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Thailand news, politics, business, crime, lifestyle, and tourism—stay updated with breaking news and in-depth analysis from Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Pattaya, and beyond. The Thaiger delivers the latest national news that matters.
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What’s not covered by health insurance in Thailand?
Health insurance in Thailand has important limits that everyone should know. Many policies do not cover pre-existing conditions, motorcycle accidents, extreme sports, or specific treatments. These gaps can lead to unexpected costs during emergencies. Coverage for outpatient care and hospital...
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Phuket property developer agrees to pay back buyers after tax protest
PHUKET: After staging a successful protest in front of the office of a local property development firm yesterday, residents of the Chao Fa Garden Home 3 housing estate in Phuket will get back taxes they claim they were duped into paying by the home builder. About 100 residents of the sprawling estate, located off Thepkrasattri Road in Koh Kaew, gathered…
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Phuket neighborly dispute ends in fatal stabbing
PHUKET: Thung Thong Police today held a re-enactment of the assault that resulted in the death of Kamonchai Suwanin, 38, from Nakhon Sri Thammarat, on Sunday evening. The suspect, Arak Kraisap, 38, from Nonthaburi, confessed to police that following many arguments he stabbed Mr Kamonchai in the throat outside their apartments, opposite the 7-Eleven store on Wichit Songkhram Road near…
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Tourist, 25, survives six-storey fall from Phuket hotel balcony
PHUKET: A 25-year-old woman from the Philippines has escaped serious injury after falling from the balcony of her sixth-floor Phuket hotel room late last night. Rescue workers from the Kusoldharm Foundation in Patong told the Phuket Gazette that they received a call notifying them of the incident at about half past midnight. The rescue workers arrived to find Jardeliza Samireh…
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Phuket currency exchange robbery key witness refutes prime suspect
PHUKET: A key witness in the investigation into the 48,000-baht robbery of a Phuket currency exchange kiosk on Saturday night today told police that their prime suspect was not the man who committed the robbery. Chalong Police had named Nathee Srisawang, 28, from Prachuap Khiri Khan, as their prime suspect. Mr Nathee was named in a complaint filed by a…
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Phuket ‘lucky license plate’ auction raises over B30mn
PHUKET: The “Lucky License Plate Action” held by the Phuket Land Transport Office (PLTO) at The Metropole Hotel in Phuket Town on April 28 to 29 raised more than 30 million baht. The money raised from the auction, close to 30.5 million baht, will go to the Road Safety Fund, which provides assistance to road-accident victims and conducts road-safety campaigns…
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Phuket Events: Large crowds expected for Sunday’s trail runs
The Columbia Trailmasters 2012 Phuket Edition will add yet another stunning sport event to the Phuket calendar when it gets underway this Sunday (May 6) at the Thanyapura Sports and Leisure Club. The competitions, comprising a 21.5km Off Road Half Marathon; a 10km Trail Run; and a Fun Run for kids and adults less athletically inclined, look set to see…
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Russian language warning sought for Phuket tsunami sirens
PHUKET: Phuket officials will ask the National Disaster Warning Center (NDWC) to add Russian language to the spoken messages played by its 19 warning towers along Phuket’s coast.Preedee Aengseng, Communications Officer at the Phuket office of Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM-Phuket), told the Phuket Gazette that the request will be made on May 16, when NDWC officers come…
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Race to repair Patong Hill road
PHUKET: The Highways Department hopes to begin shoring up one landslide-prone section of the road over Patong Hill in June, but work on another section of the same road will have to wait until at least next year.Sathaporn Sornchana, deputy director of the Highways Department office in Phuket, told the Phuket Gazette that the plan to reinforce a section of…
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Phuket moves to set up Andaman-wide integrated disaster-response IT system
PHUKET: The Phuket Provincial Health Office (PPHO) is spearheading a project to set up an integrated information system to better coordinate emergency response efforts throughout the Andaman coast provinces in disaster situations. Disaster Medical Assistance Teams (DMAT), rescue personnel, communications experts, police and local administration organization officials met in Phuket Thursday last week to provide input into what the system…
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Phuket business: What does the UK budget mean for British expats?
It’s that time again when George Osborne tries to tighten the purse strings for the UK economy and cut down the huge debt levels the youth of today have inherited from poor decision making and fiscal policies of the past. Inconsequential it may well be to certain socio-economic brackets with Mr Osborne’s large outstretched arm unable to ruffle their financial…
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Live Wire: Google Street View has Phuket all mapped out
Google announced recently that it had released Google Street View for Phuket, Bangkok and environs, and Chiang Mai. Many of you read about the new service but have you had a chance to look at it? Mind boggling. The Nation quoted Pornthip Kongchun, head of marketing for Google Thailand, as saying, “In Asia-Pacific, Google Street View is available in Japan,…
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Phuket gets the “Doomsday Saturday’ party started
PHUKET: A high-power delegation of officials this morning met villagers in Srisoonthorn to reinforce the message that Phuket was not about to sink – and to get the day’s scheduled fun activities underway. Phuket Governor Tri Augkaradacha, Government spokesman Prompong Nopparit and Phuket MP Raywat Areerob along with other government officials, including from Phuket Provincial Administrative Organization (OrBorJor) President Paiboon…
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FC Phuket hoping for a big catch in Sri Racha
PHUKET: FC Phuket are in Chonburi province set to play Sriracha Suzuki FC this evening for the Thai Yamaha 1 (TD1) 2012 season’s seventh fixture. Kickoff for the match, to played at Suzuki Stadium, located about 20 kilometers north of Pattaya, will be at 6:30pm. Now in 11th place of the 18-team TD1, with a win, four draws and two…
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Phuket rolls on into ‘Doomsday Saturday’
PHUKET: The mass exodus from Phuket predicated by some failed to materialize today as police at the Tah Chat Chai checkpoint reported normal Saturday morning traffic on Srisoonthorn Bridge, which links outbound traffic to the mainland.Meanwhile, as part of the Provincial government’s efforts to boost confidence that today will not be a one of calamity, as rumors have predicted, a…
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Phuket Doomsday: Rumors of seismic proportions
PHUKET: RUMORS that the Pearl of the Andaman will be destroyed in a cataclysmic natural disaster on April 28 have spread like wildfire, and local officials have responded in classic Phuket style: by planning a number of events and parties on that date. The Phuket Gazette’s Chutharat Plerin and Kritsada Mueanhawong report on how it all got this crazy. SPECIAL…
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High-speed pile-up brings Phuket traffic to standstill
PHUKET: A pickup truck slid out of control on Chao Fa West Road in Wichit this morning, slamming head-on into another pickup truck and causing a multi-car pile-up on one of Phuket’s busy main roads to the south of the island. Eye-witness Teerachai Waiyakarn told the Phuket Gazette that at about 9:30am a white Isuzu D-Max pickup truck with Songkhla…
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Phuket sports: All change again in Bahrain
PHUKET: This season seems to be a battle of the pit-lanes, with McLaren leading the pit-boo-boo stakes, but several other teams are trying hard for this inglorious title. However, McLaren kept ahead in Bahrain. The wear on tyres was anticipated, though some teams, and in particular Mercedes, did better than expected. That is something to watch during the rest of…
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Chinese tourists injured in Phuket bus crash
PHUKET: More than 10 Chinese tourists were injured as a tour bus ran off the road on Patong Hill yesterday evening. Tung Tong Police were notified of the crash, at the bottom of the hill near the Kathu Shooting Range, at about 7pm. Police arrived at the scene to find a tour bus lying on its side beside the road.…
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Phuket Grand Dame Cape Panwa Hotel wins rights to Raceweek regatta venue
PHUKET: The organizers of the Phuket Raceweek 2012 today announced that the host venue of the annual regatta this year will be the Phuket’s “Grande Dame” the Cape Panwa Hotel and sister property the Kantary Bay Hotel. “Cape Panwa Hotel and its sister property, Kantary Bay Hotel, on the tip of Cape Panwa in the southeast of the island, will…
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Phuket hosts international conference on disaster nursing
PHUKET: More than 100 registered nurses from around the world are in Phuket for a three-day seminar on emergency nursing, including how to respond to disaster situations. The conference, organized by the Faculty of Nursing, Prince of Songkhla University, is focused on “Trends in Emergency, Trauma and Disaster Nursing: Using Evidence to Guide Decision-Making and Improve Nursing Care” and being…
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Phuket Rush Hour: Car flips over on bypass road
PHUKET: A car ended up on its roof in the central ditch on Phuket’s bypass road this morning when the possibly drunk driver of a saleng (motorcycle with side car) cut in front of the vehicle. The motorbike driver and the driver of the car both escaped injury, but the car’s only passenger, the driver’s 20-year-old son, sustained minor injuries.…
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Aussie tourist dies of heatstroke in Phuket
PHUKET: An Australian tourist found unconscious by the side of the road near Surin Beach has died from heatstroke, Phuket rescue workers have reported. A Cherng Talay Tambon Administration Organization rescue worker’s unit based at Layan Beach received a report at 2:39pm on Wednesday that a man had fainted by the road about 200 meters from Surin Beach. When the…
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Phuket sports: Masters of the trail
PHUKET: Young athletes on Phuket are being given a golden opportunity to take part in a brand new event coming to the island next month in the form of trail running. Following the recent announcement that Phuket will host episode two of the 2012 Thailand Trail Running Championship at the Thanyapura Sports and Leisure Club (TSLC) on May 6, organizers…
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PHUKET BUSINESS: Artificial reefs key to mass tourism dive industry
PHUKET: In the tourism game creating memories is everything, explains the Head of Development at Reef Worlds, Dave Taylor. “If you can create a tourism memory then you have won your game. You have won everything, because that’s a memory that never leaves a potential client, and they always come back to it,” Taylor told the Phuket Gazette in an…
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Officials to light up notorious Phuket road
PHUKET: Following the high-speed crash on April 13 that killed two local residents on the main road through Pa Khlok, officials are now looking to add street lights along the notorious stretch of dark road, and to add “reflective road studs” to help drivers stay on the road. Theera Prugsanan, chief of the Thalang Electricity Authority Office, told a meeting…
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Phuket residents panic over fish fright
PHUKET: Reports of Phuket Town residents panicking yesterday, fearing that the dead fish found in canal were an omen of an impending tsunami strike, prompted officials to investigate. The brackish water of the mostly dry Klong Saensuk canal, which runs past the Seahorse Circle at the east end of Ong Sim Phai Road, had about 10 kilograms of dead freshwater…
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Laguna Phuket Marathon prepares for record entries
PHUKET: Hundreds of runners from around the world will ‘Run Paradise’ in the seventh annual Laguna Phuket International Marathon on Sunday, June 10, to help stamp its status as Asia’s fastest growing family-friendly destination marathon. International registrations opened in October and since then entries have surged ahead of the same period last year, with total international entries now close to…
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Phuket Sports: Buriram Utd cling on for AFC title
PHUKET: Thai Premiere League champions Buriram United still have a fighting chance to advance from the group stages of the 2012 AFC Champions League, despite back-to-back losses this month to Korean league champions Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors. Now level with the Koreans on six points in Group H – the pot of death, Buriram’s good start in March was highlighted by…
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Phuket Sports: Cricket sixes ends with new champions
PHUKET: MG7 from Kuwait were crowned Cup champions for the first time of the 9th annual Phuket International Cricket Sixes following their victory in the Cup final over compatriots the Skylarks. Finals day of the 9th Phuket International Cricket Sixes was played under glorious sunshine at the Kata Group Sports Ground in Chalong, Phuket. The twenty-four teams competing in the…
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Phuket tourists, jet-ski operator scramble to stave off dolphin beaching
PHUKET: A pair of dolphins came dangerously close to beaching themselves on Patong Beach, on Phuket’s west coast, yesterday morning, but were successfully herded back out to deeper water. However, biologists from the Phuket Marine Biological Center (PMBC) still fear for their safety. The dolphins were first spotted in shallow waters opposite the Patong Beach Resort at about 9am. Initial…
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