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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DSI reaches out to scammed rubber investors
PHUKET: The Department of Special Investigation (DSI) has set up a desk at Phuket City Police Station to accept complaints from victims of an “investment company” thought to have defrauded some 5,000 southerners of more than 150 million baht.Thanin Prempri, head of the DSI Phuket investigation team, told the Gazette that Amorn-ake Petluechai and two associates of his Khon Kaen-based…
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Navy accepting donations for cyclone relief
CAPE PANWA: The Royal Thai Navy Third Naval Command at Cape Panwa is accepting donations of food and equipment to provide emergency relief for victims of Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar. Appropriate items for donation include florescent strip lights and fittings, corrugated iron, canvas and tarpaulin for tents, dried and canned food, rice and drinking water. The donations will be taken to…
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Young Turks win Phuket City election
PHUKET CITY: Incumbent Phuket City Mayor Somjai Suwannasuppana was re-elected by a comfortable margin on Sunday, garnering 10,657 votes (57.4%) vs just 7,910 (42.6%) votes for her rival Ayuth Tansiriroj, leader of the Chao Baan Sarng San (Creative Village People) party.In a remarkable outcome in voting for regular council seats, it was a clean sweep for members of Somjai’s Khon Noom…
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Phuket Senators not short of spare change
BANGKOK: Phuket Senator Thanyarat Atchariyachai and her husband K. Pamuke have combined assets totaling just under 1.7 billion baht, according to asset declaration statements posted by the National Counter Corruption Commission (NCCC) on its website on May 8.K. Thanyarat declared assets totaling more than 684 million baht, while her husband K. Pamuke, managing director of the Kata Group, declared assets…
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Thai AirAsia sets up Myanmar donation stations
BANGKOK: Thai AirAsia announced this afternoon that it is offering aid to cyclone victims in Myanmar by carrying public donations to Yangon. The airline has set up collection points in all the destinations it flies to, including Phuket. Tassapon Bijleveld, chief executive officer of Thai AirAsia, said that the airline wants to make sure that donations such as food, clothing,…
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Ao Phuket project given top-level green light
PHUKET: The government of Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej has given the green light to the Ao Phuket development plan, a 100-billion-baht megaproject on 3,000 rai of reclaimed land that would include a convention center, marina and other facilities. The latest movement in the Ao Phuket plan, first conceived over two decades ago, follows from PM Samak’s assigning responsibility for the…
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Police hunt suspected tsunami coffin thieves
PHANG NGA (Kom Chad Luek): Takuapa District Police are on the lookout for two former cemetery workers who confessed to stealing 11 70-kilogram coffins worth an estimated 400,000 baht from a storage facility at Bang Maruan Cemetery. Cemetery manager Nitinai Sornsongkram, 54, filed a report with Takuapa Police on April 27 after discovering that 11 of 40 coffins, which were…
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Tour guide, 31, dies of “heart attack’
RASSADA: Police have cited heart failure as the probable cause of death of a man found dead in his Rassada apartment on May 2.Phuket City Police duty officer Lt Salan Reedeng said his station was alerted after security staff at Building 3 of the Rassada National Housing Authority apartment complex reported a foul odor coming from a fifth-floor apartment.Arriving about…
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Myanmar relief efforts underway
BANGKOK: With the death toll in Myanmar now feared to be more than 100,000, a number of aid organizations have started relief efforts in the hardest-hit areas. World Vision is reporting that it is already providing clothing as well as tarpaulins, blankets, rice and drinking water in the capital, Yangon. As of yesterday, World Vision had delivered 34.8 metric tons…
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Plodprasop flames NDWC’s effectiveness
CAPE PANWA: Dr Plodprasop Surasawadee, assistant minister of the Prime Minister’s Office, today likened the status of Thailand’s National Disaster Warning Center (NDWC) to that of an “abandoned toilet”.His scathing remark was made at the opening of a three-day convention on coral reef research and management at the Phuket Aquarium.As a former director of the NDWC, he said he would…
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Police chief warns drivers of cellphone ban
PHUKET: Phuket Provincial Police Chief Maj Gen Decha Budnampetch today warned motorists that they have until May 19 to break the habit of talking on a mobile phone without using a hands-free set while driving – or face being fined.Although the new law comes into effect tomorrow, Gen Decha said that local police will not fine motorists for breaking the…
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Eight nabbed in Cherng Talay drug-ring bust
PHUKET: Cherng Talay Police have arrested eight people on drugs charges, Phuket Provincial Police Commander Maj Gen Decha Budnampeth announced yesterday. Cherng Talay Police arrested Prasit Waharak, 31, from Phang Nga, in possession of ya bah (methamphetamine) in a sting operation at the Bang Tao weekend market, he explained. After questioning Prasit, the officers arrested Thanongsak Phromdech, 32, from Nakhon…
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Phuket braces for stormy weather
PHUKET CITY: The Phuket office of the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM) has warned of the risk of landslides, flooding and strong seas in Phuket due to Cyclone Nargis.Myanmar state television earlier today reported that Cyclone Nargis had claimed 21,793 lives and that 40,695 people were missing in Irrawaddy division alone.DDPM-Phuket Chief Chotenarin Kerdsom said that waves have…
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Newborn found in hospital car park
PHUKET CITY: A newborn boy was discovered yesterday morning in the back of a pickup truck in the car park of Bangkok Hospital Phuket. Doctors believe he had been abandoned the night before. Dr Nat Tantipipat of Bangkok Hospital Phuket discovered the baby, wrapped in a towel and a blanket and placed in a red basket in the back of…
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Dead turtle highlights endangered species’ plight
PHUKET (TNA, Gazette): The discovery of a dead Olive Ridley turtle in front of the West Sands Resort on Mai Khao Beach on March 17 has again raised the issue of coastal development depleting endangered turtles’ natural breeding grounds.The Phuket Marine Biological Center (PMBC) at Cape Panwa was alerted to the discovery by the Mai Khao Marine Turtle Foundation.Sontaya Manawatthana…
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Coral Reef Squadron red-flagged
PHUKET CITY: The sinking of 10 decommissioned military aircraft – nicknamed the Coral Reef Squadron – to create Thailand’s largest artificial reef has been postponed until November, Tourism Authority of Thailand South Region 4 Office Director Suwalai Pinpradub announced today.Speaking at a press conference this afternoon, K. Suwalai said that the strong winds and large waves that have arrived with…
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Investigation launched into “stolen’ tsunami victims’ coffins
PHANG NGA (Kom Chad Luek): Grave robbery has taken on a disturbing new form in Takuapa, where 11 aluminum coffins intended for tsunami victims were recently reported missing from a storage facility at Bang Maruan Cemetery.In mid-April, cemetery manager Nitinai Sornsongkram, who is responsible for inventory of tsunami victims’ remains and government property at the cemetery, noticed that 11 of…
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Kowsurat, celebrities to host aircraft reef festivities
LAYAN BEACH: Tourism and Sports Minister Weerasak Kowsurat and several Thai TV celebrities on Monday will lead activities to mark the sinking of 10 decommissioned military aircraft to form an artificial reef.Although sinking of the aircraft began today, Monday was chosen as the final day because it is Coronation Day, a public holiday marking HM King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s ascension to…
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Hotel owner dies in paramotor accident
NAKHON SRI THAMMARAT (The Nation): Suwit Kitkamchai, owner of the Patong Pearl Resortel on Sawasdirak Rd in Patong, died on Wednesday when his paramotor rig plunged into the sea during a test flight off the coast of Nakhon Sri Thammarat. He was 53.The death was reported to Nakhon Sri Thammarat police Inspector Lt Col Boonchern Choosuehung by staff at Maharaj Hospital,…
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Job Fair marks Labor Day
SAPAN HIN: Hundreds of people turned out to apply for jobs yesterday morning at a job fair to mark International Labor Day.The fair was organized by the Governor’s Office and the Phuket Provincial Employment Service Office.More than 30 companies sent representatives to meet job seekers, who perused noticeboards advertising more than 1,000 job vacancies in Phuket and Phang Nga.Many of…
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Bogus cop busted in extortion case
CHALONG: In the second crime of its type reported in less than a month, police arrested a Thai man for impersonating a police officer in a bid to extort money from a construction project employing unregistered Burmese workers.Capt Arthid Sue-sattabongkot of Phuket Provincial Special Branch (Santiban) Police told the Gazette that construction foreman Santi Nasang, who is overseeing a project…
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Body washes ashore in Rawai
RAWAI: Police are working to determine the identity of a man whose naked body was found on Laem Kha Noi Beach on Sunday morning.Inspector Lt Ratthaket Munmuang of Chalong Police Station told the Gazette; “We believe he had been dead for more than 24 hours before his body was found. There is a tattoo on his right shoulder in a language…
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Digital Gazette enters ‘fast lane’
PHUKET: Readers of the Digital Gazette may now enjoy far greater download and handling speeds as the result of enhancements to the system used in delivering the product. The publishers announced this morning that it is no longer necessary to use the Digital Gazette Browser. Existing subscribers can simply delete (“uninstall”) it. Sign-up, download and file response speeds have been…
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Speedboat pirates raid Thai tanker
CAPE PANWA: A fuel tanker on its way to Phuket was boarded by six masked men in the Singapore Strait early Friday morning, the pirates making off with more than half-a-million baht in goods stolen from the vessel and its crew.News of the incident was reported to the Phuket City Police soon after the tanker, Patara Varin 2, reached the…
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Thai PM says Phuket needs urgent “rehabilitation’
BANGKOK (The Nation): Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej said on his weekly Sunday morning radio show yesterday that Phuket needs urgent “rehabilitation” and development projects.The prime minister said he had received direct complaints from local businessmen that the central government had not done enough to “rehabilitate” the province, which has been “exploited” for tourism.The prime minister said he would soon hold a meeting…
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Patong illegal logging camp raided
PATONG: More than 20 forest protection officers yesterday afternoon raided an illegal logging operation high in the hills south of Patong, but the handful of workers caught by surprise at the site all managed to flee the scene.Panumet Dam-orn, who heads the Phuket-based Forest Protection Unit 2, ordered the raid after aerial surveillance of the area on Wednesday.The site is…
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Two held in death of Vietnamese woman
PATONG: After handing themselves in to Kathu Police on Monday, two Thai men are being held at Phuket Provincial Prison on charges of “causing death during an affray” of a Vietnamese woman whose body was discovered lying in a klong last week.Kathu Police Superintendent Col Grissak Songmoonnak told the Gazette that the men allegedly confessed to killing 37-year-old Tran Thi Mung,…
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New OrBorJor council awaits approval
PHUKET CITY: Unconfirmed results from last Sunday’s Phuket Administration Organization (OrBorJor) elections saw the upstart Khon Baan Rao party, led by former senator Paiboon Upatising, sweep into power by winning seats in 16 of 24 voting precincts in Phuket.Seven candidates running under the Democrat Party banner also won seats, along with one independent candidate. All of the following official results…
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Divers help out on Earth Day
PHUKET: More than 100 people took part in beach and underwater cleanups on Tuesday as part of Earth Day activities held on and around the island.In addition to the Royal Thai Navy, private companies took part in the cleanups on the beach and in the sea at Koh Racha Noi and Koh Racha Yai.“More than 30 people were on our…
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Dog groomer arrested for cat burgling
PHUKET CITY: Phuket City police have arrested a serial thief charged with breaking into 14 homes in Wichit and Chalong during a crime spree that began in mid-2007.Police Superintendent Col Nos Svettalekha and Lt Col Wijak Tarom identified the suspect as 31-year-old Noppakhun Chatchawech, a resident of Chalong Village 4.Noppakhun, who by day worked grooming dogs at a pet shop in Phuket…
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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