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Gov steps into battle over yacht recovery fee
PHUKET: Chris Sieber and his wife Surapa Srijutanat – owners of Kilo, the Phuket-based catamaran that was recently recovered off the Andaman and Nicobar Islands after going missing in December – have received a promise of help from Governor Udomsak Uswarangkura to try to reduce the massive salvage fee being demanded by the Indian Coast Guard.The 46-foot Kilo went missing from Phuket on…
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B1.4bn sports complex proposed for Mai Khao
MAI KHAO: The province will seek private-sector funding for a proposed 1.4-billion-baht sports complex and exhibition center to be sited on 617 rai of government land at the northern tip of the island.Promchote Traivate, Head of the Phuket Office of Sports and Recreation Development, told the Gazette that a committee formed to study the feasibility of such a project presented…
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Fever kills 138 water buffaloes in Phang Nga
PHUKET: More than 138 water buffaloes in the Thai Muang and Takuapa Districts of Phang Nga Province have died from hemorrhagic septicemia, known locally as “swollen neck fever”. Health officials in the province have declared an epidemic and all cattle and buffalo slaughterhouses in the two districts have been closed for at least 30 days.The disease, which normally occurs at…
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Trial of Brit’s killer to begin in December
KRABI: The Krabi Provincial Court will begin hearing testimony in the murder trial of motorcycle taxi driver Uthane Douangnoi in December. Uthane is accused of murdering Briton Richard Mark Collins on March 8 last year (see earlier story here). A clerk at the Krabi Provincial Court told the Gazette today that the hearing would likely carry on well into 2007.…
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Big Phi Phi meeting makes small progress
KOH PHI PHI DON: Some 200 local people attended a meeting on Saturday with Deputy Prime Minister Suwat Liptapanlop and a passel of senior government officials. They were hoping for solutions to many tsunami-related problems, especially an end to the ban on building permanent structures, but came away shaking their heads in disappointment at the continuing lack of progress.Phankam Kitithorakul,…
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Mystery over “mass dog poisonings’ in Patong
PATONG: Residents here are insisting that “up to 100 local dogs” have been poisoned in the middle of the night by people driving around in a Patong Municipality garbage truck.But Patong Deputy Mayor Chairat Sukbal vehemently denies that the cull has anything to do with the municipality.Prasert Moonlad, a resident of Nanai Rd in Patong, told the Gazette, “My three…
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Cheating alleged in OrBorJor exams
PHUKET: Seven people are under investigation for allegedly using high technology to cheat in an examination to select officials to work for the Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor). The OrBorJor announced last October that it was seeking to fill eight clerical posts. Some 2,000 people applied, and examinations took place on Saturday at Phuket Wittayalai School in two sessions –…
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Air traffic down sharply in 2005
PHUKET: Reflecting the sharp downturn in tourism following the tsunami, international passenger traffic through Phuket International Airport fell 54.4% in 2005.The latest statistics from Phuket International Airport show that the number of international passengers using the airport, both for arriving and departing flights, dropped from 2,024,879 in 2004 to 923,440 last year.Domestic passenger traffic through the airport fell 20.5%, from…
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Tour of Siam reaches Phuket
PHUKET: Hong Kong National team cyclist Wu Kin San won the sixth stage of the Sang Som Tour of Siam 2006 yesterday, by cycling the 154.5 kilometers from the Khao Lak Merlin Resort to Saphan Hin in 3 hours, 20 minutes and 56 seconds. He ranks 18th overall.The Tour, which started January 15, consists of seven stages over a total…
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Missing catamaran found in Andamans
ANDAMAN & NICOBAR ISLANDS: It has been a week for stray yachts being found. First the Wado Ryu, which disappeared from Koh Racha, was found yesterday drifting off the south of Phuket. Today, the missing catamaran Kilo was recovered in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands, some 725 kilometers from home. The 46-foot catamaran disappeared from its mooring off Kata Beach…
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Strange double death in Thalang
THALANG: Arun Sukbunpan, 43, a former manager of the Yacht Haven marina, was found dead on Wednesday night, having apparently taken his own life with a shotgun blast to the head.K. Arun’s 78-year-old landlady and close neighbor, Wouba Saharak, died upon learning of the suicide. The exact cause of her death has not yet been ascertained.Pol Capt Seksan Kamsakorn told…
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17-year-old “kills brother-in-law’
RASSADA: A 28-year-old gardener was allegedly stabbed to death by his brother-in-law during a drunken fight between the two at about 10:30 on Sunday night. Pol Maj Parichat Jaturonphan of the Phuket City Police said witnesses told him that a fight broke out between the two men while they were drinking with friends in front of the home they shared…
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Ao Yon sailing club faces closure
AO YON: David Ratcliffe, Commodore of the Phuket Yacht Club, has called a special meeting of members this Sunday, starting at 2:30 pm, in the hope of staving off the club’s closure due to financial woes.Mr Ratcliffe explained in a email to members, “Your presence is urgently required. The subject of discussion will be the future of the Club. At…
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Two gas stations fined for cheating
PHUKET CITY (Kom Chad Luek): Following consumer complaints, two “low-cost” gas stations were fined 5,000 baht apiece by the Ministry of Commerce (MoC) for overcharging motorists by tampering with fuel pumps, or using pumps that were not operating to standard.On January 18, Supoj Petchsri, Chief of Weights and Measures at the Phuket Provincial Commerce Office, led a team of local…
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TAT to push THAI for more direct flights
LAGUNA PHUKET: Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) Governor Juthamas Siriwan today stepped into the lions’ den – a room at the Sheraton Grande Laguna Phuket filled with hoteliers and property industry figures.Many of them have in the past been less than impressed with the TAT’s support for the tourism industry in the tsunami-hit provinces, some vocally so.But K. Juthamas came…
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Missing yacht found adrift
PHUKET: The 12.5-meter yacht Wado Ryu, which went missing from the anchorage off Koh Racha Yai on Friday, was located this afternoon, drifting in waters about 50 kilometers south of Phuket.The yacht was spotted by another on its way to the Red Sea. The French crew of that yacht radioed the Wado Ryu‘s position to the Phuket-based Mobile Maritime Network,…
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Samui killers get death sentence
SURAT THANI: Wichai “Loh” Somkhaoyai, 24, and Bualoi Kosit, 23, the two men who confessed to raping and murdering 21-year-old Welsh student Katherine Horton on Koh Samui on the night of January 1, have been sentenced to death by the Surat Thani Provincial Court.At an earlier hearing on January 13, both pleaded guilty to rape-murder charges under sections 276 and 277 of…
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TAT predicts 5m visitors, B80b revenue in 2006
PHUKET: Occupancy rates at 4- and 5-star hotels have averaged about 80% since the tsunami anniversary and the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) is predicting that 5 million people will visit Phuket in 2006, generating some 80 billion baht in revenue. Speaking to the Gazette yesterday, Siripakorn Cheawsamoot, Assistant Director of TAT’s Region 4 Office in Phuket, described the occupancy…
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Gov urges action to avert water crisis
PHUKET CITY: Phuket Governor Udomsak Uswarangkura has urged the Phuket Irrigation Office (PIO) and the Phuket Waterworks Office (PWO) to ensure there is enough mains water to meet demand in 2006, when an expected five million tourists are expected to push dry-season supplies to the limit.Speaking at the monthly “Governor Meets the Press” conference at Phuket Provincial Hall yesterday morning,…
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Yacht missing from Racha Yai anchorage
KOH RACHA: A yacht sailing Phuket’s waters has disappeared, believed stolen, while the crew were having supper ashore on Koh Racha Yai on Friday. The yacht is the Wado Ryu, a white-hulled 12.5-meter sloop. The name of the yacht is painted in large letters along the hull. She is registered in Germany. Pumo Stappelton, the boat’s skipper, told the Gazette…
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Triple play
KOH CHANG: The guests, it has to be said, were taken aback by the wedding invitation card, which announced the nuptials of bridegroom Yeuifa Meelaap and two brides: Vassana Uysap and Jenny Saibua. A wedding for a threesome was unusual, and all the more so when one realizes that the groom was also a woman. Talking to reporters, the trio…
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Bottled up
PRACHUAB KHIRI KHAN: From this peninsular province comes a cautionary tale about the perils of leaving bottles standing on the floor. Nuy (not his real name) had just finished his ablutions when he slipped on the wet floor of his bathroom and plonked down firmly on his backside. This is the kind of embarrassment many of us suffer from time…
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Amnesty slams death sentence call
BANGKOK (The Nation): Amnesty International Thailand (AIT) yesterday supported the mother of murdered British student Katherine Horton, who has said she does not want to see her daughter’s killers executed.The alleged killers, Bualoi Kosit, 23, and Wichai Somkhaoyai, 24, who are due to be sentenced tomorrow at Surat Thani Provincial Court, face the possibility of execution for raping and murdering…
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Blood supplies running low
PHUKET CITY: Stocks of O-type blood – both negative and positive – on the island have dropped to alarming levels, prompting Somchay Chodchasiri, President of the Phuket Blood Donor Club, based at Vachira Phuket Hospital, to put out an urgent call for more donors.“We have nearly run out of supplies in Phuket,” he told the Gazette today. “Operations are sometimes…
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Victim’s mother “does not want killers executed’
CARDIFF, UK: The mother of Katherine Horton, raped and murdered on a beach on Koh Samui on New Year’s Day, does not want her daughter’s killers to be executed, a British newspaper has reported.The News of the World quoted Elizabeth Horton as saying that Bualoi Kosit, 23, and Wichai Somkhaoyai, 24, should instead spend the rest of their lives behind…
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Four held for credit card forgery
PHUKET: Four people were arrested yesterday on charges of possessing forged credit cards.The four are Tanapol Detpalit, 45, from Ang Thong Province, Ubonrat Pinket, 47, from Ayudhaya, Pornpan Poolpakdee, 25, from Phuket, and Wong Mun Bin, 27, from Malaysia.At a press conference, Deputy Commissioner of the Central Investigation Bureau Pol Maj Gen Suchat Muankaew explained, “They were arrested at a…
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Horton killers to be sentenced Wednesday
SURAT THANI: Wichai “Loh” Somkhaoyai, 24, and Bualoi Kosit, 23, the two men accused of raping and murdering 21-year-old Welsh student Katherine Horton on Koh Samui on the night of January 1, appeared in court here today. Both pleaded guilty to rape-murder charges under sections 276 and 277 of the Thai Penal Code, which stipulates either life imprisonment or the…
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B253m budget approved for Phuket tourism
PHUKET: The Cabinet has allocated a 253-million-baht budget to Phuket for the development of tourism in 2006, the Governor’s Office announced yesterday.Krabi received 284 million baht and Phang Nga 252 million for the same purpose.Phuket had proposed several projects requiring additional funding that were turned down by the central government, including two major efforts: burying power cables along the beachfront…
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MoI to consider Thai nationality for 2,000 people
PHUKET: The Ministry of Interior (MoI) has set a deadline of January 20 for Governors of tsunami-affected provinces to submit applications for Thai nationality from an estimated 2,180 people who may qualify for nationality but who have not yet applied.The estimate was arrived at after research conducted by local officials in June last year, as part of a drive to…
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Get your smart card: Mayor
PHUKET CITY: Phuket City Municipality is now offering “smart card” ID cards, providing citizens with a replacement for old identification cards. Phuket City Mayor Somjai Suwannasuppana, explained at a press conference yesterday, “People who have a valid ID card can request a smart card by submitting their existing ID card and a copy of their house registration. “A 40-baht fee…
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