Legacy Phuket Gazette
- Phuket News
Swine flu crisis abating in Phuket
PHUKET CITY: Thanks to continuing measures to prevent the spread of swine flu, Phuket’s authorities believe the crisis is abating. Rapid spread this year of the flu, formally identified as ‘novel influenza virus A (H1N1)’, led the World Health Organization (WHO) – for the first time since 1968’s Hong Kong flu – to declare a global pandemic. In Phuket, two…
- Phuket News
Company faces prosecution for Phuket jet-ski show
PHUKET CITY: The Thai television company responsible for producing the Big Trouble in Tourist Thailand series, which featured footage of an alleged jet-ski scam on Phuket, is to be prosecuted, the Bangkok Post reported today. The managers of Black Sheep Productions, which produced the show, could face 12 months in jail and fines of up to a million baht, the…
- Phuket News
Old Phuket’s restoration enters new phase
PHUKET CITY: Work to restore Phuket City’s Thalang Road to its former glory is gathering pace, with the launch of a new project to re-open the disused Chinese-style arcades that line the historic street. The arched corridors, known in Hokkien Chinese as ‘ngorkakee‘, form part of the design of many of Old Phuket Town’s Sino-Portuguese shophouse buildings. In former times…
- Phuket News
World’s oldest man a teenager again
PHUKET: The world’s oldest living man, Luang Pu Supha, a revered abbot who lives in Chalong, Phuket, is celebrating his 113th birthday today. His landmark birthday makes him a teenager for the second time. The festivities are taking place at his Phuket temple, just off Chao Fa Road West in Chalong. Luang Pu Supha is reputed to have been born on…
- Phuket News
One-Two-Go crash remembered on Phuket
MAI KHAO, PHUKET: On the second anniversary of the One-Two-Go air crash at Phuket International Airport [PIA], two survivors of the accident held a private ceremony of remembrance on the island today.Marcel Squinobal and Christoph Salchetti, who were both on the plane when it crashed, flew all the way from Germany to pay their respects to their friends Andreas Adelhard and Sabine Schumacher,…
- Phuket News
Bill Owen: Farewell to a great friend of Phuket
PHUKET: The passing of Bill Owen leaves his many Phuket friends in great sadness. His battle with lung cancer came to an end at a hospital in Swansea, South Wales, the city where he started life 59 years ago. Bill came to Phuket 22 years ago, in October 1987, on a brief visit after attending a friend’s wedding in New…
- Phuket News
Gazette Online tops Google for Phuket
PHUKET: As the result of a recent fine tuning in the way Google ranks the “importance” (popularity) of websites around the world, the Gazette Online is now tie for Number One with Phuket.Com for sites in or about Phuket. With a Google ranking of ‘6’, the two sites share the highest rating Google confers for Phuket, and they are the…
- Phuket News
No ban on Phuket marinas
PHUKET: Asked by a number of readers to check on a report that there is now a ban on further marina and pier development projects in Phuket, the Gazette has today obtained confirmations that such is not the case. According to both the Department of Natural Resources and Environment (DNRE) and the Office of the Governor of Phuket, with whom…
- Phuket News
Trawling fingered as threat to Phuket dolphins
PHUKET: Trawling by fishermen in the seas off Phuket and other parts of Thailand has led, it is charged, to the deaths of around 20 dolphins since the beginning of this year.Two more turned up dead last week in Satun province, on the southern border with Malaysia, and one was found on Saturday, badly injured in the surf off Nai…
- Phuket News
Seven-year-old drowns in Phuket pool
RASSADA, PHUKET: An unsupervised seven-year-old boy drowned in a swimming pool at the Top Land housing estate on Saturday.Police were alerted to the incident about 2pm by residents of the estate, located near the Tungka elementary school in tambon Rassada.They rushed to the scene with emergency workers and found the boy, identified as Prawit Manapreecha-ngamlert, a student at Ketho School,…
- Phuket News
Phuket coastal developments under scrutiny
PHUKET: Phuket governor Wichai Phraisa-ngob has backed concerns raised in an environmental impact assessment report that claims continued, unchecked development of Phuket coastal areas would destroy marine life and negatively impact local communities.The governor’s comments came after the release of the report last week compiled by a panel of Phuket-based environmental experts, including scientists from the Phuket Marine Biological Center…
- Phuket News
Phuket based celebrity chef Keith Floyd passes away
PHUKET: The Phuket Gazette has learned that Phuket-based celebrity chef Keith Floyd, owner of Floyd’s Brasserie at Burasari Resort Patong, Phuket, has died following a heart attack on Monday at his home in Dorset in the UK.He was 65 years old. — Gazette Reporters
- Phuket News
Air crash simulation at Phuket Airport
MAI KHAO, PHUKET: A full-scale air crash simulation took place at Phuket International Airport this morning under the banner of the Emergency Plan Exercise 2009. From 9.00am to 12pm officials from the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department, Phuket Provincial Police, Tourist Police, Marine Police, airline staff and other local government and private sector agencies combined efforts to evaluate their readiness…
- Phuket News
Phuket public transport goes Paiboon pink
PHUKET CITY: Phuket Provincial Administration Organization President Paiboon Upatising was ‘tickled pink’ to present a new fleet of buses to the media today. The new 16-million-baht fleet is painted bright pink – Mr Paiboon’s campaign color. Eight of the 16 new songtaew (two-row) buses started services today, and will be joined by the remaining eight in two months. The new…
- Phuket News
Phuket police hunt ‘ballot box killer’
PA KHLOK, PHUKET: Phuket police are hunting a killer who stabbed a 26-year-old man to death before straddling the body and carving a bizarre symbol into the torso with a knife.Pornsit Pongsakornsopa’s corpse was found on Sunday morning in the middle of Srisoonthorn Road, opposite Boom Boom Karaoke, about 100 meters from Heroines’ Monument.There was some disagreement over the exact form of…
- Phuket News
JJ in new Phuket jet-ski dispute
PATONG, PHUKET: New footage has emerged showing Phuket’s infamous jet-ski man, Winai ‘JJ’ Naiman, in another dispute with marines – this time from the US Navy. The video, released by British TV producer Gavin Hill, shows police officers standing by as Thai jet-ski operators demand cash for damage to a vehicle. The footage ends with one US serviceman handing over…
- Opinion
OPINION: Is Phuket ready for welfarism?
PHUKET: Thailand’s leading think tank has proposed a “survival strategy” for the nation: an exit from the current economic and political distress by transforming the country into a “welfare state” that would help bridge wealth and income disparity. The Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI), led by its chairman, Dr Nipon Poapongsakorn, says the group’s research has found that disparities in…
- Phuket News
Hydrofoils the latest boon for Phuket
PHUKET: At present it sits on the quay at the Phuket Deep Sea Port in Ao Makham, looking like it’s just waiting for Buck Rogers or Dan Dare to come aboard and blast off into space. It’s not quite that exotic, however. This is the first of three hydrofoils that will whisk passengers off to Phi-Phi, Krabi, Koh Lanta or…
- Phuket News
Phuket’s infamous jet-ski man bailed
PATONG, PHUKET: Winai ‘JJ’ Naiman, the jet-ski operator arrested on extortion charges in Phuket this week, was bailed yesterday. An officer at Phuket Provincial Court said Mr Winai had posted a land title deed worth 700,000 baht to secure his release. Footage of Mr Winai, 28, threatening a group of British Royal Navy Marines with a gun was broadcast on…
- Phuket News
Phuket police seize almost 4,000 ya ba pills
THA CHAT CHAI, PHUKET: Phuket police arrested a 26-year-old man in possession of almost 4,000 ya ba (methamphetamine) pills at Tha Chat Chai checkpoint yesterday. Mr Pakorn Sa-nguansin told police he was a courier delivering the pills to a customer in Mai Khao. He picked up the drugs from a Burmese man in Phang Nga, he said. Tah Chat Chai…
- Phuket News
Phuket parents outraged over school beating
KATHU, PHUKET: A 12 year-old student at a Phuket school claims her math teacher gave her a severe beating with a steel ruler in front of a class full of students because she did not do her homework. The girl’s parents have complained to police about the incident and are demanding that Baan Mai Riab School in Kathu issue the…
- Phuket News
Phuket jet-ski operators face insurance scheme
KATHU, PHUKET: Phuket’s jet-ski operators will soon have to insure their craft for damage, the Phuket governor told a crowd of industry representatives at a crisis meeting at Patong Municipality offices yesterday. The measure is aimed at ending the island’s infamous ‘jet-ski scam’, in which unsuspecting tourists are made to pay thousands of baht for spurious repairs to the vehicles…
- Phuket News
Phuket Airport to get Asean upgrade
MAI KHAO, PHUKET: Phuket may have lost out to Hua Hin in the race to host October’s Asean Summit, but a 30-million-baht upgrade of Phuket Airport planned to help cope with the meetings will go ahead anyway, the Gazette has learned. The improvements, which include increasing the number of channels through Immigration, adding X-ray machines and expanding the car park,…
- Phuket News
New Phuket airline launches regional flights
PHUKET: A new Phuket-based airline has announced the launch of daily flights between Phuket and Haad Yai along with a new weekend Phuket-Langkawi route. The newly-launched Happy Air will begin operating flights from Phuket next month with its 34-seat Saab 340A aircraft. The daily 40-minute Phuket-Haad Yai flights are currently scheduled to depart from Phuket at 9:30am and arrive in…
- Phuket News
Dispute leaves Phuket homes on a precipice
WICHIT, PHUKET: More than a hundred angry Phuket residents took to the streets last night to protest against a new housing development which they say will make them homeless. Panason City Village is a modern housing complex being built on 78 rai next to Soi Thep Anusorn off Chao Fa East Road in tambon Wichit. A number of the protesters have lived in…
- Phuket News
Phuket parents make the most of lucky number nine
PHUKET: Many Phuket couples tied the knot yesterday in wedding ceremonies specially arranged to take place on the auspicious date 09/09/09. Many expectant mothers also considered it fortunate to give birth on the day considered especially lucky by Thais. Seventeen Thai women and one Burmese gave birth at Vachira Phuket Hospital yesterday, ten of them naturally, the rest by Cesarean…
- Thailand News
Loan shark shaken by suicide cell
BANGKOK: A loan shark found the police were the least of his worries after being detained in a haunted cell. On September 1, Crime Suppression Division (CSD) officers arrested Sombun Thong-kham, 39, for extortion and unauthorized money lending, and placed him in custody at CSD headquarters on Phahonyothin Rd. Around 3am the following morning, the duty sergeant heard Mr Sombun…
- Thailand News
Drunk driver chows on cops
UDON THANI: A drunk driver bit two police officers who asked him to take a breathalyser test. Police said salesman Chatsak Ploicharoen, 36, was weaving all over the road as he drove his pickup truck towards a police checkpoint in Udon Thani. Police signaled for him to stop, but he drove straight through the checkpoint. Two officers chased after him…
- Phuket News
Movie to entice more Koreans to Phuket
PHUKET: A new 5-million-baht short film about Phuket aims to tempt more Korean tourists to visit the island. The film, simply entitled Phuket, stars a well-known Korean movie star, Im Soo Jung, and Thai actor Sorapong Chatree. Phuket will be previewed at the Pusan International Film Festival 2009 next month and screened on board airlines, including THAI and Korean. The…
- Phuket News
Phuket Lifesaving Carnival in Patong next month
PHUKET CITY: The Phuket Lifesaving Carnival is set to return to Patong next month after the original event in July was postponed because of bad weather. The carnival is now scheduled to take place on October 3. Carnival organizers are hoping to attract between 40 and 60 international entrants and as many as 80 local participants. Events will include a…
