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 Lifestyle: The big zipper
PHUKET: Keeping with the idea that people and modern primates were once related by a distant cousin, I’d like to make a comparison. Humans are social like primates, we use tools like they do and we have the same urge to swing recklessly through the tops of trees for sheer amusement. Such amusement is available in our back yard (a…
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Discovering Phuket’s “must have’ fashions
PHUKET: Trends in fashion can be bewildering from one generation to another, but they help us to recognize significant periods and events in time. This is true for Europe and other Western cultures, but it doesn’t seem to work like that for people living here in Asia. Spotting what will become a trend is something designers can do with ease.…
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Phuket Gardening: Raising the roof
PHUKET: Have you ever felt surplus to requirements? I certainly did on a recent visit to a penthouse roof garden in Royal Phuket Marina. So imaginative in conception and so meticulously tended, there seemed little I could suggest to enhance its lavish charms. Of course, there are roof gardens and then there are roof gardens.Some are actually constituted of a…
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Phuket Diving: PADI centers clean up Phuket
PHUKET: After coming face to face with shattered coral reef systems all over the world and confronting messes of plastic bags and tangled fishing nets, which are not-so-slowly strangling one of the world’s most important ecosystems, divers understand the importance of reef cleanups. There is of course that feeling of only delaying the inevitable, but isn’t that why we try…
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Phuket Culture: Getting ready for the rains retreat
PHUKET: This weekend’s full moon heralds the official start of the rainy season in Thailand, marked by back-to-back Buddhist Holidays, Asaha Bucha and Khao Pansa. For non-Buddhists, the long “dry” weekend to welcome the “wet” season is a good opportunity to relax, if nothing else. For most devout Buddhists, however, there is much deeper meaning and purpose to the holy…
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Phuket Diving: Gear and skills part the waters
PHUKET: When was the last time something truly fresh hit the dive market? Yes, every year we get niftier regulators, more swanky dive watches and new fin designs that we can’t resist at least window-shopping for. But, when was the last time something was put on the market for recreational divers that really parted the waters – changed the way…
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Phuket People: Raise a toast to a coffee roast
PHUKET: Each cup of coffee served at Hock Hoe Lee has more than 50 years of history steeped inside. It’s a taste to be savored. Three generations of one Phuket family have worked tirelessly to create the coffee served up today at Hock Hoe Lee, which has shops in town and in Rawai. Back in 1958, when Chinese migrant Cheng…
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Phuket Books: Present at the creation
PHUKET: Carole King is a 70-year-old grandmother with four adult children from two of her four husbands. At age 48, she took up with a 27-year-old actor and kept him for six years before swapping him for another younger man for another seven. She did this because she could. She is Carole King. For the 25 million people who bought…
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Phuket People: From Yala to “la la la’
PHUKET: Warunee ‘Gig’ Suwannurak is no ordinary singer. The Phuket-based diva, and recent ‘Thailand’s Got Talent’ sensation tells her story to the Phuket Gazette. Her powerful delivery of Pink’s (rendition of) What’s Up in the first round of Thailand’s Got Talent competition received a rapturous applause from the spellbound audience. One of the three judges proclaimed: “This woman will go…
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Phuket Health: Doctor’s orders – eat dark chocolate
PHUKET: Scientists have known for a long time about the protective effects of this “magic food” on atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries). I call it “magic food” because the full official name of the main component in dark chocolate is Theobroma Cocoa or “Food of God” – from the Greek words theo (God) and broma (drink). Supposedly, cocoa has been…
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Phuket Gardening: Taking the pisonia
PHUKET: THE Phuket Gazette is certainly living up to its status as an international newspaper. Bernard King from Auckland, New Zealand, no less, wonders if I can send him some pisonia seeds. He writes: “I am a disciple of growing tropical plants in a cool country. I have managed to grow a small mango tree that is bearing fruits. I…
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Phuket Lifestyle: APEC launches photo contest
PHUKET: THE Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Secretariat has extended an invitation to the region’s photographers to submit pictures that best capture the organization’s priorities. The photos should be inspired by four themes: trade and investment liberalization regional economic integration strengthening food security establishing reliable supply chains intensive cooperation to foster innovative growth These themes reflect the policy priorities that APEC…
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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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