- Phuket News
Shark staff petition in vain
PHUKET TOWN: 131 staff members of Patong’s Shark Club, ordered closed yesterday by Phuket Governor CEO Pongpayome Vasaputi, assembled at the Provincial Hall this afternoon to demand that he reopen the club. They were unable to meet with the governor, who was in Bangkok today, and instead presented their petition to Vice Governor Manit Wattanasen. Three representatives – Pathamapan Rattanapan,…
- Phuket News
Governor shuts the Shark
PHUKET: The biggest disco in Phuket, Patong’s Shark Club & Discotheque, was today ordered closed permanently on instructions from the Minister of Interior, Purachai Piemsomboon. The closure order, announced by Governor CEO Pongpayome Vasaputi, came after it was discovered that the operating license for the disco – which can hold more than 1,500 revelers at a time – contained irregularities…
- Phuket News
B13m lost in warehouse blaze
PHUKET TOWN: Firefighters from all over the island took seven hours yesterday morning to put out a blaze in a warehouse. Damage in the fire was estimated at about 13 million baht. No one was hurt. Police answered a call about 3 am, by which time six fire engines from Phuket Town were already at the warehouse in Songkhla Rd,…
- Phuket News
Vice-Governor shuts Timber Hut
PHUKET TOWN: One of Phuket’s oldest and most popular nighttime venues, the Timber Hut pub on Yaowarat Rd, has been ordered to close for 30 days because a Vice-Governor saw people dancing there. Vice-Governor Manit Wattanasen told the Gazette that he went to the pub on Saturday to meet a friend, and saw people dancing. “Muang District is in my…
- Phuket News
Couples set to get wet and wed
TRANG: A record number of couples are expected to marry in the annual mass underwater wedding ceremony off Trang on Valentine’s Day. Partly because there’s no need to bring something blue – they will be floating in it – Trang’s watery wedding on February 14 is expected to win a place in the Guinness Book of Records. So far, 36…
- Phuket News
Appeal for action against megastores
PHUKET TOWN: A crisis meeting of the Phuket Chamber of Commerce (PCC) today pushed for government support for small Thai retailers in the face of overwhelming competition from large foreign supermarkets and discount stores. The meeting was told that as many as 250,000 small retail outlets around Thailand had already been forced to close because they could no longer compete.…
- Phuket News
Sheraton to run new resort in Krabi
AO NANG: Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc and Thai company MBK Properties and Development have announced an agreement whereby Starwood will manage a new resort, now being constructed north of Ao Nang, under its Sheraton brand. The 246-room Sheraton Krabi Beach Resort is to open in December on a 48-rai site on Khlong Muang Beach, which is north of…
- Phuket News
50 international phone booths vandalized
PHUKET: More than 50 public telephones for international calls have been jammed in what appears to be a campaign of deliberate vandalism. Plastic cards, cut in half, were jammed into the phone card slots in booths around the island. Some would-be callers, angry at not being able to make overseas phone calls, added to the damage by venting their frustration…
- Phuket News
Bonanza for crash helmet shops
PHUKET: Thanks to the police crackdown on the wearing of crash helmets on motorcycles, helmets have been moving off shop shelves almost as fast as passing motorbikes. But businesses surveyed by the Gazette today said that the popular buys have been cheap, low-quality models that provide little if any protection in a crash. The shops also said that, after an…
- Phuket News
Seized yacht finally auctioned off
PHUKET TOWN: The sailing yacht “Bin Cha Cha” was finally sold at auction this morning at the Phuket Customs Region 5 office, after two previous attempts to sell it last year failed. Niwat Triemsantipap, the assistant general manager of the Maiton Resort, acquired the 7.9-meter yacht with a bid of 200,000 baht, just one third of its original reserve price…
- Phuket News
The lick of love
PHUKET: To commemorate Valentine’s Day on February 14, the Communication Authority of Thailand (CAT) will be selling one million rose-scented postage stamps. Suwanna Suwanpetch, CAT public relations officer for Region 8, told the Gazette, “Thailand is the first country in the world to produce a scented stamp. Measuring one-inch across, the stamp will also be Thailand’s first square stamp.” The…
- Phuket News
Coral thieves escape police raid
RAWAI: Police yesterday interrupted a group of men as they were unloading stolen coral worth 100,000 baht from a boat, but the gang of 10 escaped. As the men fled they left behind 340 pieces of coral packed neatly in polystyrene containers. Local residents tipped police off when they saw the coral being transferred yesterday afternoon from a longtail boat…
- Phuket News
Fury at proposal to close Phi Phi
KRABI (Gazette, Nation, AFP): Local businesspeople and officials have branded as “a big joke” a proposal that Phi Phi Don Island should be closed for two years to allow pollution in the tourism hotspot to be cleaned up. The proposal was put forward by Tourist Police Commander Pol Col Sanit Miphan, who told The Nation newspaper recently that the tiny…
- Phuket News
New-born jumbo a first for Phuket
CHALONG: Phuket finally has a baby elephant to call its own – Plai Phuket. Plai Phuket (“Plai” is the traditional honorific for a male elephant), became the first pachyderm born in Phuket, according to the experts, when he weighed in at 60 kilos in the early hours of yesterday. The youngster was healthy but shy, standing on wobbly legs beneath…
- Phuket News
Man stabbed to death in bar brawl
KATA: One man was stabbed to death and another was badly injured in a brawl in front of the Easy Rider pub on Taina Rd in the early hours of Sunday morning. Pol Capt Teerawat Liamsuwan of Chalong Police Station told the Gazette that he received a call at about 2 am, telling him about the brawl. Arriving at the…
- Phuket News
Bike Rally scrambles for new site
PATONG: Phuket Bike Rally organizers are scrambling to find a new location for the event after the Patong Municipality refused to allow it to be staged on the Patong football field or along Thaweewong Rd. The announcement came on Friday after a meeting involving the Municipality and interested parties, including a representative from Club Andaman Beach Resort, which hopes to…
- Phuket News
Corpse found on garbage pile
KOH SIREH: The partially decomposed body of a naked man was found in a pile of garbage among mangroves near Plermsuk Beach yesterday afternoon. Police were notified after local villagers found the body, dumped face down in a pile of garbage 200 meters from the main road. At the scene, officers discovered that the man had been shot in the…
- Phuket News
German dies in bike crash
CHALONG: A popular German dive instructor died after his motorbike collided head-on with a pickup truck not far from the Green Man Pub & Restaurant on Patak Rd early Wednesday. Sascha Schleicher, 36, was declared dead on arrival at Phuket International Hospital. Police believe he was not wearing a helmet at the time of the crash, about 7:30 am. Pol…
- Thailand News
Students “use toilets as ya bah factories’
BANGKOK: Thai students have been turning school toilets into makeshift drug factories, churning out cut-price ya bah (methamphetamine) pills that are then sold to other youngsters. One of the trademark stamps on their pills depicts a wizard riding a broomstick, intended to attract fans of the fictional schoolboy wizard Harry Potter, said a Buddhist monk involved in a drugs eradication…
- Thailand News
Something smuggled, something new”¦
BANGKOK: Customs agents were scratching their heads today over what should be done with a contraband cargo seized from a Taiwanese smuggler. The illegal shipment, worth about 10 million baht, was intercepted at Bangkok Port yesterday and the Taiwanese man was arrested, the Customs Department said. The haul, smuggled in from Singapore, included nine Mercedes-Benz cars and 300 white wedding…
- Phuket News
Airport narcotics checks tightened
PHUKET: A food and drug checkpoint will open at Phuket airport tomorrow to try to prevent travelers bringing in illegal drugs or suspiciously large quantities of legal medication. Bangkok and Chiang Mai already have food and drug checkpoints; the one in Phuket will be the first in Southern Thailand. It will be at the international arrivals entrance, and will be…
- Phuket News
Alternative Bike Week hits roadblocks
PATONG: A second “Bike Week” planned for Patong seems to be running into roadblocks after groups listed by the organizer as “supporters” either denied all knowledge of the event, or expressed their opposition to it. The Phuket Bike Rally, organized by Harald Vesterheim, proprietor of the Pink Panther A-go-go and Panther Travel, is planned to take place from February 22…
- Thailand News
Late lamented delivers a bit of a shock
MUKDAHAN: Seventy-two-year-old Wan Sukhampa had been ill with lung problems for five years. On December 8, she felt particularly unwell, so her family took her to the hospital. The following morning her condition deteriorated and she was moved to the intensive care unit. The doctors were unable to help her, however, and within hours she was declared dead. Later that…
- Thailand News
Dr Thim’s dream ends with sting in tail
RANONG: Noodle vendor Sajee “Thim” Klong-nguern, 31, had been suffering unusual aches and pains. That was until, one night, she says, an angel came to her in a dream. The angel told her that if she ate a pig’s tail that had been boiled in palm sugar for 15 minutes, all her aches and pains would vanish. The next day,…
- Thailand News
A few days of stolen joy
KHON KAEN: Bualong Intarasena, 35, had a problem: after being widowed, she had a new husband, Amnart, and he wanted a child by her as soon as possible. What she didn’t dare tell him was that, after bearing her first husband two children, she had undergone sterilization. So Bualong told him she was pregnant, and as the months of her…
- Phuket News
Shark fin suspect faces 10 years’ jail
PHUKET TOWN: A Taiwanese fisherman arrested today in possession of 42 shark fins could face up to 10 years in jail as an example to others, according to the Marine Police. After a tip-off, Phuket Marine Police nabbed the man when he moored his boat, “Jufusun”, at Rassada Port at about 11:30 am. The man, subsequently named by police as…
- Phuket News
Police seize fake goods, arrest four
PATONG: Police from Bangkok’s Crime Suppression Division (CSD) arrested four people and seized almost 2,000 fake brand-name goods yesterday evening in raids on two warehouses and two market stalls. The warehouse raids took place in Soi Chalermsub off Rat-U-Thit 200 Pi Rd, where officers arrested Somporn Keatnu, 30, of Phatthalung, and Kompetch Sae’eung, 23, of Phuket. Both claimed to be…
- Phuket News
1 in 10 test positive for ya bah in raid
PHUKET TOWN: Police who raided the Hi-Tech Pub on Phang Nga Rd, found no underage patrons. But, of the 144 urine samples collected during the one-hour exercise, 14 tested positive for ya bah (methamphetamine). The raid, at around midnight on Friday night, was led by Phuket Town Police Station Superintendent Pol Col Paween Pongsirin. Accompanying the police were Weerawat Janpen,…
- Phuket News
Drop in arrests for gambling, drugs
PHUKET: Arrests for gambling and drugs fell away in December, the latest police statistics show. While gambling remained the number one illegal pastime – with 245 people arrested in 143 raids between December 1 and 25 – comparison with the same period in November shows a decrease of 47 arrests. On the drugs front, 108 raids were made, with 120…
- Phuket News
Purachai closes three nightspots
PHUKET: Interior Minister Purachai Piemsomboon went walkabout in Patong and Phuket Town until early this morning, and ended up ordering the temporary closure of three nightspots. He also rattled the operators of the famed Shark discotheque. The minister also had three foreigners arrested for fighting in the street as he walked by. K. Purachai and his team – which included…
