Month: January 2015
- Phuket News
Traffic policeman added to Phuket’s New Year casualty list
PHUKET: A traffic policeman has been added to Phuket’s New Year casualty list during the nationwide Seven Days of Sanger safety campaign, which began at midnight on Tuesday. Cpl Thanan Paisornarong, 27, was run down while attempting to stop a motorcycle at a checkpoint in Phuket Town at 2:50pm yesterday. He was taken to the Phuket Provincial Administrative Organization Hospital…
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Baby boy of Phuket’s first gibbon twins found dead
PHUKET: One of the first set of gibbon twins to be born at the Gibbon Rehabilitation Project (GRP) in Phuket has died. Staffers at the center hope to return the surviving twin to her mother on Monday. “These are our first gibbon twins since the center was established in 1992. The twins are the son and daughter of mother Mee…
Read More » - Hua Hin News
Chinese duo caught in Phuket skim scam
PHUKET: Police arrested two Chinese men and a Thai employee at a Phuket tour office for processing an estimated 700,00 baht in fake transactions charged to accounts of people whose ATM cards had been skimmed. Officers arrested Thongtam Bamrajken, 23, and Chinese nationals Tang Yongjie, 39, and He Haibin, 24, at the Ping Boom tour office in Wichit on Tuesday.…
Read More » - Business News
Laguna Phuket cleans up in dirty laundry trade
PHUKET: Part of the pleasure of holidaying in a good hotel is that you don’t have to do your own laundry. Yetsomeone has to do it for you and for all the other guests. Can you just imagine what a gigantic pile of dirty clothes all the resorts in Phuket generate? But where some see nothing but a lot of…
Read More » - Thai Life
Excuse Busters: Remain a holiday hunk
PHUKET: So the festive season is here, as if you hadn’t noticed. Now, I’m not going to be Phuket’s very own Ebenezer Scrooge and tell you not to indulge and have fun (I’ll let Craig do that), but I will give you some tips on how to lessen the impact of excessive eating followed by vegging out in front of…
Read More » - Business News
Finance: Oil volatility good for asset class
PHUKET: I used to write about the trend-following sector. Many of the funds I still use went decades with the steadiest performance in the investment industry, while still giving investors above-average returns. Sadly, in the period of low interest rates and volatility following the financial crisis, the entire asset class has struggled. The steady year-after-year forward progress seemed to turn…
Read More » - Opinion
Opinion: Phuket’s AEC success hangs in the balance
PHUKET: While the past year brought unprecedented developments in reclaiming public beaches from the hands of corrupt local politicians, the fact remains that the days of Phuket getting by solely on its merits as a beach-tourism destination have gone. The terms of the Asean Economic Community (AEC) are set to come into effect in 2015, in theory transforming its 10…
Read More » - Thailand News
Daughter warned of suicide before family found poisoned, children hanged
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Daughter warned of suicide before family found poisoned, children hanged The Nation / Phuket Gazette PHUKET: The former wife of a man who was found dead with four members of his family in a rented house in Bangkok’s Thon Buri district on New Year’s Eve told…
Read More » - World News
Search teams battle rough weather in hunt for AirAsia wreck
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – World news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Search teams battle rough weather in hunt for AirAsia wreck Reuters / Phuket Gazette PHUKET: Ships and aircraft criss-crossed the seas off Borneo on Friday hunting for the wreck of an Indonesia AirAsia passenger jet, but bad weather again hindered the search for the plane and…
Read More » - Thai Life
Give me a virgin, please
PHUKET: Excessive drinking is a natural disaster waiting to happen. Where else will you run into earthquakes, mudslides, hurricanes and flaming volcanoes all in the same place except on a cocktail list? What else except booze causes otherwise stationary and benign items such as trees, power poles, telephone kiosks and the occasional parked police car to suddenly wrap around the…
Read More » - Thai Life
Excuse Busters: Drink cheats for New Year
PHUKET: I am mainly talking alcohol this week, because I honestly think that soft drinks are such a poor cheat option. By that I mean compared to alcohol, soft drinks give low rewards on a social level for high sacrifices of a physiological level because of the amount of sugar or artificial sweeteners which are in fact toxins. What about…
Read More » - Thai Life
Phuket Gardening: Egging you on… eggplants and aubergines
PHUKET: We expats think we are familiar with aubergines. You know, the large glossy purple ones which look for all the world as though they have been coated with varnish. But Thailand has so many more varieties, collectively called brinjal, all of them edible and all capable of being cultivated in your kitchen garden. But let’s start with what we…
Read More » - Phuket News
Police nab armed thugs for Patong gang shootout
PHUKET: Police tracked down and arrested two men at a bus station in Phang Nga yesterday after one of the suspects shot a rival gang member in the face in a shootout on the streets of Patong just hours earlier. Staff at Patong Hospital notified the police of the shooting at 5am after Boonprom Chupeng, 18, was rushed to the…
Read More » - Phuket News
Woman, 23, jumps to her death before dawn on New Year’s Day
PHUKET: A 23-year-old woman jumped to her death from her second-floor apartment on Sainamyen Road in Patong before dawn on New Year’s Day. According to neighbors, Rattikorn Sunarak, 23, was feeling neglected as her boyfriend, as yet unnamed, had to work and could not attend 2015 New Year party countdown celebrations with her. The neighbors explained that the couple had…
Read More » - Phuket News
After Phuket New Year celebrations, man dodges Seven Days fatality list
PHUKET: A man walked away from a dramatic accident at Heroines Monument early this morning, leaving Phuket’s death toll during this year’s Seven Days of Danger safety campaign for the New Year at just one fatality. Police promptly arrived at the iconic roundabout in central Phuket at about 3:30am after Jamnian Sinthong, 55, called to report that a white Toyota…
Read More » - Thai Life
Food: A perfect square for meals
PHUKET: For some, a day without street food is a day wasted, but for others, a real meal is one served up by a celebrity chef in a posh restaurant. And then there are the rest of us – not extreme in our choices – who enjoy good food, drinks and company. For us moderates, Karon Beach Square offers a…
Read More » - Phuket News
Woman dies from injuries after Russian tour bus crash
PHUKET: The driver of a car that crashed head-on into a tour bus carrying 37 Russian tourists on Tuesday has died from her injuries. Tantima Thaworn, 37, was pronounced dead at 11:35am yesterday, staff at Vachira Phuket Hospital in Phuket Town confirmed. However, the hospital staff declined to give further details. Ms Tantima is the sole fatality from the accident,…
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NFL playoffs in Wild Card pre-dawn blitz
PHUKET: The end of the 256-game NFL regular season is bittersweet. Even with the unparalleled excitement of the playoffs still ahead of us, simply knowing that the end of the season is rapidly approaching is enough to set off that tiny first wave of depression in those of us who are hopelessly hooked. Super Bowl Sunday in the US falls…
Read More » - Phuket News
Crewman’s body washes ashore Phi Phi coast
PHUKET: Phi Phi locals yesterday discovered the body of a crewman who drowned after the cargo boat he was working on sank in heavy weather on Monday (story here). The body of the man, named by police only as “Mr Au”, was discovered at Ao Rantee on the Phi Phi coast at about 1pm. “Mr Au’s body washed up on…
Read More » - Thai Life
Diving: Herd of seahorses corralled off Mosquito Island
PHUKET: Off the north end of Mosquito Island, part of the Phi Phi archipelago, is a steep sloping hard coral reef. Happily, the staghorn corals there have not yet been destroyed by the anchors of speedboats just around the corner. However, it’s not these elegant hard corals that make this rarely visited dive site a must, it’s what lies beyond.…
Read More » - Thailand News
128 killed in accidents over first two days of New Year
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community 128 killed over first two days of New Year The Nation / Phuket Gazette PHUKET: The first two of the New Year period’s “seven dangerous days” have seen 128 people killed and 1,158 others injured in 1,133 accidents nationwide, the Road Safety Center said yesterday. Phetchabun,…
Read More » - World News
Weather stalls search for AirAsia black boxes; first victim buried
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – World news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Weather stalls search for AirAsia black boxes; first victim buried Reuters / Phuket Gazette PHUKET: Heavy seas stopped divers reaching the possible wreck of an AirAsia Indonesia jet off Borneo on Thursday and an aviation official said it could be a week before the black box…
Read More » - Phuket News
Myanmar rapist of girl, 14, sentenced to eight years in jail
PHUKET: The pedophile who confessed to raping a 14-year-old undocumented Myanmar migrant worker with the help of his wife in Khao Lak in August has been sentenced to eight years in jail. The wife, as an accomplice to the crime, was sentenced to three years in jail. The couple, named by police only as “Mr Ko Nai” and “Ms Ma…
Read More » - Phuket News
Chinese dive tour company shut down at Koh Racha
PHUKET: Officials have shut down a dive tour company serving Chinese tourists at Koh Racha, located about 25km south of Phuket, after confirming that Myanmar nationals were working illegally there as dive instructors. Santi Pawai, director of the Minister of Tourism and Sports Phuket office, announced the forced closure of dive company Hou Hai Diver Co Ltd during his inspection…
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Teen shot dead in New Year drive-by near Governor’s house
PHUKET: Police are searching for six men wanted for shooting dead a 15-year-old on the streets of Phuket Town last night in an attack that began in front of the Governor’s House on Narisorn Road. Police arrived at scene, near Ministry of Finance Phuket Office, shortly after receiving a report of the shooting at 11:15pm. “We arrived to find one…
Read More » - World News
New Year’s Eve stampede kills 35 on Shanghai’s Bund tourist strip
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – World news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community New Year’s Eve stampede kills 35 on Shanghai’s Bund tourist strip Reuters / Phuket Gazette PHUKET: A stampede killed at least 35 people during New Year’s Eve celebrations in Shanghai, authorities said, possibly caused by people rushing to pick up fake money thrown from a building…
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