Month: January 2014

  • Phuket

    Search called off for mentally-handicapped man lost at sea

    PHUKET: Phuket Marine Police have given up the search for a mentally-handicapped man who was swept from a longtail boat into the sea today. “We spent more than four hours looking for Jirawat Srisomporn, 27, before we had to call off the mission because of big waves,” said Lt Col Panya Chaichana of the Phuket Marine Police. Mr Jirawat, who…

    Read More »
  • Phuket

    Superbowl fever (pre-hangover) in Phuket

    PHUKET: As much as I love the National Football League (NFL), I am no fan of the two weeks of retarded media hype in the run-up to the Super Bowl, or “Stupor Bowl” as I like to call it, given the ungodly time it is broadcast live here in Phuket (Monday, February 4, 6:25am). Before I explain why, I should…

    Read More »
  • Thailand

    Phuket Gazette Thailand News: Election Special – How did we end up here? From Thaksin to today

    PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Thailand Election Special – How did we end up here? From Thaksin to today Reuters / Phuket Gazette PHUKET: Yingluck Shinawatra’s journey from political nobody to prime minister was breathtakingly swift. Her premiership’s descent into crisis has been just as rapid. A political neophyte when she…

    Read More »
  • Opinion

    Phuket Opinion: Airport expectations hit rough turbulence

    PHUKET: Phuket is an international tourist destination – few can argue differently. Islanders may whine that it isn’t what it used to be, but even they are likely to admit that one of the benefits of progress is having an international airport, with international standards.The airport does meet standards, doesn’t it?World travellers and even domestic puddle jumpers have some basic…

    Read More »
  • Opinion

    Phuket Opinion: Creating a family for the ill far from home

    Anita Somaini, 51, is the owner of Baan Tschuai Duu Lää, a nursing facility in Rawai. She has degrees in nursing, emergency nursing and pharmacology and worked for 20 years in hospitals, geriatric institutes and pharmaceutical companies in her native Switzerland. She came to Phuket in 2010.Here, she talks about why Phuket is a good place for a nursing home,…

    Read More »
  • Opinion

    Phuket Opinion: Safe Phuket roads still nowhere to be found

    PHUKET: It is hard to imagine that only two countries in the world have more deadly roads than Thailand. Yes, Phuket Land Transport officials should take a measure of pride in the reduction of road accident deaths in recent years, but the island obviously has far to go before conditions on the roadways can be considered anything close to acceptably…

    Read More »
  • Phuket

    Girl in critical condition pulled from bottom of sea at Phuket beach

    PHUKET: Doctor’s are scrambling to save the life of a girl who was pulled unconscious from the sea floor at Nai Harn Beach today. “She arrived at about 3pm in critical condition,” Vachira Phuket Emergency Medical Service nurse Ladda Thongtan told the Phuket Gazette. The girl was one of four children pulled from the water during the rescue. Eyewitnesses to…

    Read More »
  • Phuket

    Bang Tao Canal ills on course to be solved by 2015

    PHUKET: A multitude of infrastructure projects designed to stifle the stench and improve the quality of water being released from the Bang Tao Canal into the ocean are about 30 to 40 per cent complete, Cherng Talay Administrative Organization officer (palad) Krichanut Suphantakit has confirmed. The projects include two wastewater treatment plants: one in Bang Tao and one in Surin,…

    Read More »
  • PhuketOfficer accused of trafficking Rohingya to be investigated by PACC | Thaiger

    Officer accused of trafficking Rohingya to be investigated by PACC

    PHUKET: The Public-sector Anti Corruption Commission (PACC) Region 8 is awaiting final approval from Bangkok to start an investigation into a Phang Nga police officer accused of trafficking Rohingya women over eight months ago. The charges against the officer, Sen Sgt Maj Weerayuth Feuangfu, stem from the case of a Rohingya woman who reported that she was repeatedly raped after…

    Read More »
  • Phuket

    Russian tourists spring a leak, saved by Phuket fishing boat

    PHUKET: Two Russian tourists foundering in Phang Nga Bay after their kayak sprung a leak were rescued by a passing Phuket fishing boat yesterday afternoon.Maxim Abaturov, 37, and Valerii Grakhouskii, 38, were three kilometers from Phuket when a seal in the front of their two-man vessel began to let in water.Although the kayak remained afloat, it could not support the…

    Read More »
  • Thai Life

    Bangkok Hospital Phuket making strides towards specialized health care

    PHUKET: The Bangkok Phuket Colorectal Disease Institute officially opened to the public on January 9. Located on the third floor at Phuket’s Bangkok Hospital in Samkong, the institute specializes in the diagnoses and advanced treatment of a multitude of colorectal diseases including colon and prostate cancer.Founded and directed by Dr Art Hiranyakas, the institute offers patients state-of-the-art medical care by…

    Read More »
  • Food Scene

    THINK Design: Art you can eat

    PHUKET: We’ve all heard about those elegant and exclusive, more than five star little boutique resort properties hidden away around Phuket but few of us ever get the chance to visit one.It was my good fortune to be invited by Publisher Michael Earle to attend the 40th THINK Design art dinner at Iniala Beach House, tucked away on a quiet…

    Read More »
  • Food Scene

    Bodega: The evolution of flavor

    PHUKET: “If you don’t move forward, sooner or later you begin to move backward,” once said former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev in a speech at the Harvard University. He might have been addressing the issue of nuclear disarmament but his words remind us of one of life’s great truths – change is not only unavoidable, it’s necessary and good.Owners…

    Read More »
  • WorldPhuket Gazette World News: Syrian forces raze thousands of homes [Video] | Thaiger

    Phuket Gazette World News: Syrian forces raze thousands of homes [Video]

    PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– World news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Syria peace talks take a break as rivals dig in Reuters / Phuket GazettePHUKET: Syrian authorities have flattened seven residential districts for no apparent military objective but to punish civilians living among rebels who had already fled, Human Rights Watch said on Thursday.The New York-based advocacy group…

    Read More »
  • Food Scene

    Phuket Vegan Dining: Real food, in the raw

    PHUKET: If you hear the term “raw food” you might, like I did, take it to mean “food waiting to be cooked”. But in Rawai, in the island’s south, the owner of Atsumi Raw Food Cafe, Anna Wasin is championing the health benefits and sublime, simple flavors of natural, raw, organic, unprocessed and uncooked ingredients by crafting dozens of tasty…

    Read More »
  • World

    Phuket Gazette World News: Amanda Knox convicted again of Briton’s 2007 murder

    PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– World news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Knox and Sollecito convicted again of Briton’s 2007 murder Reuters / Phuket GazettePHUKET: American student Amanda Knox and her former Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were found guilty on Thursday for the second time of the 2007 murder of Briton Meredith Kercher, in a retrial that reversed an…

    Read More »
  • Business

    UAE woos foreign direct investment

    PHUKET: Under the directive of HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, UAE Ministry of Economy recently announced that preparations for the 4th Annual Investment Meeting (AIM) scheduled from 8 to 10 April 2014 at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Center are in full swing.Delivering the speech…

    Read More »
  • World

    Phuket Gazette World News: Congo’s poachers threatened with U.N. sanctions

    PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– World news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Congo’s poachers threatened with U.N. sanctions Reuters / Phuket GazettePHUKET: The U.N. Security Council warned on Thursday that it would sanction individuals and entities supporting militants in the Democratic Republic of the Congo through illegal wildlife trafficking.The council’s unanimously adopted resolution on Congo extended the arms embargo…

    Read More »
  • World

    Phuket Gazette World News: Suicide bombers storm Iraq ministry building, 24 killed

    PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– World news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Suicide bombers storm Iraq ministry building, 24 killed Reuters / Phuket GazettePHUKET: Six suicide bombers burst into an Iraqi ministry building, took hostages and killed at least 24 people including themselves on Thursday before security forces regained control, security officials said.The brazen attack on the building belonging…

    Read More »
  • Business

    Phuket Finance: Sri Lanka could be the next frontier for investors

    PHUKET: When most Westerners think of Sri Lanka, the island nation off the coast of South India that was once known as Ceylon, they probably think of tea (as the country has long been a major tea exporter), science fiction author Arthur C Clarke (who spent most of his adult life living there) or the now defeated Tamil Tiger guerillas…

    Read More »
  • Thailand

    Phuket Gazette Thailand News: Tourism takes B50bn hit from protests

    PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– Thailand news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Bt50 bn loss expected in Q1 revenue from tourism The Nation / Phuket GazettePHUKET: Thailand’s tourism sector has lost income so far in the new year because of he political turmoil plaguing Bangkok, experts said.Small hotels and restaurants near protest sites have started to cut down their…

    Read More »
  • Business

    Phuket Finance: A time tested formula

    PHUKET: A question I am often asked by clients, who do a bit of stock trading on their own portfolios, is how to determine the appropriate position size. Indeed, there have been studies that show that this aspect can be just as important as the actual security selection in the long run. The reason this is so important is that…

    Read More »