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 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...
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Phuket Fashion – From dawn till dusk
PHUKET: Everyone has days that are scheduled to the max – overbooked and jam-packed with meetings, lunches, get-togethers and parties. For many women, the challenge is how to make one outfit work for everything that a busy schedule demands. Maintaining great style throughout the day doesn’t come easy, but with a little planning, flexibility and resourcefulness, you’ll find a way…
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Phuket Diving: Knowledge trumps beauty of ignorance: sea snakes edition
PHUKET: Not every dive in Phuket’s waters, but often enough, a diver comes across a critter that they become inexplicably and completely fascinated with. The vast majority of dive instructors and masters seem to have their own sea-animal fetishes – from blue dragons to mantis shrimps. They’re usually obscure choices that lean away from charismatic mega-fauna like sharks and mantas…
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Phuket Gardening: Another golden boy
PHUKET: “HELIOTROPISM” – now there’s a word to conjure with, but what does it mean? Don’t use big words if you don’t explain them. Well, for the uninitiated, heliotropism is a plant’s diurnal motion, its capacity to slowly and imperceptibly turn towards the sun. (Helios is the Greek sun god, trope means turn in Greek). By doing this, a plant…
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Phuket Lifestyle: A head start ahead of the rest
PHUKET: Saturday is usually a fun day for everyone. It’s the beginning of the weekend and most people are looking forward to spending time doing what they want to do, and being with the ones they love. Saturday, June 30 was an especially happy day for students of the HeadStart International School (HSIS). It wasn’t just a regular Saturday but…
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Phuket Diving: Rhythm of the night
PHUKET: Watching the sun set behind Koh Doc Mai from the top deck of Sea Bees Excalibur II, an adventurous thrill creeps through me – I’m going on a night dive, and it’s been ages. When was the last time you went night diving? For most of us it was probably part of our advance diver training, and maybe we…
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Thai Gallery – Patima Khunpromkessara
PHUKET: Troubles in the southern provinces of Thailand are real and constant. Political unrest results in a spate of bombings, taking the lives of many and the problems look set to continue. Born and raised in Yala, Patima Khunpromkessara remembers just the opposite. “It was a neat little town. Do you know that we have a town plan similar to…
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Phuket Property: Crime and punishment in paradise
PHUKET: The tragic murder of an Australian travel agent in Kata recently has created a hailstorm of calls for action from both public and private sectors. There is little doubt that over the past few years a steady increase in crime and a straining infrastructure has thrust the island headlong into a self-induced, perfect storm. It’s easy to jump on…
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Phuket Entertainment: Impaling history
PHUKET: Film-makers love revising history to suit a story. Some, such as Oliver Stone, weave their fabrications so subtly into the weft and warp of historical accuracy that they can become instant conspirators. Others, such as Quentin Tarantino, strip history down to its underpants and strap a silly hat on its head, before shooting it, blowing it up and, just…
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Phuket Lifestyle: The mighty Mekong – ‘Mother of Water’
PHUKET: Tourists visiting Thailand for the first time might be forgiven for thinking that “Mekong” is nothing more than a cheap local whiskey. But mention the word to almost any Thai national and you’ll proudly be informed that it is a mighty river. He or she might go on to say that its name means “Mother of Water”. In a…
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Phuket Gardening: Mellow yellow
PHUKET: Few other yellow flowers can compete with the golden opulence of a sunflower, chalice vine or allamanda in full bloom. But that does not lessen the value of less spectacular garden inhabitants. Take the galphimia or “shower of gold”, which is sometimes referred to as thryallis in books on gardening. To give it a human epithet, this small, compact…
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Phuket Property: Bricks and mortar won’t hold back the water
PHUKET: Speaking exclusively with the Phuket Gazette, Goetz Dienel, Managing Director of Thai-Dien Co Ltd, said demand for his company’s products and services is on the up due to an increase of technically-demanding projects across the country. Established in Phuket 17 years ago, Thai-Dien specializes in cutting-edge building repair and reinforcement solutions. “We’ve done work for government facilities and institutions,…
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Phuket Lifestyle: The “Dean’ of Thai Silk
PHUKET: Fashion can seem like an enigma, its true meaning obscured by smoke and mirrors; a touch of sparkle here, a well established line there, and you’ve made the dress of the season – though no one quite knows how. What is trendy today is later passé and might be the trend again someday – 30 years down the road.…
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Phuket Life: Daunting decisions
PHUKET: Choosing your child’s school might be one of the most daunting decisions you ever have to make. It might even be harder when living abroad, as educational standards that are common back home may not be supported in the new county you’re living in. The first rather difficult point you have to consider is where your child will study,…
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First Person: The merit in being an organ donor
PHUKET: Many Thai people who believe in reincarnation think that donating an organ after death may affect their body in the next life, such as being reborn without the organ they donated.Making merit is a good thing, but to help to extend other people’s lives is the biggest merit of all. Take my life, for example.I was 20 years old…
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Thai Gallery – Dr Wiwat Seetamanotch
PHUKET: DR Wiwat Seetamanotch has a quick analytical mind, matched only by his quick actions. He hardly ever leaves things undone and there seems to be no ‘pending’ tray on his office desk. Perhaps this explains why crisis management appeals to him, and why, in terms of personality at least, he appears to be the best man for the job.…
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Phuket Comedy: Laugh away the low season blues
PHUKET: Stand-up comedy comes back to the island this Wednesday when three star comedians take to the stage at the Holiday Inn Resort Patong for a night of fun. Hailing from Canada, the UK and Scotland, respectively, Paul Myrehaug, Jeremy O’Donnell and Brian Higgins are currently touring Asia, performing not only in Phuket, but also Hong Kong, Shanghai and Bangkok.…
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Phuket Gardening: The last of the red brigade
PHUKET: It is always exciting to discover a new plant. I recently chanced on a shrub with fine, arching, broom-like leaves, and masses of tiny but brilliant red tubular flowers. Its name? Russelia equisetiformis. Despite the tongue-twisting botanical label, this is not a shrub that draws attention to itself and, in any case, it is not common in Phuket. Maybe…
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Phuket Life: Given the chance of his young life
PHUKET: Imagine that you are thirteen years old and school just isn’t your thing. Your mother lives with her new boyfriend in another province and you’ve been in trouble quite a bit lately – understandably so. Now imagine that amidst this unstable period of your early life, someone offers you the chance that many poor Thai boys dream of –…
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Phuket Health: The truth about dengue fever
PHUKET: A prominent Phuket doctor has warned residents to protect themselves from dengue fever, also known as “break-bone fever”, by removing all sources of stagnant water from around their homes and minimizing exposure to mosquito bites. According to the US Center for Disease Control (CDC), dengue (pronounced den’ gee) is caused by any one of four closely related dengue viruses.…
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Phuket Property: Quality homes in a nice part of town
PHUKET: On the verge of closing sales for Eva Town Suan Luang, a city-park housing project in the heart of Phuket Town, Eva Group is taking reservations for the last 10 units.Sales for the 250 million baht housing development opened in December last year. With the project now 85% sold out, the developer doesn’t think it will be long before…
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Phuket Lifestyle: Going, going, gone
PHUKET: World Environmental Day, which was on June 5, has a special meaning for Phuket-based photographer Chusak Uthaipanumas. Twenty years ago, on this day, he received an accolade at the quadrennial photo contest on the environment organized by United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP). The photographer traveled to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, to attend the UNEP award ceremony. It was…
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Phuket Life: Operating Phuket’s new incinerator
PHUKET: After a long wait, with a few false starts, the second trash incinerator at the Saphan Hin waste management facility became fully operational recently. The incinerator, which was expected to be fully operational during May, encountered technical problems during its trial run and repairs needed to be carried out. The timing was unfortunate. At the same time, the older…
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Phuket Lifestyle: C’mon light my fire
PHUKET: The smell of gasoline lingers on your hands after the flames have been extinguished, and the performance is over. But the smell itself is a little addictive, like a woman’s perfume on the pillow of an empty bed – a reminder of a past flame. A very talented busker (street performer) once took me aside and gave me a…
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Phuket Dining: The other Kiwi juice
PHUKET: Rain squalls, flooding and high winds put a bit of a damper on the recent Steve Bennett MW New Zealand wine dinner held at the Holiday Inn, Patong Beach, but having heard many good reports about this form of Kiwi juice I brave the elements and turn up on time. granita is served to cleanse the palate and I…
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Phuket Diving: Camera rolling, regulator in
PHUKET: Toweled dry and eating a pile of pancakes on Andaman Ocean Safaris’ boat, my dive buddy and I head to the upper cabin with lackluster enthusiasm to watch the video from the day’s dive. I had seen these sorts of videos before. They usually came off as gimmicky and, let’s be honest, I had just been on the dive…
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Phuket Lifestyle: Going to print
PHUKET: The hottest style of trend in pattern design this year is undoubtedly tribal. Last year saw an explosion of African-inspired prints hit runways and major stores and the trend has continued. In 2012, prints have trickled down to the masses and evolved to feature Aztec and Southwestern Native American designs.When wearing a tribal print, your look is instantly trendy.…
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Phuket Lifestyle: From Phuket teacher to London 2012
PHUKET: English judo competitor Sophie Cox has five weeks left until her fight to become Olympic champ – seven years after retiring to Phuket to become a teacher. Sophie,30, broke the news of her Team GB selection as the under 52-kilogram competitor on Twitter recently, with her official team selection announced by the British Olympic Association on June 16. She…
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Phuket Gardening: Our sunny reminders
PHUKET: Typhoon force winds, teeming torrents of rain, roads like lakes, uprooted trees and fractured boughs – hardly the conventional image of a “Land of Smiles” burnished by tropical sunshine beaming from azure heavens. Leaden skies, accompanied by profound gloom suggest that something much more ominously potent than Venus has blotted out the sun. Despite the meteorological office’s pronouncement that…
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Phuket Lifestyle: Low season diving
PHUKET: As I watched my first rainy season blow in over the Andaman Sea in frightful gusts, I assumed it was time to pack up my dive gear and head over to Kata Beach with a longboard. However, I wasn’t ready to throw the flippers overboard completely, because unlike Khao Lak, Phuket dive companies do run low season trips daily,…
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Phuket comedy: Laughter never rains, it pours
PHUKET: With Phuket’s wet and rainy season now truly here the Punchline Comedy team has decided to give comedy lovers a reason to rejoice with another hilarious night, planned for June 27.Three top stand-up comedians will head to the Holiday Inn Resort, Patong Beach to bring the mirth back.The event will be compered by comedian, writer and presenter Jeremy O’Donnell,…
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