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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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Trees felled at Nai Harn “to improve the view’
NAI HARN: As the high season gets into full swing, trees around Nai Harn Lake have been felled in a project to “improve the view” around the tidal lake.The narrow grassy area around the lake has already been dug up and tons of rock are being dumped to strengthen the banks.Local residents have been disturbed to see brown earth from…
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Patong Tower auction “a big success’
PATONG: A total of 55 units were sold in Sunday’s auction of apartments in the 32-story Patong Tower. Around 500 people turned up to bid in the auction, held at the Patong Resort Hotel.On the block were 61 one-bedroom apartments, seven two-bedroom apartments, seven three-bedroom apartments and five four-bedroom penthouses.The media were barred from the auction and the Tower’s owner,…
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Fingerprint clue in tourist’s murder
PATONG : Police are to compare a fingerprint thought to belong to the murderer of a 61-year-old Swiss tourist with prints of the staff of the hotel where she was staying.Jeanette Sager was found dead in room 208 of the Horizon Beach Resort Hotel on December 7. Police believe she was killed when she returned from the hotel pool and…
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Expo center bickering ‘has cost B100bn’
PHUKET CITY: Juthamas Siriwan, the Governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), today lamented the long delay in coming to a decision on the site for Phuket’s International Convention and Exhibition Center (ICEC), saying that the arguments have cost Phuket 100 billion baht in lost revenue.“Building an ICEC in Phuket has to be delayed until we have a clear picture…
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Democrats, TRT in slanging match
THALANG: Senior figures from Thailand’s two main parties went head-to-head at a fund-raiser for youth education at Baan Nanai yesterday.Surin Pitsuwan, Deputy Leader of the Democrat Party and a former Foreign Minister, made a speech in which he charged the Thai Rak Thai (TRT) Party with “buying” a former Democrat Party MP representing a province near Phuket.The MP has announced…
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Mystery surrounds Briton’s death
PHUKET: Mystery surrounds the death of Briton Stephen Harris, leaving his family saddened and confused. Mr Harris’s body was was discovered at the Monte Carlo Hotel on Rat-U-Thit 200 Pi Rd on October 29. (See Gazette Online story here.) At that time Pol Lt Col Boonlert Onklang of Kathu Police Station told the Gazette that an initial inspection by a…
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Senator calls for Laguna buildings to be demolished
PHUKET: A new land row is brewing at Laguna after the head of the national Land Inspection Working Group called for a toilet to be demolished, claiming it is built on state land.Speaking after a meeting of 14 local officials, Senator Pricha Pitanon backed local land officers’ claims that the toilet, plus another building covering just four square metres, stand…
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Two sought over restaurateur’s murder
RAWAI: Police are on the lookout for a man and a teenager involved in the beating to death of a Koh Racha Yai restaurateur after a 15-year-old boy turned himself to Chalong Police Station yesterday evening.Pol Col Chalit Kaewyarat, Superintendent of Chalong Police Station, told the Gazette that the 15-year-old had confessed to police that he was one of three…
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Khao Kat Tower viewpoint opens
AO MAKHAM: Vice-Governor Winai Buapradit today presided over the reopening ceremony of Khao Khat Tower, which affords visitors a dramatic 360-degree view of the coastline and islands in Phuket Bay.Work on the tower, a restaurant, a parking lot, several shops and landscaped gardens was carried out by the Wichit Tambon Administration Organization, as part of a 24-million-baht provincial development budget…
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The beach party’s over
PHUKET: Vice-Governor Vinai Buapradit has ordered officials to take action tomorrow to prevent drunken youths and tourists “swarming” onto beaches when entertainment venues close at 1am.“People have complained to the provincial office about the disturbance caused by tourists and youths drinking and dancing on the beaches after the bars have closed,” said the Vice-Governor. “People who live near the beaches…
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Hi Fidelity edges ahead in King’s Cup
KATA: Winds were a steady 20 knots yet, apart from some moderate chop beyond Koh Racha, the seas were calm for some swift sailing in the King’s Cup Regatta today.Neil Pryde’s Hi Fidelity today finished just 44 seconds ahead of Peter Ahern’s Yo! to take the lead in the Racing class by a single point.As tomorrow will be a rest…
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Swiss visitor murdered in hotel
PATONG: A 61-year-old Swiss tourist was found dead of head wounds in her room at the Horizon Beach Resort Hotel yesterday. Police are treating her death as murder.Staff of the luxury hotel, located on Soi Kebsap, called police at about 1 am yesterday to say that they had found the body of hotel guest Jeanette Sager lying face down in…
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Parliamentary candidate engaged
PHUKET: Dr Sriyada Palimapan, due to stand as the Thai Rak Thai (TRT) candidate for Phuket District 1 in next year’s general election, was quietly engaged to Saravuth Shinawatra last Friday in Chiang Mai, the Gazette has learned.Her fiancé – a businessman – is cousin to Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.Close friends and immediate family only were invited to the ceremony.…
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Phuket aims at world golf record
PHUKET: In an effort to raise international awareness of the island’s growing golf tourism industry, Phuket province is to try to get in the Guinness Book of World Records by hosting the world’s biggest golf tournament It is hoped that the “Phuket – Golf Paradise of Asia” golf tournament, on March 5, will attract at least 500 golfers from around…
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Mahachon ‘will not contest Phuket seat’
PHUKET: Phuket is one of only two southern provinces in which the newly-formed Mahachon Party will not field a parliamentary candidate in the coming general election, due to be held by February 13.Chadej Insawang, Secretary of Mahachon and a former governor of Phuket, told the Gazette yesterday that the party had looked into running a candidate in the province, but…
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Drive to decrease holiday accidents
PHUKET CITY: The Phuket Office of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (ODPM) has launched a campaign to reduce the number of road accidents, injuries and fatalities in the period to the end of the New Year holiday.The ODPM is urging road users not to drink and drive and motorcyclists to wear helmets. It has also urged all drivers to carry their…
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Trouble in the market
PATONG: Mayor Pian Keesin on Friday morning led a squad of Kathu police and more than 30 municipal officers to the Ko Kaew Market, where he ordered the police to detain Ruantong “Da” Wareesri, who is leading the vendors’ fight to keep the market open. K. Da, a committee member of the 240-strong Ko Kaew Market Association, organized a meeting…
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Gov to push for expo center in Ao Phuket
PHUKET: Governor Udomsak Usawarangkura says he will ask the Cabinet later this month to approve plans for Phuket’s International Conference and Exhibition Center (ICEC) to be built in the proposed Ao Phuket development. “The estimated cost of reclaiming land in Ao Phuket is 1 million baht a rai, which is cheap compared with the price at which land in Phuket…
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Bamboo sharks released at Cape Panwa
CAPE PANWA: The Phuket Marine Biological Center (PBMC) and Phuket Provincial Administration Organization pooled their resources and released 99 Indonesian Bamboo sharks yesterday in a gesture to mark the birthday of HM King Bhumibol Adulyedej.The sharks – between six and 12 months old and measuring up to 50 centimeters long – were bred at the PMBC. Harmless to humans, these creatures…
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Mobile minimarts launched
PHUKET: The Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor) yesterday unveiled some of the “mobile minimarts” which will sell “clean” food around the island in a 1.5-million-baht initiative to promote food hygiene among vendors and buyers.Phuket Technical College worked with the OrBorJor to design a stainless steel rust-free minimart attachment for motorbikes, at a cost of 23,000 baht each.OrBorJor President Anchalee Vanich-Thepabutr…
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Cleaning up Patong is my top priority – Pian
PATONG: Mayor Pian Keesin, in what appears to be, finally, a response to years of complaints by tourists and the tourism industry – has pledged to keep the streets of Patong clean and the roads surfaced, and to improve wastewater treatment.K. Pian, who was elected mayor for the second time in June – he lost the position in 2001 in…
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Phuket “should be special admin zone’ – NIDA
PHUKET: A group of researchers from the National Institute of Development Administration (Nida) today argued in favor of Phuket being turned into a special administrative zone with an elected Governor. At a seminar at the Phuket Merlin Hotel today, the Nida research team, led by Juree Vichit-Vadakan, said that results of a survey they conducted showed that 83% of 298…
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On a wing and a prayer
PHUKET: People in Phuket have made more than half a million origami birds to be sent to the troubled southern provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat as part of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s unusual peace initiative.Nationally, more than 80 million of the origami birds have been collected. They will be taken by aircraft and scattered over the three provinces – which…
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Three arrested over murder of laborer
PATONG: Police have arrested three men for the murder of Boonsong Sulaopa, a 31-year-old construction worker from Loei, whose body was found dumped in a ditch near Laem Daeng Beach, between Patong and Kamala, on November 24.Pol Capt Sophon Borirak, of Kathu Police Station, said that police had charged Pacheun Muangnontasri with murder, while his brother Boonjan and fellow laborer…
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Australian student dies in four-story fall
PATONG: A 23-year-old Australian student died after falling four stories from his hotel room in the early hours of this morning.Police believe that Christian Jorgen Halkjaer, from Perth, slipped and fell from the balcony of his room at the Patong Beach Lodge, Rat-U-Thit 200 Phi Rd, after a night out with friends.Pol Lt Col Chaowalit Niemwadee, Deputy Superintendent of Kathu…
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Gamblers still top crime stats
PHUKET: Gambling topped the latest Provincial Police crime statistics, for the period November 1 to 25, with 172 people arrested for playing illegal games of chance, 29 of them caught buying or selling underground lottery tickets. Some 73 people were arrested on drug-related charges, with 27 arrests involving ya bah (methamphetamine) and 261 pills seized. The remaining 46 drug-related arrests…
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Copy of giant Buddha cast
PHUKET: Work began yesterday on a smaller version of the controversial Mingmongkol Buddha, as the committee behind the project sought to dispel allegations that brass donated to the project had “disappeared”.Rumours have been circulating that more than 12 tons of brass earmarked for the massive image atop the Nakkerd Hills in Karon, had gone missing.The head of the project committee,…
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Date set for Jantra murder trial
PHUKET CITY: The Phuket Provincial Court has set an inital date of January 24 for the trial of Briton Michael John Taylor, 40, who is accused of murdering his girlfriend, Jantra Weangta, in August.Taylor has already pleaded not guilty to the murder charge. The court initially set an earlier date for the trial, but Mr Taylor asked the court for…
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“Worrying’ Aids figures in Phuket
PHUKET: Phuket has the second-highest incidence of Aids of Thailand’s southern provinces, and the fifth-highest rate in the country, according to the Phuket Provincial Health Office (PPHO).The number of cases is still rising, Dr Wanchai Sattayawuthipong, the head of the PPHO, said. “The number of Aids cases in Phuket has risen in each of the past three years. In Phuket,…
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New law for hotel operators
PHUKET CITY: Hotel and guesthouse owners have been informed of regulations governing the industry, expected to come into force in mid-January after HM the King signs them into law.Nilubon Tantichupan, Secretary General of the Thai Hotels Association (THA) Southern Chapter, told THA members gathered at The Metropole hotel that the new Hotel Act will cover many aspects of hotel ownership…
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