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    How much travel insurance should cost you in Thailand (By trip length)

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  • Phuket business: Multi-billion baht deal signed

    Phuket business: Multi-billion baht deal signed

    PHUKET: Ruea Yacht, the luxury yacht building division of Phuket-Bangkok based Yacht Solutions, has joined forces with Northrop and Johnson – one of the world’s largest independent yacht brokerage firms. Highlighting the increased demand, supply and overall growth in Thailand’s superyacht industry, the new partnership will generate billions for the local economy. Director of Northrop and Johnson said: “Over the…

  • Phuket sports: Morning Star shines bright

    Phuket sports: Morning Star shines bright

    PHUKET: The first game of Phuket Soccer Six League’s (PSSL) round three at Headstart International’s Football Island saw The Lounge face Morning Star. Following two quick goals by Karl Ward, it seemed Morning Star would make light work of their opposition, but The Lounge emerged from their slumber and fought back to bring themselves to within a goal at 4-3.…

  • FC Phuket crush Tuk Tuks

    FC Phuket crush Tuk Tuks

    PHUKET: A new-look FC Phuket played their first pre-season, friendly match recently with Tuk Tuk FC, an outfit of the Le Meridian resort, resulting in a 7-0 goal fest for the home boys. The free-admission match played at Surakul Stadium was a confidence-booster for the Southern Sea Kirin if anything. It was a chance for fans to see their new…

  • Phuket Gazette: ‘Star Wars’ conceptual artist Ralph McQuarrie dies

    Phuket Gazette: ‘Star Wars’ conceptual artist Ralph McQuarrie dies

    PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – World news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community ‘Star Wars’ conceptual artist Ralph McQuarrie dies PHUKET (News Wires): Ralph McQuarrie, the Academy Award-winning conceptual designer and illustrator who was instrumental in defining the look of ‘Star Wars’ icons, died at his home in California on Saturday. He was 82. A statement posted on McQuarrie’s…

  • Phuket Gazette: Unknown Mozart piece discovered in Austria

    Phuket Gazette: Unknown Mozart piece discovered in Austria

    PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – World news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Previously unknown Mozart piece discovered in Austria PHUKET (News Wires): A previously unknown musical piece by Mozart was discovered inside an eighteenth century music book in Austria, local media reported on Saturday. The Mozart Foundation in Salzburg reported that the piano piece was discovered in a…

  • Phuket Gazette: Obama to honor Israel’s Peres with Medal of Freedom

    Phuket Gazette: Obama to honor Israel’s Peres with Medal of Freedom

    – World news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Obama to honor Israel’s Peres with Medal of Freedom PHUKET (News Wires): Israeli President Shimon Peres will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom when he visits the White House in Washington, D.C. later this spring, U.S. President Barack Obama told an audience yesterday. Obama made the announcement at the…

  • Phuket woman dies in motorbike accident

    Phuket woman dies in motorbike accident

    PHUKET: A motorbike passenger was killed last night when her driver swerved to avoid a fallen branch, putting the vehicle in the path of a fast-moving pick-up truck in the north of Phuket. Tah Chat Chai Police were notified of the accident on Thepkrasattri Road southbound at 9:25pm. Arriving a the scene, just 50 meters from the Thepkrasattri Bridge off-ramp,…

  • Four dead, five injured as pickup truck slams into Phuket tourist van

    Four dead, five injured as pickup truck slams into Phuket tourist van

    PHUKET: Four tourists are dead and five injured after a pickup truck loaded with fish and a van filled with tourists heading for Phuket collided in Tai Muang, Phang Nga, yesterday evening.Tai Muang Police received a report of the accident, on the Mae Yey Bridge on Petchkasem Road between Tai Muang and Takuapa Moo 1 in Thung Maphrao, Tai Muang…

  • Phuket Opinion: There’s an Elephant in the Room

    Phuket Opinion: There’s an Elephant in the Room

    PHUKET: The United Nations estimates that the human population of the Earth quietly surpassed the seven billion mark last October. As a result, humankind is putting ever more pressure on the environment that sustains us. In the process, we are also driving many other animal species into extinction, some before they are even recognized by science. Few places on the…

  • Phuket kids top national ukelele contest

    Phuket kids top national ukelele contest

    PHUKET: A trio of Phuket primary students have been crowned champions at a national ukulele playing contest. Watchawong Petchsuwan on ukulele, Anwa Rathaporn on base ukulele and Treerat Nachalaem on vocals – all students at Baan Nabon School in Wichit, south of Phuket Town – were bestowed the top accolade at the Junior Thailand Ukulele Champion Contest 2012 on February…

  • Swede falls victim to Russian snatch thieves in Phuket

    Swede falls victim to Russian snatch thieves in Phuket

    PHUKET; A Swedish tourist in Phuket had his gold chain and other valuables snatched by a pair of women he claims were Russian, according to a local media report. Swedish tourist Peter Wentzel, 40, was walking along the Karon beach road at 11:30pm last night when two foreign women pulled up in front of him on a motorbike and asked…

  • Phuket sports: Chevrolet throttle TSLC’s title hopes

    Phuket sports: Chevrolet throttle TSLC’s title hopes

    PHUKET: The Adult Futsal League (AFL) saw Portrait FC edge a little closer to the Premiership title while Thanyapura lost an opportunity to put more daylight between their pursuers. In second spot before the game, Thanachart Bank faced Portrait FC in a crunch tie that would influence any possibility of catching the league leaders. In a similar start to their…

  • Phuket sports: The boys from Brazil

    Phuket sports: The boys from Brazil

    PHUKET: For the second week in succession Phuket’s Fair Play League (FPL) used two different locations for their weekend fixtures with Youth Football Home hosting U14 matches and Quality Schools International (QSI) the venue for U11 matches. Four of the six teams competing in the U14 Division have a real chance of taking the title which makes winning remaining matches…

  • World sports: What’s in a week?

    World sports: What’s in a week?

    PHUKET: Liverpool FC collected their first piece of silverware since their FA Cup victory six years ago last Sunday.Kenny Dalglish, who became only the seventh manager to win all three major domestic titles, heaped praise on Cardiff City, with the Premiership side needing penalties to take the first trophy of the year.Despite the manner of the win, (3-2 from a…

  • Phuket’s Lomas impress at Bangkok 10s

    Phuket’s Lomas impress at Bangkok 10s

    PHUKET: The Phuket Lomas recently participated in the two-day Bangkok Youth Rugby 10s tournament at Pattana International School with great performances from both the U12 and U16 teams in their respective divisions. On the first day of competition the Lomas U16s faced cup favourites CIMB Cobra from Malaysia. It was a tense battle in which the Lomas matched their opposition…

  • Phuket Gazette: Teacher shot by student; U.S. soldiers killed by Afghan soldier; Blogger Andrew Breitbart dies

    Phuket Gazette: Teacher shot by student; U.S. soldiers killed by Afghan soldier; Blogger Andrew Breitbart dies

    – World news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community U.S. teacher shot dead by student in Iraq PHUKET (News Wires): An American teacher who worked at a Christian school in northern Iraq was shot dead by a student on Thursday, according to media reports. The student then killed himself. Jeremiah Small, of Cosmopolis, Grays Harbor County, located in…

  • Phuket goes to the polls March 25, April 7

    Phuket goes to the polls March 25, April 7

    PHUKET: An island-wide ban on the sale of alcohol will go into effect from 6pm on April 6 through to midnight of April 7 so island residents can vote in the upcoming Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor) presidential election. Residents living in Chalong and Rassada municipal areas will be subject to a similar ban for elections to select councilors for…

  • Phuket PSU chosen for Thai Cabinet meeting

    Phuket PSU chosen for Thai Cabinet meeting

    PHUKET: The Phuket campus of the Prince of Songkla University (PSU) yesterday was selected as the venue for the upcoming Thai Cabinet meeting on March 19-20. Sombat Wattanapanich, Cabinet Secretary and Adviser to Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, was accompanied on a tour of the potential venues on the island. Leading the entourage was Phuket Governor Tri Augkaradacha, Phuket Vice Governor…

  • Senators “worried’ about Phuket beating, cheating, intimidating tourists

    Senators “worried’ about Phuket beating, cheating, intimidating tourists

    PHUKET: A delegation of senators from Bangkok yesterday were treated to a grave description of the problems plaguing Phuket’s tourism industry, including jet-ski ripoffs.The senators, all members of the Senate Standing Committee on Tourism, agreed that everything from the intimidation and beating of tourists to the lack of a strong public transportation system were having a serious effect on Phuket’s…

  • Hookah bars targeting Phuket youth

    Hookah bars targeting Phuket youth

    PHUKET: The Phuket Provincial Office is planning to crack down on hookah bars and other businesses catering to a growing demand among island youths to smoke flavored tobacco known as shisha. The proliferation of venues offering shisha to youths has risen dramatically over the past year and the situation must be quickly addressed, a provincial panel heard recently. New Phuket…

  • Phuket Business Directory 2012 is on sale now

    Phuket Business Directory 2012 is on sale now

    PHUKET: The Gazette Guide for 2012 is now available at vendors throughout Phuket and the Andaman region, and, being eight times the size of other business directories on or off line, is the most comprehensive index to help find the service you need. With contact details of thousands of businesses classified into 142 different categories, the 362-page book is priced…

  • Phuket Weird World News: The littlest, the biggest and the not quite deadest

    Phuket Weird World News: The littlest, the biggest and the not quite deadest

    PHUKET: In this week’s Weird World News round-up we take a “peak” at a couple of neighbors, Nepal and China, as they dispute how big the mount really is, though there is no contest when it comes to who has the littlest wee man. Then China just gets strange as a gran comes back from the dead to do a…

  • Rally round Phuket

    Rally round Phuket

    PHUKET: Following the very successful Grumpy Old Men’s Club (GOMS) rally and car treasure hunt last year, the organizers this year have invited a number of Phuket’s foremost business, social and community organizations to join a great family day out and raise funds for their organization’s ongoing projects. The now-renamed Phuket Invitational Car Rally (PICR), to be held on March…

  • Cuckhold takes revenge | Thaiger

    Cuckhold takes revenge

    PHUKET: A MAN in Chiang Mai recently confessed to taking brutal revenge on a 60-year-old man who slept with his wife. Cuckhold Kaew Intha, 47, shot Tue Jaima in the head – before hacking his penis off with a knife and placing the guilty member on the dead victim’s chest. Police from Maeka Police Station in the Northern province were…

  • Phuket Gazette: Davy Jones of the Monkees dies; A guitar that gently weeps

    Phuket Gazette: Davy Jones of the Monkees dies; A guitar that gently weeps

    PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – World news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Monkees star Davy Jones dies at 66 PHUKET (News Wires): Davy Jones, the lead singer of the popular American pop rock group ‘The Monkees’, died in Florida on Wednesday as a result of a suspected heart attack, local officials said. He was 66. Rhonda Irons, a…

  • A brave young man

    A brave young man

    PHUKET: “My dad always said to me that if you do your best it’s enough, and I think you lot did your best tonight.” Ed Speed, the 14-year-old son of Gary Speed, gave a lifting speech to the Wales national football team after their defeat by Colombia on Wednesday night. The match was organized as a memorial to Gary who…

  • Phuket Police probe land titles as Norwegian Dokset’s motive for murder

    Phuket Police probe land titles as Norwegian Dokset’s motive for murder

    PHUKET: Murder suspect Stein Havard Dokset today re-enacted his actions from nearly three years ago to show Phuket police the sequence of events that led to the death of Rungnapa Suktong. Arrested on Tuesday after a police raid discovered decaying human remains in a plastic trash can his basement bathroom, Mr Dokset today denied all but one member of the…

  • Phuket murder suspect Stein Dokset already on trial for fraud

    Phuket murder suspect Stein Dokset already on trial for fraud

    PHUKET: Norwegian expat Stein Havard Dokset, who this afternoon was charged with the murder of his ex-girlfriend Rungnapa Suktong, is already on trial for defrauding a Swedish man of more than 800,000 baht, the Phuket Gazette has learned. Lt Col Boonlert Onklang, Deputy Superintendent at Chalong Police, told the Gazette that a formal complaint was filed with Chalong Police on…

  • Phuket Gazette: Central America most violent; U.S. Coast Guard crash; Hackers arrested

    Phuket Gazette: Central America most violent; U.S. Coast Guard crash; Hackers arrested

    PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – World news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community UN describes Central America as world’s most violent area, and the U.S. the biggest drug market PHUKET (News Wires): The United Nations (UN) on Tuesday described Central America as one of the most violent areas in the world as drug-related violence continues to rise, signaling the…

  • Phuket tourism high season draws annual blood-drive low

    Phuket tourism high season draws annual blood-drive low

    PHUKET: The Phuket Regional Blood Center is calling for blood donations to replenish stocks to counter the annual fall in donations during Phuket’s tourism high season. Each year from January through April, the volume of blood collected falls short of target levels, says Vichote Buraphachanok of the Blood Center. “The main reason that we fall short of our target levels…