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How much is Thai health insurance?
Health insurance in Thailand is essential for expats and locals, providing financial protection and access to quality care. Costs depend on age, health, and coverage level, with basic plans being cheaper but limited and comprehensive plans offering more benefits at...
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Alleged hirer of hit men surrenders
PHUKET TOWN: A man who is alleged to have hired three hit men in March to kill a 77-year-old woman, surrendered to police on Wednesday. As reported in the Online Gazette in March, the three hit men, Somporn Paotong, Wannarat Kamsoot, and Soontorn Siripan, were first contacted by Saman Jarnjit, a guard at a prawn farm, who hired them to…
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Big hike in water prices imminent
PHUKET TOWN: The Phuket Town Municipality announced yesterday that the price of piped water supplied from the council’s waterworks will increase massively from next Thursday (June 1). The price will rise by as much as 33% for households and by as much as 44% for businesses. Deputy mayor Jongrak Narukatpichai explained that the hike was necessary because of the spiraling…
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Bus company boss finally gives up
PHUKET TOWN: Samkhan Saengfai, who a year ago proposed to launch Phuket’s first local bus service, has finally admitted defeat. K. Samkhan, managing director of PB Holdings, told the Gazette that his company would relinquish the concession it was awarded for two bus routes in Phuket Town. He explained that he had decided to pull out because the company would…
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Phuket favored for huge APEC summit
PHUKET: Phuket is the front-runner in the competition to be the venue for a major international summit conference three years from now. Around the end of October, 2003, about 7,500 heads of state, ministers and senior officials from Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) countries will descend on Thailand for a week of talks. Karoon Rechuyothin, deputy director-general of the Department…
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More descendants of princess emerge
KAMALA: After the naming of the Yayee family of Kamala as the descendants of the legendary Princess Mahsuri of Langkawi, five more families in the village have claimed blood connections to the princess. The five families– the Doomlak, the Sangthong, the Sariya, the Sooksrisin and the Sungwarn – say they want nothing; they just want the public to know that…
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Fighter pilot crash-lands tuk-tuk
KAMALA: An American fighter pilot who later told police he was bored of flying jets, “borrowed” a tuk-tuk in the early hours of May 22. His high-speed flying skills did not get him far, however; he crashed the tuk-tuk into a ditch and landed in a punch-up with the vehicle’s owner. Pol Capt Komdej Pohthong of Kathu Police Station told…
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Gunman kills club owner’s brother
PATONG: Eekaphan Hin-on, 37, was shot dead in his brother’s snooker club early yesterday morning by a young gunman. The gunman, identified by police as Somjit Kongton, 20, ran away after the killing, but later that night went to the Kathu Police Station to turn himself in. According to Pol Capt Komdej Pohthong of Kathu Police Station, Eekaphan was talking…
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At last, lifeguards for beaches
PHUKET: The Phuket Provincial Administration Organization, (OrBorJor), is to allocate 3 million baht to providing lifeguards on beaches during the monsoon season, it was announced today. Harnchai Jantarachote, president of the OrBorJor’s Tourism Committee, told the Gazette that statistics compiled by the National Institute of Development Administration (NIDA) reveal that about 30 people – Thais and foreigners – drowned last…
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QSI confirms PINS takeover
PHUKET: The Board of Directors of the Phuket International School (PINS) announced today that the US-based Quality Schools International (QSI) has accepted its invitation to take over PINS. PINS will therefore close permanently on June 30, and the QSI International School of Phuket will open on the same premises the following day. Mr James Gilson, president of QSI, will be…
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Body found on Cape Panwa beach
AO MAKHAM: The body of a man believed to be a Muslim fisherman was found on the beach in front of the Cape Panwa Hotel on Tuesday evening. Pol Capt Cha-oom Kaosrisuwan of the Phuket Town Police Station told the Gazette that the man, as yet unidentified, wore a black T-shirt, a green camouflage jacket, and a pair of fishermen’s…
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Police catch second big drug dealer
PHUKET TOWN: Kamol Ratakarn, 27, described by police as a major drug dealer whose trademark was a bronze-colored BMW, was arrested on Tuesday evening in possession of 350 pills of ya bah (methamphetamine). He was the second big dealer arrested this month. On May 8, police caught Seksan Tuambang with 200 tablets of the drug. Pol Capt Passakorn Sonthikul told…
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Crackdown on tinted glass in cars
PHUKET: The traffic police will launch a drive soon against vehicles with very darkly tinted windows, it was announced today. Pol Lt Col Teeraphol Thipjaroen, Deputy Superintendent of Phuket Town Police Station told the Gazette that a new law comes into effect on June 6, making it illegal to have car windows that have tints cutting out more than 40%…
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Missing boatman’s body found
CHERNG TALAY: The body of a missing boatman was found on Saturday, on the sand at Bangtao Beach. Pol Capt Watcharin Jirattikarnwiwat of Cherng Talay Police Station said police had been told last week that the boatman, Boonthep Padsamai, 25, had been washed out to the sea on Wednesday, May 10. Friends said that Boonthep was helping them to haul…
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Parties gear up for national poll
PHUKET: Two of Thailand’s three major political parties, the Democrats and Thai Rak Thai, are close to final selection of their candidates in the run-up to national elections which must be held before the end of this year. Because of the growth in its population, Phuket will elect two members of parliament – it currently has just one. Thai Rak…
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Sharply rising costs hit Laguna profits
PHUKET: Laguna Resorts & Hotels plc (LRH) saw its net profit drop 21% in the first quarter of 2000, compared with the same period of 1999. The drop, management explained, came mainly as the result of sharp increases in hotel operations and sales costs, and administration expenses. LRH made a profit of 143.6 million baht in the period, compared with…
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1999 a fine year for tourism in Phuket
PHUKET: Despite criticism that Phuket has become too expensive for its own good, the number of visitors coming to the island in 1999 was up by 15.9% compared with the previous year. This followed an increase of 10.8% between 1997 and 1998, and 4.8% between 1996 and 1997. The visitors also spent more; the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), which…
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French tourist dies after pool mishap
PATONG: A 31-year-old French tourist, Franck Amani, who was pulled from the bottom of a hotel swimming pool yesterday morning, died last night at the Bangkok Phuket Hospital. Pol Maj Pisit Cheanpetch of Kathu Police Station told the Gazette that Mr Amani and his friends had gone to Soi Bangla in Patong the previous night and had not returned to…
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Burmese fisherman murdered
PHUKET TOWN: A Burmese fisherman was found murdered in a rented house near the fishing port early yesterday morning. Pol Lt Kaneuing Pitakkultorn of Phuket Town Police Station told the Gazette that, at around 10 am yesterday, he received a phone call informing him of the murder. In the house on Anuphasphuketkarn Rd in Tambon Rassada, Lt Kaneuing found the…
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Concessionaires sought for boat quay
PHUKET TOWN: The Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor) has admitted defeat in its attempts to get tour boat operators to use its smart new Rassada Quay on Sri Sena Rd. Instead of trying to run the 65-million-baht quay itself, the OrBorJor now plans to call for bids from companies interested in running the pier on a concession basis. “We just…
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Report slams attitudes on domestic violence
BANGKOK (AFP): Despite greater democracy and improving economic conditions, Thai women are increasingly at risk from domestic violence, social welfare activists warned today. “Nobody outside the non-governmental organization community is working on the issue. It’s a terrible situation … and the police do not take opportunities to improve their knowledge of the issue,” said Siriporn Skrobanek of the Foundation for…
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CAT makes deep cuts in overseas call rates
PHUKET: The Communications Authority of Thailand (CAT) has reduced the rates for overseas calls to 44 countries by as much as 35% (see table above). Voravit Vorapiboonpong, chief of the Phuket Telecommunications Center, told the Gazette that the rate reductions were introduced because the CAT wants to encourage more people to make overseas phone calls. The reductions will apply to…
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Drug bust nails big ya bah dealer’s brother
PHUKET TOWN: Police yesterday arrested a 30-year-old man who, they believe, had ambitions to take over from his brother as one of Phuket’s biggest dealers in ya bah (methamphetamine). The man, Seksan Tuambang, was arrested in possession of 200 tablets of the drug in a sting operation involving the dealer’s right-hand man, Mongkol Kantakarn, 19. Pol Maj Manat Iamchareonchaikul, Inspector…
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Head-to-head contest in Kathu poll
KATHU: Two parties will each contest all of the 12 seats in the June 10 election to choose the new Kathu Municipal Council. One party, the Kathu Ruamjai Party, is led by Suthep Sanguanpanont, the Mayor of the Municipality until it was dissolved at the end of April to prepare for the election. K. Suthep was also President of the…
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Construction worker’s death was ‘suicide’
THALANG: Local villagers yesterday found the body of a missing construction worker in woods behind the site near Thalang where the new Phuket Coastal Aquaculture Development Center is being built. Pol Capt Somkit Kaosung of Thalang Police Station named the dead man as Sunate Dokkemklong, 32, from Khon Kaen, and said that all evidence pointed to Sunate having committed suicide.…
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Exchange firm robbed of 1 million baht
PHUKET TOWN: Two armed men stole a million baht from a currency exchange in Phuket Town yesterday. Pol Maj Sanya Thongsawas of Phuket Town Police Station told the Gazette that Parinya Sangrangchujit, 45, manager of the exchange operation, was counting money he had just withdrawn from a bank in Phuket Town, when two neatly dressed men rang the bell. The…
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Ya bah bust next to police station
CHALONG: Three men were arrested on Saturday for possession of ya bah (methamphetamine) at a house just 100 meters from Chalong Police Station. Pol Capt Chokchai Suttimek of the Chalong station told the Gazette that an unidentified man called the police and told them that a ya bah deal was going to take place at Ao Chalong Bungalow. Officers strode…
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Fire aboard survey vessel
AO MAKHAM: A fire broke out yesterday afternoon in the refrigerator room of the vessel Chulabhorn, berthed at the Phuket Marine Biological Center Pier. The fire started while welding work was being done on pipes in the room, said Pol Capt Thanapong Mokthong of the forensic science department, but was extinguished in half an hour using the vessel’s own fire-fighting…
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Racha Yai auctions postponed
PHUKET: The sale by auction of two of the largest plots of land on Racha Yai Island, south of Phuket, which was initially scheduled for June 1, has been postponed to an unspecified date. Aran Sae-Lim of Harrison Auction Co Ltd, one of the two auction organizers (the other is Mel Giller & Associates), said he expects an announcement about…
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Helicopter rescue fails to save woman
MAITON ISLAND: The Police Aviation Division’s helicopter flew to Koh Maiton on Friday to pick up a woman who had had a heart attack. She was rushed to a hospital in Phuket Town. Dr Boonrieng Chuchaisangrat, head of the Phuket Provincial Health office, told the Gazette that he had received a phone call from Maiton Resort at 6 pm on…
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Thai beaches disappearing quickly
BANGKOK (AFP): Some of Thailand’s most popular beaches are disappearing as man-made structures speed up coastal erosion, reports said today. A 115-kilometer (71-mile) stretch of beaches famed amongst Thais and foreigners since the reign of King Rama VI early last century has been severely eroded, the Bangkok Post reported. The resort regions of Hua Hin, Cha-am and Petchaburi, south of…
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