Legacy Phuket Gazette
- Phuket News
Help us eradicate sex tours – TAT boss
PHUKET: Anupharp Thirarath, the Director of the local office of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), has appealed for information about any person or company involved in promoting sex for sale in Phuket. The appeal comes after TAT officers discovered websites offering child sex as part of package tours. One website offered three days and two nights’ stay, including sex…
- Phuket News
Yacht skipper blasts mob violence
THALANG: The skipper of a 30-meter superyacht has blasted villagers in the north of Phuket for “lawlessness” after a member of his crew was beaten up by a mob on Sunday evening, and was then forced to apologize to them for driving through their village too fast. After brushing aside security staff at the Yacht Haven marina, the mob of…
- Phuket News
Three nighttime venues raided
PHUKET TOWN: Three nighttime venues have been cited for violations after police officers, led by Vice Governor Niwat Wattanasen and Pol Col Paween Pongsirin, Superintendent of Phuket Town Police Station, went on an inspection tour on Tuesday. The Sure Garden, in Soi Taling Chan, was ordered closed for 30 days because it was found to be serving customers under the…
- Phuket News
Governor moves Muang District Chief
PHUKET TOWN: Governor CEO Pongpayome Vasaputi has ordered the replacement of Muang District Chief Somsak Sanyanuphap with Wirachai Chanpen of Phang Nga province. The transfer order, issued on Friday, is the first demonstration of the new power of the Governor CEO, granted as part of Thailand’s experiment in giving provincial governments more autonomy. Under the new system, the Governor CEO…
- Phuket News
Provincial intranet underway
PHUKET: Phuket Governor CEO Pongpayome Vasaputi yesterday chaired a meeting on the development of a computerized central database for all government offices operating within Phuket, known as the Phuket Net project. The move to develop the IT system is part of the Governor CEO administration experiment. At the meeting, which was held at the Provincial Hall, Preecha Wongchakorn, Director of…
- Phuket News
Artist dies in head-on smash
PHUKET: Well-known Rawai-based artist Jirasak Patanapong, 45, died of severe head injuries after being involved in a head-on collision on Chao Fa Nai Rd at about 10 pm on Friday. Two other people were injured in the accident. Tawin Tongpeng today told the Gazette that he was driving his pick-up truck to his home behind Wat Thepnimit after picking up…
- Phuket News
Airport passenger traffic down 8pc
PHUKET: The number of passengers arriving or departing through Phuket International Airport in October is down 8.19% from the figure for the same period last year. Statistics released by airport officials show that passenger throughput was 259,889, compared with 283,062 in October last year. However, the figures show an 8.01% improvement over September, which saw 239,060 passengers arrive or depart…
- Phuket News
Elephant hurls keeper, injures tourist
PHUKET: A disgruntled elephant at Phuket Zoo picked up and threw its keeper with its trunk on November 6, causing Scottish tourist Louise Fletcher to fall from the elephant’s back. She was then kicked by the elephant, resulting in serious leg injuries. Recovering at Phuket International Hospital, Ms Fletcher yesterday recalled the incident. “A worker at the zoo suggested I…
- Phuket News
Phuket Town wins prize
PHUKET: Phuket Municipality has won the King Prajadhipok (Rama VII) Prize, awarded to local governments that listen to the views of local people and give them the opportunity to take part in the running of the town. Phuket Municipality was one of just four municipalities in the whole country to win the prize, out of 432 towns that entered. The…
- Phuket News
Bangsen murder probe hits a wall
SURAT THANI: Investigations into the murder of Koh Yao boatman Bangsen Jaidee hit a wall yesterday when doctors refused to allow officers to interview the chief suspect. Police from Thalang Police Station went to Saranlom Hospital in Surat Thani, which specializes in diseases of the mind, intending to interrogate Siwadol “Dol” Lomin. Dol was taken to the hospital by his…
- Phuket News
Another bomb blast at Tesco Lotus
BANGKOK (AFP): A bomb blast rocked another branch of retailer Tesco Lotus this afternoon in the third attack against the chain since a deadly terror campaign began in July. Today’s bomb went off in the parking lot of the Lotus store in the northern province of Ubon Ratchatani, said provincial police commander Chalosak A-sa. Chalosak said police were still investigating…
- Phuket News
Police deny Duongchalerm is in Patong
PATONG: The Superintendent of Kathu Police Station has said he does not believe reports that fugitive Duongchalerm Yoobamrung, wanted in connection with the murder of an undercover police officer in Bangkok, is hiding out in the Patong area. Seventeen days after the shooting in a Bangkok nightclub, politician’s son Duongchalerm is still at large. Officers of the Crime Suppression Division…
- Phuket News
Spectacular Leonids show this year
PHUKET: This year’s annual Leonids meteorite shower will be particularly spectacular, because it will be augmented by a phenomenon that occurs just once every 33 years. Prof Sakchai Petchshuai, professor of meteorological studies at the Rajabhat Institute Phuket, told the Gazette that the Leonids, so named because they appear to radiate from the constellation Leo, are the result of the…
- Phuket News
PTA protests air fares price hike
PHUKET: The Phuket Tourism Association (PTA) is making a last-ditch effort to convince Thai Airways (THAI) to reconsider its 15% price hike on domestic flights, due to come into effect tomorrow. Kitti Phatanachinda, Vice President of the PTA, told the Gazette today that PTA members are sending a letter to the board of THAI, the central government and the Tourism…
- Phuket News
Suspect named in boatman’s murder
PHUKET: Police have named a man they wish to interview in connection with the murder of Koh Yao longtail boatman Bangsen Jaidee, whose body was found floating in the sea off Naka Noi island yesterday. Pol Col Chatchai Sakulporn, superintendent of Thalang District Police Station, named the wanted man as Siwadol “Dol” Lomin, also from Koh Yao, a member of…
- Phuket News
Villagers battle landowner
PA KHLOK: Fifteen villagers were warned by police yesterday for trespassing on land belonging to Taweesak Apichatmaneekul, a Bangkok-based businessman. The warning is the latest development in an increasingly heated dispute over land ownership and local fishermen’s rights of access to their boats. The latest confrontation came after K. Taweesak recently started fencing off the boundaries to his land, including…
- Phuket News
Duongchalerm’s brother arrested
BANGKOK (AFP): Thai police today arrested Wanchalerm Yoobamrung, older brother of fugitive Duongchalerm Yoobamrung, on charges of illegal weapons possession, conspiracy to assault, and interfering in the course of justice. The charges relate to the shooting of a police officer in the Twenty Club in Bangkok on October 27, allegedly by Duongchalerm. Police chief Gen Sant Sarutanond said several witnesses…
- Phuket News
Local boat owner shot dead
KOH YAO: A well-known and widely respected long-tail boat owner was found today floating in the sea off Naka Noi Island after he disappeared two days ago. The body of 52-year-old Bangsen Jaidee was found by his daughter who, with other family members, had been searching for the missing man since Saturday. The Gazette understands that he had been shot…
- Phuket News
Gov sparks furore with Phi Phi proposal
PHUKET: Governor CEO Pongpayome Vasaputi has landed in the middle of a war of words after suggesting that the central government should buy the Phi Phi islands, kick out private businesses and run the islands as a state enterprise. During a speech about the CEO system at a Thai Rak Thai Party seminar on Friday at the Patong Beach Hotel,…
- Phuket News
Drugs claiming ever younger victims
BANGKOK (AFP): When Supabun Kosum took her first methamphetamine tablet she was a curious 18-year-old schoolgirl wanting only “to test” if the little orange pill delivered the euphoria and invincibility her friends raved about. But her schoolyard experimentation with the drug in Thailand’s northern Nakhon Sawan province touched off a seven-year addiction that would consume her life and her income,…
- Phuket News
Dump truck careers off Patong Hill
PATONG: A dump truck loaded with sand swerved off a tight bend on Patong Hill at about 3 pm yesterday after its brakes failed. No one was hurt. The driver, Soontorn Chaichana, told the Gazette, “I noticed the brakes starting to fade just past the Chinese shrine [at the top of the hill]. “Then, just at the last curve, about…
- Phuket News
Drug bust nets six men and over 4,000 pills
PHUKET TOWN: Police arrested six men on Tuesday in a plain-clothes bust involving more than 4,000 ya bah (methamphetamine) pills. Acting on a tip off, Pol Lt Worapojt Watanasuwan and his squad of plain clothes officers from Phuket Town Police Station, organized to meet Tawit Juansri, 23, Wasin Sotatas, 30, and Surachai Jankaew, 23, at 6:30 am at a public…
- Phuket News
Turtle island to be opened to visitors
PHANG NGA: The Similan National Park authorities will open nine islands to visitors from next Thursday, including one that is usually closed to the public for the protection of sea turtles. Tipawadee Thambamrung, the park’s public relations officer at the Tub Lamu office, told the Gazette, “It’s very special for visitors this year. We’ve going to allow them to stay…
- Phuket News
Two seized boats sold at auction
PHUKET TOWN: Two confiscated yachts were sold at auction this morning at the Phuket Customs Region 5 office. Niwat Triemsantipap, the assistant general manager of the Maiton Resort, bid 720,000 baht to acquire the nine-meter speedboat “Seafarer” for the resort, while another resort, Moonlight Bay on Koh Lanta, bought the 9.8-meter Hatteras motor cruiser, “Old Crow”, for 619,000 baht. K.…
- Phuket News
Rogue police a major worry: Governor
PHUKET: Governor CEO Pongpayome Vasaputi has accepted that there is a major problem in Phuket with police officers engaging in criminal activities, and has called for a change in the system that encourages such activities. He told the Gazette that reports of police officers selling narcotics were particularly worrying. “It seems to me the number of reports is rising every…
- Phuket News
Children reminded about overstay fines
PHUKET: The Phuket Provincial Immigration Office has issued a reminder that foreign children over seven years of age who overstay their permits to be in Thailand – whether in their own passport or included in a parent’s passport – face fines of 200 baht for each day they overstay. Pol Lt Col Paisan Deedoykhar, Inspector of the Phuket Immigration Police,…
- Thailand News
A job for Crocodile Dundee
BANGKOK: Thai authorities yesterday stepped up their hunt for about 10 fully-grown saltwater crocodiles that have been on the lam since escaping from a farm in flash floods last week. Four of the reptiles, measuring three to four meters in length, have already been captured near the Million Years Crocodile Farm, about 175 kilometers east of Bangkok. Another two reptiles…
- Phuket News
MAS ditches Phuket-Penang flights
PHUKET: Malaysia Airlines has canceled its regular thrice-weekly Phuket-Penang service and has instead increased the number of flights between Kuala Lumpur and Phuket. With effect from October 28, the airline boosted the number of KL-Phuket flights from nine to 14 a week. Tajul Arrissin Kamal, director of Malaysia Airlines Phuket, said the decision was made as part of an effort…
- Phuket News
Illegal alien arrests continue to fall
PHUKET: The number of illegal immigrants arrested on the island has fallen dramatically for the second successive month, according to the latest crime statistics issued by the police. From October 1 to 24, only 10 illegal aliens were arrested, compared with 47 during the same period in September, and 230 in August. The dramatic fall has been credited to the…
- Phuket News
Carnival marks start of high season
PATONG: The Patong Carnival 2001 yesterday marked the opening of this year’s tourism high season. The day’s activities, which began in the morning with a merit-making ceremony, included a beach clean-up, a coral exhibition and a mini-marathon fun run. The highlight of the carnival was the colorful evening parade along Thaweewong Rd and into Soi Bangla. The parade, which was…
