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 Long-term life in Thailand? 5 reasons private health insurance pays off in the long run
Thailand is a great place for expats and retirees, offering a warm climate, affordable living, and rich culture. However, healthcare can be tricky for foreigners since they aren’t eligible for public health coverage, and private care can be expensive. Private...
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Phuket Pets: Working dogs
PHUKET: Previously we have looked at the power of canine senses. Most of us are aware of some of the uses these powers are put to: guide dogs for the blind or police dogs sniffing out drugs or explosives at airports. But the role of the humble dog in our lives is vast and they are doing much more than…
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Phuket Tech: The death of Windows – Live Wire
PHUKET: In the past week, the Windows world received quite a shock. First IDC, then Gartner – the two biggest names in computer industry prognostications – announced that, for the first time ever, shipments of new PCs had declined, year-on-year from the first quarter of 2012 to the first quarter of 2013. And the declines were substantial: somewhere between 11…
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Phuket Humor: In praise of sitting
PHUKET: A recent article claimed that too much sitting can kill you. It causes heart attacks, diabetes and a bigger bum. The author worried about the health of people who spend all their working days sitting in cubicles in front of computers, then go home to spend their entire evenings sitting in front of TV sets. Indeed, I have often…
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Slave to the bean
PHUKET: I’ve just checked out of the emergency room, covered in bandages not dissimilar to those worn by the damaged star of the movie The English Patient, or perhaps more fittingly, Return of the Mummy. Anyway, same-same but different, said the man outside the sliding hospital door. My horrific accident that will no doubt result in permanent scars, comes from…
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No cooling measures needed in BKK
PHUKET: As concerns of a real estate bubble escalate, the Bank of Thailand (BOT) recently asked commercial banks to become more cautious about mortgage lending, particularly to borrowers who are suspected of buying houses or condominiums for speculative purposes. While the BOT’s position is reasonable, as easy lending can inflate real estate bubbles, cooling measures are not needed at this…
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Up-country condo market not flooded
PHUKET: The head of the Agency for Real Estate Affairs Company Limited (AREA), has rejected reports that Thailand’s key up-country condominium markets are currently being oversupplied. The markets in question include Phuket, Chiang Mai, Pattaya, Khon Kaen as well as the Gulf of Thailand coastline stretch between Hua Hin and Cha-am. AREA President, Dr Sopon Pornchokchai, PhD, said that such…
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Portrait of a modern day backpacker
PHUKET: Just as Americans are fond of saying, “We were all immigrants once,” so old expats in Thailand say: “We were all backpackers once.” Though some first came with the military or on teaching contracts, it’s true that most of us first stepped foot in Thailand as backpackers. Technically, I was never a backpacker. In 1976, I carried my kit…
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Phuket Gardening: Wallflowers and blushing violets
PHUKET: The English language has a wealth of expressions for reticent or modest behavior. “Take a back seat” is one; another, with a biblical provenance, talks of “hiding your light under a bushel”. Brought up as children on AA Milne’s tales, older Phuket Gazette readers may recall Winnie the Pooh saying: “it’s not much of a tail, but I’m sort…
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Phuket Health: What’s happening to all my power?
PHUKET: “I cannot sleep!” That is frequently what I hear in my consultations. Nearly all of us have experienced difficulty sleeping, be it falling asleep or other sleep worries such as frequent awakening, sleep apnea, nightmares, narcolepsy, sleep paralysis or even jet lag.Sleep is the sweet balm that soothes and restores us after a long day of work. It seems…
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Phuket People: Siriporn Tantipanyathep
PHUKET: The reception area of the Phuket Passport Office is teeming with people waiting to apply for their travel documents. Officers dressed smartly in Nyonya style – women in sarongs and Kebaya blouses and men wearing Batik print shirts – give an air of friendly efficiency.“It’s part of the governor’s initiative to promote local culture,” says Passport Chief Siriporn Tantipanyathep.…
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Boiling down a life of rice
PHUKET: It’s not easy to find staff for a boiled rice shop in Phuket Town. Sometimes new employees run away after just one day. It might have something to do with the starting time… 4am, or the regular days off… none. But Nalinee “Ann” Sukjaroen has been working at the Boiled Rice Shop on Dibuk Road for the past 25…
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Phuket Tech: What, exactly, is a Bitcoin? – Live Wire
PHUKET: In the past couple of week, three of my friends in Phuket – all of whom are reasonably savvy with their investments – have asked me about Bitcoin. There’s a lot of misinformation floating around, so I figured it’d be worthwhile to bring you all up to speed on the topic. I’ll get into the technical details momentarily, but…
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Phuket’s latest luxury resort
PHUKET: The island recently saw the opening of the new Outrigger Laguna Phuket Beach Resort. This 255-room beachfront property offers locally- sourced dining and the first club floor at Laguna Phuket, Bang Tao Beach. Flying in for the VIP gathering were members of the Kelley family, owners of the Outrigger Laguna Phuket Beach Resort, and senior corporate executives from Hawaii,…
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Property prices “under the gun’
PHUKET: I thought not once, but twice about putting the word gun into the title of this article, but why not? Live vicariously. Guns and real estate, now that’s an entirely different story altogether. Slowly stirring brown sugar into my inaugural morning café latte, the sound of small talk is in the air. Forget that toxic mock sweet stuff, I…
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On the menu: Trisara hosts Mozaic’s Chef James Ephraim
PHUKET: There have been some pretty spectacular sunsets in Phuket in recent weeks, or maybe I have just been fortunate enough to witness them from spectacular locations. The Trisara’s ‘Seafood’ restaurant is one of those places that reaffirm the reasons one has chosen to live on a tropical island. Another island that has glorious sunsets is Bali, and I am…
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Phuket Gardening: From fetid to fragrant
PHUKET: Shakespeare’s father, John, was fined for digging a “midden” in front of his neighbor’s house. Very unneighborly. Today the word has almost vanished from the English language as modern sanitation systems have replaced the foul cesspits of yesteryear. But make no mistake, a “midden” is neither pleasant to behold nor smell. Originally a hole in the ground, a dump…
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Phuket Health: When I’m 64
PHUKET: Early in the New Year I woke up to the stunning realization that “When I’m 64” wasn’t just the title of a Beatles hit, but in my case had become a statement of reality. In a lather of vitamin supplements and desperation I set out to discover whether there was in fact a Fountain of Youth in Phuket. In…
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Phuket Arts: The lion sleeps tonight
PHUKET: The cast and crew of the British International School (BIS) production of The Lion King which took place between April 1-3, probably had to catch up on some sleep, too. They earned it. For four months the whole school has been a hive of activity in anticipation of this, their largest production, and on the first night the full…
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Phuket Tech: Measuring (actual) internet speed – Live Wire
PHUKET: Over the years we’ve had a lot of ups and downs with the Phuket Internet Speed reporting site, phuketinternetspeed.com. We’ve gathered 30,000 speed tests from around the island, from almost 900 computer users, covering nearly 100 different internet packages. That makes Phuket Internet Speed, by far, as best I know, the largest community-based independent speed reporting site on the…
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Phuket Property: Resorts help water crisis
PHUKET: According to the World Travel and Tourism Council there are around 12.7 million hotel rooms around the world, and another 1.3 million are in development, half of them being built in the Middle East and Africa. Bottled water is as common a sight in hotel rooms as thin-screen televisions and mass-produced art. Given that hotels generally charge for bottled…
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Phuket Property Watch: Live by the sword, die by the sword
PHUKET: They came, they spent, they left. That pretty much sums up the great Russian tropical cold war of this the high tourism season. Over the past month or so I embarked on a research project to try to learn more about the surge of visitors from the former USSR to the island of Phuket. Not content to simply put…
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Phuket Gardening: Sol o sombra? A seat in the sun
PHUKET: If you go to the huge, intimidating amphitheater that is a Spanish bullring to witness a series of corridas, you may be asked at the ticket office if you want “sol” or “sombra?” And the reason? The seats in the shade (sombra) are more expensive, because there you are shielded from the fierce rays of the Iberian sun. “Sol…
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On the menu: Phuket’s Le Versace takes it to the next level
PHUKET: It is hot in Phuket at the moment, hot and dry, and the only relief comes when that scorching orb sinks below the horizon allowing for a slight drop in temperature. If you are fortunate, you may be able to enjoy that moment from a good vantage point. If you are very fortunate you will be watching the sunset…
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Phuket Property: Sansiri housing project targets hi-end segment
PHUKET: Relieving anticipation in the single-house property market to the north of Phuket Town, Sansiri Pcl finally lifted the curtain on ‘Burasiri Koh Kaew’, the developer’s first up-market resort-style, detached housing development in Phuket. Valued at about one billion baht, the new development is superbly located in the Koh Kaew sub district, just opposite the British International School. The project…
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Phuket Property: CBRE achieves top-three ranking; In brief…
PHUKET: CBRE announced, on March 26, that the company has achieved top-three rankings in 25 categories across 13 countries in the Asia Pacific Property Awards in all real estate categories, in nearly every major market across the region from New Zealand to China. The Asia Pacific Property Awards are part of the long-established International Property Awards and its winners’ logo…
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Phuket Property: Shivalai shimmers above Kamala
PHUKET: The Shivalai Resort Condominiums and Private Luxury Pool Villas will be a new boutique development perched on a hillside overlooking Kamala and out to the sea. The eight stylish three-storey low rise condominium buildings will have only two units per floor and five luxurious private pool villas when construction is completed in 2014. The Phuket Gazette spoke to Jakkrit…
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Phuket Tech: Lock down your mobile devices
PHUKET: In New York City, the crime rate has been slowly, steadily decreasing every year for the past 15 years. Until last year. In 2012, there were 3,484 more major crimes reported than in 2011 – and 3,890 more thefts of iPhones and iPads. Stolen iPhones and iPads are reversing a long-standing decline in major crimes. The situation in Phuket…
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Phuket Lifestyle: Wake up and drop in
PHUKET: As the final hours of daylight waned in the sky, I pulled my rusty old BMW up to the ridge of a tin mine-turned-lake, home to Anthem Wake Park, across from Wat Manik in Cherng Talay. Pausing but for a moment to study the deep blue water, the lake was both tranquil and alive. However, this tranquil introduction was…
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Phuket Lifestyle: Miss Thailand World 2013
PHUKET: Twenty Miss Thailand World 2013 finalists recently spent three days promoting local tourism and preparing for the next phase of their competition at the Cape Panwa Hotel, Phuket. Kasemkij Hotels, which owns Cape Panwa, released a statement saying it was an honor to host the event and its activities that are designed to promote philanthropic endeavors, tourism and culture…
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Phuket Lifestyle: PIMEX is better than ever
PHUKET: The Phuket International Boat Show, fondly known by its acronym PIMEX, is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year with a lineup of exhibitors, brands and products that are second to none, and which have made it Asia’s favorite maritime and lifestyle show. Phuket Governor, Maitri Inthusut, opened the event at the Royal Phuket Marina at 10:30am yesterday, and it…
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