Phuket News
Phuket news, politics, business, tourism, and nightlife—stay updated with breaking stories, events, and expat updates from Thailand’s top island destination. Get the latest from The Thaiger, your trusted Phuket news source.
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Thais miss out as FIVB tourney begins
KARON: The world’s top women’s beach volleyball players took to the sands today as part of the Swatch FIVB Beach Volley World Tour 2007.After a closely-fought battle, Thais Manerat Udomchavee and Julaluk Radarong narrowly missed out on a place in the second qualifying round after losing 2-1 (21-16, 19-21, 15-12) to Dutch pairing Sanne Keizer and Mered de Vries.In hot…
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Sarasin Bridge closed
TAH CHAT CHAI: The Sarasin Bridge was closed at 6 am today and traffic is being diverted until tomorrow so that preparations can be made for the opening scene of a Thai romantic comedy to be filmed on the bridge.Northbound traffic now joins the carriageway onto Thepkrasattri Bridge in front of the JW Marriott Phuket & Spa and continues using…
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Police call for Kata Viewpoint streetlights
RAWAI: Chalong Police this morning urged Phuket Governor Niran Kalaynamit to co-ordinate with the Kata-Karon and Rawai municipalities to have more streetlights installed along the dark stretches of road near Kata Viewpoint in order to make the streets safer for nighttime motorists.Speaking at the Phuket Provincial Security Meeting this morning, Lt Col Suwat Kaewprom, deputy superintendent of Chalong Police Station,…
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Probe to investigate Patong landslide
PATONG: Patong Municipality today set up a special committee to investigate the landslide area along Soi Veerakij [Nanai Rd Soi 9] and determine how many homes in the area are at risk of tumbling down the escarpment left behind by the recent landslide.Patong Municipality Chief Administrator (Palad) this morning told the Gazette that the villa and five-story apartment block left…
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Allegations of vote-buying under investigation
THALANG: Accusations of vote-buying in the presidential election in the Srisoonthorn Administration Organization (OrBorTor) council election on October 7 are being investigated, including a vote recount, after official complaints were filed with the Phuket Election Commission (PEC) on October 5.Kraisri Kiewwan, chief administrator (Palad) of Srisoonthorn OrBorTor, told the Gazette that on October 5 a group of Srisoonthorn residents filed…
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Island prepares for major local elections
PHUKET: Elections will be held on November 17 for Wichit, Rassada and Rawai municipalities, which have now been upgraded from tambon administration organization (OrBorTor) to tessbaan tambon status, Phuket Election Commission (PEC) director Supap Akkam told the Gazette today.In the run-up to the elections, 105 candidates will contest the 12 councilor seats per municipality and eight candidates have signed up…
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Incinerator “on hold until after elections’ – Governor
PHUKET: Consideration of approval for funding to build a second garbage incinerator is likely to have to wait until a new government is elected in the national elections slated for December 23, Phuket Governor Niran Kalayanamit told the Gazette yesterday.“Bearing in mind the current political situation as the government gears up for national elections at the end of this year,…
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Two tourists drown
KATA-KARON: Two foreign tourists who ignored red warning flags and entered heavy surf drowned in separate incidents yesterday afternoon at Kata and Karon beaches.Pol Lt Col Chana Suthimas, duty inspector of Chalong Police Station, identified the victim recovered at Karon Beach as 41-year-old Mesut Yetkin from Turkey. His death was reported about 6:40 pm.A few hours earlier, about 3 pm,…
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Dim bikers shown the light
PHUKET CITY: In a bid to improve road safety, the Phuket Community Foundation (PCF) is launching a project to replace substandard taillights on motorcycles from November 8 to 10.The project will provide 1,200 tail lights and brake lights for a wide range of the most common small-engine scooters and motorcycles made by Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki and Kawasaki.The taillights will be…
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Landslide in Patong
PATONG: Scores of residents at the Beverly Hills complex off Nanai Rd Soi 9 were evacuated to safety early yesterday morning after heavy rains caused a landslide that left part of the foundations of a hillside villa and an apartment block hanging perilously in thin air.The slump occurred around 1 am, when exposed earth suddenly slumped down onto a construction…
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Semi-trailer jackknifes, causes 5km tailback
KOH KAEW: A 22-wheel semi-trailer slid out of control on a wet Thepkrasattri Rd early this afternoon and came to rest only after slamming into the footpath.The driver lost control of the vehicle about 1:30 pm after braking hard to avoid hitting a motorcycle that crossed in front of the truck.The driver, Vinai Lekpetch, 45, told the Gazette, “I was…
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Police arrest Phuket City “serial thieves’
KATHU: Two men have been arrested for a series of robberies after they were caught on video by CCTV breaking into an apartment, Pol Lt Col Thitirat Asakit of Tung Tong Police announced this morning.On September 29 about 11 am, Tung Tong Police Station received a call from a female student who said her laptop computer and mobile phone had…
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Roadworks delay for “death bend’
THALANG: Road construction to straighten the notoriously dangerous Kho En “death bend” on Thepkrasattri Rd has been delayed, with just 2% of the roadwork finished on the project that began June 28 and was scheduled for completion by December 24.The Phuket Highway District contracted Chaiyakorn Co Lt to expand the 440-meter section of the four lane road and decrease the…
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Rawai attacks continue; Man survives machete attack
RAWAI: The late-night road attacks on motorcyclists in the south end of the island continue unabated, with two more reports of attacks in the last 24 hours and several others earlier this month continuing to pour in to the Gazette news desk. Last night a 24-year-old Norwegian man, staying in Phuket on disability pension because he is officially registered as…
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Construction of controversial Tesco continues
THALANG: The ongoing dispute between some Cheng Talay residents and mega-retailer Tesco Lotus is no closer to being solved, as construction continues on the fiercely-opposed Tesco Lotus Express Store in Bang Tao. At a meeting yesterday between Thalang District chief Chaivat Tapee and representatives from Cherng Talay Municipality, the newly-elected Cherng Talay Tambon Administration Organization (OrBorTor) and a group of…
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Phaya Thai hospital plan comes under fire
PHUKET (Nation): The Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor) project to revamp the old Phyathai Hospital on the east side of Phuket City has come under criticism by Health Ministry officials, who claim it will lure qualified staff away from already short-staffed medical facilities.Ministry policy and strategy bureau director Dr Supakit Sirilak said state hospitals outside Bangkok already had too few…
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Haze shrouds Phuket, neighboring provinces
PHUKET: Unusually hazy conditions over the island today are normal and not the result of any forest fires in the region, Phuket’s top meteorologist says. Wiwat Intarapanich, Chief of Weather Forecasting at the Meteorological Department’s Southern Meteorological Center (West Coast), told the Gazette this afternoon that the haze is normal for the southern region at this time of year and…
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Film Fest gets underway
PATONG: The first Phuket Film Festival gets underway at the new SF Cinema City on the 3rd Floor of Jungceylon at 6 pm tonight. The week-long festival will kick off with a star-studded gala event before the screening of Dance Machine, a quirky comedy by Spanish director Oscar Aibar, who won Best Director award for his 1995 film Atolladero at…
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Bodies of ferry sinking victims recovered
PHANG NGA: Rescue workers yesterday afternoon pulled the bodies of a woman and her nine-year-old granddaughter from the sunken car ferry Jern Jern, which capsized about 1 am on Tuesday off Koh Pratong, Kuraburi District in Phang Nga.All bodies have now been recovered from the sinking, which claimed three lives.Pol Maj Nirat Chuayjit of the Marine Police office in Kuraburi…
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Four Chinese arrested for smuggling fuel
PHUKET: Phuket Marine Police yesterday arrested four Chinese sailors near Koh Hei after they were caught with 20,000 liters of illegal fuel on board, Pol Lt Col Prasert Srikunnarat told the Gazette.“We were informed about 2 pm of an odd-looking boat about three miles from Chalong. We went there and found an old, unregistered boat flying orange cloth as a…
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One dead, two missing as Phang Nga ferry sinks
PHANG NGA: A ferry overloaded with construction material capsized and sank off Koh Prathong in Kuraburi district about 1 am Tuesday, claiming the life of the captain. Two others survived, but a woman and her granddaughter are missing presumed dead.Pol Maj Nirat Chuayjit of the Marine Police office in Kuraburi identified the sunken ferry as the Jern Jern, a flat-topped…
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Man attacked outside 7-Eleven in Rassada
RASSADA: A man was hospitalized Monday after being attacked by a gang of three men outside a 7-Eleven store on Srisuthat Rd in Rassada.Phuket City Police Investigations Inspector Lt Col Adul Nirapai said the three men set upon Sommaai Jindapol, 22, at about 10 pm.A 7-Eleven employee told police that the attack began outside the store, but spilled inside and…
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VeggieFest Day 7
Over 1,000 mah song (“entranced horses” or spirit mediums) from Chinese shrines around the island joined together this morning to take part in the Jui Tui Chinese Shrine street procession to Saphan Hin. Today marked day seven of the nine-day festival, the island’s signature cultural event that has spread to many other parts of Thailand.
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Govt-assessed land prices skyrocket
BANGKOK: Over the past four years, Phuket has recorded the highest land-price increase in Thailand, according to unofficial results of a nationwide land appraisal conducted by the Treasury Department.A source in the Treasury Department told a Prachachart Turakij reporter that on average, land prices in Phuket had increased 157.7% due to sustained growth in the tourism, real estate and retail…
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Karon Stadium debacle forces major tourneys to relocate
KARON: The poor state of the pitch at Karon Stadium has forced two international sporting events, the Phuket Soccer 7s and the King’s Cup 80-80 International Rugby Tournament, to be relocated.After more than a month of the organizers voicing their concerns over the pitch, which in poor condition could result in player injuries, the Soccer 7s will be played at Surakul Stadium in Phuket…
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Khao Sok Cave Tragedy: Guides were warned, survivor recounts ordeal
SURAT THANI (Nation, Gazette): The two Thai tour guides who led a group of foreign tourists into a cave at Khao Sok National Park over the weekend did so despite a warning by park officials about the danger of flooding inside, the Gazette has learned.Both guides and six of the seven tourists who entered the cave with them died in…
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German tourists die in flash flood
SURAT THANI (Nation): Rescue workers have recovered the bodies of eight German tourists and two Thai guides who died in a flash flood in Ban Takhun district yesterday evening.Police said the tour group went into a cave which has a waterway leading to the Ratchaprapha Dam reservoir in Khao Sok National Park about 7:30 pm when they were swept away…
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Vegetarian Festival in full swing
PHUKET CITY: Phuket Vegetarian Festival 2007 is well underway, with Kuan Te Kun Shrine, locally known as Sapam Shrine, this morning conducting the first of the nine street processions that are among the festival’s major highlights. The Sapam Shrine procession started at 8 pm at Nakhon Rd, behind the Phuket City Police Station. Amidst the cacophony of firecrackers set off…
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Wind shear probable cause of OG269 crash
BANGKOK (The Nation): Transport Permanent Secretary Chaisawat Kittipornpaiboon today announced that decoding of the One-Two-Go flight OG029 “black box” flight recorder revealed that the plane skidded off the runway and crashed into an escarpment due to bad weather.As chairman of the air-crash investigation committee, K. Chaisawat said that the flight suffered from wind shear and the captain could not land as planned.Black…
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Phuket launches twin-bins scheme
PHUKET CITY: Phuket City Municipality has launched an initiative to solve some of the island’s waste woes with the addition of 400 pairs of mobile garbage bins around town, allocated to the areas in town deemed to have the densest population.Each pair comprises a light-blue bin for organic waste and a green bin for general waste. A budget of six…
Phuket is a province in the south of Thailand. Phuket's beaches face the Andaman Sea allowing the west coast beaches fantastic sunsets right throughout the year. If you're looking for news in Phuket, go to thethaiger.com/phuket Or follow our instant news in our Facebook pages.
The good news is that Phuket is famous for its foodie scene with an enormously diverse range of local and international foods - Phuket and southern favorites, street food along with international choices catering for the 12 million visitors to the island each year. Thaiger follows Phuket news and information 24 hours a day with regular updates.
Phuket is only 'just' an island with a 300 metre bridge linking it to Thailand's mainland. We're always reporting in the news that the channel beneath is frequently dredged to maintain Phuket's status as an island. On the other side of Sarasin Bridge is the Province of Phang Nga.
Getting to Phuket is easy as the island has land, air and sea connections. Phuket is also used as a take-off point for local island trips as Thailand's largest island is surrounded by over 30 pristine islands. Koh Phi Phi and the famous Maya Bay are always in the news and would be the best known of the island's just off Phuket's shores.
Phuket is an island and a province. It's the largest island in Thailand – 48 km north to south, 21 km east to west.
It's about 20% smaller, in area, than Singapore but much less densely populated. Whilst the island nation of Singapore boasts a population of nearly 6 million, Phuket has a permanent population of around 400-450,000 (but varies a lot with the influx of tourists and a workforce that is always changing). Most of Phuket remains jungle and tropical rainforest despite an acceleration of development over the past 20 years.
Unlike some of Thailand's other popular islands (that are in the Gulf of Thailand), the news is that Phuket is located in the Andaman Sea.
Phuket is 878 km north of the equator.
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