Phuket Gazette - Phuket Lifestyle

Phuket Books: Yoknapatawpha on the Hudson

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 19:18:00 GMT

PHUKET: William Faulkner�s novels take place in Yoknapatawpha County in Mississippi. William Kennedy�s novels take place in Albany, New York. His Albany Cycle of eight novels include two of the very best in American literature: Billy Phelan�s Greatest Game (1978) and Ironweed (1983) which was made into a movie for which both Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep received Oscar nominations.

Phuket Lifestyle: QSI Tigers unveil new den; QSI fun run

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:31:00 GMT

PHUKET: Quality Schools International (QSI) Phuket unveiled its new and improved sports den, with students rushing the field after the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

The US$120,000 (just over 3.7 million baht) new facilities include a multipurpose basketball court, a football field enveloped by a 100-meter running track and a new garden and waterfall.

Phuket Lifestyle: Facetime with Dr Paul Ekman

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:12:31 GMT

PHUKET: Dr Paul Ekman has built an impressive career around research on the human face and the many subtle micro-expressions which expose emotions. He believes that regardless of geography or culture, mankind has facial expressions in common that even reach to the world of primates.

Recently he presented a lecture, Emotional Intelligence and Education: Reading Faces, Recognizing Feelings and Revealing Lies at the Thanyapura Sports and Leisure Club at the Phuket International Academy where he described his research into human emotions and their expressions.

Phuket Lifestyle: Kata�s hot spot to chill by the sea

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:57:04 GMT

PHUKET: RE K� TA (doesn�t that name shout out loud?) is the newest incarnation of the passed-away Oasis, next to Boathouse at Kata Beach. The base for the annual King�s Cup Regatta, it�s not hard to see how the place got its spiffy name.

Essentially, RE K� TA is a beach club: Simply lay your 1,000 baht down and you�ll get full amenities, such as a swimming pool, a potentially amusing "walk-through" automatic shower that I�ll lay heavy odds will be the demise of some cell-phone-toting, inebriated punter sooner rather than later (the gate-like structure lies directly on the way to the rest rooms), towels, sun deck and more.

Phuket Comedy club early bird special offer closing

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 19:30:00 GMT

PHUKET: Phuket�s Punchline Comedy Club special February 29 show is only a week away and this is the last call for early bird tickets.

The infamous �Whose Line Is It Anyway� crew will take to the stage at Patong�s Holiday Inn next Wednesday evening for a performance that would even bring a smile to the face of Tom Cruise, considering he is the focus of the event�s joke competition.

The joke question is: �What�s the difference between Tom Cruise and a tuk-tuk?� Send your punchline to

Phuket health: Signs you can't afford to ignore

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 14:05:39 GMT

PHUKET: We tend to think that if it doesn�t hurt it must be fine, but ignoring irregular eye symptoms is a big mistake. Why? Because there are no pain receptors in the eye, so if you�re seeing things but feel no pain it doesn�t mean you�re okay.
Today, we will talk about �floaters and flashing�.

Phuket Gardening: North and South - The biodiversity of Thailand

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 15:17:22 GMT

PHUKET: Thailand is a large and varied country, especially in terms of its length from north to south (1600 kilometers), and its coastline of 2,600 kilometers. Because of the resulting range of micro-climates, it is able to produce an unending range of flowers, trees and fruit.

Put another way, Thailand�s biodiversity is immense, the country is still the trustee of an extraordinarily rich natural landscape.

Phuket Gazette's weekly horoscope by Isla Star

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 10:26:42 GMT

Phuket Lifestyle: Jan Sylan as described by an officer and a gentleman

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 16:18:30 GMT

PHUKET: Captain James Forrest is a significant character in Phuket�s history as he was one of the few English naval captains who visited the island during the 18th century.

His travel accounts are useful because they vividly depict the geography of the island, the abundance of resources, trade and how the inhabitants of the island lived during that period.

Capt Forrest�s visit coincided with important historical events on Phuket, while his own accounts help fill the voids in stories that come from traditional Thai historical sources.

Phuket Comedy: Who�s this Andy Smart anyway?

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 15:41:15 GMT

PHUKET: Phuket Gazette:

Where and when were you born?

Andy Smart: I was born in Portsmouth in a nursing home that is now appropriately a Casino, in 1959.

PG:Any amusing tales from your childhood and/or school days?

AS: I drowned when I was 7 in the Basingstoke canal, and was clinically dead for about 2 and a half minutes. Luckily my father had been a deep sea diver and knew CPR and brought me back to life.

Phuket Lifestyle: An elephant that is hard to forget

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 09:03:18 GMT

PHUKET: Phuket has elephants but at the elegant wine dinner held at the Evason Phuket last week, the only elephant there was the one featured on the bottles of Cos D�Estournel.

Evason Phuket has a long history of bringing great wines and winemakers together with guests at their special SLOW (Sustainable, Local, Organic and Wellness) gourmet dinners where the wines are paired with exciting innovations from the kitchen.

The evening featured one of the finest wines money can buy and was three years in the preparation with the Singapore based representative of Cos d�Estournel, Valentine Bourri�, who cut through oodles of red tape to bring her ruby colored treasure to the table.

Phuket Lifestyle: Bangers cyclists will change lives forever

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 09:32:03 GMT

PHUKET: The kitbags are being put together and include Vaseline, talcum powder, bandages and ibuprofen for swollen muscles.

Yes, it�s time again for those hardy cyclists of the Bangers On Bikes Charity Bike Ride to furiously pedal from the capital of Thailand to the island province of Phuket.

The charity event was conceived three years ago by members of the Old Bangkok Bangers Rugby Club who were for sometime involved in a rural rugby development program for Thai children.

Phuket Lifestyle: Funk it up at the 2012 Mango House Festival

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 16:44:11 GMT

PHUKET: The Absolut Mango House Festival 2012 organizers have announced their entertainment lineup for South Thailand�s premiere house music event on March 7, 8 and 9 at the Mango House Bar and Restaurant in Lanta Old Town, Koh Lanta.

The house music festival is a popular event at the island�s annual cultural extravaganza, the Lanta Lanta Festival.

Back by popular demand this is year is London�s Ministry of Sound resident DJ 'Two Good Souls'.

Phuket Valentine's Day

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 14:44:46 GMT

History is unclear on whether any of The Beatles had journeyed to Phuket before they wrote their 1964 smash hit with its charmingly quaint lyrics�"Money Can�t Buy Me Love."

Clearly the lyricist Paul McCartney had never had the pleasure of a wander down Soi Bangla around midnight on almost any evening. Had he done so, he would have certainly witnessed plenty of filthy lucre being exchanged for love�or something that looks suspiciously like it, at all sorts of local entertainment venues.

Phuket Books: Searching to do the right thing

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 15:48:01 GMT

PHUKET: At the age of 70, Russell Banks has written 14 novels. I�ve read two, The Book of Jamaica and Continental Drift which work out moral quandaries found on the border between a white working class hero from New England and the exotic world of the Caribbean.

His latest novel, Lost Memory of Skin ( Ecco, 432 pages), takes place in Miami and centers on a 22-year-old sex offender called The Kid who lives in an outcast squatter community of fellow sex offenders underneath a causeway over the bay between the mainland and the wealthy barrier islands.