Legacy Phuket Gazette
- Phuket News
Thailand not ready to upgrade English
PHUKET: It’s too soon to declare English as Thailand’s second language for teaching in schools, says Tongthong Chandransu, secretary-general of the Office of the Education Council (OEC). News reports late last week said the Education Ministry planned to declare on October 22 that English is officially the second language for teaching in Thai schools. But Tongthong denied there would be…
- Phuket News
Charity paddle: Father, daughter to circle Phuket by kayak
PHUKET: If there were any father-and-daughter team you would place money on being able to paddle 120 kilometers around Phuket by kayak, it would be Les Bird and his daughter Victoria.Iron-man athlete Les, 59, and seven-time triathlon champion Victoria, 11, plan to circumnavigate Phuket over three days in an effort to raise money for charity.Victoria, a seventh-grade student at the…
- Phuket News
Phuket to welcome Qatar Airways tomorrow
PHUKET: With the high season for tourism fast approaching, international airlines have been launching new – and more – flight services to Phuket, with some starting this month. Phuket International Airport Director Prateung Sornkham confirmed that from tomorrow, October 12, Qatar Airways will operate a new flight from Doha to Phuket, via Kuala Lumpur. Qatar’s new service will see three…
- Opinion
Phuket Opinion: Making a meal of a festival
PHUKET: Our front page headline this week says it all: the Phuket Vegetarian Festival is a serious commercial success. (See “Festival reels in millions” in the current issue of the Phuket Gazette. Digital subscribers can download their copy here.) Not only is this year’s festival being touted as the creator of a much-welcomed 200-million-baht boost to the island’s economy, but…
- Phuket News
Phuket remembers Nick Jackson
PHUKET: The final service for Nick Jackson – well-known for founding the popular Katoeys R Us bar in Patong, and more recently for his game fishing tours off Phuket – will be held at the temple across from Loma Park in Patong tomorrow morning. Mr Jackson passed away in his sleep sometime last Friday night or Saturday morning, a family…
- Phuket News
Phuket crime statistics: September 2010
PHUKET: According to the latest crime statistics released by the Phuket Provincial Police, crime in September fell year-on-year. The number of crimes reported in most categories last month dropped compared with the number announced for September 2009. The only major increases were in the number of gambling cases reported. Gambling: 160 people arrested in 59 reported cases, a 47.5% increase…
- Phuket News
Climate change: fatal for Phuket
PHUKET: Phuket’s environment will be destroyed and the island “totally ruined” within 10 to 20 years, the senior director of Thailand Environment Institutes (TEI) said yesterday. Chamniern Paul Vorratnchaiphan – who is also the Rockefeller Foundation’s Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience Network (ACCCRN) project director for TEI – made the comments at a one-day ACCCRN seminar organized by the TEI…
- Phuket News
Crime surge greets Phuket Veg Fest
PHUKET: Just days after Phuket’s top police officer warned crime would increase during the Vegetarian Festival, the island appears to be facing a wave of criminal activity. Yesterday alone saw at least two burglaries, the theft of a motorcycle and the arrest of a Burmese man for possession of krathom leaves. Bike theft: At around 6.30pm yesterday a school teacher…
- Phuket News
Old Phuket Town project wins Thailand Tourism Industry award
PHUKET: Phuket City Municipality has won a Thailand Tourism Industry 2010 “Kinnaree” Award for its Old Phuket Town redevelopment project. Phuket City Mayor Somjai Suwansupapana collected the prize in person at the awards ceremony, held on September 27 World Tourism Day at the Bangkok Convention Center at the Central World shopping complex. The judges voted to bestow the Phuket project…
- Phuket News
Phuket Vegetarian Festival underway
PHUKET: The Phuket Vegetarian Festival 2010 officially got underway with the arrival of the new moon early this morning. Activities to welcome down the Nine Chinese Warrior Gods from their celestial realm actually took place last night with the raising of go teng poles at participating Chinese shrines, most of which are located in or near Phuket Town. There will…
- Phuket News
Phuket Police investigate mystery crash fatality
PHUKET: A Phuket man died early yesterday morning in a mysterious motorbike accident on Thepkrasattri Road. Thalang Police were notified of the road fatality at about 3am yesterday. At the scene, near the Muang and Thalang district borderline, police found the body of Worrawit Thaksin, 25, lying dead at the side of the road with a badly broken jaw and…
- Thailand News
Woman trashes husband’s member
PETCHABOON: A woman in the northern province Phetchaboon was arrested last month for cutting off her husband’s penis and throwing it into a trash can at the local bus station. Buariow Wannarat, 54, was caught at a police checkpoint while on a bus to Bangkok. Police escorted her back to Phetchaboon Town to point out the trash receptacle where she…
- Phuket News
Man shot dead outside Phuket pub
PHUKET: A man was shot to death outside a bar in Chalong early this morning. Police believe the shooter to be a man he argued with at another bar earlier the same evening.Superintendent Wichit Intorrason led Lt Col Anukul Nuket and other Chalong Police officers to the ‘Say Yes’ pub on Patak Rd at about 4:30am today after receiving a…
- Phuket News
Phuket police warn of snatch bandits
PHUKET: Chalong Police are urging all women riding motorbikes to be wary of snatch bandits after a young woman had her gold necklace stolen in broad daylight yesterday. Thitiporn Somjan, a 23-year-old from Sakhon Nakhon, told police she was riding along Soi Na Yai with a work colleague at about 3pm when she was robbed. They were returning to their…
- Phuket News
Phuket cop sought over bar demolition
PHUKET: Chalong Police are looking to question a fellow police officer over his alleged role in the demolition of a bar in Kata.Boonlert Thamsue, owner of what was until recently the ‘So Nice’ bar near Club Med, told police that Pol Maj Wichan Suwannasit arrived around 8am yesterday with four other men and pulled down his bar.Chalong Police said Maj…
- Phuket News
Free Wi-Fi in two Phuket Town parks
PHUKET: Phuket City Municipality is now providing free Wi-Fi internet access at Saphan Hin and testing a similar service at Queen Sirikit Park on Thalang Road.The TOT has signed a contract to provide 24-hour access in both areas for three years, the municipality agreeing to paying 180,000 baht annually for the service.Phuket City Mayor Somjai Suwansupapana said the project targets…
- Phuket News
Phuket Vegetarian Fest to generate 200 million baht
PHUKET: Tourists coming to Phuket for the annual Vegetarian Festival from October 8-16 are expected to pump at least 200 million baht into the local economy during the nine-day festival. Occupancy rates in Phuket Town stood at 50%-60% on Tuesday, but many hotels in the island’s capital district were already fully booked for the last three days of the event,…
- Phuket News
Global warming seminar in Phuket tomorrow
PHUKET: The Thailand Environment Institute (TEI) will tomorrow hold a seminar on global warming, bringing together key Phuket businesspeople and local government leaders to raise awareness of climate change and the possible consequences for Phuket and its tourism industry. The seminar, to be held at the Phuket Merlin Hotel in Phuket Town from 8:30am to 4:30pm, is being organized under…
- Phuket News
‘Mud Garden’: Phuket residents protest mudslides, flooding
PHUKET: Residents of Rock Garden Phase 5 project in Rassada, who have watched in anguish as muddy floodwaters inundated their homes in recent weeks, will have to wait several more weeks before flood prevention work begins. Following yet another major flooding late last month, the fourth in two years, about 50 residents on September 26 staged a protest over the…
- Phuket News
Phuket IT update: ‘Facebook for business’ clinic in Patong
PHUKET: Software Park Phuket is giving a special encore presentation of its “Using Facebook to Drive Business” seminar, a free clinic designed to introduce Phuket businesses to using Facebook to augment their online sales campaigns. Sitthichai “Mr. X” Laoveerakul, director of PhuketSchool.com, originally gave the presentation last month at a Software Park Phuket meeting. Local computer expert Woody Leonhard and…
- Phuket News
Phuket Vegetarian Festival 2010: a lot of bang for the baht
PHUKET: Phuket Town residents might want to invest in safety goggles and industrial earplugs, as the Phuket Police will not try to control the use of firecrackers and more powerful fireworks during the upcoming Vegetarian Festival. Phuket Provincial Police Commander Pekad Tantipong said today the use of fireworks is a long-standing spiritual tradition that would be allowed during the nine-day…
- Phuket News
Phuket Police crack motorbike theft gang
PHUKET: Phuket City Police on Sunday night arrested a member of a local motorbike theft gang. Phuket City Police on September 15 received a report from local resident Nawapon Khanom that his Yamaha Fino motorbike was stolen at 3am that day. Discovering a vehicle with no license plate parked in front of an apartment block in Rassada at 9:30pm on…
- Phuket News
Westin Phuket defers taxi decision
PHUKET: Management at the Westin Siray Bay Resort and Spa, a local affiliate with global resort giant Starwood Hotels, has deferred announcing its decision on whether to allow a local taxi counter inside its new luxury resort on Koh Sireh in Phuket. The announcement was made at a meeting on Saturday between the resort management team and representatives of local…
- Phuket News
Phuket to lead Veg Fest spending of 33.5 billion baht
PHUKET: Thais are expected to splurge 26.3% more, 33.5 billion baht altogether, on this year’s vegetarian festival, researchers in Bangkok said yesterday. “More people feel that they would like to participate in the Vegetarian Festival as the sentiment in the Kingdom this year was bad after the political turmoil,” said Saowanee Thairungroj, vice president for research at the University of…
- Phuket News
Phuket defence volunteer shoots romantic rival
PHUKET: A Chalong civil defense volunteer has been charged with attempted murder following a jealousy-inspired shooting outside the home of a romantic rival last night. Chalong Police were notified of the shooting at about 11:30pm. Arriving at the scene, in front of a house on Soi Nakok in Chalong, police found a 7.65mm pistol and a bloody sword known in…
- Phuket News
Phuket poll: Vegetarian Festival 2010
PHUKET: Phuket is busy making final preparations for the annual Vegetarian Festival, which officially gets underway with the arrival of the new moon on Friday. A great number of Phuket Town residents dress in white and observe 10 days of physical and spiritual purification by abstaining from meat, alcohol and other things viewed as contaminants by devotees. Those who choose…
- Phuket News
Phuket poll: Price-fixing not the answer to hotel price war
PHUKET: Fewer than 20% of Phuket Gazette readers think setting minimum standard room prices at small hotels and guesthouse in Patong is the answer to the current price-cutting war going on there. In the last Phuket Gazette readers’ poll, participants were asked: Do you think setting minimum standard room prices is the answer to price-cutting wars among small hotel and…
- Phuket News
Phuket helmet crackdown to cover entire island from January 1
PHUKET: Police across Phuket are preparing to take the helmet crackdown campaign beyond Phuket City Police District to cover the entire island, effective January 1. Phuket Provincial Police Commander Maj Gen Pekad Tantipong told the Gazette the move to enforce the traffic law island-wide follows the success of the campaign launched in Phuket Town. “Since [the campaign was launched on]…
- Phuket News
Six survive after car plunges into Phuket pond
PHUKET: Six people narrowly escaped with their lives early this morning after a young woman drove her new Honda Jazz into the pond at Saphan Hin after a night of clubbing in Phuket. Phuket City Police were notified of the accident at 3am. At the scene they found a white Honda Jazz almost completely submerged in the saltwater pond, not…
- Opinion
PHUKET OPINION: Opening the door to devastation
PHUKET: A special notification issued by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MNRE) in July to break the impasse over the proposed Klong Koh Pee Road project will no doubt be treated as great news by the vast majority of Phuket people who work, study or relax at Saphan Hin. (See Governor retires, front page, current issue of the…
