Phuket News
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Earthquake aftershock spooks residents in northern Phuket
PHUKET: A 2.3 Richter aftershock centered in Phuket’s Thalang District struck at 4:54am today, waking some residents with a loud bang, while others reported feeling nothing at all of the tremors. “The epicenter of the aftershock was at Latitude 8º 00′ 36″ N, Longitude 98º 21′ 00″ E. It was almost at the same location as the 4.3 quake on…
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Phuket United gets Gov Tri’s backing
PHUKET: Last year’s CAT Regional Futsal Tournament champions Phuket United have been assured financial support from “Phuket’s father”, in a gesture that will ensure the team can compete in the prestigious Thailand Futsal League (TFL) for the upcoming season. Club administrators met with Phuket Governor Tri Augaradacha at his office on Tuesday. Their first agenda was to appoint the governor…
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Speed radar project most helpful: Phuket poll
PHUKET: Phuket Gazette readers overwhelmingly think the installation of radar speed cameras to monitor road traffic and automatically fine violators will be the most helpful of six projects recently approved for Phuket by Cabinet, according to our most recent online poll. In the poll launched March 23, readers were asked which of six projects approved by Cabinet during the “Mobile…
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Xayaburi Dam protesters in Phuket maintain threat of closing Thai-Laos Friendship Bridge
PHUKET: Residents of eight Thai provinces along the Mekong River traveled to Phuket to protest construction of the Xayaburi Dam in Laos during a three-day meeting of the Mekong River Commission (MRC) that ends today in Phuket. The protesters gathered on Tuesday morning at the Movenpick Resort, which is hosting the “Mekong 2 Rio” conference of high-level delegates from Mekong…
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FC Phuket draw Burmese league leaders in friendly
PHUKET: Yadanarbon FC from Myanmar and home favorites FC Phuket played to an uneventful 0-0 draw in a friendly match at Surakul Stadium last night. The game was generally played at a slow pace and had the feel of a match where both sets of coaches acknowledged the low key nature of the contest. Phuket did most of the running…
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Phuket Police blame “business conflict’ for snake show arson attack
PHUKET: Phuket’s top police officer said a business conflict was the most likely motive for last week’s arson attack on a health store and snake show complex that left one security guard comatose in hospital. Phuket Provincial Police Commander Chonasit Wattanavrangkul on Tuesday announced the news while inspecting the scene, at the Phuket Healthy Nutriment and Snake Show on Soi…
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Phuket sports: The Golf Guru’s weekly round-up
PHUKET: This week was the turn of players coming through their respective mini-tours, the Challenge for Europe and Nationwide for America. They use this as a stomping ground to see if they are good enough to play on their main tours both had graduated from there as winners could they now bring it to the big show. The players use…
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Phuket Red Cross pumps up blood donation campaign
PHUKET: The Phuket Regional Blood Center (RBC) has stepped up it mobile blood collection campaign as blood stocks are dangerously low following the annual Songkran Festival last month, which resulted in a surge in road accidents in the region. The Phuket RBC, run by the Thai Red Cross Society, is responsible for collection of blood stocks in Phang Nga, Krabi,…
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Phuket workers present demands on Labor Day
PHUKET: Union leaders in Phuket yesterday demanded that the government initiate measures to reduce and control the soaring cost of living, which they insist has long outstripped minimum wages. The formal demands for pricing controls headlined a list of six demands presented to Phuket Vice Governor Sommai Prijasilpa at the island’s annual Labor Day Fair held at the Phuket Provincial…
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Phuket police confirm DNA report “just a formality’ in Dokset murder case
PHUKET: Chalong Police today confirmed to the Phuket Gazette that investigators are still waiting for written confirmation that the DNA tests of the human remains found in the basement of Norwegian expat Stein Dokset’s luxury villa in Kata are those of his ex-girlfriend Rungnapa Suktong. “We were informed by a phone call a few days ago that the remains are…
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Phuket sports: Siraracha reel in Southern Sea Kirin
FC Phuket were taken for an unpleasant ride by the Sriracha Suzuki FC “Blue Marlin”, with the “Southern Sea Kirin” succumbing 4-2 in a grueling away match on last Sunday evening in Chonburi. The fixture was played in front of about 1,000 fans at Suzuki Stadium, situated some 20 kilometers north of Pattaya. Among spectators were a few loyal “Hulk”…
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Phuket property developer agrees to pay back buyers after tax protest
PHUKET: After staging a successful protest in front of the office of a local property development firm yesterday, residents of the Chao Fa Garden Home 3 housing estate in Phuket will get back taxes they claim they were duped into paying by the home builder. About 100 residents of the sprawling estate, located off Thepkrasattri Road in Koh Kaew, gathered…
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Tourist, 25, survives six-storey fall from Phuket hotel balcony
PHUKET: A 25-year-old woman from the Philippines has escaped serious injury after falling from the balcony of her sixth-floor Phuket hotel room late last night. Rescue workers from the Kusoldharm Foundation in Patong told the Phuket Gazette that they received a call notifying them of the incident at about half past midnight. The rescue workers arrived to find Jardeliza Samireh…
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Phuket currency exchange robbery key witness refutes prime suspect
PHUKET: A key witness in the investigation into the 48,000-baht robbery of a Phuket currency exchange kiosk on Saturday night today told police that their prime suspect was not the man who committed the robbery. Chalong Police had named Nathee Srisawang, 28, from Prachuap Khiri Khan, as their prime suspect. Mr Nathee was named in a complaint filed by a…
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A Phuket Star is born
PHUKET: Phuket-born Jaruwat “Dome” Cheawaram has won the eighth season of the nationally televised singing talent quest The Star. The 21-year-old law student at Thammasat University, Thailand’s premier law school, was a surprise win in the show’s season finale held at the Impact Muang Thong Thani stadium, better known simply as the “Impact Arena”, on the outskirts of Bangkok last…
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Phuket ‘lucky license plate’ auction raises over B30mn
PHUKET: The “Lucky License Plate Action” held by the Phuket Land Transport Office (PLTO) at The Metropole Hotel in Phuket Town on April 28 to 29 raised more than 30 million baht. The money raised from the auction, close to 30.5 million baht, will go to the Road Safety Fund, which provides assistance to road-accident victims and conducts road-safety campaigns…
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Russian language warning sought for Phuket tsunami sirens
PHUKET: Phuket officials will ask the National Disaster Warning Center (NDWC) to add Russian language to the spoken messages played by its 19 warning towers along Phuket’s coast.Preedee Aengseng, Communications Officer at the Phuket office of Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM-Phuket), told the Phuket Gazette that the request will be made on May 16, when NDWC officers come…
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Race to repair Patong Hill road
PHUKET: The Highways Department hopes to begin shoring up one landslide-prone section of the road over Patong Hill in June, but work on another section of the same road will have to wait until at least next year.Sathaporn Sornchana, deputy director of the Highways Department office in Phuket, told the Phuket Gazette that the plan to reinforce a section of…
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Red light confuses alleged drunk driver into taking out Phuket power poles
PHUKET: An alleged drunk driver took down a power pole and damaged two Phuket homes and after mistaking a flashing light on the road for a police checkpoint over the weekend.Thung Thong Police were notified of the accident at 12:45am on Saturday.At the scene, a densely populated area along Wichit Songkram Road near the Kathu Chinese Shrine, police found a…
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Phuket moves to set up Andaman-wide integrated disaster-response IT system
PHUKET: The Phuket Provincial Health Office (PPHO) is spearheading a project to set up an integrated information system to better coordinate emergency response efforts throughout the Andaman coast provinces in disaster situations. Disaster Medical Assistance Teams (DMAT), rescue personnel, communications experts, police and local administration organization officials met in Phuket Thursday last week to provide input into what the system…
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Phuket gets the “Doomsday Saturday’ party started
PHUKET: A high-power delegation of officials this morning met villagers in Srisoonthorn to reinforce the message that Phuket was not about to sink – and to get the day’s scheduled fun activities underway. Phuket Governor Tri Augkaradacha, Government spokesman Prompong Nopparit and Phuket MP Raywat Areerob along with other government officials, including from Phuket Provincial Administrative Organization (OrBorJor) President Paiboon…
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FC Phuket hoping for a big catch in Sri Racha
PHUKET: FC Phuket are in Chonburi province set to play Sriracha Suzuki FC this evening for the Thai Yamaha 1 (TD1) 2012 season’s seventh fixture. Kickoff for the match, to played at Suzuki Stadium, located about 20 kilometers north of Pattaya, will be at 6:30pm. Now in 11th place of the 18-team TD1, with a win, four draws and two…
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Phuket rolls on into ‘Doomsday Saturday’
PHUKET: The mass exodus from Phuket predicated by some failed to materialize today as police at the Tah Chat Chai checkpoint reported normal Saturday morning traffic on Srisoonthorn Bridge, which links outbound traffic to the mainland.Meanwhile, as part of the Provincial government’s efforts to boost confidence that today will not be a one of calamity, as rumors have predicted, a…
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Phuket Doomsday: Rumors of seismic proportions
PHUKET: RUMORS that the Pearl of the Andaman will be destroyed in a cataclysmic natural disaster on April 28 have spread like wildfire, and local officials have responded in classic Phuket style: by planning a number of events and parties on that date. The Phuket Gazette’s Chutharat Plerin and Kritsada Mueanhawong report on how it all got this crazy. SPECIAL…
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Phuket Governor eyes interest in beach town beautification project
PHUKET: Phuket Governor Tri Augkaradacha yesterday confirmed that he would follow up on proposals made by an international consortium of urban architects on how to improve the aesthetics of the tourist-popular Kata-Karon beachfront areas. The news came at a meeting of urban planning academics from Technische Universitat (TU) Kaiserslautern in Germany, headed by Professor Dr Wolfgang Bohm. His research team…
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Phuket sports: All change again in Bahrain
PHUKET: This season seems to be a battle of the pit-lanes, with McLaren leading the pit-boo-boo stakes, but several other teams are trying hard for this inglorious title. However, McLaren kept ahead in Bahrain. The wear on tyres was anticipated, though some teams, and in particular Mercedes, did better than expected. That is something to watch during the rest of…
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Chinese tourists injured in Phuket bus crash
PHUKET: More than 10 Chinese tourists were injured as a tour bus ran off the road on Patong Hill yesterday evening. Tung Tong Police were notified of the crash, at the bottom of the hill near the Kathu Shooting Range, at about 7pm. Police arrived at the scene to find a tour bus lying on its side beside the road.…
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Phuket Grand Dame Cape Panwa Hotel wins rights to Raceweek regatta venue
PHUKET: The organizers of the Phuket Raceweek 2012 today announced that the host venue of the annual regatta this year will be the Phuket’s “Grande Dame” the Cape Panwa Hotel and sister property the Kantary Bay Hotel. “Cape Panwa Hotel and its sister property, Kantary Bay Hotel, on the tip of Cape Panwa in the southeast of the island, will…
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Paiboon launches new Phuket CCTV control center
PHUKET: With the Thailand National Youth Games in Phuket just around the corner, local authorities yesterday checked the readiness of the Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor) closed-circuit television (CCTV) control room. Paiboon Upatising, as one of his first official acts since being re-elected OrBorJor president in the election on April 8, led authorities on an inspection of the control center,…
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Phuket Rush Hour: Car flips over on bypass road
PHUKET: A car ended up on its roof in the central ditch on Phuket’s bypass road this morning when the possibly drunk driver of a saleng (motorcycle with side car) cut in front of the vehicle. The motorbike driver and the driver of the car both escaped injury, but the car’s only passenger, the driver’s 20-year-old son, sustained minor injuries.…
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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