsors)…
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Phuket Gardening: From weird to wondrous
PHUKET: Nobody rattles on about the weather with as much relish as the British. But in 2012, only one word was needed – weird. The year, rated the second wettest since the advent of records, began as it started. The Christmas skies in London, traditionally one of the drier spots in the UK, were permanently grey, and early risers were…
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Phuket Books: Hell in Latvia
PHUKET: Dr Gwendolyn Chabrier’s novel Behind the Barbed Wire (Orchid Press, Hong Kong, 2011, 203pp) is about the Holocaust. It is not true to say that bookshelves groan under the weight of books written about the Holocaust – whole libraries do. Amazon lists more than 5,000 titles on the subject. In comparison, the many more millions of Russians and Chinese…
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Phuket Lifestyle: Food, games, music and fun, and all for charity
PHUKET: This weekend Royal Phuket Marina (click here for map: RPM) will be thronged with an extravaganza of fabulous food, fun and games for the kids and then later in the evening, superb music from The Legends of Siam, Moderndog and the internationally famous bluesmen from Australia Vdelli. As if all this wasn’t enough to make this one of Phuket’s…
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Phuket Property: Singaporeans looking abroad
PHUKET: THE number of Singaporeans buying overseas property is likely to increase because of significant property cooling measures introduced by the government of Singapore, according to PropertyGuru, a leading Asian property website.The measures, which came into effect on January 12, include an immediate increase in stamp duties payable across the board between three and eight per cent. The government said…
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Phuket Property Watch: So near, and yet so far
PHUKET: As I write this, I can imagine the strange look of astonishment on my editor’s face as this column arrives – one which is actually about property. Perhaps a virtual high five will be forthcoming. More likely a collective sigh of relief, which can be heard high above the din of rush hour traffic on Thepkassatri Road. Worse yet…
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Phuket Lifestyle: The boat that rocks!
PHUKET: PGTV, in association with party organizers Fistpump Phuket, has a very special offer for all our local readers and fans. The Fistpump Sunset Boat Party will set sail again next Sunday, January 27. Built specifically for party cruises, the boat is as much a floating dance floor as a motorized fun palace and features a unique “Jacuzzi net” that…
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Phuket Books: Indulging in OJ Simpson
PHUKET: The author of a dozen books, mostly about crime in high places, Dominick Dunne was a compulsive name-dropper. Ah, but what names! Princess Diana, Elizabeth Taylor, Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty, Annette Bening, Gregory Peck, Kirk Douglas, Nancy Reagan, Frank Sinatra, Tony Curtis and a whole slew of Hollywood and Euro-trash royalty. He died three years ago at the age…
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Phuket Lifestyle: Life in the extreme – David Martin
PHUKET: NO SMELL, no life, no sound – except the booming of ice cracking and the wind – the South Pole is one of the most hostile environments in the world, but even here in this frozen abyss dreams manage to materialize. Few search for answers in so bleak a landscape, a place where one meter of snow is no…
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Phuket Pets: Mommy, I want the cute puppy
PHUKET: By the time you bring your new puppy home, say at eight weeks of age, it should already be accustomed to an indoor domestic environment (especially one with noises) and well-socialized with people. Similarly, house training, chew toy training, and tutoring in basic manners should be well underway. If not, your prospective puppy’s social and mental development is already…
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