Phuket
Phuket presents a successful inaugural Junior Phuket Raceweek

PHUKET: A fleet of 14 Optimists and five Toppers took part recently in the newest event on Phuket’s sailing calendar, the inaugural Junior Phuket Raceweek.
Held off Panwa Beach Resort Phuket, youngsters from seven to fifteen years old completed four races in idyllic Phuket conditions under the watchful eye of Principal Race Officer Royal Thai Navy Rear Admiral Prasart Sribhadung, together with an experienced international on-water team with support from the Royal Thai Navy.
Nattapong “Max” Yoangngam, at just 11 years old, has competed in multiple Thailand National Optimist Championships, represented Phuket in the Phuket Youth Games, and has also represented Thailand at the Double Star Cup Regatta in Qingdao, China last year, and his experience showed as he ran away with the Optimist title.
Placing second in the opening race, he went on to score three firsts thereafter and take out the inaugural Junior Phuket Raceweek Optimist class title by a clear two points from another 11 year old Cartoon “Toon” Juladej, who scored a first and three seconds. Third place went to Gone, four points further back.
“We’re very happy with how the first Junior Phuket Raceweek has gone. Being the first year, our goal was to put on a competitive day of racing for young sailors, give them an opportunity to race in a professionally organized event, and judging by the smiles at the end of the day, everyone had a great time,” said Byron Jones, managing director of race organisers Media Business Services (MBS).
“Our longer term plan is to extend the format in terms of length and also number of classes. If there are other classes that wish to take part, then we’re keen to accommodate. We look forward to feedback from the sailing community on this year’s event and will let it grow organically.”
In the Topper fleet, five budding sailors lined up for a day of top competition, and again there was one who stood above the rest and it was Ta who scored a second and three firsts to secure an easy victory. Youngster Not, with a mixed bag of results, managed to hold on to second place by a single point from Long, who despite placing first in the first race couldn’t continue his form and finally placed third overall.
Junior Phuket Raceweek is a parallel event to the Cape Panwa Hotel Phuket Raceweek, which is organised by MBS and celebrated its 10th Anniversary this year. Co-hosted by Regent Phuket Cape Panwa and Panwa Beach Resort Phuket, Junior Phuket Raceweek was supported by the Tourism Authority of Thailand, Sports Authority of Thailand, the Royal Thai Navy and the Yacht Racing Association of Thailand.
Top three results
Optimist Class
- 1st Nattapong “Max” Yoangngam (3), Phuket Youth Sailing Club
- 2nd Cartoon “Toon” Juladej (5) – Phuket Youth Sailing Club
- 3rd Japupakorn “Gone” Saeton (9) Phuket Youth Sailing Club
- Salawutt “Ta” Kullaatt (3) Phuket Youth Sailing Club
- Pongpet “Not” Tohkratoak (7) Phuket Youth Sailing Club
- Arunsak “Long” Wanasook(8) Phuket Youth Sailing Club
Keep in contact with The Thaiger by following our Facebook page.
Never miss out on future posts by following The Thaiger.
Crime
2 shot dead at Phuket Bus Terminal Saturday night

Police say 2 men were gunned down at the Phuket Bus Terminal by a colleague at the terminal along the stretch of Thepkasattri road heading into Phuket Town last night. The incident happened at about 10:15pm with the local police chief arriving along with medical staff from Vachira Hospital shortly after the incident.
60 year old Wian Iadchuthong, the alleged gunman, was waiting to surrender at the scene when police arrived. Police say Wian appeared to be drunk and told them he had a serious argument with the 2 men and decided to take their lives with the gun. Police say they found 50 year old Yod Sae Lee lying on the ground in front of a taxi service stand, badly wounded. He was given CPR before being rushed to Vachira Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
54 year old Prakob Chuthong was also found lying dead by the counter of a 24 hour car park service kiosk. Police say he had been shot 2 times, once in the left side of his head and once in his left rib cage, according to Bangkok Post.
Witnesses say before the shooting, Wian was quietly drinking alone. But after getting drunk, he walked to the counter of the car park service kiosk and allegedly fired 2 shots from a 9mm gun at point-blank range, killing Prakob instantly. Wian then ran towards Yod, who was sitting in front of the taxi service stand. Yod saw Wian coming at him with the gun and he ran away to 1 side of the terminal building, only to be intercepted by Wian who allegedly fired 5 shots. Yod was hit 1 time in the head, 2 times in the torso and 2 times in the legs. Yod was also rushed to Vachira Hospital where he later died.
An initial police investigation found that the 3 were close colleagues at the workplace, but often engaged in heated fights over motorcycle taxi and taxi services at the bus terminal.
SOURCE: Bangkok Post
Keep in contact with The Thaiger by following our Facebook page.
Never miss out on future posts by following The Thaiger.
Tourism
Phuket lifts mandatory quarantine restrictions for ‘high risk’ arrivals. But were they ever applied?

Culminating 2 weeks of mass confusion over the apparent mandatory self-quarantine for arrivals to Phuket from Bangkok and other high risk provinces, Phuket’s provincial communicable disease committee has agreed to lift the mandatory 14 day quarantine “to help boost the local economy hit by the Covid-19 pandemic”.
But for the vast majority of arrivals from Bangkok (DMK and BKK) to Phuket there wasn’t even any mention of quarantine. Over the past 2 weeks, since Phuket’s Governor released a 3 page announcement about new restrictions for the island, people have mostly been coming and going as usual. The only additional impediments were all arrivees having to download and fill in the Mor Chana app and registering with gophuget.com.
In 2 weeks not a single person has reported to The Thaiger that they had been forced to self-quarantine. Last night, when checking in at Suvarnabhumi airport for a Thai VietJet flight to Phuket, the person at the Check-In counter told the passenger (we’ll call them Mic to protect their identity) they would have to serve 14 days in state quarantine upon arrival in Phuket. Mic, surprised, asked for some sort of confirmation of this from airline management or information from the Phuket Provisional officials. None was forthcoming. Nothing more was said or communicated to the passengers.
When the plane landed in Phuket officials checked that passengers had completed the Mor Chana app and scanned their phones after they’d completed the gophuget.com registration. And that was it. No mention of quarantine.
The situation has been repeated by other Thaiger staff over the past 2 weeks as well, but without any mention of quarantine during the check-in or boarding procedures with various airlines. In all cases they flew from Suvarnabhumi or Don Mueang airports.
Phuket’s Governor Narong Woonciew says the decision to ease the Covid-19 restrictions for visitors followed calls from the business community seeking to lure visitors to Phuket. (The Thaiger wonders if any of these officials had actually travelled over the past 2 weeks)
Local businesses met with provincial authorities on Friday proposing an end to the mandatory quarantine period “for people travelling from certain high-risk areas” in the hope of “stimulating the tourism industry”. The proposal was less about stimulating and more about raising the industry from its current flatline.
But whatever mandatory quarantine they were asking to be lifted appears to be have been, at best, loosely applied anyway.
Phuket has has a triple hit. The first when the borders were closed in April and the international airport closed. The second was when December arrived, the start of the busy tourist high-season. The third was the new restrictions added 2 weeks ago in response to the 2nd wave of clusters that started on December 20, tripling the total number of Covid infections in the country in just over a month.
According to Bangkok Post, Sarayuth Mallum, president of the Phuket travel industry council, says… “strict disease control measures remain necessary to protect local people and tourists from contracting the virus”.
Somehow, the mandatory quarantine requirement instructions never reached the airport officials. But, for now anyway, the “restrictions” have been lifted anyway. What was you experience arriving in Phuket over the past week? Were you asked to conduct a mandatory 14 day self-quarantine?
In the meantime the struggling domestic airlines have been forced to massively cancel or reschedule flights. Over the past 2 days most airlines only had 1 or 2 flights to and from Phuket and Bangkok, down from the 4 – 10 daily flights some airlines were offering.
More about the Mor Chana App here…
More about the direct effects on the island of Phuket…
SOURCE: Bangkok Post
Keep in contact with The Thaiger by following our Facebook page.
Never miss out on future posts by following The Thaiger.
Crime
Phuket national park officer fired over peeping Tom incident

A national park officer has been fired after being accused of spying on a woman in the public toilet on January 17 at Phuket’s Sirinath National Park. 28 year old Abdulrama Mahaderi, was accused by a woman named Sopita and her boyfriend Panupong Rungrueng of climbing a wall that separates the men’s and women’s sections of the toilet at Nai Yang beach in order to look at Sopita. Abdulrama allegedly also had his mobile phone in his hand.
Sirinath National Park Chief Pramote Kaewnam confirmed that an investigative committee had spoken to witnesses and determined that Abdulrama was guilty of “misbehaviour and improper actions.”
Pramote confirmed that Abdulrama’s employment contract was then terminated, effective last Wednesday, 3 days after the incident allegedly took place. On its Facebook page, the Sirinath National Park made a post about the incident.
“It has caused disgrace to the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation and affected the image of the overall department.”
Sura Lertthaisong of Sakhu Police confirmed that Abdulrama would be facing charges and that he was currently investigating whether a charge of “bullying in public” under Section 397 of the Criminal Code would be appropriate.
Abdulrama had previously posted on the official Sirinath National Park Facebook page that his understanding was that no charges would be pursued by Sopita and Panupong.
“The tourists told me that they did not want to press charges. They just told me that they did not want me to do anything like this again.”
But after Panupong posted a photo of Abdulrama, detailing his alleged indiscretion on social media, others came forward with similar accusations.
“One group of women said that they were also spied on by this man on the toilet wall 2 months ago, but they did not report it and did not press charges – and the truth faded away as if nothing ever happened.”
SOURCE: The Phuket News
Keep in contact with The Thaiger by following our Facebook page.
Never miss out on future posts by following The Thaiger.
- Bangkok4 days ago
13 Bangkok businesses allowed to reopen tomorrow
- Coronavirus (Covid-19)4 days ago
Pattaya hotels take food to the streets in bid to survive
- Pattaya4 days ago
Pattaya cleaning up its Walking Street act in time for Chinese New Year
- Crime4 days ago
Banned politician says government silencing him by invoking Lese Majeste law
- Bangkok4 days ago
Famous Thai actor tests positive for Covid-19
- Coronavirus (Covid-19)4 days ago
50,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine to arrive in Thailand in early February, more ahead
- Business4 days ago
Government is to allow people to use “legal” parts of cannabis in business
- Phuket4 days ago
Phuket police confirm speed limit of bypass road after locals complain