News
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Sponsored Is tap water in Thailand safe to consume?
Wondering if you can drink the tap water in Thailand? From brushing your teeth to filling up a bottle, it’s helpful to understand a few basics. Tap water safety in Thailand varies by location, and while some people use it...
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East Meets West Garage Sale pulls into port at Boat Arcade
PHUKET: Treasure hunters should start clearing their calendars for this Saturday as the 2nd East Meets West Garage Sale lands at the new Boat Arcade edutainment and family center in the Phuket Boat Lagoon. The 70-plus stalls featured at the venue will be providing treasure troves of high-quality second hand items, plus a selection of top fashion brands. The last…
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Hundreds to gather for charity bike ride for slain officer
PHUKET: Hundreds of Phuket’s bikers will join together for a charity bike ride to raise funds for the family of the Tah Chat Chai police officer who was killed by a drunk driver on Monday (story here). Captain Suthat Songmuang was preparing for his role as part of the security team for the visit of HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn…
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PEA announces more long term blackouts
PHUKET: The Phuket Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA) has announced yet another disheartening wave of blackouts to carry out maintenance work on high-voltage power lines from November 17-27, confirmed PEA staff member Veera Rairub. “We are sorry for any inconvenience. However, this is our ‘monthly checkup and maintenance period’ and these power outages are necessary in order to continue to provide…
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Highway police bust four people at checkpoint with 13 bags of kratom
KRABI: Phang Nga Highway Police arrested four people, including one minor, at a Krabi checkpoint yesterday for the possession of 130 kilograms of kratom. Kitti Kongderm, 33; Chalee Kongderm, 30; Nuchanat Chorfai, 27 and a 17-year-old minor referred to by police only as ‘Daeng’, were driving two separate cars, carrying a total of 13 bags of fresh kratom leaves. “During…
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Anni Flynn set to take on world of flowboarding
PHUKET: Phuket’s own surf superstar, Annissa Flynn, is about to take on the world. Already a well-respected pro on Asia’s surf scene, for the past two year’s Anni has been working her way up the rankings for the new water-bound sport, flowboarding, where the surf runs uphill. The flowboarding phenomenon is spreading across Asia, with artificial surf machines popping up…
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Phuket receives big budget for CCTV cameras
PHUKET: The Department of Tourism has approved a 117-million-baht budget for Phuket to set up 120 new CCTV cameras throughout the island. Under the campaign ‘Phuket, a peaceful city’, the installation of the cameras aims to boost island security, as well as to assure the safety of locals and tourists, confirmed Phuket Governor Chamroen Tipayapongtada. The budget has been utilized…
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Nai Harn museum re-designed to save pine grove
PHUKET: The Nai Harn Movie Museum will be re-designed to ensure that none of the pine trees along the beach front will be cut down. The change in plans to the 40-million-baht facility comes after locals tied pieces of saffron fabric around the trees, threatening to have hundreds protest. “We planned to cut down the trees because the roots can…
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Cop-slaying drunk driver hit with civil case
PHUKET: A civil case was brought against the drunk minivan driver who killed an on-duty police officer on Monday. Sen Sgt Maj Suthat Songmuang, father of two, was promoted to Captain postmortem before he was buried yesterday. Region 8 Police gave 100,000 baht to his family. However, a civil lawsuit for further compensation was filed against the driver, 25-year-old Pichitpol…
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Officials table banning destructive diving practice
PHUKET: Authorities are looking to ban destructive dive practices that have been developed on Phi Phi Island to cater to mass tourism. Officials are specifically looking to ban a practice they are calling ‘Try Diving’. “In this case, ‘Try Diving’ is where people with no dive experience at all are brought to a shallow reef to walk around and see…
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Wastewater flow on Karon Beach not hotels’ fault, says official
PHUKET: The foul black water that flowed across Karon Beach on Thursday was not connected to any hotel in the area improperly discharging untreated wastewater, confirmed officials. However, it was untreated wastewater. “The problem, which was caused by officers fixing some pipes, was blown out of proportion by people sharing photos and spreading rumors on social media sites,” Wanchai Saetan,…
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HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn welcomed to the island
PHUKET: HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn arrived on the island to chair the formal opening of two of Vachira Phuket Hospital’s new buildings yesterday. The ceremony highlighted both the Chalermprakiat 59 Pansa and the Baan Khun Poom buildings. The Khun Poom building was constructed under the request of Princess Sirindhorn in memory of HM King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s grandson, Bhumi Jensen,…
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Participants lining up for next year’s Raceweek
PHUKET: Participants and sponsors are already signing up for next year’s Cape Panwa Hotel Phuket Raceweek, booking their rooms well in advance at host resorts Cape Panwa Hotel and Kantary Bay Phuket. Returning in 2016 are sponsors Sailescapes, who last year entered a boat and provided charter opportunities for local and international sailors. Joining them are mixed-used developers Absolute World…
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Sea Shepherd hunts Interpol-wanted poacher that escaped Phuket
PHUKET: The hunt is back on for the internationally black-listed illegal, unreported, unregulated (IUU) fishing vessel that slipped through the fingers of Phuket officials earlier this year, confirmed Captain Siddharth Chakravarty of the Sea Shepherd ship Steve Irwin. “The summer fishing season for toothfish starts now, so we have launched this campaign before the Kunlun can do further damage,” Capt…
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Gibbon touts return to Monkey Beach
PHUKET: Illegal-gibbon touts returned to Monkey Beach in Phi Phi with the start of the high season, confirmed a Phuket Gazette reader. Photographic evidence of two men walking the beach and offering to take pictures of tourists holding the gibbons was promptly passed on to officials. “They are apparently back for high season, because they can earn so much money,”…
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13 arrested in cockfighting raid
PHUKET: Thalang police officers arrested 13 men involved in a cockfight ring during a raid in Pa Khlok on Sunday. About 20 officers raided the cockfighting site, hidden in a rubber plantation. “We seized two roosters and 300 baht in cash at the scene,” said Thalang Police Superintendent Chanuchan Cholsuwat. “The suspects ranged in age from 18 years old to…
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Warming up for Laguna Tri-Fest
PHUKET: Challenge Laguna Phuket’s Tri-Fest event will see hundreds of international athletes come to the island for the legendary Laguna Phuket Triathlon (LPT), to be held on November 22, and the Challenge Laguna Phuket on November 29. The event was presented to organizers, sponsors and media last month at a conference chaired by Santi Pawai, director of the Ministry of…
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Earthquake shakes Phuket
PHUKET: An earthquake measuring 6.2 in magnitude rattled the island just before midnight last night. The Thai Meteorological Department reported the quake as striking at 11:47pm with its epicenter about 427 kilometers southwest of Phuket, near the Nicobar Islands in India. The Regional Environmental Office has yet to receive any damage reports. — Chutharat Plerin
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Opinion: Creating cop camaraderie
Phuket Provincial Police Commander Teeraphol Thipjaroen, 56, is a Prachinburi native. He graduated from the Royal Police Cadet Academy and has been working in Phuket since 1983, except for brief postings to Krabi and Surat Thani. Here he talks about how building trust and offering support to Phuket’s police force will help create a happier working environment for officers, which…
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Hyperlocal taxi situation to grab market
PHUKET: Myteksi, an on-demand taxi booking service in Malaysia, quickly diversified its branding and services offered by successfully expanding throughout Southeast Asia. MyTeksi remains the leading taxi-booking application in Malaysia, but is better known in Phuket, and much of the rest of the region, as GrabTaxi. The company continues to work hand-in-hand with local government offices, after garnering the support…
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Island View: Surviving the Slump
PHUKET: Having lived on the island for three years, I have seen my fair share of people come and go. It’s easy to get in a slump when all of the friends you originally moved here with move on to new adventures, get married or become homebodies. The mentality of ‘been there, done that’ is rather consuming. So you end…
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Raids net six Phuket drug dealers
PHUKET: Police arrested six Phuket suspects this week for allegedly peddling drugs for a kingpin operating in a prison in Central Thailand. “In two days of raids, we were able to make all six arrests and seize a total of 246 grams of ya ice [crystal methamphetamine] and 114 ya ba [methamphetamine] pills. Additionally, we seized one firearm,” Lt Col…
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Weather hampers search efforts for missing Phuket fisherman
PHUKET: Heavy weather off Phuket today hampered search efforts for a crew member who went missing from a large fishing boat on Thursday. The Royal Thai Navy began their search Thursday evening, after they received a report that Suirya Buasri, 50, had gone missing from Nor Thappornnamchok about 15 nautical miles off Phuket. “We conducted searches by boat and helicopter…
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10% zone takes hold on Patong Beach – no loungers allowed
PHUKET: Patong Beach has become the first beach on the island to have the official 10 per cent zone implemented, confirmed Phuket Vice Governor Chokdee Amornwat yesterday. “There have been a number of reports circulating in the English-language media about Governor Chamroen Tipayapongtada saying at a meeting earlier this week that tourists could put loungers and umbrellas anywhere on the…
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Phuket police catch fraudulent Facebook “catfish’
PHUKET: Police charged a woman with the Computer Crimes Act following her creation of a false Facebook account to defraud buyers. Piyanut Singkaluk, 23, confessed that she started collecting pictures of people from the internet in August in order to create a fake Facebook account, a practice that has widely become known as ‘catfishing’. Once the account was established, she…
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Phuket police on prevention alert prior to Pai rape
PHUKET: Phuket police reassured the community that efforts to enforce closing times of nightlife venues here were already in full swing prior to the directive issued by the Royal Thai Police in the wake of a British woman being raped. Royal Thai Police ordered officers this week to renew efforts in ensuring that all entertainment venues are closed on time,…
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Debris to blame for underpass flooding
PHUKET: The Darasamuth underpass suffered its first serious flood last night, when the automatic pumping system failed to activate during a heavy downpour. The underpass, which officially opened just over six months ago (story here), became a lake after an accumulation of garbage blocked the automatic switch that turns on the pumps. “We have three water pumps that work using…
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Still no trace of Nai Harn garbage dumpers
PHUKET: It has been nearly five months since the Rawai Municipality received video evidence of a garbage truck dumping waste and construction materials near the award-winning Nai Harn Beach, yet the municipality has thus far failed to identify the illegal dumpers. “I sent the license-plate number of the truck to the Phuket Land and Transport Office [PLTO] months ago, but…
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Car crashes into Phuket International Airport, one injured
PHUKET: An out-of-control car crashed into the departure hall of Phuket International Airport yesterday evening. “Woranut Buted, 33, said she confused the brake and gas pedals, accidentally accelerating into the trolleys and breaking the glass wall near an airport security checkpoint,” said Maj Santi Prakobpran of the Tah Chat Chai Police. A nearby passenger, Chinese national Shuya Zhang, 24, received…
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Phuket mini-van crash kills one; Chinese tourist in coma
PHUKET: An out of control mini-van crashed head-on with a car in Phuket early this morning, killing one person, leaving a Chinese tourist in a coma and injuring five others. “Witnesses explained that the van was heading north on Thepkrasattri Road, near Soi Wat Phra Thong, when the driver lost control of the vehicle on the wet road, crossed the…
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Phuket speeders: 70% caught on camera fail to pay fine
PHUKET: Not a single Phuket driver of the 70 per cent who failed to pay their speeding tickets has had their licence revoked, confirmed Phuket Land Transport Office (PLTO) chief policy adviser Jaturong Kaewkasi. The news follows Phuket Provincial Police Commander Teeraphol Thipjaroen explaining that if a driver fails to pay the ticket the case is handed over to the…
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