Legacy Phuket Gazette
- Thailand News
Rapist gets just desserts
PRACHIN BURI: A 24-year-old textile factory worker in Prajantakham District bit the tongue off a 16-year-old boy who tried to rape her. The victim, given the pseudonym “Bee” in a Thai press report, was riding her motorbike home from work at about 10 pm on August 24 when the boy, also on a motorbike, pulled up beside her and asked…
- Phuket News
Airport bus service to launch in October
PHUKET: The island is to get a regular bus service between Phuket City and the airport, the Gazette was told exclusively this week.The service will use four buses, each of them capable of seating up to 34 people. It will start at 5:30 am every day from Phuket City and 6:30 am from the airport. The last bus will leave…
- Phuket News
Decision on dog pound “in one month’
PHUKET CITY: Governor Udomsak Uswarangkura has said that he plans to reach a decision on whether or not to shut the controversial Mid Road Dog Shelter in Thalang by the end of September.At a meeting on August 31, which was held to discuss a number of topics and attended by representatives of every government agency in the province, Gov Udomsak…
- Phuket News
British business task force to assess tsunami needs
PHUKET: A delegation of senior British businesspeople under the banner of the Prince of Wales International Business Leaders Forum (IBLF), is currently visiting Phuket, Phang Nga and Krabi as part of a tour of tsunami-stricken areas in Asia. The IBLF and the business leaders make up what they have dubbed “The Tsunami Business Task Force”, formed to assess local needs…
- Phuket News
Briton charged with cheap air ticket scam
PATONG: British national Jonathan Duncan, 24, was arrested today and charged with fraud after allegedly selling what he said were cheap air tickets to foreign tourists.He was arrested at 3:30 pm in Room 112 of the Patong Grand View Hotel, where police also seized a laptop computer as evidence.Pol Lt Col Boonlert Onklang said at Kathu Police Station that Duncan…
- Phuket News
Gov rebuffs offer of 10,000 tsunami homes
PHUKET CITY: Governor Udomsak Uswarangkura has rejected an offer from a mysterious businessman from Dubai to build 10,000 homes for tsunami victims.The Governor explained that Phuket already has enough donated homes to house all tsunami victims in the province.The businessman, who gave his name simply as “John”, visited Phuket Provincial Hall on August 25 to request that land be donated…
- Phuket News
Phuket Air banned by France
PARIS: Problem-plagued Phuket Air hit another hurdle this week when it was revealed that it has been banned from flying into France since June 4 on safety grounds. The Bangkok-based carrier has already been barred from British and Dutch airspace.The French civil aviation authority (Délégation Générale de l’Aviation Civile – DGAC) website included Phuket Airlines in a list of six…
- Phuket News
Karon drops opposition to gay event
KARON: Phuket is set to host “Nation V”, Asia’s largest gay and lesbian party, from November 4-6 as originally scheduled, after organizers met with the Phuket Governor and leaders of the Kata-Karon Municipality in a closed-door meeting. The municipality, who earlier nixed plans to hold the party in their bailiwick, have approved the use of Karon Stadium for Fridae’s fifth…
- Phuket News
TAT sees revival of Japanese tourism in Phuket
PATONG: The Director of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) Tokyo office expects about 300,000 Japanese to visit Phuket during the second half of 2005, as the message that it is now safe to return to Phuket is finally being heard.TAT Tokyo Office Director Patchaneelux Swatdee made the comments during a meeting of tourism industry experts at the Graceland Resort…
- Phuket News
Soccer hero to return for football clinic
PHUKET: Peter Withe, arguably Thailand’s most successful head coach ever and currently Indonesia’s national coach, is to return to Thailand to take part in a football clinic in Phuket, for children who were affected by the tsunami.This Sunday, August 28, the three-hour free clinic at Surakul Stadium for some 400 students from 19 schools will start at 8:30 am with…
- Phuket News
PM to hold Cabinet meeting in Phang Nga
PHUKET: Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra will hold a “mobile” Cabinet meeting in Phang Nga on September 5 and 6.On September 5, he will arrive, accompanied by some of his ministers, at Phuket International Airport in the morning, and be driven to Tambon Khuek Khak (Khao Lak) and Takuapa district in Phang Nga, before having lunch with local people.The Prime Minister…
- Phuket News
Bank launches mortgages for foreigners
PHUKET: Bangkok Bank has broken ranks with the Thai banking establishment to become the first Thai bank to offer mortgages targeted firmly at foreigners wanting to buy property in Thailand.The mortgages are fairly limited in scope – they can be applied only to condos; the buyer must come up with the first 50% of the purchase price; and the mortgage…
- Phuket News
TOT blamed for mobile phone jams
PHUKET: Mobile phone operators, who once touted their services as the solution to the lack of land lines on the island, are now finding themselves victims of their own success.They are fending off waves of customer complaints and trying to find solutions to the overloading of telephone networks in the peak hours between 5 pm and 10 pm.Boonkul Masangchai, Manager…
- Phuket News
Property industry club launched
PHUKET: Members of the island’s property and construction industries, along with related occupations, met last night at the Green Man pub in Chalong to launch a Phuket chapter of the Lighthouse Club, an international networking organization that also does charitable work for construction workers and their families.Officiating at the launch was a founder and former president of the Lighthouse Club…
- Phuket News
Phuket Air jumbo seized in S Korea – twice
SEOUL: A Phuket Air jumbo jet has been seized in South Korea after the carrier’s owner, Phuket Airlines Co Ltd, allegedly failed to settle debts owed to its local sales agent.The Nation in Bangkok reported August 23 that the Boeing 747-300 had been impounded at Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul.The aircraft had initially been banned from flying back to…
- Phuket News
Thai ambassadors recruited to spread the word
PHUKET: Thai ambassadors based overseas are the best messengers to tell the world that the tsunami-affected areas have fully recovered, Foreign Affairs Minister Kantathi Suphamongkhon announced on Saturday.About 80 Thai ambassadors based in 62 countries came to Phuket over the weekend for presentations on the recovery of the tourism industry in tsunami-affected areas.The visit was one leg of a 12-day…
- Phuket News
“Mazhofu’ to allay tourists’ worries
PHUKET: In an effort to attract more Asian tourists to Phuket’s yearly Vegetarian Festival the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) Phuket Office, Phuket Provincial Administration Authority (OrBorJor), Phuket City Municipality and representatives from Phuket’s Chinese shrines will bring a specially-made “Ruby God” or Mazhofu statue from its original home in Meizhou Island in Fujian Province, China.Suwalai Pinpradab, the Director of…
- Phuket News
Work starts on “world’s largest’ Buddha image
PHUKET: Construction of a 1,000-ton concrete Buddha image, touted as the largest of its kind in the world, has started high on the Nakkerd Hills between Karon and Chalong.Suporn Wanichkul, the head of the project committee, told the Gazette yesterday that the Buddha will be 45 meters high and 25 meters wide. He claims that it will be the biggest…
- Phuket News
Cloud seeders back in Phuket
PHUKET: Despite recent rain showers, the Royal Rainmaking Project has been called in again to help stave off yet another looming water shortage in Phuket.Isara Anukul, Chief of the Water Allocation Division of the Phuket Irrigation Office (PIO), told the Gazette on Wednesday, “The water level in Bang Wad Reservoir [Phuket’s main water source] has dropped to 450,000 cubic meters…
- Phuket News
Minister buries underground cable pleas
PATONG: It appears unlikely that Patong will get the 350 million baht it wants for burying power cables, after Sports and Tourism Minister Pracha Maleenont sternly shot down a budget proposal for the project at a meeting on post-tsunami redevelopment. The meeting, at the Graceland Resort and Spa on Wednesday, was held to discuss progress reports on tourism redevelopment efforts…
- Phuket News
Officials inspect wrecked Kamala resort
KAMALA: Kathu’s top official paid an inspection visit on Wednesday evening to the tsunami-damaged Kamala Bay Terrace Resort, where he asked the hotel’s sole remaining employee to try to organize a clean-up as soon as possible. Kathu District Chief Khantee Silapa, accompanied Phuket Provincial Security Affairs Chief Nikorn Torhiranyapreuk, said the visit was prompted by a complaint to the Phuket…
- Phuket News
Gov orders encroachers’ homes demolished
PHUKET CITY: Governor Udomsak Uswarangkura yesterday ordered the demolition of 30 terraced houses being built for illegal encroachers on Sirinath Marine National Park land by the Sakoo Tambon Administration Organization (OrBorTor).The Governor announced his decision at an open meeting at Phuket Provincial Hall, attended by the Sakoo OrBorTor Chief Surapong Panyawai and Sirinath Marine National Park Chief Thanapong Aphaisorn.At the…
- Phuket News
Haze gone, unlikely to return
PHUKET: Blue skies returned to Phuket today as the haze from Indonesia receded, thanks to a combination of local winds and increasingly effective fire-fighting on Sumatra. Chumnong Chitpukdee, Chief of the Meteorological Department‘s Southern Meteorological Center (West Coast), told the Gazette this morning that the weather in Phuket has already returned to normal. “Luckily for us we have sea breezes…
- Phuket News
Masks issued to combat Sumatran smoke
PHUKET CITY: Residents with respiratory ailments can protect themselves from the smoke that has enveloped the island by picking up free face masks at Wachira Phuket Hospital. Dr Wanchai Sattayawutthipong, Chief of the Phuket Provincial Public Health Office (PPHO), told the Gazette that the average particulate matter reading (PM-10 reading, for particles less than 10 microns in size) in air…
- Phuket News
Dead man’s next of kin sought
PHUKET: The British Honorary Consul in Phuket, Alan Cooke, has appealed for help in contacting the next of kin of British citizen Keith Alan Jones, 43, who died yesterday afternoon (August 16) of respiratory problems and severe liver damage. Mr Jones, who was born in Taunton, Somerset, had been in Phuket about a year and is believed to have been…
- Phuket News
New charter flights from Europe
PHUKET: One of the biggest names in European tourism is joining forces with a German airline to launch a new Phuket charter service at the start of the high season. Thomas Cook Airlines Belgium, founded in 2002 and based at Brussels Airport, and low-cost carrier Condor Flugdienst plan to operate flights to Phuket between November and April next year.“Europe will…
- Phuket News
Sumatra “haze’ reaches Phuket
PHUKET: Hazy atmospheric conditions in Phuket today are the result of forest fires on the Indonesian Island of Sumatra that have left much of Malaysia and Southern Thailand coughing in smoke over the past week.Chumnong Chitpukdee, chief of the Meteorological Department’s Southern Meteorological Center (West Coast), confirmed that Sumatra is the source of the haze, which is being carried here…
- Phuket News
Gamblers top arrest stats – again
PHUKET: Gambling, for the third successive month, topped Phuket’s arrest statistics, according to figures released recently by Phuket Provincial Police, who made 144 arrests for gambling in July. Seventeen of the cases involved the sale of underground lottery tickets.Sixty-seven people were arrested for the illegal possession or use of narcotics, with 1,521 ya bah (methamphetamine) tablets seized.Of the five murder…
- Phuket News
“Nation Party’ gay festival plans in doubt
PHUKET CITY: Despite Phuket Governor Udomsak Uswarangkura having already given his blessing for Asia’s largest gay and lesbian festival, the Nation Party, to be held in Phuket, the event may be staged elsewhere because Karon Municipality is worried about the possible consequences of hosting the party.The news broke yesterday following a closed-door meeting at Phuket Provincial Hall on Wednesday between…
- Phuket News
Patong, Kamala revamp still 8 months away
PHUKET CITY: The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) says that the number of tourists is on the rise since it launched a promotion for tsunami-affected areas.The only place that has not benefited, the TAT says, is Khao Lak, which it believes needs more time to recover before it can be promoted.The TAT’s plans to continue bolstering the recovery of tsunami-affected…
