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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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After the floods, Phuket mops up
PHUKET: Emergency response crews across Phuket continued their clean-up operations as the flood waters subsided and breaks in the rain came late this afternoon. “Today, there are no major flood waters left standing in the Patong area. We started our cleanup work yesterday, especially in the hard-hit areas,” Wisit Methasoonthornpot, chief of the Patong Municipality Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Division,…
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Tuk-tuk drivers surrender to Phuket police
PHUKET: The four tuk-tuk drivers wanted for setting up a blockade on Patong’s beach road on August 1 have surrendered to police, Patong Police duty officer Lt Col Kittipong Klaikaew told the Phuket Gazette today. The men were wanted for setting up the blockade after being involved in a fight with Dutch tourists, which resulted in the tourists requiring hospital…
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Debt drives man to suicide in Phuket
PHUKET: A man in debt to loan sharks and unable to find work was found hanged in his rented room in Phuket’s Thalang district this morning. Friends believe he committed suicide. Thalang Police duty officer Somkhit Khawsang confirmed the identity of the deceased from the remains of his torn up Thai ID card. He was 27-year-old Sarawut Samosorn. Mr Sarawut’s…
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Phuket to go light on tourist visas, but don’t ‘look suspicious’
PHUKET: Immigration officers at Phuket International Airport will not necessarily be stringent in enforcing the new requirements for 60-day tourist visas to Thailand, the Phuket Gazette has learned. Popular expat forum ThaiVisa.com published the changes yesterday, saying that all embassies and consulates abroad were notified of the changes and that the new requirements were effective immediately. “The Royal Thai Embassies,…
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Patong Hospital floods, 40 patients evacuated
PHUKET: Flooding of the basement at Patong Hospital forced doctors there to evacuate about 40 patients as a precaution, transferring them to facilities elsewhere in Phuket. “Some of them were transferred to Vachira Phuket Hospital [in Phuket Town], while others were discharged early so they could go home,” said Hospital Director Dr Phumin Silaphan. Heavy rain on Thursday saw flood…
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Market fire leaves Phuket vendors broke
PHUKET: Market vendors whose shops were destroyed by fire on Wednesday are seeking government assistance in restarting their businesses. Tossapol Rungruengpawan, president of Patong Retail Business Club, told the Phuket Gazette that the fire caused an estimated 50 million baht in total damage. Most of the vendors did not have insurance as most insurance companies do not offer policies for…
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Brit tourist in Phuket dies in soaked power surge
PHUKET: A young British tourist died in Patong early this morning after he accidentally placed his hand on an outdoor, floor-mounted power socket covered with water. The 20-year-old man, whose name is being withheld pending notification of next of kin, was sitting in the undercover forecourt of the Ocean Plaza Patong [shopping mall] on Soi Bangla at about 6am when…
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Phuket landslide dumps home onto factory, cars
PHUKET: Heavy rains in Phuket today caused a landslide that plunged a house in Kathu, in central Phuket, down a slope, over a small retaining wall, and onto an industrial laundry nearby. The house, only two years old, cost 2 million baht to build, said Narachai Chumsri, who owns the house and the laundry, operated under the name Phuket Island…
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Phuket forecast: heavy rain to continue through the weekend
PHUKET: Over the past 24 hours Phuket experienced the heaviest rains since the freak storms of last March, with reports all over the island of flooding and downed trees and power poles. One of the heaviest hit areas was Patong, where knee deep water caused traffic jams along parts of Phang Muang Sai Kor road, especially near Patong Hospital and…
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TAT confident in big numbers for 2011 Phuket Veg Fest
PHUKET: THE current economic climate will have no effect on the Phuket Vegetarian Festival this year, says the director of the southern regional office of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT). The festival last year generated about 500 million baht in revenue for the local economy, said Director Bangornrat Shinaprayoon. She expects this year’s event, to be held from September…
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FC Phuket need win by two goals
PHUKET: Football action returns to Surakul Stadium tonight at 7pm with FC Phuket set to host Pattalung FC in the second leg and deciding match of the Toyota League Cup 2011 quarterfinals. Phuket’s loss to Pattalung last week from a solitary goal means that Phuket will need to win by two goals tonight if they are to advance in the…
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Phuket Land Dept officer dies in motorbike crash
PHUKET: A young woman employed by the Phuket Land Office died when her motorbike was struck from behind by a pickup on Thepkrasattri road in Thalang this morning. Witnesses told police the victim, 24-year-old Wattana Jamchat, was riding her motorbike along Thepkrasattri Road northbound near the new PTT service station in Srisoonthorn subdistrict when she was struck from behind by…
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Mother reclaims Phuket “Ramadan’
PHUKET: The mother of the baby reported found abandoned on Sunday night has presented herself at Patong Hospital and is now reunited with her one-month-old son, named Ramadan. Kamala Police Duty Officer Somnerk Dumkeaw said, “It was a misunderstanding. The baby boy was not abandoned. His name is Ramadan because he was born in the Muslim month of Ramadan. His…
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Fire destroys Phuket’s Koh Kaew Market
PHUKET: A large fire ripped through an undercover clothes market of more than 200 stalls in the heart of Patong, on Phuket’s west coast, early this morning. The fire broke out at the Koh Kaew Market, next to the Jungceylon shopping complex on Rat-U-Thit 200 Pi Road, at about 3am. Six fire trucks and more than 20 firefighters arrived to…
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Phuket Live Wire: WiFi you wouldn’t believe
PHUKET: There’s important breaking news on the internet scene in Phuket: TOT is now offering something they call “WiFi”. The first, most important thing to understand is that this isn’t the kind of WiFi you know. It’s completely different. TOT has taken confusing terminology to new lows. The “WiFi” TOT is selling has nothing to do with the WiFi you…
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Golden oldie love triangle ends in shooting
LOEI: You’re never too old to fall in love – or to take violent revenge on your cheating wife and treacherous neighbor, as events in the northeastern province of Loei recently showed. On June 22, local police received reports that two people had been shot at a house in Thali subdistrict. At the scene, they found villagers gathered around Wan…
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