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Pullman Phuket Panwa Beach Resort puts sustainability at its heart
The term sustainability is often thrown around as a buzzword in the hospitality industry, but at Pullman Phuket Panwa Beach Resort, it’s genuinely part of their mission. Located in Makham Bay, just south of Phuket Town, the beautiful resort puts...
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Phuket business: LED systems to dim costs
PHUKET: Businesses and private homes looking to reduce overheads and increase marketing and profit potential can benefit by tapping into the latest LED powered solutions. Osram-Traxon (Thailand), have partnered with SAPL-CAL Solutions and Boonsoong Technology Co Ltd to showcase its latest products at the Phuket Life and Drive Show, scheduled for March 28 to April 2 at the Homeworks complex…
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Phuket business: Axiom legal financing segregated portfolio
PHUKET: A little while back my article about litigation funding in general was published and at the time I was kind of sitting on the fence about the asset class. One of my main hang-ups had been with the fact that generally the access to it that I had seen up to that point had been via structured notes, which…
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Phuket Live Wire: An update on international download speeds in Phuket
PHUKET: Time for an update on how Phuket’s doing for real world, measured international internet speeds. I’m not talking about the advertised 10 megabits or 100 megabits-per-second lines that only exist in marketing drivel and a few internet service provider’s fantasies. I’m talking about speeds that you and I are measuring, in the wild, right here, every day. The short…
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Pregnant mother, family killed in Phuket road accident
PHUKET: A family of three from Uttaradit province died when their motorcycle was hit by a pick-up truck in the rainy conditions in Phuket last night. Also killed was the unborn child of the pregnant mother. Thalang Police were notified of an accident near the entrance to the Baan Wana housing estate on Srisoonthorn Road, about three kilometers west of…
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Phuket Gazette: Syria confirms deaths; Soldiers kill smuggler; EU tightens sanctions
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – World news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Syrian gov’t confirms more than 3,800 killed during uprising PHUKET News Wires: More than 3,800 people have died as a result of violence during the ongoing uprising in Syria, according to figures the Syrian government has provided to the United Nations. Opposition activists claim the actual…
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Phuket welcomes newborn elephant “Pang Saifon’
PHUKET: The owners of the Kinnari Elephant Camp in Rawai this morning announced the birth of a baby elephant at the camp. Pang Saifon, born at 1:49am, is the second elephant to be born at the camp. The newborn weighs 75 kilograms and is in perfect health, said Jirayu Nirunwiroj, a veterinarian from the Phuket Livestock Office’s Animal Health Development…
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PHUKET TOURISM: Expert warns of traffic crisis for Phuket Airport
PHUKET: Capacity at Phuket International Airport is expected to reach critical levels this year with the thriving tourist destination projected to receive a staggering nine million visitors in 2012, according to a report released by leading hospitality consultancy C9 Hotelworks today. Bill Barnett, Managing Director of C9 Hotelworks and Phuket Gazette Property columnist, reports that the airport is officially capable…
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Phuket Gazette: Thai ‘wellness tourism’ to scoop up 350bn baht: TAT
PHUKET: The Thai government is projecting that the healthcare sector will earn a total of 350 billion baht (US$11.5bn), contributing much to the government target of becoming a “World Class Health Provider” by 2014. The projection covers the period of a five-year campaign from 2010 to 2014. The strategy follows Thailand being dubbed the “Spa Capital of Asia” in 2008,…
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Swedish Gripen jet fighters in tests over Phuket
PHUKET: The Royal Thai Air Force is conducting high-speed aerial flyovers of Phuket Town today and tomorrow in order to test its radar installation at Khao Mai Thao Sip Song, the island’s highest point, in Chalong. Following reports by concerned residents in Phuket Town, the Phuket Gazette contacted the Phuket Air Traffic Control center run by Aerothai at Phuket International…
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Phuket’s Soi Dog Foundation expands into Bangkok
PHUKET: Phuket’s renowned animal welfare charity Soi Dog Foundation (SDF) has joined forces with the Bangkok-based Soi Cats and Dogs organization (SCAD) to launch operations in the Thai capital. SCAD, a well established and highly regarded Thai foundation, will be integrated into SDF and Phimpakarn Petpichetchien appointed General Manager of the new operation, SDF’s founder John Dalley announced in press…
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Separate shootings leave two dead in Phuket
PHUKET: Two people died in separate shootings in Phuket last night. The first incident was an ambush attack in front of the Thepkrasattri Municipal Market, just west of the Thalang Junction on Don Chom Tao Road. A 25-year-old man identified only as “Pisut” was driving a motorbike along Don Chom Tao Road towards the junction at about 9:15pm when he…
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Phuket road victim identified as Aussie model
PHUKET: The young woman who died in a motorbike accident in Phuket early on Saturday morning has been identified as Lana O’Connell, a successful young model from the Gold Coast, Australia. Miss O’Connell was riding a motorbike along Patak Road toward Chalong Circle with her long-term partner Kenneth Trivett at about 3:30am when they struck a motorbike with sidecar. Mr…
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Two baby elephants seized in Phuket
PHUKET: Two baby elephants seized in Phuket today will be sent to an elephant reserve in the Northern Thailand province of Lampang. Meanwhile, investigators are continuing their probe into whether three elephant camps near Phuket’s Big Buddha image are encroaching on protected forest land. The transfer of the two baby male elephants – Popeye and Joey – follows officials from…
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Phuket sports: Golf guru weekly round-up
PHUKET: THE media hype around the USPGA tour this week wasn’t enough to get Phil Mickelson into the winner’s circle two weeks in a row. The Riviera Country Club, Pacific Palisades, California was the venue for the Northern Trust Open, formally known as the Los Angles Open, less than a block away from Sunset Boulevard. The Riviera C.C. is a…
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Thanachart close in on Portrait FC
PHUKET: THE Adult Futsal League (AFL) season nine presented by Thanachart Bank entered week five at Thanyapura Sports and Leisure Club (TSLC) last Thursday with a full compliment of games played in both divisions. Jitjongrut took on a struggling Honda in the evening’s first Premier Division fixture, well aware that the game was a good opportunity for them to climb…
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Shakers and Rugantino in the mix for Phuket Super Six
PHUKET: Round two of the Phuket Super Six League (PSSL) produced more evenly contested matches last week at Football Island, but the goal count continues to rise. The first fixture saw league leaders Pita Bar Phuketeers and the experienced Morning Star, in their first league outing, play a guarded game that ended with honors divided. After a goaless first half,…
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Prompong pushes for 10bn baht rail link
PHUKET: Government spokesman Prompong Nopparit has voiced his support for a 10-billion-baht extension of train lines from Surat Thani to just north of Phuket. Currently, rail passengers and freight bound for Phuket can travel only as far south as Surat Thani. The extension would be about 160 kilometers long, stretching from Keereerat District in Surat Thani province to Baan Thanoon…
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Phuket hotel barman dies in motorbike crash
PHUKET: A hotel barman died instantly last night when his motorbike slammed into a utility pole in Koh Kaew, north of Phuket Town. Phuket City Police were notified of the accident, opposite the Isuzu showroom on Thepkrasattri Road, at about 11:45pm. Phuket Kusoldharm Foundation rescue workers rushed to the scene to find 40-year-old Phichit Masmalai lying face down on the…
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Phuket Police round up Rohingya refugees in Nai Harn
PHUKET: Chalong Police have rounded up 90 starving Rohingya boat people who came ashore in the south of Phuket this morning, but 12 more remain unaccounted for. The Rohingya, all males, were on their way to Malaysia when they ran out of food and their wooden boat began to fall apart at sea, forcing them to come ashore at Nai…
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Phuket beer garden fire not arson: owners
PHUKET: The owners of a beer garden that went up in flames in Phuket early this morning are denying rumors that the blaze was set by a disgruntled former employee. It took six fire engines about an hour to extinguish the fire that gutted the Kamala Beer Garden on the main road through Kamala before dawn today. Owners Chollada Nakballang,…
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Phuket Opinion: Truth not optional in the media or in public relations
PHUKET: Since Phuket’s emergence as a tourist destination in the 1980s, the island has maintained a remarkable ability to attract foreign visitors, through good times and bad. Apart from the 2004 tsunami disaster, few events – locally, nationally or globally – have been able to buck the trend in any appreciable way. Despite a seemingly endless series of ‘tourism threatening’…
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Australian, Swede die in accidents in Phuket
PHUKET: Two foreign tourists, one Australian and one Swedish national, died in separate accidents in Phuket last night. Matthias Andersson from Sweden died after falling three storeys at a resort in Karon, where he was staying with family members. Staff at Vachira Phuket Hospital said the apparent cause of death was a head injury sustained in the fall, which occurred…
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Groundbreaking movement on Phuket Bus Terminal impasse
PHUKET: Construction workers this morning began work to remove the median strip in front of Phuket Bus Terminal 2 on Thepkrasattri Road in Rassada, raising hopes the long-dormant facility might go into operation soon. Workers were at the site at 8am, putting up warning signs to alert motorists of the work, which will close two lanes to traffic during work…
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Phuket Blues and Rock fest feasts on talent
PHUKET: Friday nights don’t get much better. A superb venue and organization matched with a range of music that voiced soulful lyrics and pumped out thumping rock rifts helped kickstart the 2012 Phuket International Blues Rock festival at Laguna Beach Resort last night. A slightly later than scheduled opening allowed visitors to drift in to the Festival Marquee having not…
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Phuket Rotary Club rolls out high-tech devices for the disabled
PHUKET: The lives of nine disabled people from Phuket and Phang Nga took a turn for the better on Thursday when they took possession of high-tech wheelchair “pullers” donated by local and international chapters of Rotary International. The handover ceremony, at Queen Sirkit Park on Thalang Road, was presided over by Sanguan Kunaporn, head of the Rotary Club of Tongkah…
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Phuket Gazette: Tourists go ape for Krabi bus stops
PHUKET: Tourists to Phuket’s neighboring Krabi Province are impressed by a new two million baht network of bus stops that feature a striking monkey design, the province’s transport chief says. Worawut Ma-in, an expert in logistics and acting chief of the Krabi Transport Office, says construction of the 13 stops has just been completed. The project was launched at the…
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Bangers bring home the bacon to Phuket
PHUKET: They’re here! The ‘Bangers on Bikes’ Bangkok to Phuket charity bike riders crossed the Sarasin Bridge just after 11am and a Gazette photographer was on hand to witness their arrival on the island. After losing four riders to exhaustion by the end of day four, the group had recouped one determined pedalist for the home leg between Takuapa and…
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Weird World News: Weather warnings of Europeans acting strange due to cold
PHUKET: While bitter weather blots Europe, the heat wave continues to stifle here in Phuket. This week’s Weird World News round-up is homage to those suffering the onslaught of the cold-snap in Europe, and ways weather can make people muddle words. Swede survives two months in a snowed-in car A SWEDISH man was found alive after being trapped in his…
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Red light confusion ends in Phuket pickup sideswipe
PHUKET: A two-vehicle collision in Thalang last night was likely the result of one pickup braking for a red light, only to be slammed from behind by a second pickup whose driver expected him to run through it, Phuket Police said. Each of the vehicles had two passengers, none of whom were injured in the crash. Thalang Police were notified…
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Bangers bike riders hightail it to Phuket
PHUKET: Four days of hard pedaling has taken its toll, but the 2012 Bangers on Bikes Bangkok to Phuket Charity Bike Ride is nearing the final leg while the hardy cyclists are on their last legs with only 140km to go. On Monday, 11 riders and five support crew left Bangkok on a 916km saddle mission to raise 500,000 baht…
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