Phuket News
Phuket news, politics, business, tourism, and nightlife—stay updated with breaking stories, events, and expat updates from Thailand’s top island destination. Get the latest from The Thaiger, your trusted Phuket news source.
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Sponsored FBS celebrates 16 years with an adventurous Birthday Quest
Leading global broker FBS is marking its 16th anniversary with a special campaign — FBS Birthday Quest. Over the past 16 years, FBS has been on an incredible journey alongside its clients. Now, as a way to give back, the...
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Phuket Sports: Island cricketers on a high
PHUKET: A battle for mid-table seniority held court at Phuket’s ACG when the Island Cricket Club faced the Thanyapura Tigers in the ninth Island Furniture League match. Sitting in fourth place, Tigers were a solitary point ahead of ICC fifth spot on the table and both teams were very aware that a win was crucial if their league title hopes…
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Phuket hotel CEO says “No more payouts’
PHUKET: The Andaman Beach Suites Hotel in Patong on Phuket’s west coast, has confirmed that it will no longer pay any guest who claim their room was robbed without sufficient evidence, after a recent surge in cases, and a tightening of hotel security. The hotel has paid victims in six of the past eight instances, all since July. In each…
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Readers’ Poll: Phuket fairs and festivals
PHUKET: As recent weeks have confirmed, there is no shortage of annual public festivals and fairs here in Phuket. But which of these is the most sanook of all? In the new Phuket Gazette online poll, we ask which of the six following events bring the most enjoyment. The candidates are: Phuket Red Cross FairOld Phuket Town FestivalChalong FairPhuket Local…
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Alleged mastermind of “Ae Inside’ murder still at large
PHUKET: Atsadakorn “Pod” Seedokbuab, 48, the man who police believe ordered the assassination of Phuket newsman Wisut “Ae Inside” Tangwitthayaporn earlier this month, remains at large. Phuket City Police Superintendent Col Chote Chidchai confirmed that police were still hunting Atsadakorn and two other suspects for their roles in the murder of Mr Wisut, who was shot dead in broad daylight…
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Man, 27, found hanged in Phuket
PHUKET: Thalang Police believe financial woes led a Phuket man to take his life by hanging last night. Shocked relatives of 27-year-old Awut Sakunchit awoke this morning to find his body suspended by the neck from a nylon cord tied attached to a ceiling support beam in his wife’s home in Thepkrasattri subdistrict. When Thalang Police and Phuket Kusoldharm Foundation…
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Phuket “anti plastic bag’ campaign kicks into gear
PHUKET: The provincial government campaign to rid the island of plastic bags will start in earnest on February 27, when retailers across Phuket will start handing out free cloth bags to shoppers over the course of one week. The news was announced on Friday by Phuket Vice Governor Somkiet Sangkaosuttirak at the signing of the second Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)…
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Phuket tour van in three-way accident on Patong Hill
PHUKET: A van carrying foreign tourists was involved in a three-vehicle accident on Patong Hill road this morning, causing a long traffic tailback into Phuket’s most popular west coast resort town. The accident happened on the hairpin turn descending into Patong where numerous other mishaps have occurred, including the crash of a tour bus full of Russian tourists in October…
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Crowds mass at the Old Phuket Town Festival 2012
PHUKET: The 13th Old Phuket Town Festival was a big hit over the weekend, attracting droves of local residents and tourists to Queen Sirikit Park and all along Thalang Road. The three-day festival, which ends tonight, opened on Saturday night with addresses by local dignitaries including Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor) President Paiboon Upatising, Phuket City Mayor Somjai Suwansupana and…
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Phuket Police hunting armed gunman after ‘lightning robbery’
PHUKET: Phuket City Police are scouring the streets of Phuket for a man who robbed a Kasikorn Bank branch at gunpoint, making off with 694,000 baht in less than a minute: Police were alerted to the robbery, at the Tesco Lotus Chaofa shopping complex in Wichit, at 6:15pm this evening. “There were a only a few customers waiting in the…
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PHUKET VIOLENCE: Three ways to knock it back
PHUKET: Security issues and their effect on Phuket’s all-important tourism industry have come into sharp focus in recent weeks following two high-profile incidents of violence. Governor Tri Augkaradacha is correct in his reaction to the impacts of the assassination earlier this month of investigative reporter Wisut “Ae Inside” Tangwitthayaporn and the inexplicable violence perpetrated against socialite Vorasit “Pla-wan” Issara at…
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Phuket tour bus on fire at Patong Hill
PHUKET: The Phuket Gazette this morning received reports of yet another bus catching fire – this time on the busy road over Patong Hill, joining the popular tourist town of Patong with Phuket Town. No injuries were reported. Motorists are urged to exercise extreme caution – and patience – while traveling over the steep hill. The Gazette will report more…
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Patong tunnel project to start ‘within 6 months’: Pian Keesian
PHUKET: Patong Mayor Pian Keesin expects to get Cabinet approval for the multi-billion baht Patong Tunnel project “within six months”. The project is now under review by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, said Mayor Pian. “According to our survey, 86.3 per cent of the high-ranking government officers who have seen the project details agree it should commence… so…
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“We’re not elephant killers’, say Phuket pair
PHUKET: Jaruwan Wathanapumchoo and her brother Prasit yesterday publicly refuted all allegations that they were in any way involved in the trafficking of elephant meat to Phuket to serve as “exotic food” in selected restaurants. The public joint-statement, made at a press conference at Phuket Provincial Hall yesterday, follows allegations of elephant meat trading made against them by two national…
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Phuket laborer claims “elephant god’ saves him from shooting
PHUKET: A man shot three times in the abdomen yesterday said a sacred talisman prevented the projectiles from breaking his skin, but police think it was because they were fired by a slingshot — not a gun. Chalong Police Officer duty officer Atthawat Suwanarat received a report of the shooting at 5:30pm. Prepared for the worst, he rushed to the…
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Couples sought for Phuket “mega wedding’
PHUKET: Couples wanting to tie the knot in Phuket on Valentine’s Day might consider taking part in a mass wedding ceremony to be staged at Laem Phromthep in Rawai next month. The organizers are seeking 108 Thai and foreign couples to take part in the event, which is intended to promote Phuket as a wedding and honeymoon vacation destination. The…
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Glimmer of hope for FC Phuket
PHUKET: A new management team has expressed interest in taking over the rights to manage FC Phuket football side. FC Phuket executives opened the table for any potential backers to take over the team by January 31, the “roll call” deadline for 2012 Thai Premier League (TPL) Division 1 clubs. An official announcement was made yesterday at a press conference…
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Phuket Police recover human body off Coral Island
PHUKET: Chalong Police are trying to identify the badly decomposed body of a man discovered offshore at a popular Phuket dive site this afternoon. The police were informed of the discovery at about 4:30pm, duty officer Atthawat Suwanarat told the Phuket Gazette. The crew of a fishing boat discovered the body floating face down about 20 meters offshore from Koh…
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Alarm raised over dog-snatching in Phuket
PHUKET: A Phuket expat who lost his dog at Nai Harn Beach last Sunday has raised concerns over dog-snatching at the popular tourist area. Frank Lamine wrote to the Phuket Gazette earlier today reporting that he had heard of one local dog owner paying 3,000 baht to get his dog back. Mr Lamine lost his 10-year-old white Maltese terrier “Micky”…
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Help pours in for homeless fire victims in Phuket
PHUKET: The Rotary Club of Patong Beach will assist a mother and 16-year-old daughter left homeless after a house fire on Tuesday. Offers of assistance have been pouring in to the Phuket Gazette since the news was posted online. One reader even offered to rent his house out to them for six months for a token price of one baht.…
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Phuket TAT launches 9 Temples Tour
PHUKET: The Phuket “9 Temples Tour” began today as a way to round out the Chinese New Year festivities and to usher in the Phuket Old Town Festival, which gets underway on Sunday. The tour departs the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) Phuket office on Thalang Road in Phuket Town each day at 9:30am and 10:30am, taking visitors to nine…
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Two rushed to hospital after separate accidents in Phuket
PHUKET: A Phuket Airport employee returning home from work was seriously injured when her motorbike was hit by a passenger van full of tourists returning from a trip to Phang Nga yesterday afternoon. Thalang Police were notified of the accident at 3:35pm. Arriving at the scene, the turnoff to the airport on Thepkrasattri Road, police found 48-year-old Lamphong Losing lying…
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Phuket “spider men’ suspect brown widow in fruit vendor’s death
PHUKET: A team of officers from Phuket’s Khao Phra Thaeo Wildlife Sanctuary in Thalang today collected 10 different types of spiders from around the home of Wanchai Wonglakorn, who died on Monday of a suspected spider bite. The officers, led by Awat Nitikul, chief of the Environmental Conservation Division unit based at Khao Phra Thaeo, rummaged through the undergrowth around…
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Unidentified foreigner found hanged in Phuket
PHUKET: An unidentified man was found strangled in a hilly area near Freedom Beach in Phuket yesterday afternoon. Police believe he took his own life by hanging. Chalong Duty Officer Capt Nitikorn Rawang received a report about the body at about 5pm. Police found the body in a sitting position on the ground next to a pond. The body was…
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Man shot, dumped, left for dead – but survives in Phuket
PHUKET: A young Cambodian man who was shot in the chest and claims to have been tossed into the ocean afterwards, is being treated at Vachira Phuket Hospital. Doctors are unable to identify him or contact family members due to a language barrier. A source visiting the hospital yesterday told the Phuket Gazette that the the man was a 23-year-old…
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FC Phuket face extinction
PHUKET: FC Phuket Director Soranan Sanae has sent out a distress call to all wealthy football fans in Phuket to come to the rescue of the team, which is in urgent need of sponsorship, yet again. “If any football-loving foreigners or expat millionaires would like to support the team, they are more than welcome to step up,” he told the…
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Phuket likely to get Administrative Court
PHUKET: The Thai Parliament yesterday approved draft legislation to establish Administrative Court regional branches in Phuket, Petchaburi and Nakhon Sawan, Matichon has reported. Attached to the bills was a remark that the Administrative Court and all related agencies should expedite processing of all funding and legal issues so that all three courts would be up and running within three years…
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Eighth suspect, school kid, arrested for Phuket Pla-wan attack
PHUKET: Police have arrested an eighth suspect wanted in connection with the stabbing of Vorasit “Pla-wan” Issara, the general manager of the Sri Panwa resort who was attacked by staff at the Rachada pub in Phuket Town earlier this month. Phuket City Police deputy superintendent Jamroon Plaiduang released the name of the suspect but was unsure of his age. However,…
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Phuket hit-and-run driver surrenders, victim still in hospital
PHUKET: The driver of a white sedan that struck a motorbike on Thepkrasattri Road then failed to stop has handed himself in to police, while the victim in the accident remains at Vachira Phuket Hosiptal recovering from serious injury. Motorbike rider Suriya Thathamlay was rushed to hospital by emergency workers after he was thrown to the ground when a car…
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Work underway on Phuket’s newest police headquarters
PHUKET: Work is underway on the headquarters of Phuket’s newest police station, with some officers already taking up residence in barracks near what will eventually be the Wichit Police Station. The work follows an announcement by Phuket Provincial Police in early 2009 that it planned to establish two new independent police precincts in the south of the island. The move…
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Finnish tourists unharmed in Phuket bus fire
PHUKET: A group of Finnish tourists on a tour to Laem Phromthep had a sudden change of itinerary this morning when their Phuket tour bus burst into flames on a hilly stretch of road in Karon. The incident occurred at about 8:30am near to the entrance to Centara Grand Beach Resort Phuket on Wiset Road, a curvy coastal road that…
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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