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Phuket Rajabhat to staff local hotels with flood-affected students
PHUKET: Rajabhat University (PRU) in Phuket is accepting applications from students nationwide who have been affected by the flood crisis, to join its latest tourism “work-and-study” program.The 4 R project is an extension of last year’s 3 R project and is organized in collaboration with the Phuket Office of the Ministry of Tourism and Sports and the Phuket Tourist Association…
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Indigo Pearl Phuket wins spa design of the year
PHUKET: Leading luxury Phuket resort Indigo Pearl was honored recently with the Spa Design of the Year award for its Coqoon Spa at the prestigious AsiaSpa Awards 2011 held at The Mira Hotel in Hong Kong. The seventh annual AsiaSpa Awards are presented by AsiaSpa, the only magazine in Asia entirely dedicated to the pursuit of complete well-being. The AsiaSpa…
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Evoque SUV ideal for “new age’ business folk in Phuket
PHUKET: The Range Rover Evoque, the latest high-end Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) by Land Rover, hit the Phuket market with an official open-house party. The Evoque, with a starting price tag of 4.09 million baht, was introduced at the Benz Ramkhamhaeng Group (BRG) showroom in Rassada. The British-assembled SUV was initially unveiled in the United Kingdom in July, before making…
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Canon camera distribution unaffected by Thailand’s floods
PHUKET: Supply of Canon camera equipment in Thailand has not been disrupted by the recent flooding, a senior manager at Cannon Marketing (Thailand) has confirmed. “Luckily, our camera production facilities are not located in the affected areas,” said Warin Tantiphongpanid, Senior Director and General Manager Consumer Imaging and Information of Cannon Marketing (Thailand) Co Ltd. “We have a printer factory…
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Special report: Struggling to end Phuket’s transgender stigma
PHUKET: Bad news moves quickly – constantly – and there is a cast of usual suspects who society likes to push the blame on, people who are “different” or somehow not representative of the whole. Who are they? Illegal immigrants, stateless people, migrant workers and essentially any other minority group that has the misfortune of being a convenient scapegoat. One…
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Phuket death curve crash: Grieving father pleas for drivers to slow down
PHUKET: The father of Anupong Sae-Yu, the four-year-old boy who died in the accident at the Kor En curve on Thepkrasattri Road on Sunday, today tearfully urged motorists to slow down while passing the village. Speaking beside his son’s grave this morning, Somkid Opartwanitchkul told the Phuket Gazette, “He was only four years old and a kindergarten student. I want…
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Phuket gears up for first World Musiq Festival
PHUKET: Popular Thai artist Todd Tongdee Lavelle, a main organizer of the Phuket World Musiq Festival, has confirmed the lineup of artists who will be performing at the event. The festival, to honor the 84th birthday of HM King Bhumibol Adulyadej, will be held at Saphan Hin, in Phuket Town, from December 2-5. The festival will open on December 2…
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Swedish snorkeler “likely died of heart attack’
PHUKET: The Swedish man who died off Racha Yai Island earlier today likely died of a heart attack, the Phuket Gazette has been told. Martin Anders Christer Nilsson, 63, was on a Phuket fishing tour with his stepdaughter’s boyfriend and her children when the incident occurred. “He had gotten off of the boat to go snorkeling,” said Phuket Tourist Police…
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Phuket Sports: Thailand World Cup hopes still alive
PHUKET: Thailand’s senior national football squad are still in the race for the 2014 World Cup, despite back-to-back losses to Saudi Arabia and Australia on November 11 and 15. In what was a closely contested match at Supachalasai National Stadium in Bangkok last week, the War Elephants were narrowly defeated by the Socceroos who went ahead with a header by…
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Phuket Sport – Tri a rest before Triathlon day
PHUKET: Many athletes feel insecure about their training during the week before race day. This is a highly important time used to recover from the load of training in the previous weeks. Experts call this the “Taper Phase”. A triathlete’s last long workout should be done exactly a week before the event. For the Laguna Phuket Triathlon I recommend a…
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Phuket sport tips: Tennis – power is balance
PHUKET: Balance is one of the fundamentals to developing great tennis ground strokes. In today’s game of power tennis, many of the players are leaping in the air to hit their forehands and backhands. This results in not only many errors but also many injuries. One of the great ground-strokers and inventor of the power game, Andre Agassi, had phenomenal…
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Swedish “fishing tourist’ found dead near Phuket
PHUKET: The body of a Swedish man was found today floating in the waters off Racha Yai Island, about 20 kilometers south of Phuket, police have confirmed. Phuket Tourist Police Volunteers were informed at 12:20pm that the body of the 63-year-old Swede had been found by staff of a diving company. The victim is believed to have fallen into the…
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Two new Phuket biz-consumer apps launched
PHUKET: Software developer Boonsoong Technology Co Ltd and media consultants, Phebe5 Co Ltd have partnered with local coffee shop chain Tiny Coffee to launch two new business-to-consumer mobile applications, designed exclusively for the Phuket consumer base. The two new mobile applications; “Tiny Coffee” and “Check in 4 Good Deals” were simultaneously launched last week at a press conference held at…
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Phuket Live Wire – Fiber 2U seems slow 2me
PHUKET: A couple of years ago, TOT unveiled its Fiber 2U service in a gala presentation at Royal Phuket Marina, replete with pounding music and dancing girls – sure signs of technological superiority. At the time, the service didn’t work very well. It went down for long periods of time, with all sorts of stalls and glitches. And it cost…
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Phuket police go to town on drug dealers
PHUKET: After Phuket police officers swooped on two suspected meth dealers in Chalong on Friday night, fellow police in Phuket City arrested seven people on drug-related charges over the weekend. At a press conference today, Phuket City Police Superintendent Chote Chidchai said that a team of anti-drug officers seized 60 ya bah (methamphetamine) pills and more than 40 grams of…
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Phuket’s “Grumpy Old Men’ on mercy mission for flood victims
PHUKET: What started off as a conversation between Phuket businessman Paul Newson and his wife and business partner Skulna “Bird” Varayu has quickly developed into a relief effort to assist flood victims in the Central Thailand province of Nakhon Sawan. The original idea focused on helping immediate family in Nakhon Sawan, but the concept quickly snowballed into a larger effort…
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Phuket mob rises after accident kills two
PHUKET: Phuket’s top officials have called an emergency meeting today to discuss new strategies for road safety at the Kor En curve on Thepkrasattri Road after an accident there yesterday killed one woman and an infant on a motorbike. The curve, on the main road to Phuket Airport the main resort areas on the island and Phuket Town, was the…
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PHUKET GOLF: Pattaya pips Phuket for major award
PHUKET: The Mayor of the City of Pattaya, along with representatives from several of that region’s golf clubs, accepted a big award in Turkey on Thursday, the final night of the International Golf Travel Market. The nominees for 2012 included Malaysia, New Zealand, Vietnam and Thailand’s Hua Hin, Pattaya and Phuket regions. This prestigious award was voted for by over…
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Wildfire destroys dozens of homes in Reno, Nevada
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – World news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Phuket Gazette PHUKET: A wildfire which broke out near Reno in Nevada this week has destroyed dozens of homes and forced thousands of people to evacuate, officials say. The fire was more than 80 percent contained as of this morning. The fire broke out in the…
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Phuket transport chief puts brakes on negligence
PHUKET: Phuket Provincial Land Transportation Office (PLTO) chief Terayout Prasertphol has announced strict new measures that will hold tour bus companies responsible for the mechanical safety of their vehicles.Under the new measures, tour bus companies stand to have their commercial passenger permits revoked entirely, meaning the companies’ right to operate any commercial passenger vehicles will be terminated, chief Terayout told…
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THAI flights to Phuket still operating “as usual’
PHUKET: Thai Airways International (THAI) is still operating its full schedule of regular flights between Bangkok and Phuket – for now. An officer from the ‘Enterprise Communication Department’ of THAI, asking not to be named, told the Phuket Gazette, “I have yet to receive any news about reductions in flights to Phuket.” Her statement was in response to a report…
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Balls to Bangkok: From Phuket with Love
PHUKET: A total of 100,000 EM (effective microorganism) balls handmade by Phuket students and three flood-rescue boats were handed over to the Royal Thai Army yesterday in the hope of providing some assistance to flood victims in Bangkok. Somboonsri Koeysiripong, president of the Women’s Territorial Defense Volunteer Association (WTDVA), yesterday made a token handover of the balls to Lt Gen…
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Patong Carnival ready to rock Phuket
PHUKET: Phuket’s premier tourist party town of Patong is gearing up for its annual carnival to be held from December 15-20. Run by the Patong Municipality, the annual festival draws thousands of travellers from all over the world and marks the start of the high season in Phuket, which traditionally runs from December to February. Much of the entertainment will…
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Phuket tourism chief calls for “flood travel advisories’ to be lifted
PHUKET: The Phuket Tourist Association (PTA) has asked for the cooperation of foreign governments to reduce and/or lift travel advisories and warnings issued for Thailand. PTA President Somboon Jirayus told the press on Thursday that sensationalized images presented through foreign media have caused a decreasing number of tourists to come to Phuket. “Flooding images in the foreign media have [negatively]…
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FIFA unbalanced
PHUKET: Six Caribbean Football Union officials have received bans from the sport and been fined as a result of breaching ethics rules, according to FIFAs’ website today. Patrick John, Vincent Cassell, Raymond Guishard, Noel Adonis, Tandica Hughes and Everton Gonsalves were handed suspensions from FIFAs’ ethics committee of between two years and one week and had to pay fines ranging…
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Phuket beach vendors evicted – again
PHUKET: A team of about 50 police and municipal officers this morning arrived in force at Phuket’s tourist-popular Karon Beach and removed a restaurant belonging to a local family who were forcibly removed from the same location nine weeks ago. Led by Phuket Governor Tri Augkaradacha, Phuket Provincial Police Commander Pekad Tantipong, Muang, Chalong Police Superintendent Col Krittapad Dej-intorrasorn, the…
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Phuket targets Brazil as tourism source market
PHUKET: Brazilians are among the latest target group of tourists to be lured to Phuket and the Andaman region. Speaking yesterday at a press conference for the Andaman Travel Trade 2011 exhibition, TAT Deputy Governor for International Marketing Juthaporn Rerngronasa highlighted the South American country as an expanding market for incoming tourism. “There will be 10 operators from Brazil to…
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Weird World News: Teens tampon booze craze, man sues dating company for “ugly’ brides and prisoner uses guts for glory
PHUKET: This week’s weird news round-up is a subtle blend of depraved, deplorable and detestable happenings from the around the globe. Health Risk: Teens using vodka-soaked tampons to get drunk PHOENIX Police say a craze that involves teenage girls dousing tampons with vodka and inserting them into their “parts” to get drunk is on the rise and needs to be…
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Phuket Rotary polio campaign: 10,000 kids to get free vaccines
PHUKET: The Phuket Provincial Public Health Office (PPHO) and local Rotary Clubs aim to vaccinate about 10,000 children living on the island, free of charge.Orachorn Saisrithong, district governor of Rotary International (RI) District 3330 covering all of Southern Thailand and parts of Central Thailand, said that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded a US$355-million grant to RI’s Polio…
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Phuket offers jobs to the Bangkok flood jobless
PHUKET: The Phuket Skill Development Center (PSDC) along with a consortium of local businesses and recruitment specialists have launched a campaign to secure employment in Phuket for those people who have lost their jobs in Bangkok due to the floods. “An estimated 600,000 people have lost their jobs because their place of work was closed due to the floods,” said…
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