Month: March 2011
- Phuket News
Phuket tour tragedy “Raging bull’ retired
PHUKET: The male elephant that went berserk and killed a Phuket tourist at Khao Sok National Park on February 22 has been released into a wildlife sanctuary and will no longer be used in the tourism industry, the Phuket Gazette has learned. One of the survivors, Helen Gothe of Australia, said she was told by the general manager of Siam…
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PHUKET LIFESTYLE: ‘Phuket a diamond’ for rich jet owners
PHUKET: MJETS is in talks with Airports of Thailand (AOT) about building a private jet terminal at Phuket International Airport (PIA). The move comes on the back of the success of its first private jet terminal at Don Muang Airport in Bangkok, the company says. MJets Executive Chairman, Jaiyavat Navaraj, believes the company’s venture at PIA could put Phuket on…
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Phuket Promise: The beach guards ‘will be back’
PHUKET: Lifeguards will soon be back on the beaches in greater numbers and with more new lifesaving equipment, Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor) President Paiboon Upatising has confirmed to the Phuket Gazette. The news follows the February 26 expiration of the contract for the Phuket Lifeguard Club (PLC) to guard the beaches, leaving no organization officially responsible for saving swimmers.…
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PHUKET OPINION: Some notes on the value of spam
PHUKET: Following a salvo of gratuitous email last week from a local hospitality service company announcing the launch of a new business – which has now itself begun to indulge in daily bulk mailings – we at the Phuket Gazette have re-evaluated our long-standing policy against the use of spam for any purpose. And we’ve decided to change nothing. We’re…
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British man, 37, dies in Phuket suicide plunge
PHUKET: A 37-year-old British man died in Phuket yesterday after falling from a five-storey apartment block in what police believe was an intentional suicide leap. Thung Thong Police duty inspector Sakchai Chuyong received a report of the apparent suicide at 7:30am. The name of the deceased was widely reported in the Thai media, but is being held by the Phuket…
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Phuket Police target ladyboy meth users
PHUKET: Almost 50 per cent of the ladyboys rounded up in a sweep of Phuket’s Soi Bangla area last night tested positive for methamphetamines, Patong Police say. The random testing, led by drug suppression division inspector Akanit Danphithuksdart, targeted transsexuals along Soi Bangla and surrounding areas, including the beach road and Soi Joreoernsup. Of 40 tested for drug use, 17…
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Football Legends of Liverpool to play in Phuket
PHUKET: Liverpool Football Club fans on Phuket are set for a huge treat this June when a Legends of Liverpool team swing into town to take on a Legends of Thailand side at Surakul Stadium. A squad that includes 15 Anfield greats will don the famous red shirt in Phuket on June 18 as part of their tour of Thailand,…
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Phuket road rape victim still in ICU
PHUKET: Police are still searching for the two suspects wanted for the brutal roadside assault of a Phuket woman last week. The victim, 58, was set upon by two men just before dawn Thursday morning as she rode her motorbike to a local market. She was left unconscious by the roadside with blood running from a wound to her head,…
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Phuket Live Wire: Internet speeds up; TOT down; iPad2 launches
PHUKET: Tales of woe about TOT lines to new housing developments in Phuket continued this week. In at least two cases, major new developments have reached exclusive agreements with TOT to deliver voice and data lines to the developments. As you might have guessed, the results have been, uh, less than stellar. The lesson: for best service, count on competition.…
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What’s in this week’s Phuket Gazette?
PHUKET: This week’s Andaman Edition of the Phuket Gazette went on sale yesterday and 20,000 copies of our Nationwide Edition were delivered early this morning to all Star Alliance airlines for placement aboard all of their flights serving Thailand. Both editions contain extensive content not available here in the Gazette Online. However, digital subscribers may click here to download their…
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Phuket roads claim more lives
PHUKET: High-season mayhem continues on Phuket roadways, with one man dead and two others in ICU in separate road accidents in recent days. Yesterday morning, 31-year-old Apiwan Wongcheu sustained severe head trauma, a broken wrist and other injuries when the motorbike she was riding along Chao Fa West Road northbound in Chalong was struck by a southbound truck turning across…
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Phuket Mining Museum now open
PHUKET: Governor Tri Augkaradacha stepped up to buy the first entrance ticket to the Phuket Mining Museum yesterday to mark the official opening of the 180-million-baht attraction. The museum showcases Phuket’s tin mining history and the lives of the Chinese miners of the era through indoor and outdoor exhibits in both English and Thai languages. Outdoor displays include an abandoned…
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Phuket gears up for Heroines’ Festival 2011
PHUKET: This year’s Phuket Heroines’ Festival will feature the acting debut of Phuket governor Tri Augkaradacha, who will take center stage in the role of King Rama I in a historical drama based on the history of Thalang. The 2011 installment of the annual event will take place March 13 to 15 at Thalang Victory Memorial Field in Thepkrasattri subdistrict.…
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Canine-crazy couple have gone to the dogs
NAKHON PATHOM: Champa Tangsombun is crazy about dogs – so much so that it’s ruining his wife’s retirement. Mr Champa, 74, has been taking stray and injured dogs into his home in Village 9 in Bangchang subdistrict for 15 years. The retired bus station master now has 61 canines to take care of and he has spent his entire life…
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Middle East riots will not affect Phuket tourism
PHUKET: Tossaporn Thepabutr, chairman of the House Committee for Tourism and Sports, said the political unrest in the Middle East would have little effect on Thailand’s tourism industry. Speaking to reporters in Phuket late last month, Mr Tossaporn called for tourism operators nationwide to work together to attract 18 million tourists to Thailand this year. This was a realistic figure,…
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New Phuket police station plans inch forward
PHUKET: Plans to build a new police station in Karon are progressing at a snail’s pace, but work on the new Police Region 8 headquarters now under construction in Mai Khao is steaming ahead, officials were told this week. Maj Gen Decha Budnampeth, Deputy Commissioner of Provincial Police Region 8, told a meeting on Tuesday that his office was still…
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Join Phuket’s grumpy men on their rally for a cause
PHUKET: The Phuket GOMS (Grumpy Old Men’s Society) will stage their inaugural Car Rally-Treasure Hunt this Sunday, and there’s still time to get involved. GOMS consists of over 130, presumably grumpy expat and Thai members who get together twice a month to meet, discuss issues which grind their gears and think of ways to raise money for local charities. There…
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Dead leatherback sea turtle discovered in Phuket
PHUKET: Experts believe a 200kg leatherback sea turtle found floating in the shallows of Klong Tha Cheen in Phuket yesterday afternoon died after becoming entangled in a fishing net. The death comes amid what one expert has described as a “crisis” for the endangered species. The body of the turtle, estimated at between 15 and 25 years old, was discovered…
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Phuket telephones: Phone booths dying but some to stay – for now
PHUKET: The last decade has seen rapid development in telecommunications technology, which has led to cheaper mobile phones and greatly reduced need for public land lines. Consequently many phone booths in Phuket, run by the TOT Public Company, have been removed. However, according to Chanwis Bunjongkarn, the TOT’s Senior Director for Phuket Customer Services, phone booths continue to provide an…
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PHUKET CHARITY: Blazing saddles, bangers and cash
PHUKET: Members of the Old Bangkok Bangers Rugby Club were in Phuket late last month after a mammoth cycle challenge in aid of a Phuket children’s charity. The eight fearless men set out from Bangkok on Valentines Day, and for five energy-sapping days labored on bicycles to reach Phuket in one piece – all in aid of raising 500,000 baht…
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Phuket delegates ready for “amazing’ German tour
PHUKET: The Phuket delegation to next week’s ITB Berlin 2011 travel trade show will comprise 60 members, all on a mission to draw ever more tourists to the island under the Tourism Authority of Thailand’s (TAT’s) newest slogan: “Amazing Thailand Always Amazes You”. Among those representing Phuket at the event will be Phuket Governor Tri Augkaradacha and his wife Nalinee,…
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Russia extends invitation to Phuket
PHUKET: The first vice mayor of Nakhodka, Phuket’s Russian “twin town”, invited local officials yesterday to visit the far-eastern port city. Mayor Boris Gladkikh extended the invitation to Phuket Vice Governor Nivit Aroonrat during a meeting at Phuket Provincial Hall to discuss building closer relations between the two cities. Nakhodka, on the Sea of Japan near Vladivostok, has been Phuket’s…
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Finnish tourist found dead in Phuket room
PHUKET: Police are not treating as suspicious the death of a Finnish tourist found in his rented room opposite Patong Municipality offices yesterday. Capt Weerapong Rakkittoo of Patong Police said he was notified of the death at about 2:30pm. At the scene, a rented room on the second floor of a shop-house on Ratchapatanusorn Road, Capt Weerapong found the body…
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BREAKING NEWS: FC Phuket awarded league points after protest
PHUKET: FC Phuket were today handed all three points from Saturday’s Thai League Division 1 encounter against Rajpracha FC after they successfully lodged a complaint against Rajpracha for using too many foreign players during the game. Although the game ended in a 1-1 draw at Surakul Stadium, FC Phuket later sent documentation to the Thai Premier League providing evidence that…
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Tourist dies in jet-ski accident off Phuket
PHUKET: Rescue workers have recovered the body of a young man who died in an apparent jet-ski accident off Phuket over the weekend. Lt Col Jessada Saengsuree identified the victim as 20-year-old Pakpien Nunnoi, a native of Si Sa Ket Province. Mr Pakpien was on an extended family holiday, staying with his elder sister on Koh Rang, off the east…
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Developing Phuket: Calls for yet another major public hospital
PHUKET: Phuket MP Tossaporn Thepabutr last week proposed to Governor Tri Augkaradacha that another government hospital be built in the island resort province. Instead of smaller branches or satellite clinics of major government hospitals being built to serve local people, Mr Tossaporn proposed a wholly-new, high-end facility to attract health practitioners who are specialists in their field. Vachira Phuket Hospital,…
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Poll: Do Burmese in Phuket enjoy basic human rights?
PHUKET: A senate committee meeting in Phuket last year was told the number of migrant workers from Burma living in Phuket, both legally and illegally, could be as high as 200,000. The sight of trucks packed with these workers is common in Phuket, as are the proliferation of zinc-roofed shanties of Burmese workers’ camps that can be found at construction…
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Karen visit to Phuket full of firsts
PHUKET: Nine-year-old Ywa Hay Tha never went on family trips to the beach; never saw his favorite films on the big screen; never got a chance for a “normal” life. Nine-year-old Ywa Hay Tha was more concerned with keeping himself alive when he fled the Burmese military through the jungles of eastern Burma to the relative safety of the Umpiem…
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Greater Phuket: Shock TAT report on stinking beach
PHUKET: Despite regulations of the local village government stipulating that garbage not be placed out for collection before 8pm, trash continues to be dumped on Krabi’s Ao Nang Beach in broad daylight. Tourists say they don’t like it. The stink and the unsightly mess are a source of harsh complaints not only from tourists, but also from local residents. The…
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Phuket lucky license plate auction raises more than Bt23mn
PHUKET: The sixth annual “Lucky License Plate Auction” held in Phuket Town over the weekend raised 23,504,500 baht, Kanok Siripanichkorn, chief of the Phuket Land Transport Office (PLTO), has told the Phuket Gazette. “I am very happy with the revenue raised – it’s five million baht more than last year,” he said. All 301 plates up for auction were sold,…
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