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Get ready for the weekend in Phuket
PHUKET: The latest edition of the Phuket Gazette is on sale now. Pick up a copy of Phuket’s most popular local newspaper for lots of interesting articles not available online, including: NEWS – Upcoming MICE event to be largest ever held on the island. – Efforts to secure UN World Heritage status for Phuket Town buildings. – Sea gypsies fight…
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Phuket Police pounce on porn pirates
PHUKET: Coordinated raids on a counterfeit video manufacturer and three sales outlets have led to the arrest of six people and seizure of more than 30,000 discs, some of them pornographic. Fifty provincial and Region 8 police officers divided into four teams set out from Phuket Provincial Police headquarters at 7pm on Wednesday night to make the arrests. Joining them…
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Phuket Red Cross draw blesses the lucky
PHUKET: Atiphon “Tu” Wongmaha, the human resources manager at the Blue Marine Resort & Spa in Kalim, has won the top prize in the annual Phuket Red Cross Fair lucky draw: a townhouse valued at 2.5 million baht. The two-storey townhouse in the Phanason Villa housing estate at Bor Rae in Wichit covers 21 square wah. The 37-year-old Rayong native…
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Phuket Governor launches night venue crackdown
PHUKET: The Phuket Governor has warned entertainment venues to abide by the law – or suffer the consequences. The warning from Governor Tri Augkaradacha comes after officers from the Phuket Provincial Office and Muang District Office teamed up to raid popular nightspots across the district last week. Muang District covers Phuket Town and surrounding sub-districts, running all the way south…
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Phuket revelers gatecrash curry shop
PHUKET: The owners of a mom-and-pop store in Phuket got a rude awakening early this morning when a car crashed through the front of their home. Thalang Police received a report at 2:45am that a car had crashed into the shopfront of a home on the northbound side of Thepkrasattri Road, opposite the electrical substation in Baan Lipon, Thalang. Led…
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Phuket “lucky license plates’ to go under the hammer
PHUKET: The island’s high-rollers will descend upon The Metropole hotel in Phuket Town on February 26 and 27 for the sixth annual “Lucky” License Plate Auction. Organized by the Phuket Land Transport Office (PLTO), the event will see 301 license plates go to the highest bidders. The auction will be held from 8:30am to 4:30pm in the Prapitak Grand Ballroom.…
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Phuket Punchline Comedy returns next month
PHUKET: Following the success of its sell-out shows last year, the Phuket Punchline Comedy Club returns for its first show of 2011 at the Holiday Inn Resort in Patong next month. Three of the sharpest comedic minds on the UK comedy circuit will take to the stage on February 23. Among the comedians lined up is Nick Doody, rated as…
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BREAKING NEWS: Phuket tour van crashes in Phang Nga
PHUKET: Seven people, including at least five Koreans, are receiving hospital treatment after their Phuket tour van slid off the road and into an embankment in Phang Nga earlier today. Lt Col Songwut Khunjun of the Takuatung District Police said the crash occurred on the Petchkasem Highway in Krasom subdistrict. The vehicle was on its way to Surakul Pier when…
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EXCLUSIVE: One-on-one in Phuket with Bob Sinclar
PHUKET: More than 3,000 music fans flocked to Famous Nightclub in Patong last Tuesday to see French DJ Bob Sinclar – the man behind the worldwide hits Love Generation and World, Hold On. Here’s the Phuket Gazette‘s exclusive interview with the man himself. If one DJ has stood out from the rest over the past decade it would be Bob…
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New development plan for Phuket’s Saphan Hin
PHUKET: A proposal has been put forward to develop a multi-purpose tourist center at Saphan Hin in Phuket Town. The plan was pitched to Phuket Governor Tri Augkaradacha by Norwegian maritime engineering company LMG Marin at a meeting last week. Saphan Hin is Phuket Town’s largest park and its seafront has long been earmarked as a location for a major…
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Woman beaten unconscious on Phuket beach
PHUKET: A young woman selling fruit on Surin Beach was beaten unconscious in broad daylight by attackers allegedly representing a local restaurant, the victim’s father said. Sawang Tonglaw, who heads a group of vendors on Surin Beach, and 15 fellow vendors, took their case to Phuket Provincial Hall today, citing a history of intimidation and death threats against them. The…
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Major Phuket blackouts to start Tomorrow
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. The dates and locations of the operations, which will carried out from 9am to 4pm, are detailed below: January 11 – Chalong Luang Por Chuang Road, from the TOT office on Chao Fa…
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Gazette Poll: Phuket has too many hotels
PHUKET: A clear majority of Phuket Gazette Online readers believe the island’s hotel industry is in a state of oversupply, the results of the newspaper’s latest poll reveal. Overall, more than half of those taking part (58.9%) thought there were too many hotels in Phuket, compared to just 17.1% who thought there were not. Almost a quarter of all those…
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PHUKET OPINION: Put the alcohol ban on ice
PHUKET: While possibly well-intended, the recently announced ban on the sale and consumption of alcohol in Thailand’s 110 national parks is just one more addition to the long and growing list of regulations that are difficult or impossible to enforce – and that probably do more harm than good. The new rule, announced over the recent holiday period, calls not…
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Park booze ban: Phuket tourism players “shaken, not stirred’
PHUKET: Reactions by key figures in Phuket’s tourism industry are mixed over the recent ban on alcohol inside 110 national parks nationwide. However, many agree that the rule will be very difficult to enforce at marine national parks. Pracha Rachai, Events Manager at Andaman Aqua Trails, said the ban had already caused “a lot” of cancellations by Russian tourists, the…
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National park booze ban “well received’ by Phuket tourists
PHUKET: The directors of several national parks in the Andaman region have told the Phuket Gazette they have received good compliance with the ban on alcohol inside parks. The ban came into effect late last month. Natural Resources and Environment Minister Suwit Khunkitti issued the ban immediately following the December 26 stabbing murder of a student by a group of…
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Children’s day on Phuket
PHUKET: Children’s Day activities kicked off in Phuket today with addresses to the island’s next generation by the Phuket Governor and head of the provincial council. Phuket Governor Tri Augkaradacha and Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor) president Paiboon Ubatising both addressed a crowd of youths and civil servants at Phuket Provincial Hall, one of the many places staging special events…
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Investors target Phuket as tuna-industry hub
PHUKET: In a move that would more than double Phuket’s tuna-fishing fleet – already the third largest in Asia – a delegation of Taiwanese investors are looking to set up an operations center in Phuket to take advantage of increased tuna stocks in the Andaman Sea. The delegation of executives from Singapore-based Seaspire International floated the idea yesterday at a…
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New Phuket school library opens
PHUKET: Baan Tungkha School in Rassada has opened a library on its grounds for students and locals alike. Vice Governor Weerawat Janpen presided over the opening ceremony of the 600,000-baht facility, one of the few of its kind on the island. School director Wilas Parinyaniyom explained, “Our school committee wanted to gather secondhand books and computers and make them available…
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Chinese dive tourist recovering in Phuket hospital
PHUKET: The young Chinese diver airlifted from the Surin Islands to Phuket yesterday is conscious, speaking and able to eat, doctors said today. Zouxin Jie, 26, was early yesterday afternoon airlifted from the Surin Island National Park by a Thai Navy helicopter to Phuket, where she was transferred to Vachira Phuket Hospital. Dr Weerawat Yorsaengrat, deputy director of Vachira Phuket…
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Worn out woman opts for penal retreat
KHON KAEN: A woman caught shoplifting from a 7-Eleven told police she committed the crime because she was bored with her life and wanted to go to jail. Wipha Chanachuen, 53, said she was tired of working for a living and wanted to rest in an old people’s home – but jail was the next best option. Khon Kaen City…
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Gruesome offering for pig-headed spirits
PRACHUAP KHIRI KHAN: Villagers tried an usual rain-making method last week after two years of drought ruined their coconut harvests. Instead of appealing for the cloud-seeding techniques famous across the land, they instead decided what was needed was an offering of 249 severed pig heads to the spirits of the land. Despite parts of the country experiencing the worst floods…
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Burmese man murdered in Phuket
PHUKET: Police are investigating the murder of a Burmese man found lying dead in shallow water off Kata Beach in Phuket yesterday. Chalong Police were informed by local residents that a body was discovered in the water at the south end of Kata Beach at about 8am yesterday. Arriving at the scene, they found the body of an Asian man…
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Phuket holiday death toll halved
PHUKET: The death toll in Phuket during the new year ‘Seven Days of Danger’ national road safety campaign, which ended on January 4, remained at four – half of last year’s figure. The number is well under this year’s theoretical “target toll” of 7.6, which the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM) bases on a 5% reduction in fatalities…
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Chinese tourist airlifted to Phuket
PHUKET: A Chinese woman is fighting for her life at Vachira Phuket Hospital after a dramatic airlift rescue from Surin Island National Park this afternoon. Lt Cdr Somsak Boonkam of the Naval Air Section, Third Area Command (NASTAC), told the Phuket Gazette that he was among the five rescuers dispatched on the mission. “At about noon we received radio orders…
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Locals fight to preserve Phuket mangroves
PHUKET: Out of fear of losing their community and way of life to “selfish people” allegedly encroaching on protected mangrove forests, Pa Khlok villagers submitted a formal complaint to the Phuket governor yesterday. About 20 villagers, led by chief Cha-euan Hemhong and community leader “Uncle” Jurun Ratchapol, handed the letter to Gov Tri Augkaradacha requesting immediate investigation into the matter.…
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Phuket set for heavy rains
PHUKET: The Meteorological Department is warning of possible heavy rains and rough seas along the Andaman coast over the next 24 hours, as unusually strong monsoonal conditions prevail in what is normally Phuket’s driest month. In a report issued at 11am today, the Southern Meteorological Center (West Coast) read that a “rather strong” northeasterly monsoon prevails over the southern Thailand’s…
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Wanted: Phuket scam artists impersonating Governor
PHUKET: Police are hunting for a group of scam artists wanted for impersonating the Phuket governor to solicit donations for an imaginary provincial development campaign. In a meeting yesterday afternoon, Gov Tri Augkaradacha warned people not to fall victim to the scam. The scammers have been calling both government offices and private businesses asking for donations, typically from 30,000 to…
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Phuket foreign property sales to grow 25% this year
PHUKET: Real estate sales to foreigners in Phuket are expected to grow 25 per cent this year to 5 billion baht, according to property development firm Seacon. Nevertheless, sales are likely to remain at least 50 per cent lower than during the boom years of 2006 and 2007, when foreign sales came in at 10 to 12bn baht each year.…
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Phuket’s PIMEX on track for another record year
PHUKET: The Phuket International Boat Show, PIMEX 2011, is set for yet another record-breaking year, organizers say. The annual international event gets underway tomorrow at Royal Phuket Marina and runs through Sunday, January 9. “PIMEX 2011 is really shaping up to set a new benchmark this year,” said Andy Dowden, Show Director of Informa Yacht Group. “The event has attracted…
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