Month: October 2012
- Phuket News
Phuket Sports: Bangkok Angels do not give Islanders salvation; relegation looms
PHUKET: Thai Yamaha Division 1 survival is still within reach ahead of Phuket FC’s final two matches of the season, despite a 2-1 away-loss on Saturday night to promotion contenders Bangkok United. Held at Bangkok’s Thai-Japanese Stadium in the heart of the capital, the 32nd match of the 34-fixture season was both side’s third match inside of a week. The…
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Phuket Vegetarian Festival 2012 underway
PHUKET: The Phuket Vegetarian Festival 2012 began officially at midnight last night as lanterns were hung at the participating Chinese shrines on the island, marking that the Jade Emperor and nine Emperor Gods had descended from the heavens. Thousands of devotees and spectators gathered at shrines across the island yesterday at sunset for the raising of the huge go teng…
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Flames engulf two Phuket tour buses
PHUKET: A fire devoured two parked tour buses on Phuket in the middle of the afternoon yesterday, causing an estimated 7-million-baht worth of damage, though no one was reported injured.The fire broke out on board the recently-arrived Phuket-Songkhla route bus, operated by the Sukda Bus Service, and then spread to another bus, said Phuket City Police officer Capt Somchai Noobun,…
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African woman caught with 6kg of meth at Phuket Airport
PHUKET: Customs officials at Phuket International Airport arrested a Mozambique woman attempting to smuggle six kilograms of crystal methamphetamine (ya ice) into the country on Saturday night.Officials estimate the drugs had an estimated street value 21 million baht.Airport Customs Director Montira Cherchoo said that Mrs Hortencia Ferreira Novela, 37, was arrested after Customs officials found the drugs hidden in her…
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Phuket beach turf war heats up as officials look to remove restaurants
PHUKET: With Maitree Intusut landing on the island on Monday as the newly appointed Phuket Governor, officials in Cherng Talay are wasting no time in their attempt to make a fresh start in clearing encroaching restaurants from the sands of Surin Beach. While Governor Maitree and his wife, Mrs Palinee, were wading through throngs of well wishers welcoming the couple…
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Hunt continues for missing Phuket gold thief
PHUKET: Police are continuing their search for the remaining thief who robbed a Phuket gold shop on September 17, making off with millions of baht of gold jewelry. One of the two thieves, a Burmese national named by police only as “Mr Koson”, surrendered to police after seeing his wife arrested on national television. However, Phuket police are still searching…
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Phuket Hospital fends off expat injury claims of “botched surgeries’
PHUKET: Refuting allegations of any medical misconduct concerning the treatment of Liberty Jefferson, following a serious motorbike accident in March, Vachira Phuket Hospital on Friday issued a statement to explain where their responsibility for her care started and ended. Reported by KVAL news in Ms Jefferson’s home state of Oregon, USA, “Miss Jefferson says she sat in a hospital room…
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Phuket Vegetarian Festival starts today
PHUKET: The annual Phuket Vegetarian Festival gets underway at sunset tonight with the raising of the go teng poles for the Jade Emperor and the Nine Emperor Gods to descend to our earthly realm. Each year, the nine-day Vegetarian Festival attracts thousands of tourists to Phuket to witness the various activities held across the island. The street processions each year,…
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Man robs Phuket 7-Eleven with scythe
PHUKET: Phuket Police are searching for a man who, armed with a full-length scythe, robbed a 7-Eleven in Thalang last night.The 19-year-old cashier on duty at the time of the robbery told police that a man wearing a balaclava entered the store, located near the Phanason Village residential estate on Thepkasattri Road, at about 10:45pm.“Although she could not see his…
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Arson not suspected in Patong lifeguard tower fire
PHUKET: Police do not suspect arson caused a fire on Patong Beach last night that destroyed about 13,000 baht of sun loungers and beach umbrellas.Patong Police Duty Officer Pratueng Polmana told the Phuket Gazette that he received a report of a lifeguard tower on Patong beach being ablaze at about 12:05am.Patong Municipality firefighters rushed to the scene and extinguished the…
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Phuket marks Royal Thai Police Day
PHUKET: About 500 police officers gathered at Phuket Provincial Police Headquarters this morning to celebrate Royal Thai Police Day today.Phuket Governor Maitree Intusut, who presided over the ceremony, told the officers in attendance, “I would like all police at every level to give their utmost in the practical application of the government’s policy and strategy to suppress drugs and crime.”Governor…
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Phuket Police ordered to boost security, safety for Vegetarian Festival
PHUKET: Provincial Police Commander Choti Chavaviwat has ordered an island-wide boost in security for the upcoming Phuket Vegetarian Festival, which starts tonight. Maj Gen Choti told the Phuket Gazette that he was only too aware that the island attracted large numbers of tourists, both Thai and foreign during the festival, and their safety needed to be ensured. Gen Choti said…
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Sek Loso to play in Phuket
PHUKET: Scandal-battered rock star Seksan “Sek Loso” Sukpimai will be among the acts performing at the second annual Life Music Festival in Phuket Town tonight. GMM Grammy – who tore up Sek’s contract late last year, when he refused to admit he had an increasingly violent drug problem – say they couldn’t be happier. GMM Grammy Chairman Paiboon Damrongchaitham says…
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Phuket Opinion: Of MICE and mangroves
PHUKET: With more than 50 injured turtles and a dolphin recovering amid news of an “extinct” crab resurfacing in Phuket, one cannot help but reflect upon the state of our island’s current fight for ecological survival. The breathtaking increase in development’s toll on the island’s natural resources has been reported by the Phuket Gazette for well over a decade. The…
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Transport Minister eyes Phuket traffic black spots
PHUKET: Transport Minister Jarupong Ruangsuwan in Phuket last week admitted that despite efforts to resolve traffic jams in Phuket through billion-baht underpass projects, other traffic congestion “black spots” also needed addressing. Mr Jarupong identified the Heroines’ Monument in Thalang and Chalong Circle in the south of Phuket as two areas that specifically need attention. “Projects that improve public transportation in…
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Phuket Sports: Islanders prepared for Bangkok United match tonight
PHUKET: Despite overwhelming odds, Phuket FC’s Coach is confident that his side can share the points in tonight’s away match against Thai Division 1 top-side Bangkok United. Speaking on the phone from the Thai capital this morning, Coach Anuruck “June” Srikerd told the Phuket Gazette that his side’s defensive game is tight and wouldn’t concede goals very easily. “Even though…
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Phuket Town redecorated for Vegetarian Festival
PHUKET: Ahead of tens of thousands of tourists arriving for the Phuket Vegetarian Festival, which begins tomorrow, shrine committees and local municipal workers have taken to the streets to post flags along major roads across the island and install huge decorations as part of the festivities. All main roads through Phuket Town, and especially those leading from local Chinese shrines…
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Phuket Sports: F1 – Red Bull, bubbles and bumps
PHUKET: It was over some suitably austerity-friendly pink fizz that I heard the bizarre news that Greece has proposed to subsidize a Patras F1 GP by US$37 million. Against a backdrop of 17 Eurozone ministers reviewing budget proposals for a nation facing meltdown, this looks somewhat frivolous. One wonders how it will play in Berlin, in the wake of Schumacher’s…
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Phuket noise: Villagers’ complaints spark raid
PHUKET: Complaints from residents about noise from two entertainment venues in the Heroines Monument area prompted Phuket Vice Governor Somkiet Sangkaosuttirak to lead more than 30 officers to raid the venues last night. Vice Governor Somkiet and officers from the Damrongtham Center (provincial ombudsman’s office), the Muang District and Thalang District Offices, and the Thalang Police raided the Relax Live…
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Weird World News: Cashing in on big money, or not
PHUKET: This week’s Weird World News Roundup runs the gambit from a US$1 bank robbery, to a space diamond bigger than Earth, with a half-billion US dollars in between. One dollar, enough for Federal Prison? A “polite” US man was arrested after robbing his local bank for US$1 [30 baht] in an apparent attempt to be charged with a federal…
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Phuket rapist blames demon drink
PHUKET: A confessed rapist, Peerayut Moottamara, 29, blamed his drunken state for the rape of a work colleague’s 18-year-old girlfriend in Chalong yesterday.“The woman was cooking in a makeshift kitchen behind the row of terraced worker flats [that both of them lived in] yesterday. I was drinking alcohol earlier in the morning, I was out of control. I saw the…
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Phuket Sports: this weekend’s action
PHUKET: Wayne Rooney will captain England against San Marino in the absence of Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard. England are currently joint-top of Group H with Poland and Montenegro. The match will be played in front of a sell-out crowd at Wembley at 2am Saturday morning, Phuket time. Scotland face Wales in a Group A match, with both teams needing…
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Phuket Property: Where have the artists gone?
PHUKET: It’s hard to trace back exactly how Phuket came onto the global stage as a leading beach destination. These days the campfires of old gather round the internet, and storytelling is an arcane memory. While I hear some catcalls from the cheap seats way out back about how the island is finished, and its impending doom signed, sealed and…
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Phuket lawyer takes death plunge after “humiliating’ argument
PHUKET: A Phuket lawyer died after plummeting from his third-floor apartment in Wichit last night, allegedly due to the humiliation of arguing with his girlfriend in front of apartment staff. Puwanart Pijansophon, 48, worked as a lawyer and also helped his relatives run the apartment complex that he fell from on Soi Jai Lau U-Thit 2 off Chao Fa East…
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Vegetable prices skyrocket ahead of Phuket Vegetarian Festival
PHUKET: Even a major festival such as the Phuket Vegetarian Festival is not spared commerce’s principal ethos of “supply and demand”; as demonstrated by the hike in vegetable prices this week. As has become the usual practice in previous years, with only a few days before the festival starts vegetable prices at the busy Kaset Market in Phuket Town, near…
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Phuket United downed by Highways Department in season debut
PHUKET: Playing in their Thailand Futsal Premier League debut, the Island’s professional five-a-side club Phuket United went down 1-2 to the Highways Department Futsal Club (HDFC) yesterday afternoon in Bangkok.The match was one of eight held on Wednesday and Thursday as part of the unofficial GMM 2012-2013 Thailand Futsal Premier League kickoff, held at Bangkok’s Fashion Island Futsal Arena. Taking…
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Phuket Gardening: Books on tropical gardening
PHUKET: Much of the knowledge one acquires about plants is learnt in the acid-bath of experience. And certainly there is no substitute for hands-on gardening. How often we find ourselves puzzled by the advice we find in books by so-called “experts”. Nonetheless, we often do need to check things – names, cultural requirements, growing habits and so on. And different…
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Obese abbot breaks all the rules
PHUKET: Keen readers of Queer News will know that monks behaving badly and keeping contraband in their quarters is hardly a rarity in Thailand. But the abbot of Phra Si Maha Phot Temple in Mukdahan might just have set an all-time record for such shenanigans. Early last month, Mukdahan City Police Station officers were alerted to the possibility that something…
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World News: Jurassic park will never be – cloning dinosaurs ruled out
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – World news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Australian scientists rule out cloning dinosaurs one day Phuket Gazette / News Wires PHUKET: Australian scientists have found that bonds in a DNA strand could survive up to 6.8 million years under ideal conditions, longer than previously thought but ruling out the possibility of one day…
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Phuket Governor calls for direct flights between India and Phuket
PHUKET: Phuket Governor Maitree Insutut who today met with Indian Ambassador to Thailand Anil Wadhwa called for direct flights from major Indian cities, including Mumbai and Kolkata, to serve the burgeoning number of tourists flying to Phuket. After the closed-door meeting at Phuket Provincial Hall this afternoon, Governor Maitree told the press that “Ambassador Anil agreed, and said he would…
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Phuket Vegetarian Festival starts with elbow grease
PHUKET: Devotees at three shrines in Phuket began their preparation for the Vegetarian Festival with smiles and elbow grease as they gave the shrines a thorough cleaning yesterday. The cleaning started at 7am at Jui Tui Shrine, Pud Jor Shrine and Bang Neaw Shrine in Phuket Town. Students from Bang Neaw Municipality School joined other locals in cleaning the Bang…
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Phuket Police doubt shooting suicide claim, launch investigation
PHUKET: Police are investigating the death of a man shot point blank in the head with a homemade gun while watching television in his home on the outskirts of Phuket Town last night. The investigation, headed by Phuket City Police Superintendent Sermphan Sirikong, continues despite the widow’s claims that it was suicide. Col Sermphan arrived at the family home in…
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Man crushed by Phuket Town juggernaut
PHUKET: A man wearing a safety helmet was crushed beneath a 10-wheel water-bowser truck, causing heavy traffic congestion for about an hour on Kra Road in Phuket Town this morning.The unidentified man, thought by Phuket Town Police to be in his forties, was transporting roasted-rice-bamboos on the rear of his motorbike at the time of the accident.The driver of the…
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Phuket Police cease investigations into two swimming pool drownings
PHUKET: Police are not continuing their investigations into the drownings of two tourists in swimming pools at two separate luxury resorts in Phuket last week. The two unrelated incidents, which both involved newly arrived tourist couples, occurred in Nai Harn, in the south of Phuket. The first drowning occurred on October 6 at a resort at the north end of…
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Phuket Vegetarian Festival vendors protest over street rents
PHUKET: Food vendors to operate stalls near the Jui Tui Shrine in Phuket Town during the upcoming Vegetarian Festival have successfully overturned the shrine committee’s decision this year to hand over the right to collect stall site rents to homeowners in the downtown area. About 30 people representing close to 100 Chinese vegetarian food vendors gathered around noon yesterday to…
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Joyriders nabbed by Phuket Police
PHUKET: In one of his first public press conferences as Phuket’s top-ranking police officer, Maj Gen Choti Chavaviwat this morning announced the arrest of two men for stealing a car to go joyriding around the island. Joining Kamala Police Deputy Superintendent Winai Kongkaew at Phuket Provincial Police headquarters in Phuket Town, Gen Choti announced the arrests of 32-year-old Phuket native…
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World News: British teacher Jeremy Forrest extradited on child abduction charges
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – World news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community British teacher who ran away with student extradited from France Phuket Gazette / News Wires PHUKET: A 30-year-old British teacher who was arrested in southwestern France last month was extradited to the United Kingdom yesterday and charged with child abduction after running away with a 15-year-old…
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