Phuket News
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Long-term life in Thailand? 5 reasons private health insurance pays off in the long run
Thailand is a great place for expats and retirees, offering a warm climate, affordable living, and rich culture. However, healthcare can be tricky for foreigners since they aren’t eligible for public health coverage, and private care can be expensive. Private...
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Weather warning for Phuket, Andaman as Patong’s streets flooded
PHUKET: The flood waters from last night’s deluge have cleared from Patong’s streets, but the Thai Meteorological Department (TMD) has issued a weather warning for Phuket and the Andaman region forecasting more heavy rain until at least Friday. A two-hour torrential downpour last night flooded major streets in Patong, including the party district of Soi Bangla, to depths of half…
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UK’s Page wins Laguna Phuket Marathon
PHUKET: Michael Page of Great Britain won the Laguna Phuket International Marathon 2013 this morning, completing the 42km circuit in 2 hours 41 minutes and 2 seconds. Officials have yet to confirm the results, but according to the preliminary times posted by official timekeeper Championchip Thailand (click here), Page crossed the finish line 10 minutes ahead of Yasuhiro Saito of…
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Laguna International Marathon: 4,100 runners to conquer Phuket tomorrow
PHUKET: A total of 4,100 runners – aged 13 to 80 years old and representing 45 countries – have registered to compete in the five races of the 8th Laguna Phuket International Marathon (LPIM), with runners set to take their marks as early as 4am tomorrow. Speaking to the Gazette this afternoon, shortly after marathon registration closed, Roman Floesser of…
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British national busted for dealing heroin on Phuket
PHUKET: A Phuket Marine Police sting operation last night busted a British national with 6.1 grams of heroin smuggled onto Phuket from Koh Samui. John Robert George Cawley, 22, was caught in a Rassada rental room at about 11:30pm in possession of the category 1 drug stuffed into seven plastic bottles, said Phuket Marine Police Inspector Chatchai Sakdee. Marine Police,…
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Phuket hotel manager, truck take 50-meter fall
PHUKET: A hotel manager lost control of his truck at the Khao Khad Viewpoint (map here), plummeting 50 meters down the treacherous hillside yesterday afternoon. Police received a report of the incident at about 4:50pm and rushed to the scene with Kusuldham Rescue workers to find Korean national Don Yeol Seo alive, but trapped in the overturned vehicle. “Mr Yeol…
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Video Report: Phuket slams the brakes on tour bus neglect
PHUKET: The dramatic crash of a tour bus that plowed into a home in Patong on Tuesday night has prompted the Phuket Land Transportation Office (PLTO) to warn that under new measures tour bus companies found to repeatedly fail safety requirements stand to have their commercial passenger permits revoked permanently. “This includes tour companies and independent operators hired by tour…
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Team Phuket Today to take on LPIM
PHUKET: Avid viewers of the Phuket Today show will no doubt be aware that, for the past several weeks, the TV show’s presenters have been training for this year’s Laguna Phuket International Marathon (LPIM). Isaac Stone Simonelli, who also has the challenging job of running the editorial news department of the Phuket Gazette you are currently reading; Tara Sudlow, lifestyle…
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Phuket Sports: Monaco, Montreal, modifications – F1
PHUKET: A crash laden Monaco was good for Mercedes; Nico Rosberg, now probably their number one driver, led from start to finish. This is not a harbinger of things to come in 2013; Monaco is a special race. Monaco, Spa and Suzuka are often quoted as the three tracks where driver skill can overcome technical differences between their cars. But…
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Phuket Health: Exploring island fitness
PHUKET: Thousands of long-distance runners are starting to get the butterflies ahead of the eighth annual Laguna Phuket International Marathon (LPIM), which takes place early tomorrow morning (click here for story) To help prepare, if not calm some nerves, fitness contributor, Hayden Rhodes, has provided some more training tips and advice in this article, which will elaborate on last week’s…
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Special Report: Breaching walls for Phuket tsunami safety
SPECIAL REPORT: Tsunami evacuation drills have become part of Phuket life since the devastating waves struck our shores in 2004. But has familiarity bred contempt for safety in the west coast village of Kamala? The Phuket Gazette reports. PHUKET: Phuket recently hosted a full-scale tsunami drill (story here), with rescue workers practicing the actions they would take should a wall…
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Phuket bank stabbing witnesses confirm murder-suicide
PHUKET: The two women present in the Bank of Ayudhya meeting room yesterday watched when Phonthakorn Teerabenjakul, 51, pulled out a knife and stabbed Piboon Vachwanichsanong, 71, to death, and then killed himself, police say (story here). “The women saw the whole thing,” Phuket City Police Inspector Yongyuth Kongmalai told the Phuket Gazette today. “They said there was no fight…
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Mass Phuket protest demands Deputy PM step down
PHUKET: Ahead of the white-mask protest set for Sunday, hundreds of members of the “We Preserve Phuket Club” stormed Phuket Provincial Hall this morning demanding that Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra relieve Deputy Prime Minister Plodprasop Suraswadi of his position after he issued a thinly veiled threat to the people of Phuket concerning the cancelled International Convention and Exhibition Center project…
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Two dead in bank conference room stabbing
PHUKET: A real estate loan gone sour ended in the stabbing deaths of the borrower and the lender in the conference room of a bank in Phuket Town early this afternoon. Police arrived at the scene to find both men dead from multiple stab wounds, one with the knife stuck in his chest.Phonthakorn Teerabenjakul, 51, had borrowed 30.8 million baht…
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Mosquito virus news buzz batted down by Phuket Public Officials
PHUKET: The news buzz across the Pacific that has worked its way back to Thailand after a Canadian woman was forced to turn to the American Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to identify a mysterious malady has been batted down by Phuket Public Officials.The 45-year-old Canadian tourist, who visited Bangkok and Phuket, was bitten repeatedly by mosquitoes, reported The Canadian…
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Phuket event encourages mindful consumption for World Environment Day
PHUKET: Taking part in a global initiative to increase awareness about environmental concerns, Phuket held an event in line with the theme of World Environment Day (WED) this year: Think. Eat. Save. The event in Phuket was held at Vachira Phuket Hospital yesterday morning. “The theme this year strives to encourage people to think about how to reduce the amount…
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Phuket white mask protest to take place Sunday at Saphan Hin
PHUKET: The anti-Pheu Thai “V for Thailand” group who have been using the Guy Fawkes white mask to obscure the identity of their supporters across the Kingdom plan to stage a protest in Phuket on Sunday. The protest, slated for 5pm at the Milestone in Saphan Hin, is one of nine nationwide rallies the group has planned, extending from Chiang…
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Phuket Police hit “abductor’ taxi-driver with two more charges
PHUKET: Two more charges have been levied against the illegal taxi driver who denies having sexually assaulted a Chinese tourist after picking her up at Phuket International Airport on May 17 (story here). Already accused of deprivation of liberty for holding the 19-year-old woman captive in his vehicle for five hours, as well as sexual assault and being under the…
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Police pin down suspect in Phuket elephant smuggling ring
PHUKET: Police have identified a prime suspect in an illegal elephant smuggling ring that led to the recent DNA testing of two baby elephants in Phuket (story here). A Kamnan in Chaiyaphum province who police have yet to name will be charged with making and using fraudulent elephant certification documents, Col Watcharin Phusit, Superintendent of the Regional Natural Resources and…
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Thousands to run Laguna Phuket Marathon this weekend
PHUKET: Runners and walkers of all ages and abilities will take to the roads of Phuket on Sunday morning when the eighth annual “Run Paradise” Laguna Phuket International Marathon (LPIM) once again celebrates the joy of running and pursuit of fitness in a family-friendly carnival atmosphere. This year the line-up of more than 4,000 Thai and international participants from 45…
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Phuket Red Cross makes urgent call for O-negative blood
PHUKET: The Phuket Regional Blood Center (PRBC), often called upon to save the lives of Thais and foreigners, has no reserves of O-negative type blood. “We try to maintain a daily minimum stock of 200 units of A, B and O blood types, and 20 units of Rhesus-negative blood,” said PRBC Acting Chief Pornthip Rattajak. “We need all types of…
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Phuket’s most famous beachfront road to get 200-million-baht face lift
PHUKET: A plan to beautify over 3.5 kilometers of the Patong beachfront road by hiding unsightly power lines underground was presented at a public hearing yesterday in Patong.If the 203-million-baht project passes the public hearing process, as it is expected to, construction could start this year, covering the stretch of Taweewong Road from the three-junction in Kalim to Klong Pak…
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Phuket officials scramble over missing Rohingya
PHUKET: Officers at the Phuket Shelter for Children and Families on Koh Sireh this afternoon called an emergency meeting to discuss reports of Rohingya refugees disappearing from the center early yesterday morning. The meeting was called when news reports surfaced that Muslim women and children were noticed missing from the shelter at about 2:30am. The mass disappearance followed two other…
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Governor looks for direct flights between Phuket and Nice, France
PHUKET: Fresh off the plane from France, Phuket Governor Maitri Inthusut revealed plans to support direct flights between two sister cities – Nice and Phuket. Such a flight would bolster the plans laid out in February by the French Ambassador to Thailand, Thierry Viteau, of inviting small and medium enterprise (SME) businesses to Phuket to discuss cooperative investment opportunities (story…
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![Twelve Burmese dead as border boat run goes fatally wrong [video report] | Thaiger](https://thethaiger.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/phuketnews_Rescue_workers_prepare_to_bring_the_bodies_of_the_nine_Burmese_border_21237_FDnbPKIGiT_jpeg.jpg)
Twelve Burmese dead as border boat run goes fatally wrong [video report]
PHUKET: Marine Police recovered the bodies of nine Burmese nationals yesterday, bringing to 12 the number who died when their boat capsized in rough seas north of Phuket as they attempted to evade a Thai coastal patrol on Friday night.Pak Nam Police in Ranong province confirmed that the nine bodies retrieved yesterday comprised three women and six men found floating…
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Phuket danger season surf claims one life, endangers fishing vessel
PHUKET: The heavy waves striking Phuket’s west coast over the weekend claimed the life of one man fishing at Patong last night and demanded the Marine Police assist a fishing boat in distress.Police responded to an emergency call at about 7pm yesterday, reporting that one man had drowned while fishing at Patong.The officers arrived at the scene, the southern headland…
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Parental slur incites drunken Phuket murder
PHUKET: Police have arrested two suspects for the murder of the Thalang motorcycle taxi driver whose body was found in a canal in central Phuket yesterday (story here). Thalang Police Superintendent Sirisak Wasasiri this morning presented to the press Chakrit Polklum, 35 and Prasit Sae-ong, 31. “Our investigation led us to discover that the day before Mr Thammanoon’s body was…
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Thai suspects claim innocence in Phuket attack on Kedah royal bodyguard
PHUKET: The two Thai men arrested for their involvement in the attack on a Kedah royal family bodyguard at a hotel in Patong on Tuesday night claim that though they were at the scene, they had no prior knowledge that the attack would occur. The bodyguard, Mohd Sobri Bin Said, suffered bruising to his body and a serious wound to…
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Phuket tourists, divers to be warned off damaged coral zone
PHUKET: The Department of Marine and Coastal Resources (DMCR) will install floating signs to warn tourists and local divers not to disturb coral that is undergoing restoration after suffering extensive damage at a seawalking site off Phuket. The site includes more than 300 square meters of coral off Khai Nai Island that was allegedly destroyed by a seawalking tour company…
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Europa League winners to gain Champions League ticket
PHUKET: To try and boost the ailing Europa League, UEFA president Michel Platini announced last week that – starting from the 2014/15 season – the winners would qualify for the Champions League. Platini also said that a fifth Champions League place is to be awarded to clubs in the big European leagues. Under this new system, the Europa League winners…
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Dylan Hartley to miss Lions tour
PHUKET: We now know the final composition of the Lion’s squad, the English Premiership winners, the Pro Twelve Irish champions, and the finalists in the French domestic competition. Jonny Wilkinson, not selected for the Lions tour of Australia, but available in the case of injury, gave another vintage performance in steering European Cup winners Toulon to the French championship final…
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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