Month: December 2003
- Phuket
Elite card price for expats to double
BANGKOK (The Nation): Expatriates will be charged two million baht next year for a Thailand Elite privilege card – double the current price – because they can use member services and facilities more often than foreign tourists or visiting businessmen. “We originally intended to set the price for expatriates at two million baht because of the many advantages they have,…
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More illegal immigrants arrested
PHUKET: Illegal immigrants topped this month’s crime statistics with 176 arrests between December 1-25. Figures released by Phuket Provincial Police show arrests for gambling coming in second with 169 people taken into custody from 48 raids. Another 43 people were charged with involvement in underground lotteries. Police apprehended 32 people for prostitution and made 48 arrests for possession or use…
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Maritime safety highlighted
PHUKET TOWN: Although not citing any specific threat, Phuket Marine Police are implementing plans to work more closely with other agencies to gather and share intelligence. Deputy Commander of [the national] Marine Police, Pol Col Ularn Anekboon, said, “Phuket, like Koh Samui and Pattaya, has many marine tourist centers and we have to maintain security at all of them. “All…
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Dramatic increases in land value
PHUKET: Phuket property owners can expect higher land taxes in the new year as the Phuket Treasury Office (PTO) has announced an island-wide average increase of 65% in government-appraised land values. The new rates, which reflect the island’s continuing property boom, will be effective from January 1, 2004 to December 31, 2007. The Bangkok-based Valuation Authority, which is responsible for…
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Death sentence for activist’s killer
BANGKOK: Bancha Noppawong, arrested for the 2001 murder of environmental activist Jurin Rachapol, has been convicted by a Bangkok court. He was handed the death penalty but is expected to appeal the sentence. K. Jurin was found shot dead on land close to the Wachara Prawn Farm – where Bancha worked – in Pa Khlok. A number of activists, including…
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Mayor leaves legacy of development
PHUKET TOWN: Projects totalling 70 million baht – including a park, high-tech traffic lights and a new symbolic sculpture – are under construction in Phuket Town, marking the end of an era for outgoing Mayor Phummisak Hongsyok. A 10-rai site on Thalang Rd – once home to the Phuket Provincial Electricity Authority complex – is under development as a multi-use…
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CSD called in after diver’s disappearance
KAMALA: The family of missing divemaster Phikun “Nori” Srisaksungnoen traveled to Bangkok on December 22 and filed a missing-person report with the Crime Suppression Division (CSD), which is now investigating the disappearance independently of Kathu Police Station. K. Nori’s mother, 54-year-old Soi Mungpanklang, and her younger sister Thanachat Srisaksungnoen, 23, told CSD officials that the investigation by Kathu Police Station…
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Patong murder suspect arrested
PATONG: The alleged murderer of a go-go dancer is now in Phuket Provincial Prison, following his December 23 arrest in Bangkok by a team of Kathu Police investigators. The man, identified as 26-year-old Akharadech “James” Phusuwan, was arrested without struggle in his native Bangkok following an investigation led by Pol Maj Chawalit Petchsripia. Akharadech was wanted for the August 20…
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Tourist numbers tipped to rise
PHUKET: New airlines, new air routes and more charter flights should help to increase the number of tourists coming to Phuket next year by about 10%, Lt Cdr Boonchart Prompoon, Director of the Airports Authority of Thailand, Phuket, said on Wednesday. He was speaking at the launch of an “All Smiles All the Time” campaign at Phuket International Airport, a…
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Tin mine land probe concludes
PHUKET: The investigation into land titles covering 17 former tin mines has concluded, with titles covering 663 rai expected to be revoked, Vice-Governor Pongpow Ketthong told the Gazette today. V/Gov Pongpow, who presided over the investigation, said that the results will be passed to Phuket Governor Udomsak Usawarangkura before New Year’s Day, though he added that a time frame for…
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Christmas first for Governor
PHUKET: Phuket Governor Udomsak Usawarangkura tomorrow night will be the special guest answering questions from the island’s English-speaking residents during a new weekly English-language radio show. The program will give listeners a chance to send or call in questions to local officials, with responses read out over the air, usually in a live format. Vice-Governor Winai Buapradit today said the…
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Gov vows to get rid of jet-skis
PHUKET TOWN: Phuket Governor Udomsak Usawarangkura vowed today that laws covering jet-skis will be strictly enforced from now on – and that jet-skis will vanish from Phuket beaches within seven years. His dramatic announcement follows incidents in October and November in which two European tourists were killed. “We haven’t enforced the laws strictly in the past but we will from…
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Paradorn goes down in straight sets
CHERNG TALAY: In the final day of play in the Paradorn Super Tour 2003 held at Laguna Beach Resort yesterday afternoon, Chilean Marcelo Rios swept aside Paradorn Srichaphan in straight sets, 6-4; 6-4, causing the Thai tennis superstar to end up winless in the four-city exhibition tournament bearing his name. Playing on a synthetic grass surface in front of a…
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World dive record broken off Patong
ANDAMAN SEA: Briton Mark Ellyatt has set a new world record of 313 meters for the deepest solo scuba dive, beating the previous record by five meters. Describing his historic dive on Thursday, in waters four hours off Patong, Mr Ellyatt said, “It’s a lonely trip, like a trip to the Moon.” The descent into the depths took a mere…
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Old theater burns
PHUKET TOWN: The once-popular Nimit Theater on Chana Jaroen Rd caught fire at 2 am today. Firefighters took 15 minutes to extinguish the fire, and managed to contain the blaze to the ground floor of the two-story building, which has 10 rental rooms. Pol Maj Chokchai Sutthimet, of Phuket Town Police Station, told the Gazette that only three of the…
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Illegal arms crackdown underway
PHUKET TOWN: Phuket’s top law enforcement official says that road checkpoints and surprise home searches are now being used in an all-out effort to rid the island of its remaining illegal firearms, now that the December 15 deadline for the amnesty on handing unregistered weapons to the government has passed. Phuket Provincial Police Commander Maj Gen Veerayuth Sittimalic told the…
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Bid to regenerate coral at Maithon
PHUKET TOWN: The Phuket Marine Biological Center (PMBC) and the Phuket Provincial Administration Organization are to launch a 1.5-million-baht project to regenerate coral around Koh Maithon, five kilometers south-east of Phuket. Although the technique has been employed on Australia’s Great barrier Reef, this is the first time this kind of project has been attempted in Thailand. Nalinee Thongtham, a coral…
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Senior police officers on the move
PHUKET: Four senior local police officers have received transfers to other provinces as part of a national reshuffle of some 750 of Thailand’s most senior police officers. Locally, the officers being promoted – and their replacements – are: Pol Col Sayan Krasaesan, Superintendent of Phuket Immigration Police, is moving to Bangkok to become Deputy Commissioner of Immigration, Region 3. His…
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Jobless benefit lifts social security cost
PHUKET TOWN: Compulsory salary deductions for social security insurance will increase from 4% to 5% from January 1 for workers and for employers. Yaowalak Yangyuen, Chief of Phuket Social Security Office, said, “The Cabinet has approved the increase because we have added unemployment benefits to social security.” Thus, if an employee earns 10,000 baht a month, he or she will…
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Changes made to Paradorn matches
CHERNG TALAY: Laguna Phuket has announced that the sixth player in the Paradorn Super Tour matches to be played at the Laguna Beach Resort tomorrow and Sunday (December 20 and 21) will be 18-year-old Chuang Chia-Jung of Taiwan. Changes to the order of play have also been announced. Saturday will see Taylor Dent play Marcelo Rios at 4 pm, followed…
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Chalong plaza plan cancelled
PHUKET: A 150-million-baht project to develop 40 rai in Chalong into a 700-shop complex has been abandoned. Five thousand customers a day and 120 million baht in annual profits were anticipated for the Phuket Legend Plaza Center but the developer, Eat & Art Management, shelved plans before any work started. All shop reservation fees for the project – which was…
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TOT promises fast Internet, more phones
PHUKET: TOT Phuket plans a huge expansion of high-speed Internet links, telephone exchanges and listed numbers, the Gazette has learned. The Director of Marketing and Customer Services Center at the TOT Phuket office, Suporn Chuenpimolchankij, said that the 12 existing telephone exchanges would be boosted to 37 and 19,530 telephone numbers would be added to the existing 40,676 numbers. The…
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