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.
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Major Phuket blackouts announced
PHUKET: The Phuket Provincial Electricity Authority (PPEA) has announced three scheduled blackouts to affect Chao Fa East and Chao Fa West Roads in Chalong – two of the busiest roads in the south of the island. Power supply along these roads will be shut off in order to carry out maintenance on high voltage power lines, install new lines and…
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Phuket’s Laem Phromthep now a no-smoking landmark
PHUKET: Laem Phromthep is now a no-smoking peninsular. “The prohibition zone starts at the bottom of the stairs and extends along the hill,” Rawai Municipality officer Sanya Kontien told the Gazette. The ban, which includes the drinking of alcohol, began at the end of last month and signs have been posted to inform visitors at Phuket’s iconic tourist attraction. The…
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Phuket Poll: Fair to have English tests for UK spousal visas?
PHUKET: All Thais must now pass an English-language test in order to be granted a visa to stay in the United Kingdom on the basis of being a spouse or legal companion of a UK national. Is this new restriction, which applies to all non-Europeans, appropriate and fair? Have your say by voting in the new Phuket Gazette readers’ poll…
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Phuket King’s Cup set for “hat trick’ history
PHUKET: The final day of racing in the Phuket King’s Cup Regatta tomorrow may go down in the history books as the first King’s Cup in which not one, but two yachts have accomplished a sporting achievement not seen in nearly a decade – winning a King’s Cup Regatta hat trick. The feat was last achieved by Bill Gasson when…
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Gang slays Phuket security guard
PHUKET: After standing up to a gang of young thugs, a security guard was gunned down at a municipal parking lot in Phuket yesterday. Phuket City Police were notified of the murder at 7:40am by residents at the new government workers’ housing complex off Rattanakosin 200 Pi Road in Wichit. Officers led by Phuket City Police chief Wanchai Ekpornpit rushed…
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SDF moves to stave off Phuket distemper outbreak
PHUKET: Soi Dog Foundation, one of Phuket’s leading animal welfare organizations, is calling for help in its efforts to prevent an island-wide outbreak of the dreaded canine disease distemper. “Soi Dog is currently working around the clock doing mass vaccinations of dogs at temples and other locations. Distemper has been virtually eradicated in the west; however this is not the…
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Phuket King’s Cup “lost’ crewman
PHUKET: The crew of Pytheas Aura, a 14-meter cutter racing in the King’s Cup Regatta, woke this morning to find fellow crewman, Canadian Joseph James Patrick, 42, dead on his bunk. Police believed he died of a heart attack. Mr Patrick had lived on Phuket for several years, staying in the Kata area, a friend told the Gazette. He apparently…
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Phuket King’s Cup: Split-second separates Racing class winner
PHUKET: Only 0.49 of a second on corrected time separated Neil Pryde’s HiFi and Ray Roberts’ Evolution Racing in race one today at the Phuket King’s Cup Regatta. Frank Pong’s Jelik III took line honors, followed by Sam Chan’s FreeFire then Dubai-based boat Team Premier. But all eyes were on Evolution Racing, which tacked away from HiFi at the bottom…
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Phuket Gazette poll: Will the Patong Tunnel ever see daylight?
PHUKET: A majority of Gazette online readers think the Patong Tunnel will become a reality some day – but they disagree on when that day will come. In the latest readers’ poll, readers were asked: Do you think the proposed tunnel beneath Patong Hill will ever be built? And if so, when? Overall, almost two-thirds of respondents (64.4%) thought the…
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Phuket King’s Cup Regatta: Day 2 update
PHUKET: With the final provisional results just in for today’s racing in the Phuket King’s Cup Regatta 2010, Ray Robert’s Evolution Racing has kept pole position in the Racing class with arch rival Neil Pryde’s HiFi still in second place. The Evolution crew have so far secured four wins from five races. With three races left in the regatta, the…
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Phuket King’s Cup: Evolution extends lead
PHUKET: Stiff breeze offshore made for good yacht racing today, day two of the Phuket King’s Cup Regatta 2010, with Ray Roberts’ Evolution Racing extending their lead in the Racing class by one point. Arch rival Neil Pryde and his crew on HiFi drew first blood yesterday, winning the regatta’s opening race, but Evolution fought back from their disappointing fourth-place…
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Top Thai junior golfers to play in Phuket
PHUKET: More than 140 of Thailand’s best junior golfers will compete at the Thai Golf Association (TGA) Junior Regional Championship at Phuket Country Club this week. The four-day competition, for boys and girls between the ages of nine and 17, starts on Wednesday. Play culminates with the final round on Saturday, when the regional junior champion will be crowned. Featuring…
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Phuket ramps up Christmas blood drive
PHUKET: The Phuket Regional Blood Center is stepping up its blood donation campaign in the run-up to the”Seven Days of Danger”, when more supplies will be needed to meet an expected increase in road accidents over the holidays. The Phuket chapter of the Thai Red Cross Society has announced that the center’s mobile blood collection clinic will accept donations at…
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Acrobuffos set to soak Old Phuket Town
PHUKET: Renowned street artists Seth Bloom and Christina Gelsone, better known as The Acrobuffos, are headlining the entertainment set to take over Old Phuket Town on December 17-19. The comic duo will be performing as part of the first-ever Phuket Street Show Festival, which coincides with the Patong Carnival this month. While the Acrobuffos bill themselves as “laughmakers, street players…
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Anapat, 10, sails to Phuket dinghy race victory
PHUKET: Sailing sensation Anapat Ngarmdee, 10, proved to be one of the stars of the opening weekend of the King’s Cup Regatta by clinching first place in the inaugural Phuket King’s Cup Dinghy Series. The four-series event, featuring a total of 20 races, finished off Kata Beach yesterday. Anapat finished in the top spot, heading a field of 19 Optimist-class…
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Phuket drug detection gone to the dogs
PHUKET: Local authorities expect two puppies now under intensive training at Phuket International Dog School (PIDS) to become effective drug detection dogs by January. The two candidates, Bebe and Boo Boo, are both four months old. Bebe is a four-kilogram female beagle, while Boo Boo is a male pit bull currently weighing in at seven kilos. The project is the…
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Phuket marks His Majesty’s birthday
PHUKET: As dawn broke over Phuket this morning, the island began its celebrations of HM King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s 83rd birthday. At the Rassada Municipality office and at Queen Sirikit Park on Dibuk Road in Phuket Town, people gathered at 7am to join in giving alms to Buddhist monks. At 9am, the Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (PPAO) opened its doors for…
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Top-class field set for Phuket’s Ironman 70.3
PHUKET: Reigning Ironman 70.3 world champion Michael Raelert of Germany will head a high-caliber field of international professional triathletes at the inaugural Ironman 70.3 Asia-Pacific Championship tomorrow. The race will also include a legend an Ironman legend, Ironman Craig Alexander from Australia. It will get underway with the first wave at 7am at Laguna Phuket resort. Ironman is triathlon’s ultimate…
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New Pink Bus route announced
PHUKET: The award-winning Pink Buses in Phuket Town will ply a new route between Saphan Hin and Rassada early next year. Paiboon Upatising, president of the Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (PPAO), told the Gazette that the new route will be serviced by eight new vehicles, known locally as po thong. It will be the third PPAO Pink Bus route to…
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Illegal worker crackdown to start “this week’
PHUKET: The multi-agency task force of government officers responsible for rounding up all illegal foreign workers throughout Southern Thailand is expected to start operations this week. The news follows a meeting of representatives of the five regional teams in Bangkok last Friday. Noppodol Ployudee, Chief of the Phuket Provincial Employment Office (PPEO), will lead the team for Southern Thailand. “I…
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Phuket ‘mangrove road’ wins EIA approval
PHUKET: Construction of the Klong Koh Pee Road project moved a step closer to becoming a reality yesterday when Phuket Governor Tri Augkaradacha confirmed the Special Committee on Environment had given the plan the green light. Gov Tri received the news at a meeting with the special committee on Wednesday in Bangkok, which was also attended by Phuket MP Raewat…
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Police arrest Phuket’s “midnight arsonist’
PHUKET: A homeless man living under a telephone exchange box near Phuket Town has confessed to setting ablaze five cars last month, say police. Presented to the press this morning was Sangworn Toe-udtha, 37, from Phang Nga, who is now facing charges of five counts of arson. Officers on patrol yesterday afternoon recognized Mr Sangworn, who was standing by the…
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Phuket golf prodigy Pariwat drives on
PHUKET: Pariwat Pinsawat, Phuket’s top-flight 14-year-old golfer, was in devastating form last weekend at Phuket Country Club. The youngster finished top of the leader-board at the end of the two-day event to win the PCC-Mazda Championship Cup. Not only did he lift the prestigious Amateur Cup, he also went home with a brand-new Mazda2 car after firing a hole-in-one at…
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Better care needed for Phuket’s disabled
PHUKET: Vice-Governor Nivit Aroonrat has joined other leading provincial figures in a call for better facilities for disabled people in Phuket. At a fun day for the disabled at Saphan Hin, V/Gov Nivit on Wednesday voiced his support for the event, saying such activities helped to raise awareness of the problems disabled people faced in their daily lives. He also…
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Phuket to drill for “night tsunami’
PHUKET: Those hoping for a lie in on Phuket’s west coast yesterday were disappointed when the Thai national anthem was played at 8am on all 19 of the island’s tsunami warning towers. Meanwhile, it was also revealed that the island’s first “night tsunami” evacuation drill would take place in Kamala later this month. Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM)…
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Phuket black spot claims another life
PHUKET: A woman was killed instantly on Tuesday night at the notorious entrance to the Anuphas Manorom housing estate, in front of Promphan supermarket on Chao Fa West Road. Witnesses told police that Nantawan Suebsa, 33, was waiting for traffic to clear before turning right into the estate when a Subaru sedan, driven by Niphon Itthipon, 37, crossed the center…
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Mentally handicapped man found dead in Phuket Town well
PHUKET: A mother looking to transfer her 36-year-old mentally handicapped son to a mental hospital in Surat Thani yesterday arrived at his house in Phuket Town to discover his body at the bottom of a 15-meter-deep well. Kusoldham Foundation workers told the Gazette that the man, Yodchawan Puttarakma, was to be taken to Suan Saranrom Hospital in Surat Thani yesterday…
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Rino in need
PHUKET: Despite the initial success of last week’s life-saving heart surgery, one week on, 10-year-old Rino Mangon Vogt, who suffers from Ebstein’s anomaly, received two lots of bad news, the Gazette has learned. The first came when cardiologist Dr Poomiporn Katanyuwong turned off the external pacemaker used to regulate Rino’s heartbeat and the boy collapsed into slumber. “He passed out…
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Jet-ski smash turns Phuket honeymoon into tragedy
PHUKET: A Chinese couple on their honeymoon died this morning after the jet-ski they were riding on slammed into a catamaran. Police confirmed to the Gazette that the accident occurred about 11am nearly a kilometer offshore from the bridge at the south end of Patong Beach. Zhao Qiang and his fiancee Chu Fang, both 28, suffered serious trauma to their…
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Netherlands ambassador lauds honorary consuls
PHUKET: Netherlands Ambassador to Thailand Tjaco van den Hout last night praised the work of honorary consuls, saying it was a “thankless” job requiring the consuls to be available at all hours to attend to often “grisly” affairs. “I am so happy to have a consulate here to take care of an estimated 1,500 to 1,800 Dutch residents in this…
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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