News

Thailand news, politics, business, crime, lifestyle, and tourism—stay updated with breaking news and in-depth analysis from Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Pattaya, and beyond.

  • Sponsored

    How to reduce out-of-pocket medical expenses in Thailand?

    Managing medical expenses in Thailand is important as healthcare costs continue to rise. The country’s healthcare system includes both public and private options, but even with the Universal Coverage Scheme (UCS) for citizens, many still face high out-of-pocket medical expenses....

  • Phuket Police ordered to boost security, safety for Vegetarian Festival

    Phuket Police ordered to boost security, safety for Vegetarian Festival

    PHUKET: Provincial Police Commander Choti Chavaviwat has ordered an island-wide boost in security for the upcoming Phuket Vegetarian Festival, which starts tonight. Maj Gen Choti told the Phuket Gazette that he was only too aware that the island attracted large numbers of tourists, both Thai and foreign during the festival, and their safety needed to be ensured. Gen Choti said…

  • Sek Loso to play in Phuket

    Sek Loso to play in Phuket

    PHUKET: Scandal-battered rock star Seksan “Sek Loso” Sukpimai will be among the acts performing at the second annual Life Music Festival in Phuket Town tonight. GMM Grammy – who tore up Sek’s contract late last year, when he refused to admit he had an increasingly violent drug problem – say they couldn’t be happier. GMM Grammy Chairman Paiboon Damrongchaitham says…

  • Phuket Opinion: Of MICE and mangroves

    Phuket Opinion: Of MICE and mangroves

    PHUKET: With more than 50 injured turtles and a dolphin recovering amid news of an “extinct” crab resurfacing in Phuket, one cannot help but reflect upon the state of our island’s current fight for ecological survival. The breathtaking increase in development’s toll on the island’s natural resources has been reported by the Phuket Gazette for well over a decade. The…

  • Transport Minister eyes Phuket traffic black spots

    Transport Minister eyes Phuket traffic black spots

    PHUKET: Transport Minister Jarupong Ruangsuwan in Phuket last week admitted that despite efforts to resolve traffic jams in Phuket through billion-baht underpass projects, other traffic congestion “black spots” also needed addressing. Mr Jarupong identified the Heroines’ Monument in Thalang and Chalong Circle in the south of Phuket as two areas that specifically need attention. “Projects that improve public transportation in…

  • Phuket Town redecorated for Vegetarian Festival

    Phuket Town redecorated for Vegetarian Festival

    PHUKET: Ahead of tens of thousands of tourists arriving for the Phuket Vegetarian Festival, which begins tomorrow, shrine committees and local municipal workers have taken to the streets to post flags along major roads across the island and install huge decorations as part of the festivities. All main roads through Phuket Town, and especially those leading from local Chinese shrines…

  • Phuket Sports: F1 – Red Bull, bubbles and bumps

    Phuket Sports: F1 – Red Bull, bubbles and bumps

    PHUKET: It was over some suitably austerity-friendly pink fizz that I heard the bizarre news that Greece has proposed to subsidize a Patras F1 GP by US$37 million. Against a backdrop of 17 Eurozone ministers reviewing budget proposals for a nation facing meltdown, this looks somewhat frivolous. One wonders how it will play in Berlin, in the wake of Schumacher’s…

  • Phuket noise: Villagers’ complaints spark raid

    Phuket noise: Villagers’ complaints spark raid

    PHUKET: Complaints from residents about noise from two entertainment venues in the Heroines Monument area prompted Phuket Vice Governor Somkiet Sangkaosuttirak to lead more than 30 officers to raid the venues last night. Vice Governor Somkiet and officers from the Damrongtham Center (provincial ombudsman’s office), the Muang District and Thalang District Offices, and the Thalang Police raided the Relax Live…

  • Weird World News: Cashing in on big money, or not

    Weird World News: Cashing in on big money, or not

    PHUKET: This week’s Weird World News Roundup runs the gambit from a US$1 bank robbery, to a space diamond bigger than Earth, with a half-billion US dollars in between. One dollar, enough for Federal Prison? A “polite” US man was arrested after robbing his local bank for US$1 [30 baht] in an apparent attempt to be charged with a federal…

  • Phuket Sports: this weekend’s action

    Phuket Sports: this weekend’s action

    PHUKET: Wayne Rooney will captain England against San Marino in the absence of Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard. England are currently joint-top of Group H with Poland and Montenegro. The match will be played in front of a sell-out crowd at Wembley at 2am Saturday morning, Phuket time. Scotland face Wales in a Group A match, with both teams needing…

  • Phuket lawyer takes death plunge after “humiliating’ argument

    Phuket lawyer takes death plunge after “humiliating’ argument

    PHUKET: A Phuket lawyer died after plummeting from his third-floor apartment in Wichit last night, allegedly due to the humiliation of arguing with his girlfriend in front of apartment staff. Puwanart Pijansophon, 48, worked as a lawyer and also helped his relatives run the apartment complex that he fell from on Soi Jai Lau U-Thit 2 off Chao Fa East…

  • Vegetable prices skyrocket ahead of Phuket Vegetarian Festival

    Vegetable prices skyrocket ahead of Phuket Vegetarian Festival

    PHUKET: Even a major festival such as the Phuket Vegetarian Festival is not spared commerce’s principal ethos of “supply and demand”; as demonstrated by the hike in vegetable prices this week. As has become the usual practice in previous years, with only a few days before the festival starts vegetable prices at the busy Kaset Market in Phuket Town, near…

  • Phuket United downed by Highways Department in season debut

    Phuket United downed by Highways Department in season debut

    PHUKET: Playing in their Thailand Futsal Premier League debut, the Island’s professional five-a-side club Phuket United went down 1-2 to the Highways Department Futsal Club (HDFC) yesterday afternoon in Bangkok.The match was one of eight held on Wednesday and Thursday as part of the unofficial GMM 2012-2013 Thailand Futsal Premier League kickoff, held at Bangkok’s Fashion Island Futsal Arena. Taking…

  • World News: Jurassic park will never be – cloning dinosaurs ruled out

    World News: Jurassic park will never be – cloning dinosaurs ruled out

    PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – World news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Australian scientists rule out cloning dinosaurs one day Phuket Gazette / News Wires PHUKET: Australian scientists have found that bonds in a DNA strand could survive up to 6.8 million years under ideal conditions, longer than previously thought but ruling out the possibility of one day…

  • Phuket Governor calls for direct flights between India and Phuket

    Phuket Governor calls for direct flights between India and Phuket

    PHUKET: Phuket Governor Maitree Insutut who today met with Indian Ambassador to Thailand Anil Wadhwa called for direct flights from major Indian cities, including Mumbai and Kolkata, to serve the burgeoning number of tourists flying to Phuket. After the closed-door meeting at Phuket Provincial Hall this afternoon, Governor Maitree told the press that “Ambassador Anil agreed, and said he would…

  • Phuket Vegetarian Festival starts with elbow grease

    Phuket Vegetarian Festival starts with elbow grease

    PHUKET: Devotees at three shrines in Phuket began their preparation for the Vegetarian Festival with smiles and elbow grease as they gave the shrines a thorough cleaning yesterday. The cleaning started at 7am at Jui Tui Shrine, Pud Jor Shrine and Bang Neaw Shrine in Phuket Town. Students from Bang Neaw Municipality School joined other locals in cleaning the Bang…

  • Phuket Police doubt shooting suicide claim, launch investigation

    Phuket Police doubt shooting suicide claim, launch investigation

    PHUKET: Police are investigating the death of a man shot point blank in the head with a homemade gun while watching television in his home on the outskirts of Phuket Town last night. The investigation, headed by Phuket City Police Superintendent Sermphan Sirikong, continues despite the widow’s claims that it was suicide. Col Sermphan arrived at the family home in…

  • Phuket Police cease investigations into two swimming pool drownings

    Phuket Police cease investigations into two swimming pool drownings

    PHUKET: Police are not continuing their investigations into the drownings of two tourists in swimming pools at two separate luxury resorts in Phuket last week. The two unrelated incidents, which both involved newly arrived tourist couples, occurred in Nai Harn, in the south of Phuket. The first drowning occurred on October 6 at a resort at the north end of…

  • Phuket Vegetarian Festival vendors protest over street rents

    Phuket Vegetarian Festival vendors protest over street rents

    PHUKET: Food vendors to operate stalls near the Jui Tui Shrine in Phuket Town during the upcoming Vegetarian Festival have successfully overturned the shrine committee’s decision this year to hand over the right to collect stall site rents to homeowners in the downtown area. About 30 people representing close to 100 Chinese vegetarian food vendors gathered around noon yesterday to…

  • Joyriders nabbed by Phuket Police

    Joyriders nabbed by Phuket Police

    PHUKET: In one of his first public press conferences as Phuket’s top-ranking police officer, Maj Gen Choti Chavaviwat this morning announced the arrest of two men for stealing a car to go joyriding around the island. Joining Kamala Police Deputy Superintendent Winai Kongkaew at Phuket Provincial Police headquarters in Phuket Town, Gen Choti announced the arrests of 32-year-old Phuket native…

  • World News: British teacher Jeremy Forrest extradited on child abduction charges

    World News: British teacher Jeremy Forrest extradited on child abduction charges

    PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – World news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community British teacher who ran away with student extradited from France Phuket Gazette / News Wires PHUKET: A 30-year-old British teacher who was arrested in southwestern France last month was extradited to the United Kingdom yesterday and charged with child abduction after running away with a 15-year-old…

  • Quebec coroner refutes Thai autopsy results for Belanger sisters

    Quebec coroner refutes Thai autopsy results for Belanger sisters

    PHUKET: A Quebec coroner has refuted claims by Thai officials that the Belanger sisters died in their Phi Phi hotel room in June after consuming the insecticide DEET. Audrey Belanger, 20, and Noemi Belanger, 25, were found dead in their hotel room on Phi Phi Island on June 15. Both had suffered a violent physical reaction to suspected poisoning. Autopsies…

  • Phuket prepares for important ‘footy’ matches

    Phuket prepares for important ‘footy’ matches

    PHUKET: Both of the island’s national-level sports teams have important matches lined up, today and tomorrow. In 11-a-side football, the Phuket FC “Islanders” are ready to host Khon Kaen FC “T-Rex” at Surakul Stadium in Phuket Town with a 6:30pm kickoff this evening. Both sides will be fighting hard for all three points to help them steer clear of relegation,…

  • Call for blood donations ahead of Phuket Vegetarian Festival

    Call for blood donations ahead of Phuket Vegetarian Festival

    PHUKET: Phuket Regional Blood Center (PRBC) is calling for a boost in blood donations ahead of the upcoming Vegetarian Festival, which begins on Sunday. The PRBC’s blood stocks usually fall dramatically during the festival as demand rises and donor numbers reduce, due to the physical demands made by the festival’s purification rituals. Acting Director of PRBC Pornthip Rattajak told the…

  • Phuket misses out on Miss Tourism World 2012

    Phuket misses out on Miss Tourism World 2012

    PHUKET: To give other tourist destinations the chance to promote themselves, the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has decided that Phuket will not be on the list of places the bevy of beauties from Miss Tourism World 2012 will be visiting.Taking place from December 2-15, this is the first time Thailand will host the Miss Tourism World pageant, which includes…

  • Phuket scrubs up ahead of Vegetarian Festival

    Phuket scrubs up ahead of Vegetarian Festival

    PHUKET: Residents in Phuket’s Srisoonthorn area today staged their “Big Cleaning Day” to prepare for the upcoming Vegetarian Festival, which will get underway on Sunday night. Phuket Vice Governor Somkiet Sangkaosuttirak led the event this morning, which began with cleaning the area immediately surrounding the island’s famed Heroines Monument. Leading an army of volunteers and officers from Srisoonthorn Municipality was…

  • Mayor Pian unveils “14 strategies’ to develop Patong

    Mayor Pian unveils “14 strategies’ to develop Patong

    PHUKET: Pian Keesin, launching into his final term as Patong Mayor, has revealed a grand plan of “14 strategies” to transform Patong into a “Livable and Sustainable Tourist Destination City”.Speaking at a Patong council meeting on Monday, Mayor Pian said, “In order to prepare our town for the beginning of the Asean Economic Community [AEC] in 2015, we will have…

  • Krabi farm owners pleads for return of fossils

    Krabi farm owners pleads for return of fossils

    PHUKET: The owner of a plot of land in Krabi, believed to be the site of a massive shell fossil discovery, has asked for people to return the fossils stolen from his land and not to steal any more of them . Chob Pankaew, 55, announced news of the discovery of a huge collection of fossil shells on his farm…

  • Phuket Business: AirAsia shift to reap Chinese pie

    Phuket Business: AirAsia shift to reap Chinese pie

    PHUKET: As part of its latest strategic marketing shift, Low Cost Carrier (LCC) AirAsia recently canceled its Phuket flights to Ubon Ratchathani and Bali, topped off with the cancellation last week of its Thailand-Sri Lanka route. Meanwhile, the leading LCC has reinstated its Phuket-Udon Thani route, while revealing additional plans to shift and expand regional focus to the high-volume, high-growth,…

  • Phuket Business: Calculating the Sharpe ratio

    Phuket Business: Calculating the Sharpe ratio

    PHUKET: One statistic you will often see when looking at a fund’s performance is the “Sharpe ratio”. This is an attempt to quantify the excess return for a given level of risk. For example, two funds may both return 12%. If one returns a steady 1% every month while the other swings up and down, common sense and our blood…

  • US Navy in Phuket to splash out B2mn a day

    US Navy in Phuket to splash out B2mn a day

    PHUKET: Phuket Tourism Association (PTA) Vice President Bhurit Maswongsa today estimated that the US Navy sailors currently visiting Phuket are expected to spend 10 million baht during their five-day stay on the island. The USS John C Stennis and USS Mobile Bay dropped anchor in Ao Makham bay, off Phuket’s east coast, on Sunday, to give the 5,350 servicemen and…