Phuket News
Discover the latest news and updates from Thailand’s most famous and beautiful island, The Thaiger’s hometown, having previously operated as the Phuket Gazette.
Our team brings you breaking news, in-depth analysis, and exclusive stories from Phuket, covering everything from local politics and business to lifestyle and tourism. Learn about the island’s stunning beaches, vibrant nightlife, and thriving expat community, as well as keeping updated on events, and attractions.
The Thaiger is your ultimate guide to staying connected with Phuket’s ever-evolving landscape. To keep up with the most reliable news source on the island, subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on social media.
-
Gazette office closed on April 6, Chakri Day
PHUKET: The Phuket Gazette would like to inform our readers and advertisers that our office in Koh Kaew will be closed tomorrow in observance of Chakri Day. Chakri Day commemorates the founding of the royal Chakri Dynasty of which the present Thai monarch, HM King Bhumibol Adulyadej, is the ninth king (Rama IX). As Chakri Day this year falls on…
-
Phuket Governor to call in Bangkok crew to pave way for B450mn Provincial Hall
PHUKET: Phuket Governor Maitri Inthusut yesterday announced he would call in officers from Bangkok to help verify – or discredit – claims made by opponents to Phuket’s proposed new 450-million-baht Provincial Hall. The debate over whether or not the new five-story building should be built at Sanam Chai (map here) continued yesterday with hundreds of local residents turning out at…
-
Phuket Gazette Sports: Grand National must stay unique
PHUKET: Safety and welfare should always be a priority in jumps racing but the Grand National must remain a test of horse and jockey and not lose its unique character, according to Aintree racecourse chief John Baker. The deaths of two horses during last year’s race and two in 2011 brought equine safety into focus and prompted an official inquiry…
-
Phuket Sports: Season of action for Jackson
PHUKET: The standout player of futsal’s Phuket United, Brazilian Jackson Santos, finished last season as the league’s second top scorer, and his goals helped the Andaman Pearl achieve their pre-season aim of a top five finish. Now the season has come to a close and Jackson has headed back to Brazil to recuperate and take care of his pregnant wife.…
-
Royal flame at cremation to honor revered Phuket Abbot
PHUKET: The cremation of the former abbot of Wat Chalong, Phra Ajarn Udomwetchakit Uttamuyano, will take place on Sunday using a ceremonial lamp given by His Majesty the King, which will arrive by plane on Phuket.The funeral service, which began on Wednesday and culminates on Sunday, is being held at the special crematory in Wat Chalong and is open to…
-
Phuket’s TSLC a swimming success
PHUKET: Thanyapura Sports and Leisure Club (TSLC) hosted some of Asia’s most prolific rising sport stars from Malaysia, the Philippines, Hong Kong and mainland China to compete alongside local swimmers in the 2013 Thanyapura Long Course Swim Championships, held March 30-31. With 17 teams and 215 competing athletes; this event, part of a Rocket Science Sports Swim Championship series of…
-
Phuket Sports: AFF Suzuki Cup 2014 venue chosen
PHUKET: Singapore and Vietnam will jointly host the 2014 AFF Suzuki Cup, the ASEAN Football Federation said on Wednesday (April 3). Speaking at the press conference before the start of the 2013 AFF Awards in Pahang, Malaysia, Duli Yang Teramat Mulia Tengku Abdullah ibni Sultan Ahmad Shah, the deputy president of the Football Association of Malaysia and vice-president of the…
-
Phuket Sports: TrueVisions prepares for life after EPL
PHUKET: With the English Premier League (EPL) no longer on its program list, TrueVisions, a leading subscription-based television operator, has earmarked more than 1.5 billion baht for new content and technology, offering more high-definition (HD) channels and a fee discount for existing customers to retain them. The audio and visual broadcasting rights to the EPL soccer matches for the next…
-
Villagers appeal to Prime Minister’s Office over Phuket land claim
PHUKET: Villagers fighting a land claim to 83 rai near an old tin mine in Chalong say they have turned to the Prime Minister’s Office to settle the dispute, in which they claim to have lived at the site for nearly a decade. The move to appeal to the Prime Minister’s Office follows more than 50 villagers turning out in…
-
Phuket Immigration task force targetting foreigners nabs Russian
PHUKET: Phuket Immigration officers yesterday arrested a Russian woman caught without a passport and working illegally selling tours at a kiosk in Kata.Officers led by Capt Angkarn Yasanop arrested Natalia Nikiforova, 30, after an officer pretended to be interested in some of the tours on offer at the Rus Info tour counter on Kata Road.“She explained the tours to us…
-
Phuket teacher sacked for performing Hajj reinstated
PHUKET: A Muslim teacher fired from Muslim Wittaya School for taking unapproved leave to join the Hajj has got his job back. Parinya Payadsub was fired after he went on the Hajj three times in five years, breaking a school rule that allows staff to join the Hajj once every five years. Following protests by teachers, students and community leaders…
-
Phuket joins Royal project to turn aluminum trash into prosthetic legs
PHUKET: The chief of the Phuket Environment Office is calling for all donations of aluminum to donate to a nationwide project that seeks to recycle at least 80 tons of aluminum into prosthetic legs. The project, initiated by the Prostheses Foundation of HRH The Princess Mother (click here), aims to reduce the volume of garbage and make prosthetic legs more…
-
Laguna return to form in Phuket cricket league
PHUKET: As Phuket’s Jones Lang LaSalle cricket league nears completion of its round robin matches, teams are still fighting for a finals spot. Laguna returned to the Alan Cooke Ground (ACG) after suffering a comprehensive defeat against league leaders Patong the previous week, hoping to get back on track against the Village, who were also defeated by Patong in their…
-
Phuket Sports: Barton in trouble with ‘ladyboy’ tweet
PSG threaten action against Barton for ‘ladyboy’ tweets Reuters / Phuket Gazette PHUKET: Paris St Germain (PSG) threatened action against Joey Barton yesterday after the Olympique Marseille midfielder likened Brazilian defender Thiago Silva to a transsexual and called him an “overweight ladyboy”. “These attacks are serious and go beyond a simple verbal clash,” the Ligue 1 leaders said in a…
-
Phuket booze ban dampens Songkran revelry
PHUKET: Officials may have just thrown a wet blanket on party plans for Phuket residents and locals alike with the announcement that the sale, purchase and consumption of alcohol will be banned on Patong’s famous Soi Bangla on April 12 as part of a slew of new precautions to make Thai New Year festivities safer.Phuket officials today established six main…
-
Phuket Gazette Sports: Motorcycling – No end in sight for the reign of Spain
Motorcycling – No end in sight for the reign of Spain Reuters / Phuket GazettePHUKET: Valentino Rossi is back on a Yamaha but it will take some heroics for the aging Italian great to wrest the MotoGP title from Spanish hands in the season that starts under the Qatar floodlights this weekend.Honda’s Dani Pedrosa lines up as the early favourite,…
-
Phuket Environment: Time for Racha to sink or swim?
SPECIAL REPORT PHUKET: With only two weeks remaining until the deadline set by Phuket Vice Governor Sommai Prijasilpa to have environmental protections in place on Racha Yai Island, questions are being asked about how much has been achieved and what remains to be done to protect the popular tourist island’s pristine environment. A campaign lasting nearly a year asking for…
-
Phuket doctors unaffected by health care pay reform
PHUKET: The Phuket Provincial Health Office (PPHO) today confirmed that the introduction of the new P4P “Pay for performance” system of calculating rural doctors’ remuneration will not affect any public health care services in Phuket.The news follows at least 146 doctors – among them 11 specialists –announcing they will resign their positions at public hospitals across the country in protest…
-
Phuket Police stage riot control drills
PHUKET: More than 300 officers from every police station in Phuket have been rehearsing their riot control skills at the field behind Phuket City Police Station yesterday and today in preparation for a contest that will pit them against fellow police from throughout Upper Southern Thailand.“The objective is to maintain our preparedness for situations of civil unrest and to prepare…
-
Phuket Gazette Sports: Baseball opening day – a celebration of hope and renewal
Baseball opening day – a celebration of hope and renewal Reuters / Phuket GazettePHUKET: The crack of the bat, packed crowds and the smell of hot dogs on the grill signaled Major League Baseball’s Opening Day, a celebration of hope and renewal giving teams and their fans a fresh start to a new season. It is a rite of spring…
-
Phuket British school issues statement over Russian motorbike crash victims
PHUKET: The British International School – Phuket (BIS), this morning issued a statement concerning the two teenage Russian students who are in hospital after a serious motorbike crash on the bypass road on Saturday (story here). Neil Richards MBE, headmaster at the school, wrote in the statement today: “On Saturday 30 March 2013, two students of Russian nationality, from the…
-
Luckless fisherman lands crocodile in Phuket heartland
PHUKET: Decades since a freshwater crocodile was last spotted in the wild on Phuket, a local fisherman on Sunday accidentally landed a baby specimen while fishing in Srisoonthorn, in central Phuket.Khamchit Sangsuwan, 32, a resident in the neighboring district of Kathu, went fishing at Baan Bang Jo canal. After two hours of luckless angling, the end of his line suddenly…
-
Phuket Gazette Sports: Liverpool FC to visit the ‘Big Mango’
PHUKET: Liverpool FC have announced the club will visit Thailand as part of their 2013-14 pre-season tour presented by Standard Chartered. The Reds, who last visited Thailand in 2009, will play a match at Bangkok’s Rajamangala National Stadium on Sunday, July 28. Liverpool FC are estimated to have over 14 million followers in Thailand and this summer’s visit will form…
-
Trash fires cause evacuations on Koh Lanta
PHUKET: Villagers on Koh Lanta, across Phang Nga Bay from Phuket, have evacuated their homes because of respiratory problems caused by garbage fires at a landfill. Local authorities say they are unable to control the fires. The villagers sought to publicize the trash burning problem about three weeks ago by appealing to the Krabi Press Club, saying that local authorities…
-
Phuket Gazette Sports: Murray’s win takes him to number 2 in world rankings; Serena sees off Sharapova
Murray goes to number two with Miami tie-break win over Ferrer Reuters/ Phuket Gazette PHUKET: Britain’s Andy Murray defeated Spain’s David Ferrer 2-6 6-4 7-6 in a grueling Sony Open final yesterday to move above Roger Federer to second in the world rankings. Murray was far from at his best against a dogged Ferrer but won the tie-break comfortably 7-1…
-
Phuket Russian teen students still in ICU after motorcyclist crash
PHUKET: Two Russian students from Phuket’s British International School are tonight still in the intensive care unit (ICU) at Phuket International Hospital after being involved in a horrific motorbike accident on the bypass road yesterday. Staff at the hospital declined to give details of the students’ condition, but did confirm that both Vlabislan Adrashko and Sevastan Lukashov were still under…
-
Phuket Sports: Howlers, hunger, humbling and howls – F1
PHUKET: What an unexpectedly delicious race Sepang provided.The race was characterized mainly by sins; sins of omission and sins of commission. Errors took Ferrari, McLaren, Lotus, and Force India out of contention, leaving only Red Bull and Mercedes to take the first four places. But that summary contains none of the drama that left three miserable men on the podium.…
-
Phuket Songkran may be drier than usual
PHUKET: Following the ban on “water battles” in trucks recently announced by Deputy Interior Minister Chat Kuldilok for Songkran celebrations (link here), the Gazette has been informed of possible new restrictions being proposed, given the island’s current drought-like conditions. Phuket is facing its driest quarter in 10 years with only about 2.9mn cubic meters at the Bang Wad Dam (story…
-
Phuket Blood Center stocks up for Songkran
PHUKET: The Phuket Regional Blood Center (PRBC) wants to boost its blood reserves to prepare for higher demand during the Songkran Festival. “We maintain a daily minimum stock of 200 units of A, B and O blood types, and 20 units of Rhesus-negative blood, but during the Songkran Festival we anticipate more accidents and more people needing blood, so we…
-
Phuket FC constructing a new complex on Chao Fa West road
PHUKET: THE island’s football club, Phuket FC, are in the process of constructing a new state-of-the-art training facility just south of Phuket Town, en route to Chalong. This complex will afford players badly needed upgrades to equipment and facilities and will include a natural grass football pitch, as well as an artificial grass pitch, swimming pool, fitness center and physical…
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.
Don't forget to check out some other things to do in Thailand - get help starting a business or finding a job in Thailand, buy Thailand property, rent a yacht or book a medical procedure worldwide.