- Phuket News
Motorbike death rate drops sharply
PHUKET: Eight people died in traffic accidents between August 20 and September 20, according to statistics from the Wachira, Thalang and Patong government hospitals. All the victims were on motorcycles, reported Ampaipan Pawawattananusorn of the Phuket Provincial Health Office. The death-rate on motorcycles in August/September was considerably lower than the average of 14.7 a month for the first nine months…
- Phuket News
Most prisoners serving time for drugs
PHUKET: Violation of narcotics laws is the number one conviction for prisoners serving time in the Phuket Provincial Prison. “Drugs are by far the biggest reason most Thais and foreigners are in here,” Pairoj Pankaew, chief of the prison, told the Gazette today. “Sixty percent of the total number of inmates were convicted on drug charges. Most of them were…
- Phuket News
Money-laundering regulations start tomorrow
PHUKET: From tomorrow, anyone wanting to withdraw more than 2 million baht in cash from a bank account – or deposit more than that amount in cash – will have to fill in certain forms in order to comply with the Money Laundering Control Act of 1999. “This applies to cash transactions of more than 2 million baht. The purpose…
- Phuket News
Two drown in three days
PATONG: A 22-year-old Malaysian tourist who was a national-level swimmer for his country drowned Tuesday afternoon at Patong Beach. Chan Oy Lye, 21, identified the victim as her boyfriend, Chew Hoo Hao. The couple had arrived in Phuket with two other friends just a few hours before the accident took place. The four friends had checked into the Panorama Hotel…
- Phuket News
Chart Pattana picks Phuket candidates
PHUKET TOWN: The Chart Pattana Party has finally chosen its candidates for Phuket’s two parliamentary seats in the coming general election. Samkhan Saengfai, managing director of PB Holdings, is to stand for Voting District 1, which covers Phuket Town apart from Tambon Rassada and Tambon Koh Kaew. K. Samkhan, Gazette readers may recall, was the man who tried to launch…
- Phuket News
Hostage-taker hacked to death
CHANTABURI (AFP): A man who took a child hostage at knifepoint was hacked to death yesterday with his own weapon by the boy’s enraged relatives, police said today. The unidentified man, believed to be in his 20s, was dressed only in underwear when he burst into the boy’s home, grabbed him and demanded to be driven out of the village…
- Phuket News
Police announce softer traffic policy
PHUKET TOWN: Although they will continue stopping those who break traffic laws, Phuket’s police say they will be more systematic about it, and will issue fewer tickets for traffic offenses than before. The new policy follows riots in the streets of Nakhon Sri Thammarat recently when motorcycle owners went on the rampage in protest against what they saw as excessively…
- Phuket News
Parks coupon scheme sees few takers
BANGKOK: Only 150 tour and dive operators in the whole of Thailand have submitted applications to join a concessionary coupon scheme recently announced by the Marine National Parks Department (MNPD) of the Royal Forestry Department (RFD). The coupon scheme allows operators to take foreigners into parks at the old rate of 20 baht or 40 baht, rather than the new…
- Phuket News
Another week of rain, says weatherman
PHUKET: The current bad weather in Phuket is likely to continue for another week as a tropical depression passes over the island, Amorn Chantanavivate, director of the Southwestern Regional Meteorological Center, said today. The rain and wind are being caused by a moderate southwest monsoon over the Andaman Sea and the southwestern coast of Thailand, he explained.
- Phuket News
Japanese women fight off rapists
PHUKET TOWN: Two Japanese women were nearly raped by two illegal Thai guides in the early hours of Wednesday. Usuki Sato, 27, and Soko Yakanimoto, 26, came to Phuket on Tuesday and were staying at the Panwaburi Hotel on Cape Panwa. The following day, they went out with the two Thai guides, who usually hang around the front of the…
- Phuket News
Swingin’ monk gets the sack
BANGKOK (AFP): An abbot at a Thai temple was forced to leave the monkhood in disgrace today after being caught carousing with a group of women in a karaoke bar. Phra Pativetviset, from the Bangkok temple Wat Sriboonruang, was banished after being captured on film during a police raid on the karaoke joint last weekend. Despite wearing a disguise of…
- Phuket News
Blast and fire damage yacht
AO MAKHAM: A fire broke out this morning on a 4-million-baht sailing yacht berthed at Ao Yon, causing damage estimated at 1 million baht. The fire started at 7 am aboard the ketch “Red Moon”. Pol Lt Col Teerapol Thipjaroen, acting superintendent of Phuket Town Police Station, told the Gazette that villagers heard an explosion before the yacht began to…
- Phuket News
Tambons angry over slow progress in investigation
PA KHLOK: The chairman of the Phuket OrBorTor Association (POA), an umbrella organization for the island’s Tambon councils, says the POA is ready to complain to the Ministry of Interior about the slow progress made by police investigating the attempted assassination of Pa Khlok OrBorTor member and journalist Siripoj Cheechang. K. Siripoj was working to stop a local “investor” from…
- Phuket News
Airport limo operators slam “black’ taxis
PHUKET AIRPORT: Legitimate limousine operators fed up with illegal “black taxis” taking business from them at the airport protested today to the Phuket office of the Airports Authority of Thailand (AAT). Representatives of the Phuket Limousine and Business Service Cooperative Ltd (PBC), led by Vitoon Sae’iw, the organization’s secretary, presented the AAT with a video that they said shows the…
- Phuket News
Hotels reiterate refusal to pay new tax
PHUKET: The committees of the Thai Hotels Association (THA), Southern Chapter, and the Phuket Tourist Association (PTA) today announced that they will not collect hotel tax from tourists on behalf of the Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor) until the organization is able to clarify a number of issues. The refusal to collect the tax came in response to the latest…
- Phuket News
Slow progress in murder and rape cases
PHUKET: The police have admitted that investigations of two recent headline-grabbing cases have not being going as well as they had hoped. In the case of the mutilated corpse of an unidentified woman found in Kathu on October 7, Pol Maj Withoon Kongsoodchai, Inspector of Tung Tong Police Station, said, “There has been almost no evidence that points us towards…
- Phuket News
Contractor takes drastic measures to get payment
PHUKET: A building contractor was so irritated by a dispute over payment with a customer that he did some extra work around her house this morning. He nailed planks across all her doors and windows, making her a prisoner in her home with her two small children. House owner Paetai “Noi” Kaeser, 35, living at 78/392 Soi 3, Phuket Villa…
- Phuket News
Elephant owner sought after death crash
LAMPANG (AFP): Police in this northern Thai province were today looking for the owner of a female elephant which was in a collision with a truck, resulting in the deaths of two people. Police tracked down the elephant yesterday, a day after it collided with a fuel tanker truck while crossing a main road leading to Chiang Mai. The truck…
- Phuket News
Police arrest motorbike hit-man
PHUKET: A finance company employee was shot dead while on his way home at 8:20 this morning. His killer was arrested just three hours later. Pol Maj Sanya Thongsawas of Phuket Town Police Station said that the victim, Aroon Yutitham, 28, was riding his motorbike from Phuket Town to his home at 8/4 Moo 1, Tambon Wichit, and had stopped…
- Phuket News
Red-tape nightmare for parks entry
PHUKET: It’s official: the postponement of the fee hike for foreigners visiting national parks in Thailand has been canceled. Thais will be allowed into the parks at the old price, ranging from as little as 5 baht to 20 baht, whereas foreigners (including foreigners resident in Thailand) will have to pay 200 baht for adults and 100 baht for children.…
- Phuket News
Loch Palm killer “may be psychopath’
KATHU: A leading psychiatrist says he believes that the unidentified woman found dead near the Loch Palm Golf Club on Saturday may have been murdered by a psychopath. “The damage to the victim’s body shows that the murderer may be a psychopath, and probably sadistic as well,” said Dr Chanuan Sampatanrak of Wachira Phuket Hospital. “This is a very unusual…
- Phuket News
Chaos reigns over park fees
PHUKET: Conflicting announcements from the Royal Forestry Department (RFD) have left tour operators and dive companies wondering just what the policy on national park entry fees is, how it will be applied, and when. On August 15, the RFD announced an increase in entry fees – for foreigners only – to 200 baht for adults and 100 baht for children.…
- Phuket News
Bad weather will last 3 more days
PHUKET: The island will experience strong winds and heavy rain over the next few days as a tropical depression passes over the province, Amorn Chantanavivate, the director of the Southwestern Regional Meteorological Center, said today. The current bad weather is being caused by a moderate southwest monsoon over the Andaman Sea and the southwestern coast of Thailand, he explained. Storms…
- Phuket News
Phuket chosen for crime prevention experiment
PHUKET TOWN: The commander of the Royal Thai Police today chaired a meeting at Phuket Town Police Station to discuss a project to make Phuket a model for crime prevention and suppression. If the project, due to start next year, is a success, the lessons learned will be applied to Chiang Mai, Pattaya and Hua Hin, and then to other…
- Phuket News
Woman found brutally murdered
TUNG TONG: The mutilated body of a woman, believed to be Thai, was found near the Loch Palm Golf Club on Saturday afternoon. Pol Capt Teerarat Choychanchaikul of the Tung Tong Police Station said the victim died of blood loss from six stab wounds – two in her stomach, one in her throat, one in an armpit, one in her…
- Phuket News
Four injured in early-morning crash
PHUKET TOWN: Two Korean men and two Thai men were injured in a two-car accident early yesterday morning. Pol Capt Kitipong Klaikaew of Thung Thong Sub-District Police Station said that a pick-up truck and a jeep collided on Wichitsongkram Rd, west of the Thainaan Restaurant, at 2 am. At the scene – a part of the road that locals call…
- Phuket News
Massive manhunt for rapist
PHUKET TOWN: The Provincial Police Office today launched a city-wide hunt for a man who raped a British tourist, Dawn Farmer, 22, on Tuesday night. They also issued a sketch of the man, drawn from a description given by the victim. Saying that the crime is “a blot on Thailand’s reputation in the tourism industry”, the head of all Thailand’s…
- Phuket News
Park fee hike postponed
PHUKET: The Royal Forestry Department (RFD) has announced that the increase in entrance fees to Thailand’s national parks will be postponed until October 1, 2001. Announcing the postponement, the RFD said it had decided to delay charging the higher fees in order to “encourage tourism” and to give tour operators and travel agents time to adjust their rates. The fee…
- Phuket News
Activist injured, Governor slams “gangsterism”
PA KHLOK: The new Governor of Phuket has warned that he will confront gangsterism in the province after an environmental activist was critically injured in what appears to have been an assassination attempt. The activist, Siripoj Cheechang, 35, was run over by a pick-up truck that knocked him off his motorcycle, and then turned around and ran over him. Visiting…
- Phuket News
Scottish tourist raped during festival
PHUKET TOWN: Instead of enjoying her holiday during the island’s Vegetarian Festival, a tourist from Scotland ended up being raped on Tuesday night. The victim, 22-year-old Dawn Farmer, told police that she was raped by a man wearing the traditional white clothing popular with celebrants during the chaotic festival. The white clothing is associated with the festival’s undertone of purity,…
