Legacy Phuket Gazette
- Phuket News
Austria to fund health care center
PHUKET CITY: The government of Austria has pledged to spend 500,000 Euros – around 25 million baht – on establishing a health center for the fishing community of Tambon Rassada.Austria will fund the construction of the centre and provide money for staffing, too.The initial purpose of the center will be to improve the health of the fishermen and their families,…
- Phuket News
Patong tsunami warning system by end of April
PHUKET CITY: Dr Smith Thammasaroj, the chief of the investigation into the government’s handling of the December 26 tsunami disaster, has announced that three tsunami warning towers will be operational in Patong by the end of this month.Speaking at The Metropole hotel after a meeting with Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) Deputy Chairman, Juthaporn Rerngronasa, TAT Region 4 Chief Suwalai…
- Phuket News
Unidentified man stabbed to death
PHUKET CITY: A man was found dead in Tambon Rassada on the night of March 30, shortly after he was seen being attacked by three others.The man, who has not yet been identified, was found at the entrance to Moo Baan Niramit, Moo 3, Trang Road, Tambon Rassada, not far from the area that has been dubbed “the Burmese Cemetery”…
- Phuket News
Patong nixes 100-day ceremonies
PHUKET: Patong Municipality has no plans to hold remembrance service on April 4 to mark the passing of 100 days since the tsunami, but services will take place in Kamala and at Wachira Phuket Hospital in Phuket City. Deputy Mayor Chairat Sukbal told the Gazette yesterday that he agreed with Governor Udomsak Usawarangkura, who has barred “ghost-laying” ceremonies after April…
- Phuket News
Shoppers urged to report cheating vendors
PHUKET: People who believe they have been ripped off by shops overcharging – and blaming the hike in diesel prices – are being urged to report the shopkeepers to the Phuket Internal Trade Office (PITO), on Tel: 1569.The office has also issued a checklist to help customers “Buy clever and save money” after the price of diesel soared by 24%,…
- Phuket News
Danish royals to visit Phang Nga
PHUKET CITY: Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark and his Australian-born wife, Crown Princess Mary, accompanied by Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen and his wife Anne-Matte, are to visit Phang Nga on April 15 and 16.The party will inspect areas devastated by the December 26 tsunami and take part in a memorial service for those who died.Mr Anders Rasmussen has…
- Phuket News
Gov asks US to help tsunami-hit businesses
PHUKET CITY: Governor Udomsak Usawarangkura has asked members of the United States Congress to back the establishment of a “Flexible Fund” to help small and medium-sized businesses recover from the tsunami.Gov Udomsak told the elected representatives it would be a “great help” if the US would support the fund, which would offer flexible financing with minimum paperwork to traders who…
- Phuket News
China Dolls to play free Patong concert
PATONG: Thai pop stars the China Dolls and Japanese popsters Day After Tomorrow will play a free concert at Loma Park, on Thaweewong Rd, tomorrow, from 7 pm to 8:30 pm.The concert, organized by the Phuket office of the Tourism Authority of Thailand and major Japanese tour operator HIS, is being held to attract tourists to Phuket.The concert will be…
- Phuket News
Fishermen to strike over fuel price hike
PHUKET: Members of the Phuket Fishery Association will join a national work stoppage starting Monday (April 4) in protest at the 19% rise in diesel oil prices that came in on March 23. Association Chairman Somyot Boonyakul today told the Gazette that the diesel price hike – coupled with the already high price of regular gasoline – simply makes it…
- Phuket News
Gov calls for greater urgency in tsunami plan
PHUKET CITY: Phuket Governor Udomsak Usawarangkura has ordered the provincial branch of the Office of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (ODPM) to speed up its coastal evacuation planning and work more closely with local government bodies in order to prevent a repeat of the confusion that followed last Monday’s tsunami alert. Gov Udomsak made the call at yesterday’s monthly meeting of…
- Phuket News
Gov calls halt to public exorcisms
PHUKET CITY: Governor Udomsak Usawarangkura today called a halt to religious ceremonies in public areas held to appease ghosts of tsunami victims, with effect from next Tuesday.At a meeting of provincial government officers this morning, Governor Udomsak said, “There have been enough religious ceremonies [for tsunami victims]. If anyone needs to hold a religious ceremony, they can but only within…
- Phuket News
Crackdown on crime for Songkran
PHUKET CITY: Phuket Police have revealed plans to keep crime and disruption during the Songkran holiday period to a minimum.Phuket City Police Superintendent Pol Col Paween Pongsirin told the Gazette that the Government has set a target of a 15% reduction in the number of accidents compared with last year, so there will be a crackdown on motoring offences.Col Paween…
- Phuket News
Sixes cricket starts on seventh
KARON: The Lighthouse Phuket International Cricket Sixes tournament gets underway on April 7 at Karon Municipal Stadium. The 18 teams taking part in this year’s tournament include Gauhati Town Cricket Club from India, Lamma CC from Hong Kong and PALPA CC from Pakistan, as well as the Perth Postels and the Warathais from Australia. Local teams include the Green Man…
- Phuket News
UK policeman dies in road smash
TAKUA PA: A British police officer who was a member of the the UK’s Disaster Victims Identification (DVI) team working in Phuket died yesterday in a minibus crash in Phang Nga. Two of his colleagues were seriously injured.The accident happened around 4pm yesterday, when the minibus in which the three officers were travelling was in collision with a Phuket-Bangkok tour…
- Phuket News
Body in sea ‘probably a foreigner’
PHUKET: The body of an unidentified man, probably a foreigner, was found floating in the sea about one mile south of Laem Promthep yesterday. The gruesome discovery was made at about 11 am near Koh Kaew Pissadarn by fisherman Sanée Kreasang, 41.Pol Maj Chana Suttimath of the Chalong Police Station told the Gazette the man was at least 30 years…
- Phuket News
40 families get new homes
PHUKET: Forty families left homeless by the December 26 tsunami took possession of new homes yesterday morning during ceremonies at Koh Sireh’s Laem Tukkae and along Klong Pak Bang, at the southern end of Patong Beach.At the Sea Gypsy Village at Laem Tukkae, 24 Sea Gypsy families moved into new permanent dwellings at a ceremony presided over by Governor Udomsak…
- Phuket News
V/Gov appeals for massive donations
PHUKET CITY: Vice-Governor Winai Buapradit has requested hundreds of millions of baht, along with practical support, from foreign donors, the Thai private sector and the Thai government to help Phuket recover fully from the December 26 tsunami.During a meeting at Provinical Hall on March 24, V/Gov Winai outlined several situations in which the local authorities need help in putting right damage…
- Phuket News
Pre-Songkran re-opening for aquarium
AO MAKHAM: The Phuket Aquarium will reopen to the public on April 9, after being closed for renovations and improvements for two and a half years.The management is marking the reopening by offering free admission to all on April 9 and 10.Wannakiat Tubtimsang, Director of Phuket Marine Biological Center, which runs the aquarium, told the Gazette that 81 million baht…
- Phuket News
Phuket on high alert, but no tsunami
PHUKET: Seaside towns and villages around Phuket were evacuated last night after warnings from the Meteorological Department that there was a high possibility of another tsunami hitting the island. The warnings came after a massive earthquake jolted Sumatra, just 200 kilometers from the site of the temblor that caused the tsunami on December 26 last year. That wave killed an…
- Phuket News
Anti-terrorist system in place soon
PHUKET CITY: Phuket Immigration should have a new international anti-terrorism database system in operation by mid-year, the head of Thai Immigration told a press conference this morning.Speaking at a gathering of provincial Immigration Police chiefs at the Phuket Immigration Office, Immigration Commissioner Lt Gen Amarin Niemskul announced that Phuket would be one of three pilot provinces to get the new…
- Phuket News
Dengue outbreak reports “exaggerated’
PHUKET CITY: Dr Wanchai Sattayawutthipong, Chief Of Phuket Provincial Health Office (PPHO), today denied media reports that 100 people in Phuket have contracted dengue fever already this year, saying that only half that number had been confirmed as having the disease.A report by the state-run Thai News Agency (TNA), an arm of the Mass Communications Organization of Thailand, for example,…
- Phuket News
Patong plan takes a step forward
PATONG: The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) will fund a 200-million-baht project to improve road surfaces, sidewalks and drains along the beach road in Patong, it was announced yesterday.The announcement came during the third meeting of a committee set up to oversee redevelopment of Patong in the wake of the December 26 tsunami. The meeting, held at Patong Municipal offices…
- Phuket News
Your police force needs you!
PHUKET: The Tourist Police are hoping to recruit 100 people, including foreigners, to complete a weekend-long course and become volunteer tourist police officers, capable of safeguarding the wellbeing of tourists.Phuket Tourist Police inspector Pol Maj Bundit Khaosutham told the Gazette that the course would cover topics such as first aid and how to spot con men and others who might…
- Phuket News
Mystery over murdered woman
RASSADA: Police are investigating the stabbing murder of an unidentified woman whose decaying corpse was discovered near the Sri Suchart Grand Ville 2 housing estate off the bypass road yesterday.Phuket City Police Investigator Pol Lt Col Tewet Preamsook told the Gazette today that the discovery of the body was reported in a telephone call by Chalong resident Arkom Na Takuatung…
- Phuket News
Smiling girl from Bangkok is “Miss Phuket’
PHUKET: A 19-year-old from Bangkok was last night named the “People’s Choice” out of the 44 young women competing to be named Miss Thailand Universe 2005.A total of 864 members of the 2,000-strong audience of VIPs at Phuket FantaSea voted for Nootsara “Jum” Suknamai to win the “Miss Phuket” award, after seeing all the contestants model batik and Yahya (Phuket-style)…
- Phuket News
Prince Andrew to visit Phuket
PHUKET: HRH Prince Andrew, fourth in line to the British throne and Britain’s Special Representative for International Trade and Investment, is due to visit Phuket on April 25 and 26 after attending Expo 2005 in Aichi, Japan.The announcement was made by Phuket Vice-Governor Niran Kalayanamit following a meeting with representatives of the British Embassy and Buckingham Palace staff in Phuket…
- Phuket News
Tourists “will return in October’
PHUKET CITY: Panu Maswongsa, Vice-President of Marketing of the Phuket Tourism Association, has said that he expects the number of tourists visiting Phuket to return to normal by October, when European tourists start to come back in larger numbers.“The number of tourists [to Phuket] will not increase in the immediate future because we are now entering the low season, but…
- Phuket News
Tax breaks urged for movie makers
NAI YANG: Reducing taxation and slashing red tape could help revitalise the post-tsunami film industry in Phuket and surrounding provinces, a seminar heard yesterday.Delegates to the meeting, organised by the Office of Tourism Development and the Thai Film Office, were told that scenes for 441 foreign films were shot in Thailand in 2004, generating revenue of around 1.13 billion baht…
- Phuket News
Second disaster warning system for Patong
PHUKET: Patong has been chosen as the pilot site for the government’s high-tech Early Warning System for disasters and will have three siren poles operational by the end of April, an official from the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology said today.The announcement was made at the Phuket Governor’s Office this morning by Manus Somsang, deputy chairman of the sub-committe…
- Phuket News
Beauties and the four-wheel beasts
PHUKET: Demonstrating that there’s more to a beauty queen than good looks, the 44 competitors in the Miss Thailand Universe 2005 indulged in a little pistol shooting, raced all-terrian vehicles and rode on elephants.The activities, filmed by Channel 7 TV for broadcast on March 26, the day of final of the contest, took place at the Phuket Shooting Range. Yesterday…
