News
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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TAT targets timeshare use of logo
PHUKET: The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has warned businesses and operators that it would consider legal action against those counterfeiting or imitating their seal and initials. The move is intended to be a warning shot at illegal timeshare companies in Phuket. The statement signed by TAT Governor Suraphon Svetasreni appeared on the TAT News Room site on July 26,…
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Liverpool Legends stop in Phuket canceled
PHUKET: The Liverpool Legends tour series football matches, scheduled to take place in Phuket and Bangkok in October, has been canceled, the Gazette is sad to report. Cris Rosenbergs, creator of the Football Legends Tour concept, informed the Gazette by email this morning that the series of charity fundraising events could not take place: “Due to the obstacles and issues…
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Phuket Poll: Is the 80-meter building regulation being enforced?
PHUKET: In order to minimize deforestation, the government in 1996 put a ban on the construction of all permanent structures above 80 meters in Phuket. How effective have local governments been in enforcing this controversial rule, which greatly limits the value of properties above the specified height? Have your say by voting in the new Phuket Gazette reader’s poll by…
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More Phuket tuk-tuk drivers move toward standard fares
PUKET: Karon Municipality is compiling a list of fares charged by tuk-tuk drivers operating in the Kata–Karon area in order to establish an agreed schedule of standard fares to be shown – and charged – in the popular tourist beach areas. The draft schedule is the first step in a new public relations campaign to build tourist confidence in local…
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Phuket Retail: Staff productivity, not piracy, the key to success
PHUKET: Phuket has experienced unprecedented growth across at levels of the retail sector over the past two decades, but without any real improvement in customer service – especially in terms of product knowledge and foreign language skills. Rapid improvement in these areas is needed if the island is to capitalize on its many advantages and to emerge as a regional…
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Tropical depression: two suicides in Phuket in one day
PHUKET: A sick and destitute Burmese worker was the second man to take his life by hanging in Phuket’s Srisoonthorn sub-district yesterday. Just hours after Thalang Police responded to a report of suicide-by-hanging that morning, they were informed at 4:30pm that a Burmese worker at the nearby ARE HAWKS Construction Company workers’ camp had taken his life in similar fashion.…
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Car plunges into Phuket canal, foreigner drowns
PHUKET: A Nepalese tailor drowned when his car plunged into a canal in Phuket’s Thalang district last night. Thalang Police were notified of an accident near the TOT offices on the road to Ban Don at about 9:40pm. At the scene, police and rescue workers found a Phuket-registered Honda Civic almost fully submerged in fast-moving floodwaters in the roadside klong.…
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After the floods, Phuket mops up
PHUKET: Emergency response crews across Phuket continued their clean-up operations as the flood waters subsided and breaks in the rain came late this afternoon. “Today, there are no major flood waters left standing in the Patong area. We started our cleanup work yesterday, especially in the hard-hit areas,” Wisit Methasoonthornpot, chief of the Patong Municipality Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Division,…
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Phuket rain drives visitors to hospitality expo
PHUKET: Heavy rain on Phuket this week has provided a handy boost to the inaugural Andaman Hotelier hospitality expo, which attracted nearly 3,000 visitors on the event’s opening day on Thursday. The event, which cost 3 million baht to stage, is open from 11am to 9pm at HomeWorks on the bypass road until Sunday. The expo marks the first time…
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Debt drives man to suicide in Phuket
PHUKET: A man in debt to loan sharks and unable to find work was found hanged in his rented room in Phuket’s Thalang district this morning. Friends believe he committed suicide. Thalang Police duty officer Somkhit Khawsang confirmed the identity of the deceased from the remains of his torn up Thai ID card. He was 27-year-old Sarawut Samosorn. Mr Sarawut’s…
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Phuket to go light on tourist visas, but don’t ‘look suspicious’
PHUKET: Immigration officers at Phuket International Airport will not necessarily be stringent in enforcing the new requirements for 60-day tourist visas to Thailand, the Phuket Gazette has learned. Popular expat forum ThaiVisa.com published the changes yesterday, saying that all embassies and consulates abroad were notified of the changes and that the new requirements were effective immediately. “The Royal Thai Embassies,…
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Patong Hospital floods, 40 patients evacuated
PHUKET: Flooding of the basement at Patong Hospital forced doctors there to evacuate about 40 patients as a precaution, transferring them to facilities elsewhere in Phuket. “Some of them were transferred to Vachira Phuket Hospital [in Phuket Town], while others were discharged early so they could go home,” said Hospital Director Dr Phumin Silaphan. Heavy rain on Thursday saw flood…
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Phuket to get speed and traffic cameras
PHUKET: The Phuket Provincial Administration Organization will spend 17 million baht on installing speed and traffic cameras to catch people running red lights in Phuket. “The cameras will not be of the same type used in a project launched recently in Bangkok. [With this type] we will know who exceeds the speed limit and who breaks traffic laws – and…
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Brit tourist in Phuket dies in soaked power surge
PHUKET: A young British tourist died in Patong early this morning after he accidentally placed his hand on an outdoor, floor-mounted power socket covered with water. The 20-year-old man, whose name is being withheld pending notification of next of kin, was sitting in the undercover forecourt of the Ocean Plaza Patong [shopping mall] on Soi Bangla at about 6am when…
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Phuket landslide dumps home onto factory, cars
PHUKET: Heavy rains in Phuket today caused a landslide that plunged a house in Kathu, in central Phuket, down a slope, over a small retaining wall, and onto an industrial laundry nearby. The house, only two years old, cost 2 million baht to build, said Narachai Chumsri, who owns the house and the laundry, operated under the name Phuket Island…
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Phuket forecast: heavy rain to continue through the weekend
PHUKET: Over the past 24 hours Phuket experienced the heaviest rains since the freak storms of last March, with reports all over the island of flooding and downed trees and power poles. One of the heaviest hit areas was Patong, where knee deep water caused traffic jams along parts of Phang Muang Sai Kor road, especially near Patong Hospital and…
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Toyota League Cup: Phattalung def FC Phuket, 4-3 on aggregate
PHUKET: FC Phuket’s hopes of advancing to the final four of the 2011 Toyota League Cup were squashed Wednesday night by Division 2 upstarts Phattalung FC, who played to a wild 3-3 extra time draw to win on aggregate 4-3. The pressure was on for the Southern Sea Kirin in their first home match in seven weeks, fueled by a…
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FC Phuket need win by two goals
PHUKET: Football action returns to Surakul Stadium tonight at 7pm with FC Phuket set to host Pattalung FC in the second leg and deciding match of the Toyota League Cup 2011 quarterfinals. Phuket’s loss to Pattalung last week from a solitary goal means that Phuket will need to win by two goals tonight if they are to advance in the…
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Phuket Land Dept officer dies in motorbike crash
PHUKET: A young woman employed by the Phuket Land Office died when her motorbike was struck from behind by a pickup on Thepkrasattri road in Thalang this morning. Witnesses told police the victim, 24-year-old Wattana Jamchat, was riding her motorbike along Thepkrasattri Road northbound near the new PTT service station in Srisoonthorn subdistrict when she was struck from behind by…
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Mother reclaims Phuket “Ramadan’
PHUKET: The mother of the baby reported found abandoned on Sunday night has presented herself at Patong Hospital and is now reunited with her one-month-old son, named Ramadan. Kamala Police Duty Officer Somnerk Dumkeaw said, “It was a misunderstanding. The baby boy was not abandoned. His name is Ramadan because he was born in the Muslim month of Ramadan. His…
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HRH Chulabhorn grants free medical care to three Phuket afflicted
PHUKET: HRH Princess Chulabhorn Valayalaksana today granted much-needed specialist medical care to three Phuket residents who would otherwise not receive the treatment they need. Princess Chulabhorn arrived at Baan Sapam Mongkol Wittaya School in Koh Kaew, just north of Phuket Town, at 2:30pm in support of a free mobile medical clinic being held there under the Princess Mother’s Medical Volunteer…
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Phuket Live Wire: WiFi you wouldn’t believe
PHUKET: There’s important breaking news on the internet scene in Phuket: TOT is now offering something they call “WiFi”. The first, most important thing to understand is that this isn’t the kind of WiFi you know. It’s completely different. TOT has taken confusing terminology to new lows. The “WiFi” TOT is selling has nothing to do with the WiFi you…
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Golden oldie love triangle ends in shooting
LOEI: You’re never too old to fall in love – or to take violent revenge on your cheating wife and treacherous neighbor, as events in the northeastern province of Loei recently showed. On June 22, local police received reports that two people had been shot at a house in Thali subdistrict. At the scene, they found villagers gathered around Wan…
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Dutch diplomat warns of Phuket tourism “landslide’
PHUKET: Critical issues affecting Phuket tourism must be contained, or else the industry could “slide out of control”, the Dutch Ambassador to Thailand warned yesterday. On his first official visit to Phuket, Ambassador Joan Boer asked Phuket Governor Tri Augkaradacha what he intended to do about the problems, specifically naming jet-ski rip-off scams and unscrupulous tuk-tuk drivers as the key…
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Abandoned baby rescued in Phuket
PHUKET: Kamala Police are searching for the parents of an infant found abandoned in Phuket last night. Neighbors who heard the relentless crying of an infant found the boy, age estimated at about two months, in an unnumbered home in Kamala Village 5 at about 9pm. They contacted local tambon chief Santi Saraya, who in turn notified Kamala Police and…
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Phuket drug tip-offs lead to four arrests, 6,000 pills seized
PHUKET: An anti-drug squad in Thalang District, which covers most of the north of Phuket, last night nabbed four people for drugs, culminating with the arrest of an alleged dealer with more than 5,000 pills early this morning. The squad, comprising four Thalang Police officers and officials from the Thalang District Office, began the night’s work with the arrest of…
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FC Phuket bag first road win
PHUKET: After a series of ten consecutive losses and draws, FC Phuket won their first road game against a luckless RBAC side in Bangkok yesterday afternoon. FC Phuket scored the only goal of the match just two minutes into play, when a long pass from Nittiroj Sukuma was chested down inside the penalty area by Watcharapong Jun-ngam, then deftly passed…
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No drama for Phuket pilots in Taiwan
PHUKET: A website report this morning of a “dramatic near miss” involving two aircraft on the ground at Taiwan’s Taoyuan International Airport has come as a surprise to at least two of the pilots. Contacted by telephone in Taiwan early this afternoon, South African pilot James Pitman was clearly astounded by the report, saying that at no time was his…
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Phuket Opinion: Please don’t sell our reservoirs
PHUKET: After learning that a young man had been caught on a CCTV camera urinating into the local reservoir, the chief administrator of the Portland, Oregon Water Bureau in the US made a hasty decision last month. He ordered that all 7.8 million gallons be drained out of it. While Portland is far from Phuket, the controversial move that cost…
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Phuket hosting regional Scrabble competition in bid to boost students’ vocabulary
PHUKET: Some 700 young Scrabble enthusiasts are in Phuket this weekend to compete in the southern regionals of the 5th annual CyberDict Crossword competition. Grouped into three age categories (primary, lower secondary, upper secondary), the students are vying for places in the national finals to be held in Bangkok at the end of the year. Techus Pogool, a 16-year-old from…
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