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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Woman fends off mugger in Phuket
PHUKET: A young woman last week fought off a would-be robber by biting his arm, causing the attacker to flee empty-handed down Soi Yodsane in Phuket. The incident happened around 4am on June 24 after the victim, Rhian ‘Fon’ Hartman, was leaving her job as a public relations officer at a well-known restaurant in Kathu. Ms Hartman drove on her…
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Ax murder ends World Cup dispute
NAKHON SRI THAMMARAT: A man hacked his boss to death with an ax following an argument over play in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, now into the knockout stages in South Africa. In the early hours of June 22, friends of Suwit Thongkhaha rushed the 42-year-old to hospital, but he was dead on arrival, the Thai-language newspaper Khao Sod (‘Fresh…
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Software Park Phuket ‘Tech Talk’ series for July
PHUKET: Software Park Phuket has announced its schedule of weekly ‘Tech Talk’ discussions for July: July 1: ‘Worry-free, legal-licensed, free open source business software‘, by LisAndi (English presentation with Thai translation). July 8: ‘Get to know Google Docs’ by Phuket Innovation Incubation Center, Software Park Phuket (Thai presentation with English slides, no translation). July 15: ‘CAT CDMA 3G: Wireless technology…
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Phuket flights: Air Bagan to Burma?
Phuket NEWS Hound – A daily digest of news from around the world compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community. World Cup? Get instantaneous scores and news updates right here on the Gazette Online (fed directly from FIFA). PHUKET: Myanmar’s two private airlines have announced plans to purchase new aircraft to service new routes, including Phuket, in time for…
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Dengue Fever spreading in Phuket
PHUKET: The number of dengue fever cases in Phuket is soaring, according to the Phuket Provincial Public Health Office (PPHO). PPHO Director Narinrach Pichyakamin said figures released by the PPHO at a meeting of public health volunteers on June 17 showed 213 cases of dengue fever in Phuket from January 1 to June 12 this year. The initial target for…
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Something’s getting fishy in Phuket
PHUKET: Faced with high-tech detection technology and sniffer dogs, drug smugglers are resorting to stashing methamphetamine pills inside containers of fermented fish (pla raa) in an effort to hide their smell from authorities, Phuket Police say. Chalong Police held a press conference yesterday afternoon to announce the arrest of four suspects for possession of methamphetamine pills, known in Thailand as…
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Phuket Police squash meth ring
PHUKET: Phuket City Police have arrested a boyfriend-girlfriend team of major drug suppliers, seizing over 6,000 ya bah (methamphetamine) pills in the process. Also arrested in the operation were several dealers working for the couple and some of their customers. The busts were announced at a press conference at Phuket City Police Station yesterday morning. Phuket Police Commander Pekad Tantipong…
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Thailand prepares for earthquakes
Phuket NEWS Hound – A daily digest of news from around the world compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community. World Cup? Get instantaneous scores and news updates right here on the Gazette Online (fed directly from FIFA). PHUKET: Pic caption: NREM Minister Suwit Khunkitti called on the public not to panic as Thailand is not situated near major…
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Phuket Music Festival starts tonight
PHUKET: This evening marks the first night of the second annual Phuket Music Festival, an all-night full moon party on Karon Beach. Morakot Suddee, Director of the Tourism Authority of Thailand’s events promotion division, said the free-admission event will be very similar to the inaugural Roy Fest held in the same location last year, but with a wider variety of…
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Porsches powering to Phuket
PHUKET: Competing for our attention with the omnipresent drone of vuvuzela horns over the next few days will be the sound of 25 Porsche touring cars, now on their way from Singapore and due to arrive in Phuket tomorrow. The drivers, members of the Porsche Club Singapore (PCS), are today on a rally leg from Haad Yai to Krabi, where…
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Phuket Events: Yacht racing dominates
Phuket NEWS Hound – A daily digest of news from around the world compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community. World Cup? Get instantaneous scores and news updates right here on the Gazette Online (fed directly from FIFA). PHUKET: The third SEA Property International Phuket Multihull Championship will take place July 16-18 in the Chalong Bay area. This increasingly…
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Work underway on Patong Hill flooding problem
PHUKET: After almost daily flooding, work is now underway on a ‘permanent solution’ to the chronic drainage problem on the low-lying stretch of Patong Hill road where sinkholes have formed in the past. For our previous reports, click here and here. The Phuket Provincial Highway Department and Patong Municipality are joining forces and funds to complete the 5-million-baht project which…
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Murdered woman’s corpse found on Phuket roadside
PHUKET: A man on his commute to work made a gruesome discovery this morning, finding the rotting corpse of a woman stuffed into a suitcase and deposited along Chao Fa Thani Road, behind the new Honda Showroom on Chao Fa West northbound in Wichit. The discovery was made at 9:15am by 35-year-old Prasit Klaigate, an employee of the VSN Service…
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Australian dies in Phuket hotel room
PHUKET: Kathu Police are still uncertain what caused the death of an Australian man in his Patong apartment yesterday. A Kathu Police duty officer identified the body as that of 40-year-old Jamie Thomas Trow. A friend of the deceased, identified only as ‘Mr Eric’, discovered Mr Trow’s body in his second-floor room at the upscale BYD Lofts serviced apartments on…
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Airport baggage thieves bagged
PHUKET: Two baggage staff at Phuket Airport are to be charged with theft after allegedly stealing two cellphones from an Australian tourist’s luggage yesterday. When Bret Drinkwater arrived at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok aboard a Thai Airways flight, he noticed his iPhone and Nokia cellphone were missing from his bag. After he informed police in Bangkok, at around 4pm, they…
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Phuket to host travel congress
Phuket NEWS Hound – A daily digest of news from around the world compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community. World Cup? Get instantaneous scores and news updates right here on the Gazette Online (fed directly from FIFA). PHUKET: The Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) will hold its 59th Annual Travel Congress (convention and exhibition) in Phuket, from…
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Aussie death plunge in Phuket likely an accident
PHUKET: The expat operators of a Patong hotel have dismissed local media reports suggesting that an Australian man who plunged three floors to his death on the morning of June 10 took his own life following a World Cup dispute with a Thai girlfriend. The death was most likely accidental, they said. According to one media report, 29-year-old Shawn Morris…
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Chalong Police arrest murder suspect
PHUKET: Police have arrested a man wanted for shooting dead an 18-year-old student on Wiset Road in Rawai last week. Chalong Police led by Superintendent Wichit Intorrasorn held a press conference yesterday afternoon to announce the arrest of Thaweesak Sukprasit, 29, who was arrested by police at his home in Chalong Village 7 on Sunday. Also known by the alias…
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Aussies like it overseas
Phuket NEWS Hound – A daily digest of news from around the world compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community. World Cup? Get instantaneous scores and news updates right here on the Gazette Online (fed directly from FIFA). PHUKET: Australians, a top tourism market for Phuket, are taking one less holiday at home each year, and are being enticed…
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Phuket Poll: Patong City sign
PHUKET: Work is underway on a 9-million-baht project to create a large welcome sign on Patong Hill, at the border between Patong and Kathu municipalities. The project, funded under the Thai Khem Kaeng (Strong Thailand) financial stimulus package, has drawn criticism from some quarters. What do you think? Have your say in the latest Phuket Gazette readers’ poll by clicking…
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Vice Governor Nivit back in Phuket
PHUKET: New Phuket Vice Governor Nivit Aroonrat is on the job as of today, June 21. V/Gov Nivit comes to Phuket from Sukhothai, where he served as provincial vice governor for almost a year. The 59-year-old native of Phuket brings 35 years of public service experience to the job. He is taking over the position from departing Vice Gov Smith…
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Swede dies in Phuket stairwell fall
PHUKET: A Swedish man died over the weekend of injuries sustained from falling down a flight of stairs at a Phuket apartment block. Chalong Police and rescue workers from the Phuket Ruamjai Kupai Foundation were notified of the death at 11:30am on Saturday. Arriving at the six-story Kata Residence apartments on Patak Road, they found the body of 53-year-old Per…
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Another road death in Phuket
PHUKET: A Phang Nga man was killed in a motorbike accident near the entrance to the Phuket Shooting Range early Friday morning. Chalong Police identified the driver as 28-year-old Nopparat Yodying, a resident of Tambon Baan Muang, Takuapa District. Initial police investigations showed that Mr Nopparat was unable to stop when a Honda sedan in front of him slowed down…
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Phuket, Chiang Mai launch “exchange tourism’
PHUKET: A 100-strong party of Chiang Mai businessmen, entrepreneurs and government officials will arrive on Phuket on July 4 for a three-day inspection visit with the aim of promoting tourist travel between Phuket and Chiang Mai, and to foster better relations between the tourism businesses of the two holiday destinations. The exchange tourism project was announced yesterday at a meeting…
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Love in Phuket: Thai-foreigner marriages that fail
PHUKET: Thai-foreigner relationships accounted for well over half of all contested divorces in Phuket last year, according to the new chief justice of the Phuket Provincial Juvenile and Family Court (PPJFC). Chief Justice Methinee Thipmonthian said at a press conference earlier this month that in 2009 there were 24 Thai-foreigner divorces contested in Phuket, out of a total 36 cases…
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Abandoned Chinese tourists cry foul in Phuket
CHALONG, PHUKET: A Chinese tour guide is being held in Chalong Police Station after bringing 11 of his countrymen on vacation to Phuket and then abandoning them. The tourists reportedly paid Bo Yang, 31, a total of almost a quarter of a million baht to accompany them from Shanghai on a week-long trip to Bangkok and Phuket. When they awoke…
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Aussie fraudster’s Phuket vacation cut short
KATHU, PHUKET: A young Australian tourist is facing deportation from Thailand after falsely claiming that she had been robbed in order to claim on her insurance, police in Phuket said. Patong Police said the 20-year-old college student told them that two young men on a motorbike had snatched her bag in Patong yesterday. But on questioning, it emerged that the…
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Phuket Music Festival returns
Phuket NEWS Hound – A daily digest of news from around the world compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community. World Cup? Get instantaneous scores and news updates right here on the Gazette Online (fed directly from FIFA). PHUKET: The Phuket Music Festival will take place next weekend, June 25-26, the Bangkok Post reminds us. Hosted by the Tourism…
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Phuket Property at awesome prices
Phuket NEWS Hound – A daily digest of news from around the world compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community. World Cup? Get instantaneous scores and news updates right here on the Gazette Online (fed directly from FIFA). PHUKET: Trends in property prices in Phuket have not been easy to discern since the end of the “boom” began to…
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Recovery with a spark in Phuket
PHUKET: Freer Richardson, better known to his many Phuket friends as ‘Sparky’, has spent the better part of three months in the government’s Vachira Hospital. He is recovering from surgery that has prevented him from walking. Because he has spent all his available cash on this medical treatment, many of his waking hours are spent wishing for a laptop computer…
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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