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Day Three: Top of the Gulf Regatta 2018
PHOTOS: Guy Nowell All the fleet are playing catch-up in their respective series after two days of unseasonal weather in the Gulf of Thailand and race officers on the keelboat and multihull, dinghy and Optimist courses were eager to get going today. Two quick windward/leewards for all in classes 1-6 (keelboats, multihulls) and two quick races for the dinghies (classes…
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20 injured after bus flips over near Surat Thani
A Bangkok – Khanom bus has ran off Highway 41 and crashed into a tree alongside the road injuring about 20 passengers this morning (Monday). (UPDATE: 19 confirmed injured) Thai PBS reports that the bus was heading from Bangkok on the way to Nakhon Si Thammarat with 36 passengers when it ran off the highway in Chaya district of Surat…
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Day Two – Top of the Gulf Regatta
PHOTOS: Guy Nowell What a difference a day makes. Yesterday’s grey skies and consistent rain was replaced with hope this morning as blue skies hinted of a better day to come. A full fleet of boats headed out to their respective start lines as 120+ Optimists and more than 70 in the Single-Handed Monohull Dinghy and Double-Handed Monohull Dinghy classes…
- Thai Life
The world’s top 25 luxury hotels
Luxury hotels. Sure, we plenty of those in Phuket and around Thailand. But where are the world’s best luxury hotels? Out of the top 25, only one is in Thailand. The votes are in by the people who visit and stay in these expensive but ornate and luxurious accommodation offerings. Trip Advisor guests have stayed in them and voted. The…
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Romance gang busted by tourist police
Tourist Police and 191 Special Branch Police have busted an alleged Nigerian romance scam gang and arrested a Negerian man for fraud charges during the ongoing investigation. Thai PBS are reporting that Light Chinezurum was presented to the media yesterday (April 27) after being caught by tourist police for luring several women into an online relationship and convincing them to transfer…
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Fake food and cosmetic products in Thai markets
Thai PBS is reporting that the FTI’s food supplements industry club is coming under scrutiny following police and officials from the Food and Drugs Administration raided several major manufacturing plants and found huge quantities of substandard and fake cosmetic and food supplements. The Federation of Thai Industries is claiming that 40% of food supplements and cosmetic products sold in markets…
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Sales, exports, production – Thai car business growing
Car sales are likely to exceed 900,000 units by the end of 2018. This is according to the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) saying that production and sales have been picking up. The automobile club president, Surapong Paisitpatanapong, says the general outlook of the industry is improving with both production and sales, both for local and export markets with March sales…
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Soi Dog opening on Saturdays
Following the success of our recent trial, Soi Dog Foundation has extended visitor times at one of Phuket’s most popular attractions, ‘’The Gill Dalley Sanctuary” in Mai Khao to Saturday mornings providing the opportunity to visitors, who are unable to go during the week, to meet and mingle with the small dogs, cats and kittens. From April 28 onward, visitors…
- Thai Life
The 110cc power plant of South East Asia
Please ensure that you are properly licensed and wear a helmet anytime you hire or ride a motorbike in South East Asia. Whenever you visit South East Asia one thing becomes immediately apparent – the economies would never survive without the ubiquitous 110cc step-thru motorbikes. Some may have bigger engines, some might have been ‘modified’ and some might have been…
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Foreigners detained in Pattaya sex orgy raid
PHOTO: Siamchon News More raids in Pattaya after police and authorities raided a ‘sex party’ being held at a hotel allegedly managed by a 53 year old Chinese man. Local police, immigration officers and Tourist Police carried out the raid after reports that the 30 room hotel located in the Nong Prue area was being used to host sex and…
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Did ‘The Beach’ vandalise the beach at Maya Bay?
A judgment is expected to be handed down in July after the Civil Court’s environmental division has finished hearing evidence from the Thai plaintiff and the US defendant over the controversial filming of Hollywood movie The Beach. The film starred Leonardo DiCaprio and was partly filmed at Krabi’s Maya Bay in 1998. (Phuket’s On On Hotel was used as the…
- Thai Life
Another month, another surge in tourists to Thailand
Thailand’s tourist arrivals clocked up 3.4 million visitors in March 2018, an improvement of over 16 percent year-on-year. The Ministry of Tourism and Sports has confirmed March finished with 3,497,260 visitors. Earnings for March were estimated at 189,158 million baht, up 22 percent year-on-year. Pongpanu Svetarundra, permanent secretary for the tourism ministry, noted that East Asia continued to dominate the tourist…
- Thai Life
Failure to turn browsers into buyers – online travel booking
A report from Ve Global indicates that there are far more travel browsers than travel buyers. The report shows that the dropout rate is as high as 95.5% when it comes time to paying online for a travel service. The data, advertising and marketing technology company’s report shows that every sector of the travel industry is plagued with massive on-site…
- Thai Life
The Thailand Travel Mart heads to Pattaya this June
Pattaya will host the annual Thailand Travel Mart this June. The show was hosted in Pattaya back in 2001, followed by years in Bangkok before it moved to Chiang Mai in 2016 for a two-year stint. Now the annual B2B event, that showcases travel content from across the country and neighbours in the Mekong Region, moves south to Pattaya’s Ocean…
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The Blue Horizon World Corporate Golf Challenge 2018 qualifying series in Phuket is now complete
The Blue Horizon World Corporate Golf Challenge 2018 qualifying series is now complete with Qualifier 6 in Phuket. A solid field of 24 teams arrived at Laguna Golf Phuket with hopes of taking one of the final 3 spots in the final at the end of April. The highlight of the day was no doubt Andrew De Bruin, getting a…
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“You’ve got a better chance of winning the lottery,” Dr Thon Thamrongnawasawat
Screenshot from Dr. Thon’s video Dr. Thon Thamrongnawasawat of the Faculty of Fisheries at Kasetsart University, Bangkok says you have a bigger chance of winning the lottery or being run down by a charging buffalo than being bitten by a shark in Thailand. Dr. Thon’s message was loud and clear – don’t worry about sharks. Not to mention Thai roads and…
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Belarusian prostitute has her day in BKK court
Anastasia Vashukevich, the Belarusian model and self-branded sex-guru detained in Bangkok, who made extravagant claims about alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 US election, is due in court today. She has offered to dump on several Russian businessmen linked with Russian President Putin with alleged links to US businessmen and politicians close to the US President. Anastasia Vashukevich, AKA Nastya Rybka, was…
- Thai Life
Founding partner of Pavilions Himalayas honoured for charitable work in Nepal
One of the founding partners of The Pavilions Himalayas, Douglas Maclagan, is to be honoured for his work helping underprivileged children in Nepal. The award is considered as the Nobel Prize for Children, and endorsed by UNICEF. World of Children, which provides funding and assistance for vulnerable children worldwide, has selected Mr Maclagan as a Humanitarian Alumni Honoree for 2018,…
- Thai Life
Will you be booking a flight with standing plane seats?
PHOTO: Aviointeriors They’ve threatened charging ‘fat’ people more for their aircraft seat, even smaller seats and zero-recline seats. Anything the bean-counters running the world’s airlines can do to increase their bottomline, whilst discomforting ours, it seems, they will try. The idea of a ‘standing seat’ was posited nearly a decade ago but was considered a bridge too far at the…
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Krabi trader shames farang family gang
Thai Rath is reporting that a Thai female trader has taken to posting a rant on Facebook and offering a 5,000 baht reward for the return of an iPhone X after CCTV footage showed it being lifted by someone she claims to be Russian. Em posted on her personal Facebook page of Netdao Wiwatratsamee that the thieves arrived as a…
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Two dead, 892 homes damaged by storms in the Northeast
Two people have died and 892 homes damaged by high winds and storm cells that hit 19 provinces, mostly in Thailand’s Northeast, between April 13-16. The report from the Department of Public Disaster Prevention and Mitigation. The 19 wind-affected provinces include 12 northeastern provinces: Loei, Nakhon Ratchasima, Roi-et, Khon Kaen, Kalasin, Nong Khai, Ubon Ratchathani, Surin, Chaiyaphum, Buri Ram, Udon…
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Cherngtalay’s Chutimon Coffee & Art donates to PHBGTU charity
Chutimon Coffee & Art, Cherngtalay-Laguna has donated 200,000 baht to Phuket’s largest children’s charity Phuket Has Been Good To Us. Give Khun Mam a big thank you next time you’re visiting in Cherngtalay. PHOTO: Right to left Chutimon (Mam) presenting to Tina Hall, Michael Chugg & Sue Ultmann from the charity.
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Australian teacher shot by ex in Chiang Mai
An Australian teacher, reportedly trying to get back together with his Thai girlfriend, has been shot in the stomach in the car park of a Chiang Mai apartment. 47 year old Jean Paul Bull, an English teacher at a well known Chiang Mai university, remains in hospital recovering from his injuries. He had gone to invite his 39 year old…
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Two women drown after trying to save swimmers – Ubon Ratchathani
Two women, one of them seven-month pregnant, drowned in the Chi river in Ubon Ratchathani yesterday morning (Friday) as they tried to help a 13 year old and older man as they got into difficulties. Upon Ratchathani is in the country’s far east near the Cambodian border. The tragedy occurred when 35 year old Sudjai Pansiri, who was seven months…
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Songkran storms on the way for the Northern and Central regions
Songkran is the time to farewell the hot season and welcome in the forthcoming wet season but the actual weather is wasting no time getting in on the celebrations. The Thai Meteorological Department is warning people in the Central and Northern parts of the country to brace for another round of summer storms from April 15-18. In an announcement yesterday…
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Murder, rape, dead bodies in pools – The toll of dead young British tourists visiting Thailand
PHOTO: Luke Miller (left) was found dead at the bottom of a pool in Koh Tao in 2016 Why is there a mounting toll of young Brits dying, often in mysterious circumstances, in Thailand? 60 or so unexplained, or poorly explained, deaths in just 24 months actually. Britian’s Daily Mail Online has dug deep into the vault of strange disappearances and…
- Thai Life
The spirit of Songkran – Ajarn Pranee
By Pranee Sakulpipatana, AKA Ajarn Pranee Songkran is one of the happiest festivals celebrated by Thais. When I was young and lived in Phuket, I always found the Songkran celebrations in other provinces such as Chiang Mai to be very unique and beautiful. Over the years Phuket has grown into a hub filled with Thais from all corners of the…
- Thai Life
Songkran activities around the country
Songkran is celebrated across Thailand. It’s the annual celebration of the Thai New Year – a farewell to the hot season and a welcoming of the coming wet season. But it is celebrated in many different ways, from the insane water-fights in Patong, with elephants in Ayutthaya or the Sand Pagoda Ceremony in Chonburi. The word “Songkran” has its origins in…
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Manhunt on for six suspects in the Sungai Golok attacks
Army offices and local police are now hunting down six men for suspected involvement in last night’s attacks in Narathiwat. The six men are suspected of being involved in bomb explosions at three residential areas in Sungai Golok district, injuring 13 people. (Sungai Golok is the last town in Thailand before you cross over the Malaysian border) Police also note…