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Old Phuket’ draws big crowds
PHUKET CITY: Thousands of people thronged streets in the old part of Phuket City last night to celebrate the arrival of the Chinese Year of the Rooster and the first night of the 7th Old Phuket Festival.Thalang Rd and Dibuk Rd in the old quarter of Phuket were filled with the sights and sounds of celebration, as well as the…
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Pornthip to return to Wat Yan Yao
PHUKET: Battling forensic scientist Dr Khunying Pornthip Rojanasunan is to resume her work on identifying tsunami victims after Justice Minister Pongthep Thepkarnjana intervened in the row between her and Thai Tsunami Victim Identification Centre (TTVI) boss Pol Gen Nopadol Soomboonsub.Dr Pornthip and her team left Phang Nga last week after the mortuary at Wat Yan Yao, which had been their…
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US group vows to help boost Phuket tourism
PHUKET CITY: A 61-strong group of Americans met Phuket City Mayor Somjai Suwannasuppana this morning to deliver a message of hope and friendship, along with US$1,200 (48,000 baht) for grants for students affect by the tsunami.The Americans, 42 of whom are from the state of Oregon, are members of the “Flight of Friendship” organisation, which has been set up to…
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WHO offers forensics assistance
PHUKET: The World Health Organization (WHO) has offered to send forensic scientists to Thailand to help identify tsunami victims, and has asked Thailand to support other countries hit by the tsunami.Dr Samlee Plianbangchang, WHO Regional Director for Southeast Asia, said the organization would draw on experience gained after the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.“One must always keep…
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Monitoring of foreigners gets a boost
SAPHAN HIN: Phuket Administration Organization (OrBorJor) President Anchalee Vanich-Thepabutr today handed over the new 1.5-million-baht Center of International Crime Information and Immigration Service to the Phuket Immigration Office.Phuket Immigration Superintendent Pol Col Witawat Buranasompop said the building will be used by officers who will monitor the movements of foreigners in Phuket.He said more and more foreigners are coming to Phuket,…
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Turkish PM offers help with tsunami warning system
PHUKET: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on a visit to Phuket, offered Turkey’s help in the effort to protect the countries around the Andaman Sea from future tsunamis.Mr Erdogan was speaking yesterday at the Sheraton Grande Laguna Phuket, after a helicopter tour of tsunami-affected areas in Phuket and Phang Nga, accompanied by Thai Interior Minister Bhokin Bhalakula.Mr Erdogan, whose…
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Phone fury
PATTAYA: Four innocent bystanders were injured by ricocheting bullets when a bagman for a Pattaya loan shark opened fire on his mobile phone. Witnesses to the slaying of the mobile phone said the man, identified only as “Woot”, was seen at about 3 am yelling into his mobile phone on the ground floor of Niran Condo on Soi Arunothai. He…
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Orient Thai resumes Phuket-Korea flights
BANGKOK: Orient Thai Airlines has resumed flights between South Korea and Phuket after suspending them after the tsunami.Orient Thai Airlines Chairman Udom Tantiprasongchai told the Gazette that the service has resumed with two flights a week – on Saturdays and Tuesdays.He added that, by March, the airline hopes to have flights up to their pre-tsunami frequency of four a week.Two…
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Tsunami volunteers warned: get work permits
PHUKET: Foreign volunteers assisting in tsunami-related charity work are required to hold work permits, regardless of whether they are being paid for their efforts or not. Sayan Chuaiyjan, head of the Phuket Provincial Employment Service Office [ESO], told the Gazette yesterday that there could be no exceptions and that his office would begin to enforce the regulations soon – possibly…
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Tennis superstar Hingis visits Patong
PATONG: Former world number one tennis player Martina Hingis was moved to tears today as she heard about Phuket children’s experiences in the tsunami.The tennis star visited the kindergarten of Patong Municipality School while on a whistle-stop tour of Phuket, arranged by the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) to promote tourism after the tsunami.After meeting the children – and hearing…
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Election: clean sweep for Democrats
PHUKET: Despite a massive campaign by Thai Rak Thai (TRT) to convince voters to back the ruling party, and despite surveys showing that Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s popularity is at unprecedented levels, Phuket yesterday reinstalled its two Democrat MPs.Indeed, Phuket voters made it quite plain that they are not ready for TRT MPs, by handing the two Democrats hefty victories.In…
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Top Unicef official checks on progress
PHUKET: The Executive Director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef), Carol Bellamy, has been to Phuket and Phang Nga to see what is being done to help children recover from the tsunami.Unicef officers were sent to Phang Nga and Phuket within a week of the tsunami, said Ms Bellamy, and since then, Unicef has supported Thai government efforts to…
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TAT blitz “helping to change perceptions’
PHUKET: Tour operators and journalists from eastern Europe have changed their perceptions of post-tsunami Phuket after seeing the effects for themselves, Suwalai Pinpradab, Director of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) office in Phuket has told the Gazette.“The journalists have been to Krabi, too,” said K. Suwalai. “They were very surprised to see Phi Phi Island, and Maya Bay, and…
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Linkin Park star visits Bang Tao
PHUKET: Chester Bennington, the lead singer of Californian band Linkin Park, visited Bang Tao beach today to see for himself the damage caused by the tsunami.Bennington was in Phuket to record material to be broadcast by MTV in the USA, as part of a global campaign to raise money for tsunami victims.After lunch at the Banyan Tree, Bennington and his…
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Court orders businessman off SorPorKor land
PHUKET: Businessman Charoen Thavornwongwong has been ordered to leave 16 rai of land in Karon’s Nakkerd Hills, after the Phuket Appeal Court overturned the Provincial Court’s earlier judgement that he could stay on the land.The Appeal Court said that the Phuket Provincial Land Reform Office (PLRO) had been right to contest the judgement of the lower court, on the grounds…
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Phummisak challenges Gov over water supplies
PHUKET: Former Phuket City Mayor and tin mine owner Phummisak Hongsyok has dismissed Governor Udomsak Usawarangkura’s assertion that he will use the law to force owners of private water resources to share them with the province if there is a water shortage this year.K. Phummisak, who owns two flooded former tin mines with a total capacity of three million cubic…
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F1 powerboat race postponed to March 2006
PHUKET: The Formula One powerboat race scheduled to take place next month in Ao Makham has been postponed for a year.Kata Group Chairman Pamuke Archariyachai told the Gazette today that a combination of the tsunami and the Cabinet’s slowness in approving funds to support the event had forced the decision to postpone until March 2006.“We had only a short time…
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Vehicle rental ban stays – Bhokin
PATONG: Interior Minister Bhokin Bhalakula is adamant that vehicle rental businesses will be barred from Thaveewong Rd, despite a 300-vehicle rally yesterday by owners of rental businesses opposed to the ban.Speaking at Provincial Hall this morning, K. Bhokin added that the restoration of Patong Beach would go ahead in line with plans drawn up by the Tourism Authority of Thailand…
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Stars Hingis and Keating aid Phuket
PHUKET: Former world No 1 women’s tennis player Martina Hingis will arrive in Phuket next Monday to help promote tourism to the area, just days after Irish pop star Ronan Keating recorded a music video on the island.Hingis, a five-times grand slam champion, is in Thailand to compete in the WTA Volvo Women’s Open in Pattaya, her first professional tournament…
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Entertainment licence fees in limbo
PHUKET CITY: Wisut Romin, Deputy Secretary of the Phuket Provincial Administration Office, has hinted that licence fees may be waived for entertainment businesses damaged by the tsunami.K. Wisut told the Gazette today that the office had yet to receive details of the new fees – originally due to be announced in December 2004 by the Department of Local Administration.He said,…
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We need B700m immediately – Pian
PHUKET CITY: Patong Mayor Pian Keesin has urged the government to approve immediately funding of 700 million baht to improve Patong Beach, in line with the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT)’s draft plan for reconstructing the resort.Mayor Pian told Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, during his recent visit to Phuket, that Patong was the worst-affected of all the tsunami-hit places on…
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Rental vehicle operators in mass protest
PATONG: Operators of vehicle rental businesses have staged a rally with more than 300 cars and large motorbikes to protest Patong Municipality’s plans to ban them from the beach road as part of the post-tsunami clean-up.The operators, some of whom carried placards stating, “Better to have died in the tsunami than live with a dictatorial government”, demanded that, if the…
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Island has water to last until May
PHUKET CITY: The Bang Wad reservoir will be able to supply Phuket with enough water until May, because the drop in the number of tourists caused by the tsunami has reduced water consumption, a post-tsunami review meeting has been told.Irrigation Project Director Watchara Arepornsiri told the Phuket Provincial Hall meeting, “At the moment we have 5.9 million cubic meters of…
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3,000 Burmese “still missing’ in Phang Nga alone
PHUKET: One month after the tsunami, more than 3,000 Burmese workers in Phang Nga are still unaccounted for, a seminar was told yesterday.The meeting, arranged by the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the international NGO, the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES), heard that many Burmese are still hiding atop hills and in rubber plantations in the province – often in bad conditions –…
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Flowers for remembrance
KHAO LAK: At a solemn ceremony in the now calm waters some five miles off Khao Lak, the Royal Thai Navy (RTN) aircraft carrier HTMS Chakri Naruebeth led a flotilla of nine other RTN vessels to place wreaths on the water for those lost in the tsunami of December 26.The German, British, Swedish and Singaporean ambassadors to Thailand, as well…
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German town donates B1m to Kalim School
PATONG: The citizens of the small German town of Bad Rappenau – population 20,500 – have donated 1 million baht to help rebuild Baan Kalim School, which was badly damaged by the December 26 tsunami.On January 28, Heiko Schmidt, owner of Baan Suan Villa in Patong, who is originally from Bad Rappenau, handed over a check in that amount to…
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Candle ceremony on Patong Beach tonight
PATONG: Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor) is inviting everyone to join a “Light up Patong” event this evening, the aim being to place 100,000 candles along three kilometers of Patong Beach, in memory of the victims of the tsunami.OrBorJor President Anchalee Vanich-Thepabutr said the OrBorJor intends to make the ceremony an annual event, partly as a memorial to the victims…
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Charity tsunami photo book on sale
PHUKET: A special joint publication of The Nation and The Phuket Gazette entitled 26.12.04: Wrath Of The Tsunami is on sale now at bookstores across Thailand and from all regular Gazette distribution agents. All net proceeds from the 48-page full-color photo memoir, priced at only 90 baht, will be donated to charities aiding tsunami victims and their families. A copy…
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Singaporean airlines offer Phuket deals
PHUKET: A couple of days after THAI Airways angered the tourism industry by abruptly dropping all of its flights from Singapore to Phuket, airlines in Singapore are doing precisely the opposite, by offering special deals to travellers.In a joint promotion with selected hotels in Phuket, Krabi and Langkawi, SilkAir is offering travellers special-value packages to these holiday destinations, valid until…
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Samui speedboat crash toll rises to 14
KOH SAMUI: Rescue services have today recovered a further seven bodies from the waters around Koh Samui, bringing the official number of dead following Tuesday morning’s speedboat crash to 14. Pol Cpl Pongkasem Thanawanitnam, Koh Samui Police Station spokesman, told the Gazette that there are now two people still posted as missing.Koh Samui Hospital gave the names and nationalities of…
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