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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5 hidden healthcare costs in Thailand and how to avoid them
Thailand's healthcare system is affordable and supported by the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) scheme, offering essential services to most citizens. However, hidden healthcare costs can surprise patients and lead to unexpected expenses. These include specialist fees, insurance gaps, emergency services,...
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FC Phuket trounce Pattani
PHUKET: FC Phuket cruised to a comfortable 3-0 victory over Pattani yesterday to solidify their status as the Division Two (southern section) league leaders. Goals from Diarra, Poramut and Sarach sealed the win as Pattani were able to offer little more than token resistance. The Southern Sea Kirin dominated early possession with the visitors struggling to string passes together. Pattani…
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Australian teacher held for sex abuse in Phuket
CHALONG, PHUKET: An Australian man has been arrested for allegedly sexually abusing a four-year-old male student at an international school in Phuket. Andrew Clements, 51, was arrested at his house in Chalong by Thalang Police at 8:15pm on Friday. The arrest came after a Thai woman told police Mr Clements abused her son in a toilet at Phuket International Academy…
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Phuket set to talk technology
PHUKET: Software Park Phuket is hosting free weekly activities for people interested in discussing and learning more about technology. The first session, on April 1, will be on using Twitter as a marketing and interpersonal communications tool. Subsequent sessions will cover Facebook, effectively using a Gmail account, protecting your PC from viruses and malware, and creating and maintaining blogs. The…
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Phuket resorts may benefit from Malaysian challenge
Phuket NEWS Hound – A daily, pocket-sized packet of news from around the world, compiled by Phuket Gazette reporters for foreigners who want it short, sharp and straight to the point. PHUKET: In defiance of the rudiments of free-market economics, Thailand’s neighbor Malaysia is raising – not lowering – room rates at its five-star hotels in order to compete more…
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Bank cards, deposits at peril in Phuket
PHUKET OPINION: Two recent fraud cases, and a third one currently under investigation by this newspaper, highlight the continuing need for personal vigilance in protecting funds deposited in local banks. Last week a Phuket supermarket cashier admitted to buying a laptop computer using a credit card belonging to none other than the chief of Kathu District, Siriphat Phathakul. [See front…
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Phuket calm as protests intensify
Phuket NEWS Hound – A daily, pocket-sized packet of news from around the world, compiled by Phuket Gazette reporters for foreigners who want it short, sharp and straight to the point. PHUKET: Thousands of opposition activists paraded through Thailand’s sprawling capital on Saturday in a bid to attract people from Bangkok’s middle classes to their anti-government campaign. Reuters reports that…
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Phuket blackout: the power of an hour
PHUKET: The dark hour is approaching when Phuket residents will join the rest of the world in turning lights off as part of Earth Hour 2010. At 8:30pm on March 27, entertainment venues and homes across the island are expected to plunge into darkness as part of the global climate change campaign. The first Earth Hour was in 2007, in…
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Update: Phuket Murder of Dr Somchai
PHUKET TOWN: Police are investigating possible connections between the murder of Dr Somchai Wongbunterng and an altercation between the victim and a group of teenagers earlier this week. Dr Somchai was gunned down outside his own clinic just after noon in Phuket Town on Thursday. Jack Mai, one of the doctor’s employees, told police that two men pulled up in…
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Phuket flooding: Mayor Pian fights back
PATONG, PHUKET: Patong Mayor Pian Keesin has launched an ambitious program of public works in a bid to prevent a repeat of the flooding that deluged Phuket’s premier resort town during last year’s monsoon season. Mayor Pian said he guaranteed that the four projects underway would be complete before the rains start this year. “I’m not saying there will be…
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Young French boy in Phuket jellyfish attack
NAI HARN, PHUKET: A four-year-old French boy is expected to make a full recovery from a jellyfish sting on Nai Harn Beach this afternoon thanks to the quick thinking of two former Phuket lifeguards. The two men, who now work as beach vendors, rushed to help Aymeric Roussel after he was pulled from the surf screaming. “We poured vinegar over…
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Phuket sea gypsies protest cemetery plans
MAI KHAO, PHUKET: Moken sea gypsies gathered at Phuket Provincial Hall on Tuesday to protest a plan to appropriate cemetery land for the construction of a new police office. Around 50 members of the Ban Laem La and Ban Hin Look Diow Moken communities voiced their discontent at the Treasury Department’s plan to grant nearly half of their public cemetery…
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Phuket tourism titans optimistic for 2010
Phuket NEWS Hound – A daily, pocket-sized packet of news from around the world, compiled by Phuket Gazette reporters for foreigners who want it short, sharp and straight to the point. PHUKET: Somboon Chirayus, president of the Phuket Tourism Association, says the island should gain more visitors this year as many airlines plan to add more charter flights into Phuket…
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Monk kills monk
PHUKET: A monk was stabbed to death after boasting that the talismans (amulets) hanging from his neck made his skin impenetrable to weapons. Phra Sunantha Phongsu-wan, 44, died in hospital earlier this month from a single stab wound to his chest. Witnesses reported that the previous evening Phra Sunantha and his friend Phra Sathien Khamphira, 55, had been at Samnak…
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Doctor gunned down in Phuket Town
PHUKET TOWN: A well known doctor was gunned down in a drive-by killing outside his own clinic in Phuket Town today. Police found the body of Dr Somchai Wongbunterng, 47, on the sidewalk outside Somchai International Clinic on Wichit Songkhram Road in Phuket Town around midday. He had been shot in the head. Phuket City Police Deputy Commander Komol Wattraporn…
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Aussie tourist on Phuket drugs rap
CHALONG, PHUKET: An Australian tourist was one of five drug suspects paraded by Chalong Police at a press conference in Phuket yesterday afternoon. Richard Beaver, 28, was allegedly caught with 0.9 grams of dry marijuana by police on Tuesday night. Mr Beaver was stopped on Soi Samakee 2 off Saiyuan Road at around 11:30pm. The tourist allegedly told police he…
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Phuket bemused as protests fizzle
Phuket NEWS Hound – A daily, pocket-sized packet of news from around the world, compiled by Phuket Gazette reporters for foreigners who want it short, sharp and straight to the point. PHUKET: The mass anti-government rally in Thailand appears to be losing steam. Tens of thousands have returned to their farms. They drew nowhere near the promised million protesters. But…
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News Hound: Protests waning, Phuket remains quiet
Phuket NEWS Hound – A daily, pocket-sized packet of news from around the world, compiled by Phuket Gazette reporters for foreigners who want it short, sharp and straight to the point. PHUKET: Protesters spilled what they say is their own blood at the gates of Thailand’s Government House late yesterday in what canada.com described as “a colourful act of political…
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Phuket’s Ironman to climb Mont Blanc – for local charity
PHUKET: Les Bird’s teeth are clenched, muscles taut and body drenched in sweat as he sprints the last leg of his training hike to the summit of Nakkerd Hill in Chalong. As he heaves off his 40 kilogram bag and glances at his watch, Les scolds himself for finishing his training hike in under an hour. “I need to slow…
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Phuket vaccination drive for cats and dogs
PHUKET : More than 100 injection centers have been set up across the island in a drive to vaccinate Phuket’s dogs and cats against rabies. The livestock office-led campaign began on February 16 and will wrap up April 28. Centers are operating daily except for weekends and public holidays. “Instances of infection in dogs seem to be on the decline,”…
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Phuket about-turn: Patong one-way to be reversed
PATONG, PHUKET: There could be a turnaround in Patong’s traffic woes by the year’s end. Mayor Pian Keesin has announced plans to redirect the one-way system in Phuket’s tourist epicenter from clockwise to anticlockwise. Newly appointed Kathu Police Superintendent Arayapan Pukbuakao said earlier this month that the current system, which came into effect in 2007, “not only confuses people but…
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Phuket NEWS Hound: Protest Updates
Phuket NEWS Hound – A daily, pocket-sized packet of news from around the world, compiled by Phuket Gazette reporters for foreigners who want it short, sharp and straight to the point. Thai Prime Minister won’t step down PHUKET: Thai PM Abhisit Vejjajiva appeared on national television yesterday to reject a demand from demonstrators that he resign by midday and call…
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Phuket tourism industry unfazed
PHUKET: The tourism industry in Phuket has not been affected by the red shirt protests in Bangkok, according to the vice president of the Phuket Tourist Association. Mr Krisada Tansakul said the island-wide hotel occupancy rate is at about 65%. “That’s good compared to the March rate last year,” he said. “Patong is faring especially well with a rate of…
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FC Phuket top of the league
PHUKET: FC Phuket are top of Division Two (southern section) after an emphatic 2-0 victory over previous league leaders Satun Utd on Saturday. Even more encouraging for FC Phuket fans – who turned out in record numbers to support their team at Surakul Stadium – was the manner of the performance, with the Sea Kirin dominating the game from start…
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Phuket red shirts determined to succeed
PHUKET: Phuket’s red shirts are determined to stay in Bangkok until the movement succeeds in bringing down the government, according to one of their leaders. Soonthorn Tohmharn, a local leader of the red-shirted United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD), said more than 10,000 southern red shirts had joined the demonstration since Friday, with more arriving today. “I told people…
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Phuket calm, but red shirts alarm Bangkok
PHUKET: The Thai government will likely enforce a state-of-emergency decree today to cope with the escalating security problem in Bangkok after tens of thousands of provincial protesters arrived in the capital yesterday. A state of emergency, which would be on top of the current implementation of the Internal Security Act (ISA), would empower the military to fully take charge of…
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Phuket caddies end protest
KATHU, PHUKET: Some 200 golf caddies at the Loch Palm golf course in Phuket have ended a two-day protest over the dismissal of their ‘caddy master’. Most are now back to work. The women, who began their sit-in protest at 4:30am on Thursday, originally insisted they would not return to work at the course in Kathu until the man was…
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Protests well underway in Bangkok
Phuket NEWS Hound – A daily, pocket-sized packet of news from around the world, compiled by Phuket Gazette reporters for foreigners who want it short, sharp and straight to the point. PHUKET: Tens of thousands of soldiers and police officers have been deployed to maintain calm in Bangkok as red-shirted protesters prepare to convert their current “rally” into demonstrations against…
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Readers’ Poll: Majority drink and drive in Phuket
PHUKET TOWN: A majority of Phuket Gazette readers have operated a motor vehicle in Phuket while under the influence of alcohol, according to the latest readers’ poll. A total of 844 readers cast votes in the survey. Overall, 36.7% of readers have driven under the influence “many times”, while just over 32% have done so “a few times”. Roughly the…
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Phuket’s Nai Harn buzzing with bikers
RAWAI, PHUKET: Nai Harn Beach was bustling with bikers last night as riders from around Phuket kicked off the first annual Nai Harn Bike Event. The two-day party welcomes all biking enthusiasts and showcases the most impressive motorcycles on the island, whether traditional or modified. Hogs on show include Harley Davidson Choppers, Fat Boys and Heritage Softails, as well as…
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Jazz dinner in Phuket: philanthropy in full swing
PHUKET: Making a special Phuket appearance, the Stockholm Jazz Orchestra hits town for two nights in the last two weeks of March. Performances are scheduled for March 20 at the Adamas Resort and Spa on Nai Yang Beach and March 27 at the Metropole Hotel in Phuket Town. The popular big band orchestra is led by founder and veteran trumpet…
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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