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Sponsored Bangtao, Phuket: The neighbourhood expats and investors are eyeing in 2025
Bangtao didn't become Phuket’s most talked-about neighbourhood overnight. For a long time, it was a quiet place on the island’s west coast where locals walked their dogs at sunrise and tourists flocked to sunbathe along its eight-kilometre stretch of beach....
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41 year old Malaysian man might be charged with polygamy
“Zaini said the groom could be charged under Section 23 and 19 of the Syariah enactment.” Religious authorities say the bridegroom in the child marriage controversy is “not off the hook” although elements of force, violence and criminal intimidation have been ruled out. Read original story HERE. They also ruled out sex, lust and elements of coercion in a report…
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Coral planted in Maya Bay
By Sitthichai Sikhawat “Officials said they would use a drone to follow up the coral growth on a monthly basis.” As the famous Maya Bay on Koh Phi Phi in Krabi’s Muang district is now until September 30 to allow nature to recover, officials on Thursday brought 400 coral pieces to be planted onto the degraded reef at the bay.…
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41 dead. Hopes fade for remaining 15 missing.
Rescuers are aiming to have a go at raising the wreck of ‘Phoenix’ today. Divers, mostly volunteers, have been confronted with a scene of horror as they defended 47 metres off the coast of Koh Hei into the wreckage of ‘Phoenix’. They reported seeing mothers still holding they babies, bodies suspended in the lower lounge are of the sunken boat.…
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Five more bodies recovered – 18 remain missing
Phuket’s Governor has updated the media of the current toll from the sinking of boats off Koh Hei on Thursday afternoon. The official death toll issued by the Phuket PR Office is 38 people with 18 people still missing. The identification process is underway on the bodies that have been retrieved from the waters off Koh Hei, south-west of Phuket.…
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Khao Sam Roi Yot caves get pro-active with safety audit
Khao Sam Roi Yot national park in Prachuap Khiri Khan province has accelerated the exploration of four caves to gather information on cave conditions as a database to determine safety measures for tourists. Khao Sam Roi Yot national park chief Rungroj Assawakultharin disclosed that Sam Roi Yot National Park is exploring those caves in order to prepare information on their…
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Pattaya 19 year old busted for pimping out underage girls
The Pattaya Mail is reporting that a 19 year old man has been arrested for allegedly pimping out underage girls via a LINE account on his smartphone. Supachai Kokhum was arrested last week and charged with human trafficking – running a LINE app group chat called “Swinging Mapa” offering underage girls to Thais and foreign tourists at 2-3,000 baht each.…
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Revised work permit laws for foreigners
Thailand’s rigid enforcement on Work Permits appears to be getting a reduction in penalties. Thai Visa is reporting that Thailand has updated rules regarding work permits for foreigners. Amongst the most significant of the changes is a reduction in penalties for those found working without a work permit. According to law firm Duensing Kippen, foreigners found working without a work permit…
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Drilling down into the cave – 100 tunnels drilled so far
As the frantic effort continues around the Tham Luang caves to find alternative ways to get to the cave chamber where the 13 footballers have been waiting since two weeks ago, ‘chimneys’ or tunnels from the top or side of the mountain, down into the cave, are being established. AFP are reporting that there have been more than 100 of…
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Messages from inside the Tham Luang Caves
Whilst they’re waiting for the rescue to start, the 13 trapped footballers have been taking time to write some messages to their families and the outside world, with a special note for their teachers. One message read… “Don’t worry. We are all healthy. We want to eat many kinds of food from outside. When we are out from the cave,…
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Chalong boats must stay at port
The Phuket Marine Office has announced that, today (July 7), all boats are not permitted to leave from the Chalong Pier, except boats that are involved with the search teams which are under instruction from the search operation centre. The search for missing people started again this morning at 5am after being stopped late last evening. The focus of today’s…
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“Urgent need to extract the survivors”, Chiang Rai Governor
A breakdown of rescue efforts at Chiang Rai in an excellent graphic from The Nation. Last night the former Governor of Chiang Rai at a midnight media conference said that there was an urgent need to extract the 13 with the threat of more rain and the health deterioration of some of the 13 survivors. The authorities and personnel involved…
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Search continues today for survivors. 23 remain missing.
With the body count numbers still in flux, as the recovery mission continues, the Phuket PR Office says the official death toll is 33 tourists that have died with dozens still missing. Strong winds and high waves sunk the dive yacht Phoenix, packed with mainly Chinese visitors, late on Thursday afternoon when a weather front came in from the Andaman…
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Thaiger TV: Update on the two big stories from Thailand today
https://www.facebook.com/thethaigernews/videos/1774414402636380/
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Boat victims will receive 300,000 baht from Thai Government
As the search continues off the south-west coast of Phuket for survivors from tour boats that sank yesterday afternoon, Thai officials are already rolling out the PR machine. The Tourism and Sports Minister Weerasak Kowsurat has already promised that families of the victims of the boat accidents in Phuket will receive 300,000 baht (9,000 USD) each from the Thai government.…
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Phuket: 40 bodies recovered. 16 Chinese tourists remain missing.
The Phuket Harbour Department has announced that 40 passengers of the ill-fated Phoenix dive boat are confirmed dead as a result of the sinking of the vessel yesterday afternoon. Rescuers, led by the Royal Thai Navy, continue to comb the seas around Phuket for the remaining 16 missing Chinese, says the department in a statement. 49 people have…
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Deputy PM foreshadows legal action against captain and owner of ‘Phoenix’
PHOTO: ‘Phoenix’ from Siraphop Srakaew Deputy PM Prawit Wongsuwan is threatening legal action against the captain and the owner of the ‘Phoenix’, the ill-fated tourist boat that sank yesterday evening off the south-west coast of Phuket. General Prawit says the captain and owner of the Phoenix boat will be held responsible for the accident. ‘Phoenix’ sank with 105 people on…
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Phuket: Seventeen more bodies recovered. 39 remain missing
Navy sailors have located 17 more bodies from the sea off Phuket, raising the number of confirmed deaths in boat accidents to 18, while 39 Chinese tourists remain missing. Officials aboard HTMS Long Lom recovered 12 bodies at 10.50am near the location where the tour boat Phoenix sank after being slammed by huge waves on its way back to Phuket…
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Warm farewell for British cave-diver
By Suthinan Kongsin The Tourism and Sports Minister Weerasak Kowsurat presented a certificate of honour to Briton Robert Charles Harper at Suvarnabhumi International Airport last night (Wednesday) as the cave expert, who played a crucial role in finding the 13 footballers, departed for home. In a spontaneous 11pm ceremony, Transport Minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith also gave him a painting of Harper…
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Phuket: UPDATE. What we know.
What we currently know at 11am, Friday morning, Thai time… • 7 dead bodies have been recovered near Koh Maiton • Up to 50 remain missing (figure is continually being revised) • One body of a Chinese tourist was recovered last last night • Navy SEAL divers are searching the sunken ‘Phoenix’ boat for bodies • Two boats sank in…
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Mae Hong Son: Plane crash. Injured trooper rushed to hospital, bodies retrieved.
Rescuers have rushed an injured Army trooper to hospital and retrieved three bodies after an Army Cessna 182 light aeroplane crashed in Mae Hong Son province near the Myanmar border on Thursday. A rescue team from the 17th Infantry Regiment, local defence volunteers from Ban Huay Pheung village, the Mae Hong Song Disaster Mitigation Office as well as a medical…
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56 still missing as search continues off Phuket
Latest update as of 9am Thailand Time, from the Phuket PR Office, states that one Chinese tourist has been found dead and 56 are still missing in two major marine incidents yesterday afternoon (July 5). Chinese tourists are still missing following the capsize off Phuket. Divers are currently scouring the sunken vessel, the Phoenix, for missing people. The tour boat…
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4-5 metres waves hit my boat, says Captain
The Captain of the dive boat ‘Phoenix’ claims that four to five metres waves hit the boat causing it to sink. Smoking Boontham, captain of the dive boat ‘Phoenix’, was carrying 105 passenger – 93 tourists, 12 boat crew and tour guides – says, “Yesterday (July 5) we left Chalong Pier at 9am heading to Koh Racha. After that we…
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Phuket boats banned from leaving port
Some Phuket boats have been banned to leaving port today (July 6). Tourist Police have warned tour operators not to leave from Phuket’s piers. The Phuket Marine Office Chief, Surat Sirisaiyat, says, “The Phuket Marine Office has been informed from the Meteorological Department that heavy rains and strong winds will hit the southern part of Thailand on the Andaman Sea. Waves are…
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14 flights delayed, 6 diverted, black-outs at airport as storms hit Phuket
File photo/Air Asia plane arrives at Phuket International Airport. Many flights were unable to land safely at Phuket International Airport on time and had to be diverted. There were power outages around the airport lasting from six minutes to many hours yesterday (July 5). Fourteen flights were delayed as planes were not able to land due to the wind squalls…
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Many still missing, one dead. Search resumes this morning off Phuket.
Chinese tourists are still missing following a capsize off Phuket late yesterday afternoon (Thursday). Divers are currently scouring the sunken vessel, the Phoenix, for missing people. The tour boat was one of two reported to have capsized yesterday late afternoon. Phuket’s Governor Plodthong is keeping the media up to date with regular briefings. A sudden wind equal hit the Andaman…
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Interview with Ben Reymenants – Phuket diver diving at the Tham Luang caves
Transcript of an interview on The Thaiger 102.75 between ‘Waking the Thaiger’ host Garry Holden and Rawai cave-diving specialist Ben Reymenants. Ben has been volunteering his experience, skills and time up at the Tham Luang caves as part of the enormous rescue effort. Here is some of Garry’s conversation with Ben – a fascinating insight into what’s been happening in…
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Carnage off the coast of Phuket
Thursday, July 5, 8.30pm. Two tour boats sank off Phuket late this afternoon, forcing about 130 tourists into the sea until fishermen and marine police came to their rescue. There are currently no reports of casualties but a relief operation centre has been set up at Chalong Bay for the victims. A local fishing boat retrieved passengers from a liferaft…
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Open letter from His Majesty The King
Letter from His Majesty Maha Vajiralongkorn Bodindradebayavarangkun I am pleased and greatly relieved to learn that, on 2nd July, 2018, the rescuers have reach all 12 youth footballers of Moo Pa (Wild Boar) Academy Football Club and their coach who were trapped inside Tham Luang caves in Tham Luang – Khun Nam Nang Non Forest Park on 23rd June, 2018. This…
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Koh Chang: Chinese swimmers rescued off Sai Khao beach
Thai PBS is reporting that three Chinese tourists have been rescued off Koh Chang, near the Cambodian border off the coast, south of Pattaya. Rescue workers saw the three of them caught by a rip current while swimming in the sea off Sai Khao beach on early this afternoon (Wednesday) in defiance of red flags along the beach. One of the…
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Murder suspect arrested 24 hours before statute of limitations expired
A Trang murder suspect has been arrested in Satun yesterday, just 24 hours before the statute of limitations on the 20 year old murder case was due to expire. 41 year old Kredis Sombatthong, a resident of Trang’s Yan Ta Khao district, was arrested by Crime Suppression Division police in Satun’s Khun Ka Long district this morning (Thursday) under a…
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