News
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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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IP crackdown underway in Phuket
PHUKET: A Crime Suppression Division (CSD) intellectual property rights unit from Bangkok is leading local police in crackdowns on intellectual property (IP) violators in Phuket this weekend. Officers at Phuket City Police Station last night were busy counting up a large haul of counterfeit CDs, DVDs and music videos seized in a raid on four stalls at the Phuket Variety…
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Phuket named best Asian yachting capital
Phuket NEWS Hound – A daily digest of news from around the world compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community. World Cup? Get instantaneous scores and news updates right here on the Gazette Online (fed directly from FIFA). PHUKET: Phuket, voted as the Best Asian Maritime Capital 2010 in May, will bring in US$306 million in revenue from boating…
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Phuket Raceweek Photo Contest: Deadline looms
PHUKET: As the island gears up for Six Senses Phuket Raceweek, to be held in and around Chalong Bay from July 21-25, the Phuket Gazette‘s Phuket Raceweek Amateur Photo Contest is offering budding photographers the chance to win a five-night stay at an exclusive Phuket resort – free of charge. But hurry; the deadline for entries is Thursday, July 15.…
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World Cup: Phuket likes Spain over Holland
PHUKET: There was a lot of activity at the Phuket post offices this morning as people from all walks of life dropped off batches of postcards bearing their picks on who will win the World Cup 2010 final that kicks off in South Africa at 1:30am on Monday. A clear majority think Spain will win the match. The punters are…
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Plant Fair underway in Phuket
PHUKET: The 18th annual Phuket Ornamental Plants & Flowers Fair got underway with an opening ceremony at 5pm today.Held at Saphan Hin, the event will run through July 18.Organized by the Phuket Provincial Agricultural Office, Phuket City Municipality and Phuket Provincial Administration Organization, this year’s fair will feature Phuket Pineapple exhibitions, pineapple peeling and processing competitions, and flower decoration contests.Various…
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Phuket Ironman: ‘I’m alive!’
PHUKET: Friends and family of a Phuket Ironman athlete currently climbing Europe’s highest peak will be praying for his safe return after hearing that two climbers fell to their deaths in the same area earlier this week. Cherng Talay resident Les Bird, 59, is attempting to reach the 4,810-meter summit of Mont Blanc in the French-Italian Alps. He is climbing…
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New Phuket Gazette launched today
PHUKET: Following months of intensive work with content and design editors, we are happy to launch today a whole new style for your Phuket Gazette. But the new format, type of paper and layout style are only a beginning. In the weeks ahead, you will find a ‘tighter’ newspaper with more news, more features, more photos, more letters and more…
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Phuket to host Andaman Motor Expo
PHUKET: HomeWorks will host the first annual Andaman Motor Expo 2010 from August 6 to 12. Krishapanat Patwarasith, managing director of event organizers ND Productions, told a press conference yesterday that the car show will be the largest and most impressive ever held on the island, with automakers BMW, Volvo, Isuzu, Chevrolet and many others taking part. The goal is…
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Islamic meetings underway in Phuket
PHUKET: Thailand’s top Muslim leaders assembled at the Royal Paradise Hotel in Phuket Town yesterday for the opening of three days of ‘Provincial Islamic Committee 2010’ meetings. Chaired by Deputy Interior Minister Thavorn Senniam, the opening ceremony was attended by Sheikhul Islam Aziz Phitakkhumphol, advisor to HM The King on Islamic affairs, as well as two representatives from Central Islamic…
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Phuket punters mourn as World Cup favorites fall
PHUKET: Like the rest of Thailand, Phuket is prey to the quadrennial month-long madness known as ‘World Cup Fever’. This year, owing to the peculiar string of upsets resulting in early elimination of such favorites as France, England, Italy, Brazil, and Argentina, at least one bookie is reporting drastically reduced business.Sale of football jerseys, meanwhile, are up.The bookie says wagers…
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Phuket woman arrested for ‘karaoke’ slot machines
PHUKET: Police on Tuesday night arrested a Phuket woman for possession of three karaoke jukeboxes allegedly modified to function as ‘slot machines’. Following complaints about slot machine gambling lodged by local residents, Phuket City Police Deputy Superintendent Chaiwat Auykham and Crime Suppression Division (CSD) Area 5 Inspector Sitthikiat Srichan led the raid on a shop on Soi Rungrawee, just north…
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Phuket City Police crash helmet campaign gets high-level backing
PHUKET: Deputy Interior Minister Thavorn Senniam was so impressed with the effort of Phuket City Police Station to get all motorbike riders and passengers to don safety helmets that he has asked the Governor’s Office to extend the initiative across the entire province. Mr Thavorn, who arrived at Phuket International Airport this morning on a one-day inspection tour, was greeted…
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Phuket butterfly release on Saturday
PHUKET: The Phuket Butterfly Garden and Insect World will hold its annual butterfly release ceremony on Saturday morning at the Khao Phra Thaew Wildlife Conservation Area in Thalang. Phuket Butterfly Garden Managing Director Wasin Koysiripong said the event, now in its fourth year, came about from the Butterfly Garden’s ability to breed butterflies and the recognition that the number of…
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Phuket karaoke killing: teen arrested
PHUKET: Phuket City Police have charged a young man with murder and issued an arrest warrant for his father, after the pair allegedly stabbed to death a Phuket man at a karaoke bar in Wichit on Sunday night. A crowd of bar girls, patrons and other onlookers were standing outside the Chumporn Karaoke bar on the corner of Kwang and…
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Phuket Ghostbusters: illegal guide crackdown looms
PHUKET: Kathu Police are setting up a new center aimed at cracking down on unregistered ‘ghost guides’ operating in Patong, the local police chief says. Kathu Police Superintendent Arayaphan Pukbuakhao told the Gazette that the new center, to be based in the police box on the beach at the foot of Soi Bangla, is scheduled to open in about one…
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Full-Moon frazzled farang in BB rampage
SURAT THANI: Koh Phang Ngan police came under a hail of BB gunfire when they tried to subdue a middle-aged Swiss tourist on a rampage in a weaponry shop, Khao Sod has reported. Boom BB Guns shop owner Manop Wongtawan on the morning of July 4 called police to his store, which sells BB guns as well as knives and…
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Phuket murder suspect turns self in, claims innocence
PHUKET: Police on Saturday announced the arrest of the third suspect wanted in connection with the June 26 shooting murder of 17-year-old Witarn Chuaykuea at a Phuket Town gas station. Watcharin “James” Limmanee, 21, handed himself in to Phuket City Police Station last Thursday to proclaim his innocence. Narongchai “Tan” Boonprom of Nakhon Sri Thammarat, arrested earlier, confessed to shooting…
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Readers call for charity for family of Phuket murder victim
PHUKET: In response to recurring suggestions from readers that a donation channel be set up to raise funds to help the mother and two young children of murder victim Wanphen Pienjai, the Phuket Gazette is currently working with a major, worldwide charitable organization to receive and administer funds. We hope to be in a position to announce details of that…
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Readers’ Poll: Is Phuket tourism sustainable?
PHUKET: According to one definition, the term “sustainable tourism” is an industry committed to making a low impact on the environment and local culture, while helping to generate future employment for local people. Given this definition, to what extent do you think Phuket’s tourism industry is sustainable? To vote in the latest Phuket Gazette Reader’s Poll, click here or on…
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Phuket Gazette Readers’ Poll: Patong sign a waste of money
PHUKET: A wide majority of Phuket Gazette online readers think the project to build a welcome sign on Patong Hill is a waste of taxpayer money, the latest Readers’ Poll has revealed. Readers were asked on June 21 which of three statements most accurately matched their view of the 9.1-million-baht project, funded under the central government’s Thai Khem Khaeng (Strong…
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OPINION: IT could help to clean up Phuket
PHUKET: Most private firms in Phuket realize that keeping up with developments in information technology is a difficult and never-ending effort, but one vital to competitiveness. Talk of Phuket’s designation as an ‘IT hub’ has been a recurring theme in the news over the past decade. This IT optimism reached its zenith in during the first Thaksin administration, when we…
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Phuket chosen as Asian HQ
Phuket NEWS Hound – A daily digest of news from around the world compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community. World Cup? Get instantaneous scores and news updates right here on the Gazette Online (fed directly from FIFA). PHUKET: Asia Travel Tips reports that Outrigger Hotels and Resorts Asia has officially established Phuket as its Regional Operating Headquarters (ROH).…
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New sketch of suspect in Phuket murder of Wanphen Pienjai
PHUKET: Police have released a sketch of what the prime suspect in the Wanphen Pienjai murder case may look like without a full beard. Ms Pienjai’s naked body was found stuffed in a suitcase in Phuket on June 24. For our previous report, click here. She was last seen leaving her workplace at the Sweetheart Bar in Kata with a…
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Man murders friend with homemade gun in Phuket
PHUKET: A construction site foreman has been charged with murder after allegedly shooting one of his laborers with a homemade pen-gun, police said. The shooting happened about 9pm last night in the Phanson Villa (Bor-Rae) housing project in Wichit. Arriving at the scene shortly after the incident, Phuket City Police officers found a single .38mm bullet casing and were told…
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Phuket ‘bypass-bypass’ construction stalled
PHUKET: Budget problems are holding up work to complete a road linking the bypass road to a section of Ekwahnit Road near the back entrance to Surakul Stadium. Work on the project, known jokingly as the bypass-bypass road, was stalled for months because the road was blocked by a home belonging to a family of squatters who settled the area…
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Mother of Phuket murder victim tells of her pain
PHUKET: The mother of Wanphen Pienjai, the bar hostess whose body was found stuffed in a suitcase in Phuket last week, has spoken of her anguish over the murder of her daughter. Sa-ard Maliwan, 59, told the Gazette she is praying every day for police to catch the killer. “He deserves to be punished hard for what he did to…
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Parade kicks off Phuket helmet crackdown
PHUKET: Phuket City Police kicked off their helmet safety campaign yesterday with around 4,000 helmet-clad riders on some 2,000 motorbikes parading down the island’s roads. From now on, police are pledging to crack down heavily on both drivers and passengers without helmets. Thai traffic law states that both drivers and passengers without helmets can be fined up to 500 baht.…
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Phuket police offer 50,000 baht to catch killer
PHUKET CITY: Phuket City Police are offering a reward of 50,000 baht for information leading to the arrest of the killer of 33-year-old bar hostess Wanphen Pienjai, whose naked body was discovered stuffed into a suitcase in Phuket last week. The offer follows the release of a sketch of the prime suspect in the investigation, a bearded Caucasian man who…
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Red-shirt protests hit Phuket leukemia patient
PHUKET: Jenarong Tapklaeng, a 16-year-old leukemia patient from Phuket, spent almost a month in Bangkok for medical consultations that should have taken just a few days after his hospital was shut down because of the red-shirt protests. Doctors at King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital were set to examine the possibility of performing a bone marrow transplant on Jenarong, who is currently…
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Tourism: Phuket better than most
Phuket NEWS Hound – A daily digest of news from around the world compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community. World Cup? Get instantaneous scores and news updates right here on the Gazette Online (fed directly from FIFA). PHUKET: Tourism in Thailand suffered heavily in May, but Phuket continued to do better than most. The Bangkok Post reports that…
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