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How much is Thai health insurance?
Health insurance in Thailand is essential for expats and locals, providing financial protection and access to quality care. Costs depend on age, health, and coverage level, with basic plans being cheaper but limited and comprehensive plans offering more benefits at...
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Phuket Police anti-drugs campaign targets kids
PHUKET: About 300 students yesterday began their first day of an “anti-drugs camp” as part of a new campaign by Phuket City police targeting youngsters. The children, from schools throughout Phuket Town, gathered at Srinagarindra The Princess Mother School Phuket (or “Chalermprakiat School“) in Saphan Hin for the four-day camp, which ends on Thursday. “Drug addiction is still a big…
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Phuket Live Wire: What to expect from your ISP
PHUKET: LAST week, with Khun Roger’s help, I published an updated ‘bang for the baht’ chart that shows you what kinds of international download speeds various Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are actually providing, and at what price. These aren’t the 9 Mbps or 100 Mbps advertised speeds; they’re real international download speeds, measured by real customers, like you and me,…
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Labor chief: Phuket not consulted on minimum wage hike
PHUKET: Authorities in Phuket have yet to be consulted on whether or not the minimum wage hike to 300 baht a day should be implemented here. Of the seven provinces listed to be the first to introduce the raise, if the raised is approved, Phuket will be the only province not near Bangkok to do so, Phuket Provincial Labor Office…
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Patong Hill closed to traffic today
PHUKET: The road over Patong Hill, the only direct route from Phuket Town to Patong, will be closed today (Tuesday) from 9am to midday. The road closure is to allow electrical workers to cut down trees interfering with power lines, Surasak Jantharuek of Patong Municipality’s Engineering Division told the Phuket Gazette. “We need to cut down branches and reset power…
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Phuket taxi mob beats driver in broad daylight
PHUKET: A gang of taxi drivers encamped outside an upscale resort on Phuket’s west coast today beat a local driver with an iron bar before causing a reported 50,000 baht in damage to his car. His tourist passengers were reportedly inside the vehicle at the time of the attack. Preecha Choowong, 38, filed a complaint at Kamala Police Station this…
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Sunday Opinion: Meth, mobiles and keeping the peace in Phuket
PHUKET: The fact that persons unknown recently enjoyed success smuggling ya ice (crystal methamphetamine) and mobile phones into Phuket Prison by concealing the items inside dead rodents may have a comic aspect to it, but the revelation reflects a serious problem with the security situation – if not the hygiene – at that facility. The problem of smuggling at an…
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Aldhouse extradition to Phuket looks inevitable: British press
PHUKET: The extradition of British kick-boxer Lee Aldhouse to Thailand to stand trial for the August 2010 stabbing murder of US Marine Dashawn Longfellow now seems inevitable, British media have reported. Britain’s Sunday Mirror today reported a source in the British Home Office as saying: “The only way he could have realistically avoided extradition is if he would have faced…
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Phuket Corruption: Senate probes alleged police protection racket
PHUKET: A senate subcommittee on police graft and corruption is in Phuket investigating allegations of an alleged police protection racket targeting tailor shops in Phuket’s Kata-Karon area. Subcommittee chairman Pol Gen Jongrak Juthanon said the investigation follows complaints made by people in Kata-Karon that tailor shops and other retail businesses that employ ethnic Nepalis are forced to hand over 2,000…
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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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