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 Do foreigners get free healthcare in Thailand?
Thailand’s healthcare system is well-regarded across Southeast Asia, with options ranging from public hospitals to world-class private facilities. But when it comes to foreign residents or tourists, healthcare access isn’t as straightforward. So, do foreigners get free healthcare in Thailand?...
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Phuket Gardening: Enter the Dragon’s Eye
PHUKET: From blocked canals to poor flood management, the debate rages as to why Thailand suffered the floods of 2011. And while the arguments continue, the plight of many fruit farmers has attracted little attention, even though their livelihood has disappeared with the receding waters. Fruit trees, like most plants, suffocate through lack of oxygen if submerged for any length…
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Phuket Media Watch: Will Phuketians eschew meat?; Supalai eyes Phuket
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Phuket Lifestyle: Turning away from meat? Phuket Gazette / The Nation PHUKET: More and more meat eaters are turning their backs on steaks and even fish in favor of healthy vegetarian fare as part of their personal healthcare regime. However, many complain there are not many…
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Phuket Gardening: Stating the bleedin’ obvious
PHUKET: How often do we overlook the obvious? How many times have you gone shopping in Phuket City, or even to Bangkok, for an essential purchase, then discovered that you could have found exactly what you wanted just down the road? Maybe it’s just me.I’ve even found myself deciding to take holidays outside my adopted home country of Thailand and…
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Special Report: Caring for the unknown dead of Phuket
PHUKET: The unidentified body of a Caucasian male, recovered from the sea south of Phuket at the beginning of November, was finally laid to rest on December 14. The red-haired foreigner, dressed only in a black singlet and gray shorts, was discovered by the crew of Thai fishing boat Sor Naja as it sailed between Racha Yai Island and Koh…
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Phuket Property: Scribing the way to a clear handover
PHUKET: Once your dream home has been built, the builder or seller may require a swift inspection of the property and acceptance that all construction work has been completed. This is often the case as the acceptance of the construction works is typically the last hurdle making the final payment due. However, Phuket buyers normally want a physical due diligence…
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Phuket Lifestyle: Genesis turns out a revelation
PHUKET: When I was asked to review a new production on Soi Bangla, I was a little nervous as I have yet to learn how to gracefully fend off the many invitations from very lovely and much younger Thai ladies (or ladyboys) who suggest I spend a few hours in their company. What a surprise then when I approached the…
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Phuket Lifestyle: No reservations – the life of a hotel English teacher
PHUKET: Tucked away on the idyllic white sand beach of Kata Noi, a very chilled out and softly-spoken Jacob Ritter works as a communications specialist and English teacher for the Katathani Beach Resort. Flanked by palm trees and with an ocean sunset behind him, Ritter sat down with the Gazette to share his insights into the luxurious life of a…
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Phuket Lifestyle: The perfect steak out
PHUKET: In this so-called “New Age” of raw food fads, organic salads and whole grain sustainability sometimes it is necessary to go all out for what all macho real-red-meat- eaters really crave – a great big juicy steak. We hear there is a new steak venue on the island and as part of our New Year celebrations my male colleague…
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Phuket Lifestyle: Hogan’s hues of a brighter future
PHUKET: Having enjoyed a tour of the newly refurbished Angsana Laguna Phuket resort it was suggested to me by General Manager Jerry John, with a certain degree of pride, that the Kids Club was worthy of particular attention. While on holidays, every parent appreciates facilities for their children that provide entertainment, and are secure and well attended. Angsana’s Kids Club…
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Phuket Lifestyle: Take the art – leave the real antiques here
PHUKET: A dispute about the export of art and religious objects between the Thalang National Museum and a Phuket shop was tentatively set to rest after a meeting on December 15. The museum’s concerns that there was a risk of valuable national treasures being illegally exported from Thailand was looked into during the meeting headed by Vice Phuket Governor Somkiet…
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Phuket Gardening: Growing plants indoors and outdoors in water
PHUKET: When I first came to Thailand, I was, like everyone else from colder climes, astounded by the sheer range of plant life. Even more amazing was the way nature not only coped, but actually thrives in these hot, humid conditions, some of which seemed downright alien: smoggy air, poor soil, periods with either burning sun or bucketing rain. The…
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Phuket Books: Killing off the ‘Quiet People’
Phuket Gazette’s James Eckardt review of archeologist Brian Fagan’s book Cro-Magnon “How the Ice Age Gave Birth to the First Modern Humans”. Modern man, people like us, known as Cro-Magnon, entered Europe from the Near East around 45,000 years ago. Waiting on the scene were the Neanderthal shorter, stouter, much stronger but way less intelligent who’d had the continent to…
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Phuket Lifestyle: Where the seafood’s @
PHUKET: Kan Eang @ Pier is a Phuket institution and has been so for more than 30 years. Originally called ‘Kan Eang 1’, this famous Phuket seafood restaurant underwent a major renovation and name change in 2007. The sprawling grounds stretch more than 200 meters along Chalong Bay just south of the pier and here you’ll find several al-fresco and…
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Phuket international airport expansion set to bring 12.5mn visitors
PHUKET International Airport (PIA) will be able to receive 12.5 million visitors per year by 2014 following a planned 5.7 billion-baht expansion, Thailand’s deputy transport minister told reporters during a recent visit to the island. Kittisakdi Hathasongkorh said the airport’s runway would be lengthened by 700 meters to allow the new generation of “superjumbos”, the Airbus A380 and Boeing 747-8,…
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Phuket Lifestyle: Tapping into a new year resolution
PHUKET: My eyelids are pinched together as the man taps repeatedly on my throat with his fingers. There’s no pain. The tapping stops, there’s a shift in the room and I can feel him now sitting across from me, a few feet away, staring at me, studying my expression. He says nothing, just sits silently and waits for me to…
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Phuket Property: Boom in Pattani?
PHUKET: When news about Thailand’s deep South breaks in the press, images of strife and unrest are quickly conjured up. And while this article is an update about a massive uprising in the heart of downtown Pattani, one of three troubled provinces near Thailand’s border with Malaysia, this latest development does not feature any unrest, but rather cranes and concrete…
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Phuket Gardening: Drying the seeds of success
PHUKET: A recent email from Clive in Karon poses a question about seeds. “Why do seeds need to be dried before planting?” he inquires and adds that he has seen lots of them drying in the sun here in Phuket. The answer is more complex than you might expect. Seeds are produced by most plants and they vary in size…
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Painting a brighter future for Thai kids
PHUKET: Guests and visitors of Angsana Laguna Phuket have been summoned to paint their way into posterity on a mural designed by acclaimed Australian artist, Christopher Hogan, as money is raised for local Thai kids with artistic promise. In celebration of its recent opening, the 350 tile mural will take pride of place in the resort’s newly refurbished lobby. The…
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Phuket Movies: Review of 2011 film releases
PHUKET: Expect a barrage of year end reviews and lists in coming days. Newspapers love them. They close a chapter, let us remember if we should remember a year at all, and remind us of what, if anything, we should hold onto from these past 12 months. Was the Tree Of Life a defining moment in cinema history, or a…
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Phuket Lifestyle: Google’s top 10 searches of 2011
PHUKET: It is that time of year again when people look back at the year that’s been and compile lists. Google have been doing this for the past 11 years and call their compilation of year’s most popular searches the Year-End Zeitgeist which means “the spirit of the times”. To compile the 2011 Year-End Zeitgeist, Google will use the aggregation…
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Istana Phuket design claims global award
PHUKET: Prism Estates have won the Best International Architecture Award (Multiple Residence) as developers of the Istana Phuket residential estate at Naithon Beach. The International Property Awards (IPA) ceremony was held on December 12 at the Savoy Hotel in London, England and produced in association with Bloomberg TV and Google . The award validates the architectural vision of Richard Shearer,…
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Phuket Lifestyle: Decor – thinking inside the box
PHUKET: Being an interior designer often involves “thinking outside of the box” yet sometimes the opposite is true. Heading up such a team of designers and artists is Irish-born Brian Woulfe who, after two years in Phuket, recently held the lavish opening of his “Designed by Woulfe” offices at Baan Wana Park in Thalang. On arrival at his plush, purple,…
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Phuket Gardening: Rambutan – looks and tastes great
PHUKET: Of the glorious trees that grace our island gardens on Phuket, there are many small varieties that are considered ornamentals primarily on account of their decorative blossom. These include the flame bean (brownea or sok phuang), the erythrina (thong lang or coral tree), the abutilon or Chinese lantern, and the orchid tree (bauhinia or chong ko). Of course, a…
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Phuket Indigo’s new pearl revealed
PHUKET: Phuket’s Indigo Pearl, in partnership with Bensley Design Studios, have unveiled their latest design creation. The hotel’s much anticipated new private pool villas are a key phase in the resort’s multi-million dollar transformation to position Indigo Pearl as an “all suite and villa” property. Each of the seven secluded private pool villas is set within a walled garden, offering…
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Phuket Books: Teddy’s final adventure
PHUKET: There is a large and growing shelf of books about Theodore Roosevelt, most recently James Morris’s acclaimed biographical trilogy. National Geographic writer Candice Millard has taken a different tack, concentrating on his last great adventure in The River of Doubt (Anchor Books, New York, 2006, 416pp). Subtitled “Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey” this is the tale of his descent in…
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Phuket Dog Whisperer: Canine separation anxiety
PHUKET: In part one of our look at Canine Separation Anxiety we identified some of the many reasons and symptoms for its onset, so here in part two, we’ll look at various ways of treating it. However, it’s important to note that you should always consult a canine behaviorist first so that problem behavior can be correctly identified prior to…
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Phuket Lifestyle: Christmas in the chamber
PHUKET: Though only some divers know all the words to the Twelve Days of Christmas, every diver has heard or knows by heart a couple horror stories of “getting the bends”. From our training and bar room chat we get the the picture of a panicking diver disregarding protocol and bolting for the surface. As they shoot towards fresh air,…
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Phuket Lifestyle: Feat of a dancer
PHUKET: Internet sensation Matthew Harding recently visited Yaowawit School in Phang Nga to record a section for his new video which will feature the schoolchildren performing with “Dancing Matt”. The filming and publicity are part of efforts to encourage donations for the school and to help promote the Tourism Authority of Thailand’s latest campaign “Go Thailand: All that is missing…
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A call to arts: ThinkDesign Art Festival at the Royal Phuket Marina
PHUKET: The first annual ThinkDesign Art Festival will be held from December 27 – 30, at the Royal Phuket Marina and will showcase the talents of over 150 visual and performing artists from Thailand and around the world. This is the largest gathering of creativity on the island since the Phuket Andaman Painting Exhibitions held over ten years ago. Michael…
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Phuket Property Briefs – Village wins again; luxury movie; private jet facility
PHUKET: The Village Coconut Island, has been awarded “Best Shared Ownership Development” in the inaugural South East Asia Property Awards which assists in promoting high levels of real estate opportunities available in South East Asia. The Village Coconut Island’s latest accolade sits aside the 2010 Thailand Property Awards “Best Villa Development” and recognition as one of Asia’s Top 20 Resorts…
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