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Top 5 luxury villas in Phuket and Koh Samui for your next holiday
Ask people to name the most beautiful places in Thailand, and you'll often hear Phuket and Koh Samui being mentioned. Who would disagree? One is renowned for its bustling nightlife, vibrant culture, and lively beach scene, while the other is...
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Phuket’s convention center, slammed by a report, now on hold
PHUKET: Phuket’s decades-old dream of having a world-class convention center took a leap backward on Wednesday when the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MNRE) issued an Initial Environmental Examination (IEE) report that highlighted numerous environmental and financial flaws in the project. A source at the MNRE Office of Policy and Planning (OPP) told a Prachachat reporter that his agency…
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Phuket lifeguards step up lifesaving campaign
PHUKET: The unveiling of plans for a new lifeguard “education center” at Phuket’s Nai Harn Beach yesterday also saw the announcement of new surf warning signs for tourists and a training program to educate more locals about the dangers of swimming in the sea. New signs will be posted on Phuket beaches this year in five languages – Thai, English,…
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Phuket Campaign for standard tuk-tuk fares sparks colorful comments
PHUKET: Tuk-tuk drivers in Kata and Karon are stepping up their campaign to have members operating in their areas certified as “safe” and in compliance with a schedule of standard fares. Certificates, to be issued annually, are meant to assure tourists that they will be treated politely and not overcharged for their ride, said Vice Governor Nivit Aroonrat at a…
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Police boost patrols past Phuket gold shops
PHUKET: Local police have been ordered to pay special attention to Phuket gold shops as the price of the precious metal continues to rise, the provincial police commander has announced. Maj Gen Pekad Tantipong ordered patrol units in all districts to be on the lookout for strange activity near gold shops, such as repeated passes by the same vehicle. “People…
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Envoy warns of EU advisory against tourists using Phuket tuk-tuks
PHUKET: The continued failure of local authorities to address problems of tuk-tuk drivers with foreign tourists could force European Union (EU) member states to issue a joint travel advisory warning against using tuk-tuks while in Phuket, the Austrian Ambassador to Thailand has warned. Austrian Ambassador to Thailand Johannes Peterlik issued the warning to local officials during the third meeting between…
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Aussie embassy bolsters bilateral ties with Phuket students
PHUKET: An official from the Australian Embassy in Bangkok joined pupils at a Phuket Town school today for a teleconference with high-school students in Australia. Simon Farbenbloom, deputy head of mission at the Australian Embassy of Thailand, explained that the call was made to discuss an ongoing environmental sustainability project between the Srinagarindra, The Princess Mother School Phuket (SWPK, or…
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Gunfire silences Phuket construction clamor, says Swede
PHUKET: A Phuket estate manager terrified a team of Thai workers when he fired warning shots over their heads in an effort to get them to stop making noise yesterday morning, says the construction team’s foreman. Swede Mike Hjort and Songkhla native Waleeporn Chinpised, both 41, appeared at Phuket City Police Station to file a complaint against Seree Duangsuwan. The…
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FIVB Beach Volleyball returns to Phuket – for now
PHUKET: The 6th Swatch FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour is set to make Karon Beach its stage again this year, starting November 1, despite the possibility of the event moving elsewhere in the future due to a lack of funding from Phuket, organizers say. The Phuket Thailand Open, which is a women’s tournament, has been growing in popularity and scope,…
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German victim of Phuket mob bashing out of coma
PHUKET: German national Kurt Trotnow, who is in intensive care after being beaten by a mob in Patong, is conscious but still on a respirator. “Kurt is conscious now but still cannot talk because he is on a respirator. When he wakes up, I talk with him and he looks at me. He understands my words,” said his wife, Jiraporn…
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Phuket Town calls for heavy metals
PHUKET: Phuket City Municipality in conjunction with the Pollution Control Department, under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, is calling for people to donate all old items containing heavy metals. Phuket Vice Governor Weerawat Janpen, Phuket City Mayor Somjai Suwanasupana and Rangson Pinthong, director of the PCD’s Waste & Hazardous Substances Management Bureau, launched the annual project at Phuket…
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Tuk-tuks, jet-skis top complaints by Aussie tourists in Phuket
PHUKET: Phuket Governor Tri Augkaradacha yesterday received more bad news about the state of Phuket’s tourism industry as the Deputy Head of Mission at the Australian Embassy in Bangkok told him that complaints about tuk-tuk drivers and jet-ski scams topped the embassy’s list of complaints filed by Aussie tourists in Phuket. “I personally haven’t heard any complaints, but I do…
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Two homosexuals found dead in as many days
PHUKET: Phuket City Police this morning announced the results of their investigation into the strangling murder of a Patong resort worker whose body was discovered at his home in Wichit last night. The body of the late Yusop Wattanarot, age 35, was discovered by friends who went to visit him at 7:30pm yesterday. Sathien Chartsuksiridej, a close friend of the…
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Thai Army digs deep in Phuket to recover “landslide house’
PHUKET: A sortie of 15 soldiers from the Royal Thai Army 2nd Infantry Battalion based in Ranong arrived in Phuket yesterday to help excavate by hand a house located high in the hills of Kamala, on Phuket’s west coast. Heavy rains last Thursday caused earth on the slope above the house to slide down the hill, coming to rest along…
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Abandoned baby found in southern Phuket
PHUKET: Police have launched an investigation in Phuket to discover the parents of a baby boy found slightly bruised but otherwise healthy in the flat-bed of a pick-up truck this morning. Phuket City Police and members of the Ruamjai Rescue Foundation responded to a call at 8am from Wichit Moo 3 village headman Udom Nokseekaew reporting he had found a…
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The Curse of the Police Banyan Tree Shrine
NONTHANURI: A police investigation into the attempted murder-suicide by the wife of a police captain has taken a strange turn as a curse-cleansing ceremony was held at the police station’s banyan tree shrine. Last week, Siripat Kongkla, the wife of Nonthaburi city police officer Kongcham Kongkla, reportedly shot their five-year-old daughter using her husband’s police-issue 9mm handgun before turning the…
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Demon drink: exorcism ends one-man hostage show
PHUKET: A recent incident in Baan Bangjo, in Phuket’s Thalang District, recently highlighted to police and local residents the extent of disorientation alcohol can induce. Police officers and members of the Kusoldharm foundation responded to late-night reports of a public disturbance near a place of worship in Srisoonthorn subdistrict. Arriving at a private residence behind Baan Bangjo Mosque, they found…
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Phuket Opinion: Bangkok to have no-booze zones. Will Phuket be next?
PHUKET: If what’s good for the capital is good for the country, then Phuket could soon have alcohol-free zones. According to a report this afternoon by the government’s National News Bureau, Bangkok is tipped to have such zones throughout the city, in a move to “curb violence that often stems from binge drinking.” But this is not a tsk-tsk ‘social…
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Phuket Poll: Thaksin due back soon
PHUKET: A clear majority of Phuket Gazette online pollsters believe former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra will return to Thailand by the end of 2012. In the Phuket Gazette Poll that went online August 10, readers were asked: Given current political events, how long do you think it will be before fugitive former PM Thaksin Shinawatra sets foot on Thai soil?…
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Phuket Prison to crack down on phone and drug deliveries
PHUKET: Phuket Prison will install 12 CCTV cameras around its perimeter wall and throughout the compound as part of a ‘crackdown’ targeting mobile phone and drug deliveries to inmates. “Phuket Governor Tri Augkaradacha has approved a budget of 90,000 baht from the Provincial Office for the CCTV system to be installed at Phuket Prison,” Prison Director Rapin Nichanon announced at…
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Pedestrians reclaim Phuket’s Sarasin Bridge
PHUKET: The reinforced, raised, redecorated Sarasin Bridge connecting Phuket with the mainland Thailand is now open to pedestrians. “People are walking onto the bridge – and we’re not stopping them,” said Phuket Provincial Highways Office Chief Arun Sanae. “They think that the bridge is now open because we have finished construction but what we are doing now is cleaning up…
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Phuket update: Patong Hospital flooding ‘worst in ten years’
PHUKET: Floodwaters that crippled operations at Patong Hospital on Saturday were the worst the facility has experienced in ten years, the hospital director told the Phuket Gazette. Patong Hospital Director Phumin Silaphan said operations were partially restarted after water was pumped from the basement over the weekend. “Out-patient and emergency cases are now being accepted and there are many Thais…
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German man still in ICU after dispute with Phuket tuk-tuk driver
PHUKET: A German man is in intensive care fighting for his life after he was beaten by a mob of Phuket tuk-tuk drivers for refusing to pay a fare of 200 baht (approx US$6.70). Kathu Police Duty Officer Teerasuk Boonsang told the Phuket Gazette that he was called to the scene, near the junction of Soi Bangla and Rat-U-Thit 200…
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Phuket Live Wire: Unofficial study nets surprising rates of speed
PHUKET: The amount you pay for an Internet line has almost no correlation with how fast the line runs internationally. Before you spend a fortune on a new Internet connection, make sure you understand what you are – and aren’t – getting. Hundreds of Phuket residents regularly report (click here for graph) their international internet download speeds on PhuketInternetSpeed.com. Computer…
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Officials visit site of latest Phuket landslide
PHUKET: A landslide at a Phuket construction site for a shrine to the goddess Guanyin sent large boulders tumbling down a steep hillside yet again yesterday. No injuries or deaths were reported in the incident. Patong Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation officers this morning visited the area after a busy weekend responding to floods and other landslides caused by…
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Liverpool Legends stop in Phuket canceled
PHUKET: The Liverpool Legends tour series football matches, scheduled to take place in Phuket and Bangkok in October, has been canceled, the Gazette is sad to report. Cris Rosenbergs, creator of the Football Legends Tour concept, informed the Gazette by email this morning that the series of charity fundraising events could not take place: “Due to the obstacles and issues…
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Phuket Poll: Is the 80-meter building regulation being enforced?
PHUKET: In order to minimize deforestation, the government in 1996 put a ban on the construction of all permanent structures above 80 meters in Phuket. How effective have local governments been in enforcing this controversial rule, which greatly limits the value of properties above the specified height? Have your say by voting in the new Phuket Gazette reader’s poll by…
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More Phuket tuk-tuk drivers move toward standard fares
PUKET: Karon Municipality is compiling a list of fares charged by tuk-tuk drivers operating in the Kata–Karon area in order to establish an agreed schedule of standard fares to be shown – and charged – in the popular tourist beach areas. The draft schedule is the first step in a new public relations campaign to build tourist confidence in local…
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Rider in the storm: man killed in Phuket motorbike crash
PHUKET: A man was killed last night when his motorbike slammed into the back of a 10-wheel truck parked in the breakdown lane of Phuket’s deadliest road. The tragedy occurred at about 10pm on Thepkrasattri Road inbound, in front a furniture store near the Srisoonthorn Tambon Administration Organization offices. Thalang Police identified the deceased from his Thai ID card as…
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Tropical depression: two suicides in Phuket in one day
PHUKET: A sick and destitute Burmese worker was the second man to take his life by hanging in Phuket’s Srisoonthorn sub-district yesterday. Just hours after Thalang Police responded to a report of suicide-by-hanging that morning, they were informed at 4:30pm that a Burmese worker at the nearby ARE HAWKS Construction Company workers’ camp had taken his life in similar fashion.…
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Car plunges into Phuket canal, foreigner drowns
PHUKET: A Nepalese tailor drowned when his car plunged into a canal in Phuket’s Thalang district last night. Thalang Police were notified of an accident near the TOT offices on the road to Ban Don at about 9:40pm. At the scene, police and rescue workers found a Phuket-registered Honda Civic almost fully submerged in fast-moving floodwaters in the roadside klong.…
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