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 Could bitcoin serve as a hedge against US Tariffs?
If you hold a certain amount of bitcoin or whether you’re planning to buy some soon, you must be wondering what impact the US tariffs have on the coveted crypto’s price. A market analysis by Inky Cho, Financial Markets Strategist...
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Ma Song on their way for Phuket’s Vegetarian Festival
PHUKET: Final preparations are underway as the annual Phuket Vegetarian Festival draws closer. This year the festival will start on October 5. According to tradition, it will continue for nine days and draw to a close on October 13. Director of the Tourism Authority of Thailand Phuket Office, Mr Chanchai Doungjit said: “This year we expect an influx of tourists…
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Phuket Property: Local retail sector booming
PHUKET: Our paradise island has been famed (and defamed) the world over for its many “s” attractions (and distractions) – sea, sun, sand, surf, sailing and sport… among others. Nowadays, the island is increasingly associated with one more “s”: shopping. Although residential projects – condos, housing subdivisions, hotels and luxury villas – continue to make up most of the island’s…
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COMMON SENSE: Bright future for solar power
PHUKET: We modern Homo Sapiens are addicted to energy. Energy is the main driver for development and economic growth and for over a century, we have been powering our addiction with fossil fuels. As someone that comes from an oil producing country and having worked with different indigenous communities in the Ecuadorian Amazon that have been affected by oil production,…
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A village on the edge: San Tin
PHUKET: In the bad old days of the Cold War and Mao’s Cultural Revolution, this part of Hong Kong, San Tin, used to be called the “Bamboo Curtain” – the 30-kilometer border, and a few kilometers either side, between what was a British Crown colony and the People’s Republic of China.Just to the southwest of the Lo Wu border-crossing between…
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Think globally, act locally – Environment
PHUKET: Let’s draw attention to some local happenings. First some negative ones. “Tainted Tide”, a recent Phuket Gazette front page article, revealed that Patong’s already polluted beaches had suffered yet another setback – a patch of brown, unwholesome water in the bay, perhaps a mindless discharge of sewage from local hotels, or a build-up of plankton, courtesy of contaminants in…
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Fruit: Food of the gods – Phuket Gardening
PHUKET: As any journalist worth his salt will tell you, it is always easier to amplify or pad out a piece than to abridge it. Unless you are very careful, condensing a piece can result in a lack of clarity, in stylistic obfuscation or worse, some painful wrenching of the sense. When, in response to a reader’s question last week,…
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Phuket In Focus: Outgoing Hon Consul Larry Cunningham
PHUKET: Australia’s Honorary Consul in Phuket, Larry Cunningham has announced that he will resign his post on September 30 after nine years on the job. During his time as Honorary Consul, Mr Cunningham has been a consistent and outspoken critic of the corruption and criminality facing visitors to the island. In an interview with the Phuket Gazette he said that…
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New hotel chain born in Phuket
PHUKET: A new globally focused hotel chain, Bugatti, is using Phuket as a platform for widespread expansion. While here in Phuket development is already underway on the east coast of the island, and on nearby Phi Phi Island, overseas plans call for branded properties in Bali, Myanmar and the Bahamas. By no means is this the first time the island…
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Hurry up to register for Turtle Fun Run
PHUKET: Mai Khao Marine Turtle Foundation and JW Marriott Phuket Resort & Spa are pleased to extend an invitation to the general public to participate in the Turtle Fun Run and Mini Marathon 2013, which takes place on Sunday September 15 at Pru Jeh San Lake on Phuket’s beautiful Mai Khao Beach. You can register for the 9th edition of…
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Enjoy the fruits of your labor – Phuket Gardening
PHUKET: Sepp writes to say that he owns three villas in Phuket and “would like to change the gardens to [include] more fruit trees, fruit bushes and nice flowers”. He adds: “Can you help me to find the right ones?” and asks “which books could I buy?” Well, Sepp, even to attempt an answer all your wide-ranging queries would take…
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A bright horizon – Phuket Property
PHUKET: Southeast Asia continues to see upbeat investment sentiment with Thailand seeing real estate owners inject assets into property funds while overall commercial real estate transaction volume in Asia Pacific declined by 11% q-o-q to US$19.2 billion after an unusually strong Q1 2013. The market remained active and the quarterly total was in line with volumes recorded last year, according…
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It’s all in the game – Phuket TECH
PHUKET: Teachers and students of the Prince of Songkla University, Phuket College joined by representatives of the US Embassy, recently welcomed Erin Hoffman, an American video game designer and book author who came to Phuket to conduct a workshop on game designing. Erin Hoffman is a lead game designer at the Institute of Play’s Glasslab project –which is focused on…
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A worthy initiative – Phuket Gardening
PHUKET: Any initiative which includes the planting of new trees is to be welcomed. There is a plan afoot, initiated by Mr Songjit Suppakit of Phisut Technology and supported by Phuket’s Governor Maitri Inthusut, to connect Sirirat Road (near Le Meridian Beach Resort) to remote and spectacular Tri Trang and Freedom beaches. The most ecologically sensitive proposal is to replace…
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Yet more dark despair – Phuket Books
PHUKET: After aspiring journalist Howard W French graduated college in 1980 he joined his parents, American medical doctors, in Ivory Coast. His romance with Africa begins with a girl from Mali whom he meets in a nightclub. Intrigued by her tales of Mali’s history, he sets off on an epic overland trip to Mali to see for himself. This journey…
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Samui’s tender trap – Phuket Property Watch
PHUKET: Everywhere you turn these days, tourism talk inevitably winds up on the subject of the mass market. It’s not unlike barreling down a dead-end street on a supercharged, high-speed bulldozer. There is no such thing as a damage control button to push. Yes, there will be collateral damage. Meanwhile back on the broader Thailand train of thought, and particularly…
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