Phuket News
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Military bulldozes Phuket beach structure, owners to face charges
PHUKET: Military personnel armed with tear-down orders and official charges are swarming Phuket’s west coast beaches today as a 30-day deadline to remove illegal seaside structures comes to an end. “We are following orders from the National Council for Peace and Order [NCPO]. Multiple business owners have ignored the order to remove their establishments, so we are doing it for…
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Patong Police deny Mother’s Day shakedown on Soi Bangla
PHUKET: Patong Police Superintendent Chiraphat Pochanaphan has denied reports that his officers yesterday ordered bar owners in Patong to shut down – or face a fine of 75,000 baht. “None of my officers ordered bars to close yesterday, and they did not threaten bar owners with a fine of up to 75,000 baht if they did not close,” Col Chiraphat…
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Police search for Phuket ladyboy after Russian tourist slashed, stabbed to death
PHUKET: Patong Police have not ruled out suicide or murder after the bloody body of a Russian tourist was found stabbed and slashed in his hotel bedroom on Nanai Road this morning. The tourist*, a 33-year-old from the Sakha Republic, arrived in Phuket on July 19 with a tour group and was scheduled to return to Russia this morning. Hotel…
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Flights to whisk more than 300 stranded Phuket tourists back to Hong Kong
PHUKET: Two flights today will whisk away the 300 passengers destined for Hong Kong who were stranded at Phuket International Airport for days due to the Thai Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) decision to revoke the landing rights of City Airways. The DCA revoked the rights on August 9 after a report found that maintenance was not being properly carried…
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Top-ranked Lee battling injury ahead of world champs
PHUKET: World badminton number one Lee Chong Wei has revealed that injury concerns are leaving him low on confidence ahead of the World Championships in Denmark at the end of the month. Malaysian Lee was unable to defend his Commonwealth Games title in Scotland last month due to a hamstring injury and although he is back in training, he admitted…
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Farah returns for European championships after scare
PHUKET: Double Olympic gold medallist Mo Farah returns to action at this week’s European athletics championships where the high jump showdown between world champion Bohdan Bondarenko of Ukraine and Olympic champion Ivan Ukhov of Russia should also dominate. Farah is expected to run in Wednesday’s 10,000 metres and the 5,000 metres on Sunday having missed Glasgow’s recent Commonwealth Games with…
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HM The Queen’s Birthday, Mother’s Day celebrations kick off in Phuket
PHUKET: Mother’s Day kicked off in Phuket this morning with an early morning celebration in honor of HM Queen Sirikit’s 82nd birthday at Sirikit Park on Thalang Road, Phuket Town. Phuket Governor Maitri Inthusut led the island’s top officials in offering alms to 83 monks. The governor, vice governors, Phuket’s top cop Commander Krajang Suwannarat and a host of other…
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Bangkok lawyer drowns on holiday in Phuket
PHUKET: A Bangkok lawyer on holiday in Phuket died yesterday after being struck by a large wave and dragged out to sea at Nai Thon Beach. Teechalat Kapaeng, 46, originally from Chon Buri, and Natthachanok Inamnuaysri, 42, from Bangkok, waded into the sea at about 6:30pm to rinse sand off their bodies after lying on the beach. “We didn’t realize…
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No Phuket booze ban on Mother’s Day
PHUKET: There will be no ban on the sale of alcohol in Phuket as island residents join the nation in celebrating HM Queen Sirikit’s birthday and Mother’s Day tomorrow (story here). “Alcohol sales will not be banned,” Phuket Provincial Police Commander Peerayuth Karajedee confirmed to the Phuket Gazette. “However, taking this opportunity to honor your mother by taking her out…
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Phuket ready to celebrate HM Queen Sirikit’s birthday, Mother’s Day
PHUKET: A host of special ceremonies will be held throughout Phuket tomorrow to honor and celebrate HM Queen Sirikit’s 82nd birthday, as well as to celebrate Mother’s Day. All government offices will be closed, and activities on the island will be followed by a candlelight ceremony at about 7pm. A selection of the events to be held in Phuket are…
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Happy Birthday Your Majesty
PHUKET: Today, August 12, Thais throughout the country and the world celebrate the birthday of their beloved Queen and Mother of the Nation – Her Majesty Queen Sirikit Kitiyakara, who turns 82 this year. The day is also celebrated in the Kingdom as National Mother’s Day. Born in Bangkok in 1932, Queen Sirikit is the eldest daughter and the third…
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Radwanska eases past Venus Williams to win Rogers Cup
PHUKET: Agnieszka Radwanska tamed Venus Williams 6-4 6-2 to win the Rogers Cup in Montreal on Sunday, the third seeded Pole setting herself up as a player to watch at the U.S. Open. The first win of the season for Radwanska, it provided a timely jolt of confidence going into Flushing Meadows and the year’s final grand slam with 11…
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Phuket beach vendors to appeal to NCPO to return to the sands
PHUKET: More than 500 Phuket beach vendors put out of work by the massive beach cleanup campaign spoke up on Saturday about the importance of restarting their seaside businesses. The complaints and proposals were heard at a public forum led by a team of professors and researchers at the Prince of Songkla University (PSU) Phuket campus in Kathu. The meeting…
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Fire at Chinese shrine in Phuket Town
PHUKET: Four fire trucks were called to the Mae Ya Nang Shrine on Krabi Road in Phuket Town this morning after fire broke out in a storeroom stocked with firecrackers and prayer papers. Phuket City Police reported no injuries from the blaze. “Firefighters took about 30 minutes to control fire, which broke out at about 8:20am,” said Capt Weerachart Seera…
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Five to face charges for illegally claiming Phuket national park land
PHUKET: Deputy Director-General of the Land Department Thammasak Chana has publicly vowed to pursue legal action over five cases of attempting to use SorKor 1 land documents to claim 445 rai of land in Phuket’s Sirinath National Park. In all five cases, the claimants applied for their SorKor 1 documents to be upgraded to full Chanote land titles, Mr Thammasak…
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Marine office to battle Phuket tar balls on beaches
PHUKET: Officials are set to re-launch a campaign to control used oil being dumped from boats off Phuket’s shore after balls of black tar appeared on the island’s beaches late last month (story here). “I have seen the photos of the substance myself, and can confirm that they are balls of tar,” Phuket Marine Office chief Phuriphat Theerakulpisut told the…
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Williams sisters renew sibling rivalry in Montreal
PHUKET: World number one Serena Williams and sister Venus will renew one of sport’s greatest sibling rivalries after posting quarter-final wins at the Rogers Cup on Friday to set up a milestone showdown on the Montreal hard courts. Serena kept her title defence on track, rallying for a 4-6, 7-5, 7-5 win over Caroline Wozniacki, while Venus booked her place…
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Myanmar fishing boat slaves freed north of Phuket, return home
PHUKET: Eighteen Myanmar victims of a human-trafficking group, including four children, have returned home, after being rescued by Thai authorities. Several of the now-freed slaves were sold to fishing boats off Kawthaung, the township across the water from Ranong, which for more than a decade has been a popular “visa run” destination for foreigners in Phuket. Saw Win Tin, 55,…
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Teenagers among five dead in horror day on Phuket’s roads
PHUKET: Three Phuket teenagers are dead and two more are in hospital after a high-speed crash in Thung Thong just before midnight last night. The accident was the culmination of road fatalities that saw five dead in less than 24 hours on Phuket’s notorious roads. Police and rescue workers from the Kusoldharm Foundation were called to the scene, on Phra…
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Beach cleanup D-day set for Phuket, Andaman-coast provinces
PHUKET: Military leaders have launched a beach overhaul project with an August 14 deadline by which all remaining illegal structures must be removed from beaches in Phuket and five other Andaman-coast provinces. Owners who disobey will be fined and face encroachment charges. “We are following an official order handed down from the National Council for Peace and Order [NCPO]. We…
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Phuket’s Club Med to cough up public land, but will stay
PHUKET: Negotiations between Club Med management and the Phuket Provincial Administrative Organization (PPAO), which owns the land the resort sits on, concluded late this afternoon with the news that the resort will stay. “Club Med has agreed to make three rai available as public land to be used as the local residents see fit, and with that we will renew…
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Landslide fears prompt stop-work order high in the Phuket hills
PHUKET: Work was ordered to stop at a construction site high on the hills overlooking Patong yesterday after it was found to be above the legal limit for building – and amid fears of a landslide smothering the residents below. Phuket Vice Governor Somkiet Sangkaosuttirak led an inspection of the site – eight rai of land with unobstructed views of…
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United ready for Van Gaal lift off but dangers lurk
PHUKET: On paper it appears a match made in heaven. Serial winner Louis van Gaal at the helm of 20-times English champions Manchester United with a mission to steer the chastened giants back to the Premier League summit. When United kick off the new season next Saturday lunchtime at home to Swansea City, however, reputations will count for precious little…
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New-look Arsenal have the taste for trophies
PHUKET: Having finally treated their long-empty trophy cabinet to some FA Cup silverware last season, Arsenal have splashed the cash ahead of the new Premier League campaign to improve a squad that could now be capable of pushing for loftier titles. Rapid forward Alexis Sanchez, a 35 million pound signing from Barcelona, leads a band of new recruits that also…
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Phuket prison raid turns up box cutters, inmate tests drug positive
PHUKET: Despite an early morning search of Phuket Provincial Prison turning up a slew of contraband items and one inmate testing positive for drugs, the facility’s “White Prison” certification remains intact. “We have come out of many searches like this empty-handed. This is just one during which we found contraband items and only one inmate tested positive for drugs,” said…
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CAS start appeal into Suarez biting ban
PHUKET: The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) began its hearing on Friday into Uruguay forward Luis Suarez’s appeal against his ban for biting Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini in a World Cup match. Suarez, wearing a checked shirt, brushed aside photographers and refused to make any comment as he arrived by taxi at the CAS headquarters in a Lausanne suburb.…
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Phuket “mega meth mule’ shipped millions, say police
PHUKET: A mother arrested at a school car park in Phuket Town yesterday led to the “accidental” arrest of man who has since confessed to shipping millions of ya bah (methamphetamine) pills and kilograms of ya ice (crystal methamphatime) throughout Thailand, say police. The string of arrests began on Monday, when officers took into custody Uten Wanthong for possession of…
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Katathani Phuket rocks eyed for encroachment
PHUKET: A team of officials descended on Kata Noi Bay late yesterday afternoon to inspect a battery of rocks in front of the Katathani Phuket Beach Resort that were alleged to be encroaching on public beach land. The inspection, led by Suthee Sirianan, the Chief Administrative Officer of Muang District Office, was launched after local villagers filed a complaint through…
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Video Report: Phuket FC host Spaniards UD Almeria
Action from last night’s friendly match between Phuket FC and La Liga’s UD Almeria at Surakul Stadium. Video: PGTV PHUKET: Torrential downpours prior to and during the first half of the friendly match between UD Almeria and Phuket FC left the 3000 strong audience wondering if they had perhaps shown up at an international water polo tournament, rather than the…
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Deadly Phuket inferno inspires rethink of firefighting abilities
PHUKET: The deadly fire that claimed four lives, including a family of three, last Saturday has prompted the Phuket City mayor to re-evaluate the city’s firefighting capabilities and find a way to win back city residents’ confidence. Flames engulfed the Chokchai Furniture shop in Phuket Town at about 2am, trapping and killing the Rueanchai family of three and one woman…
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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