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Sponsored Is tap water in Thailand safe to consume?
Wondering if you can drink the tap water in Thailand? From brushing your teeth to filling up a bottle, it’s helpful to understand a few basics. Tap water safety in Thailand varies by location, and while some people use it...
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Phuket’s Scott Duncanson wins Bay Regatta
PHUKET: Testing weather and clever course design allowed this year’s Bay Regatta to be hailed as one of the best, with Scott Duncanson and his crew on Quantum Fusion M taking top honors in the Racing class. It was not plain sailing for Ducanson, however. He managed to scramble the last of his crew together only on registration day. Racing…
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Phuket Memorial for Tony Knight to be held Saturday
PHUKET: The memorial service to mark the passing of popular Phuket yachtsman Tony Knight has been rescheduled to Saturday night. “There have been many, many messages of sadness over Tony Knight’s death and the loss of a good friend and formidable character, with everyone expressing the desire to attend the wake planned for him,” said Mick Kealy, commodore at Ao…
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Police focus on Phuket youngsters in Valentine’s sweep
PHUKET: More than 100 Phuket police officers and volunteers conducted a sweep of Patong last night in a “Valentine’s Night” crackdown on youth crime. The coordinated raids targeted internet cafes, computer game shops, public parks as well as rented rooms and houses police knew to be occupied by young people. The raids began after a “rallying of the troops” at…
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Phuket teenager dead and five-year-old fighting for life after road crash
PHUKET: A four-motorbike collision left one boy dead and a family of three injured in Phuket this morning. None of the injured were wearing helmets, including a five-year-old girl now fighting for her life in hospital with massive head trauma and broken limbs. The accident took place at about 7:30am on Soi Nanachart Borrae, off Sakdidet Road near Phuket Town.…
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Readers not convinced Phuket tourist shelter “a great idea’: Poll
PHUKET: Online readers are dubious about a plan by the Tourist Police to build a temporary shelter for down-on-their-luck foreign tourists, results of a recent Phuket Gazette poll reveal. The poll asked: “The Tourist Police will build a temporary shelter for down-on-their-luck foreign tourists. How do you feel about this project?” Overall, 22.7% of people who took part agreed with…
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Ex-Phuket police officer’s house burns
PHUKET: The abandoned home of a former policeman went up in flames last night in what police suspect was a fire lit accidentally by people who broke inside to take drugs. Phuket City Municipal firefighters received a report of the fire on Phul Pon Road Soi 13 at about 11:30pm. Firefighters arrived quickly, but their fire truck could not access…
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German expat found dead in Patong
PHUKET: A retired German man was found dead on the sidewalk in front of his rented home in Patong on Sunday night. Police say the body was discovered by neighbors at about 6:30pm. Harald Rainer, 69, had lived in Phuket for about a year. Police Sub Lt Pattapee Srichay told the Phuket Gazette last night that Mr Rainer was found…
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Phuket Blues Fest artists to stage free concert in Patong
PHUKET: Norwegian blues rock band ‘The Prodigal Sons’ and guest Rich Harper will stage a one-hour free concert in Patong on February 23. The concert, to be held on Patong Beach, will start at 3pm. The event is to highlight to people in Patong the upcoming Phuket International Blues Rock Festival at the Hilton Phuket Arcadia Resort and Spa in…
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Power outages to hit southern Phuket
PHUKET: The Phuket Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA) has announced scheduled blackouts to carry out maintenance on high-voltage power lines, install new lines and move power poles in Chalong. The dates and locations of the operations, which will be carried out from 9am to 5pm, are: February 17 Along Chao Fa West Road, from in front of Chalong Temple to Land…
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Phuket call for urgent blood donations
PHUKET: The Phuket Regional Blood Center is calling for urgent blood donations, especially of types A- and O-. Pornthip Ratthajak, director of the Red Cross Phuket Regional Blood Center, said the blood was needed for two emergency cases: a leukemia patient at Bangkok Hospital Phuket and a Danish road accident victim at Vachira Phuket Hospital who desperately needs O-. In…
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Isuzu mechanic dead in Phuket motorbike crash
PHUKET: Phuket City Police are investigating the road death of a young mechanic whose body was found in the central drainage ditch of the bypass road early this morning. Phuket City Police duty inspector Sien Kaewthong was informed of the body’s discovery at about 2am today. Arriving at the scene, the median strip of the bypass road in Rassada, they…
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Phuket Opinion: Beach nipples not naughty
PHUKET: I note there is no space [for a reader to] comment on Blair Christopher’s online story ‘Phuket Nipple Alert: Staying abreast of nude on our beaches’. (See story here.) So [as a Phuket resident] I’d like to comment here on how it is apparently perfectly acceptable for the male walking along the beach in the accompanying picture to have…
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Phuket Live Wire: International internet speeds are up
PHUKET: International internet speeds in Phuket this week were generally excellent for 3BB, CAT and True, but bad-to-abysmal for TOT. 3BB customers are being upgraded, free, frequently without any notification before or after the upgrade. TOT Fiber Optic was performing horribly – often half as fast as standard ADSL lines, at five times the price – but the speed has…
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Phuket MET: January 2011 wettest on record
PHUKET: Last month was the rainiest January on record in Phuket, the Meteorological Department (MET) has confirmed. A meteorologist at the Southern Meteorological Center (West Coast) at Phuket International Airport told the Gazette this afternoon that his station recorded about 77mm of rain at both MET monitoring stations on the island. This amount was about twice the mean annual rainfall…
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PHUKET NIGHTMARE: Missing girl feared sold to Phuket brothel
PHUKET: The girl who vanished from the Chalong Temple Fair on Wednesday was lured away by a teenage boy named “Bow” and taken to Patong, her family has learned. They fear the youth may be planning to sell her to a brothel. La-ongda “Tanyong” Narmsra, 14, was reported missing on Wednesday by her mother. See our earlier report here. La-ongda’s…
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FC Phuket hit the road for league opener
PHUKET: FC Phuket begin their quest for promotion to the Thai League Premier Division tomorrow when they visit Suphanburi FC for their opening fixture in Division 1. Kickoff is at 4:30pm. Phuket secured promotion to the second tier of Thai league football in December and will be looking to get their 2011 campaign off to a winning start. The Phuket…
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BREAKING NEWS: 33 Rohingya remain detained in Phuket, tell of hardships at home
PHUKET: The whereabouts of the 68 Rohingya refugees who were arrested on January 31 when their boat drifted to Phuket’s shores has been confirmed by the Phuket Gazette. Phuket Immigration late yesterday gave the Gazette access to 33 Rohingya men in custody at the Immigration Detention Center (IDC). The youngest in the cell was only nine years old and the…
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Serial thief arrested, charged with 13 burglaries in Phuket
PHUKET: A 33-year-old Nakhon Sawan man who was just released from prison last year was arrested and charged yesterday with 13 counts of burglary in Phuket. His previous jail time, 18 months in Phuket prison, stemmed from multiple instances of purchasing stolen goods from colleagues in the trade, according to police at a press conference this afternoon. The accused, Weerapat…
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Phuket Reminder: Business law tops agenda for IBAP meeting tonight
PHUKET: The keynote speaker at the International Business Association of Phuket (IBAP) meeting tonight will be Michael Doyle, a US attorney and partner of the Bangkok-based law firm Seri Manop & Doyle. Mr Doyle, co-author and contributing editor of the recently released book Doyle’s Practical Guide to Business Law in Emerging Countries in Asia, will speak on the issue: Business…
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MISSING CHILD: Girl, 14, vanishes from Phuket temple fair
PHUKET: The mother of a girl who went missing from the Chalong Temple Fair grounds in Phuket on Wednesday is asking the public for help in locating her. Sapsiri Narmsra, 29, reported her 14-year-old daughter La-ongda Narmsra missing to Chalong Police on Wednesday. Mrs Sapsiri, a resident of Ayudhya, said she arrived with her daughter and relatives on January 29…
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Hot time in Old Phuket Town tonight
PHUKET: Tonight is the last night of the annual Phuket Old Town Festival, centered in Thalang and Phang Nga Roads and in Queen Sirikit Park in Phuket Town. Despite being held mid-week, this year’s event has been busier than ever with a wide range of staged entertainments, food and drink, and exhibitions focused on life in the olden days. The…
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Anchalee calls for all islanders to register as Phuket residents
PHUKET: Anchalee Vanich Thepabutr, Secretary-General to the Prime Minister, this morning urged all people living in Phuket to register as residents so that appropriate-size development budgets could be allocated for the number of people actually living on the island. The rapid pace of development in Phuket was a serious concern of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and the Cabinet, and the…
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German methadone survivor out of Phuket ICU
PHUKET: A German man whose male partner died of an apparent methadone overdose by penile injection last week is out of a coma, staff at Vachira Phuket Hospital have confirmed. The German, in his mid-30s, was transferred to Vachira Phuket Hospital from Bangkok International Hospital last Friday. “He was released from the ICU [on Tuesday], but is still under close…
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Thai lawyers urge action over refugees, human trafficking
PHUKET: The Lawyers’ Council of Thailand (LCT) today released a statement demanding the government to “tackle Rohingya trafficking organizations”. The statement comes after 68 Rohingya were arrested in Phuket last week, and 158 in Trang and Satun provinces last month. The status and location of the 226 Rohingya is currently unclear amid conflicting reports of transfers and possible human rights…
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Phuket Old Town Festival starts today
PHUKET: The 12th-annual Phuket Old Town Festival kicks off at 7pm tonight, offering a wide range of performances, food and fun activities along Thalang Road and at Queen Sirikit Park. Coming less than a week after the arrival of the Year of the Rabbit, one of the highlights of this year’s events is two objects related to reverence of the…
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Phuket committee agrees to set standard tuk-tuk fares
PHUKET: A maximum fare of 200 baht has been set for any tuk-tuk or taxi ride within Patong, a Phuket provincial committee confirmed today. The committee was tasked to address problems associated with tuk-tuk drivers overcharging customers. Members held a meeting at Provincial Hall today to reach a final agreement on the fares, which are now set to be standard…
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Phuket “mangrove road’ EIA approved
PHUKET: After more than a decade, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MNRE) has finally approved an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for a controversial road through a mangrove forest in Phuket Town. News that the EIA of the Klong Koh Phee Road project had been approved was announced yesterday at a project committee meeting chaired by Phuket Governor Tri…
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Mutilated body found in Phuket palm plantation
PHUKET: The body of a Burmese man was found on a Phuket palm plantation yesterday morning with a half-severed head and intestines spilling out. Thalang police were informed of the gruesome discovery at about 8am. The body lay in Palm Anchalee, just south of the Heroines’ Monument and adjacent to the offices of the Phuket Gazette, off Thepkrassatri Road. The…
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Phuket Police: Drug war crippled by slow test results
PHUKET: Procedural problems in drug testing are crippling efforts by the Phuket Police to suppress narcotics use on the island, a provincial committee on drug suppression was told last week. At the first annual meeting of the committee, held at Phuket Provincial Hall, Phuket Governor Tri Augkaradacha said central government policy on drug issues was straightforward and progress easy to…
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Mick Tonkin funeral set for Wat Prathong, Phuket
PHUKET: The funeral for well-known Phuket resident Mick Tonkin is now scheduled for Tuesday, February 8, at Wat Prathong in Thalang. The ceremony will start at 12 noon and be followed by a wake at the Black Cat restaurant, one of Mick’s favorite places, in Cherng Talay. For directions to Wat Prathong, see Google Maps and enter the search term:…
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