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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Fever kills 138 water buffaloes in Phang Nga
PHUKET: More than 138 water buffaloes in the Thai Muang and Takuapa Districts of Phang Nga Province have died from hemorrhagic septicemia, known locally as “swollen neck fever”. Health officials in the province have declared an epidemic and all cattle and buffalo slaughterhouses in the two districts have been closed for at least 30 days.The disease, which normally occurs at…
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Trial of Brit’s killer to begin in December
KRABI: The Krabi Provincial Court will begin hearing testimony in the murder trial of motorcycle taxi driver Uthane Douangnoi in December. Uthane is accused of murdering Briton Richard Mark Collins on March 8 last year (see earlier story here). A clerk at the Krabi Provincial Court told the Gazette today that the hearing would likely carry on well into 2007.…
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PYC avoids closure
AO YON: An extraordinary meeting of Phuket Yacht Club (PYC) members on January 22 has staved off the threat of the club’s closure due to financial woes.PYC Commodore David Ratcliffe told the Gazette, “The PYC will continue to operate at its current premises for at least another three years.”He explained that the club had suffered a fall in revenue following…
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Big Phi Phi meeting makes small progress
KOH PHI PHI DON: Some 200 local people attended a meeting on Saturday with Deputy Prime Minister Suwat Liptapanlop and a passel of senior government officials. They were hoping for solutions to many tsunami-related problems, especially an end to the ban on building permanent structures, but came away shaking their heads in disappointment at the continuing lack of progress.Phankam Kitithorakul,…
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Cheating alleged in OrBorJor exams
PHUKET: Seven people are under investigation for allegedly using high technology to cheat in an examination to select officials to work for the Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor). The OrBorJor announced last October that it was seeking to fill eight clerical posts. Some 2,000 people applied, and examinations took place on Saturday at Phuket Wittayalai School in two sessions –…
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Air traffic down sharply in 2005
PHUKET: Reflecting the sharp downturn in tourism following the tsunami, international passenger traffic through Phuket International Airport fell 54.4% in 2005.The latest statistics from Phuket International Airport show that the number of international passengers using the airport, both for arriving and departing flights, dropped from 2,024,879 in 2004 to 923,440 last year.Domestic passenger traffic through the airport fell 20.5%, from…
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Irishman dies in motorcycle crash
NAKALAY: Paul Dooley from County Cork in the Republic of Ireland died of head injuries at around 2 am on Wednesday, January 18, after a motorcycle crash on the Kalim-Kamala road, near the Thavorn Beach Village & Spa. He was 27.Hélène Fallon-Wood, the Irish Honorary Consul in Phuket, told the Gazette that Mr Dooley had been living in Kamala for…
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Tour of Siam reaches Phuket
PHUKET: Hong Kong National team cyclist Wu Kin San won the sixth stage of the Sang Som Tour of Siam 2006 yesterday, by cycling the 154.5 kilometers from the Khao Lak Merlin Resort to Saphan Hin in 3 hours, 20 minutes and 56 seconds. He ranks 18th overall.The Tour, which started January 15, consists of seven stages over a total…
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Strange double death in Thalang
THALANG: Arun Sukbunpan, 43, a former manager of the Yacht Haven marina, was found dead on Wednesday night, having apparently taken his own life with a shotgun blast to the head.K. Arun’s 78-year-old landlady and close neighbor, Wouba Saharak, died upon learning of the suicide. The exact cause of her death has not yet been ascertained.Pol Capt Seksan Kamsakorn told…
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17-year-old “kills brother-in-law’
RASSADA: A 28-year-old gardener was allegedly stabbed to death by his brother-in-law during a drunken fight between the two at about 10:30 on Sunday night. Pol Maj Parichat Jaturonphan of the Phuket City Police said witnesses told him that a fight broke out between the two men while they were drinking with friends in front of the home they shared…
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Massive facelift planned for Saphan Hin
PHUKET: The Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor) has called on private investors to join it in developing an 80-rai plot of land at Saphan Hin into a new commercial complex to be called Saphan Hin Park.OrBorJor President Anchalee Vanich-Thepabutr explained to the Gazette that the organization owns the land at Saphan Hin stretching from the triangle at the Phuket Vocational…
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Ao Yon sailing club faces closure
AO YON: David Ratcliffe, Commodore of the Phuket Yacht Club, has called a special meeting of members this Sunday, starting at 2:30 pm, in the hope of staving off the club’s closure due to financial woes.Mr Ratcliffe explained in a email to members, “Your presence is urgently required. The subject of discussion will be the future of the Club. At…
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TAT to push THAI for more direct flights
LAGUNA PHUKET: Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) Governor Juthamas Siriwan today stepped into the lions’ den – a room at the Sheraton Grande Laguna Phuket filled with hoteliers and property industry figures.Many of them have in the past been less than impressed with the TAT’s support for the tourism industry in the tsunami-hit provinces, some vocally so.But K. Juthamas came…
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Missing yacht found adrift
PHUKET: The 12.5-meter yacht Wado Ryu, which went missing from the anchorage off Koh Racha Yai on Friday, was located this afternoon, drifting in waters about 50 kilometers south of Phuket.The yacht was spotted by another on its way to the Red Sea. The French crew of that yacht radioed the Wado Ryu‘s position to the Phuket-based Mobile Maritime Network,…
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Spate of burglaries in Cherng Talay
CHERNG TALAY: Police are warning foreign residents with expensive homes to take greater security measures following a wave of burglaries that has seen some homes broken into as many as five times.Cherng Talay Police Deputy Superintendent Pol Lt Col Suwat Kaewphrom told the Gazette today that there had been continuing reports of burglaries, but that the incidence of the break-ins…
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Samui killers get death sentence
SURAT THANI: Wichai “Loh” Somkhaoyai, 24, and Bualoi Kosit, 23, the two men who confessed to raping and murdering 21-year-old Welsh student Katherine Horton on Koh Samui on the night of January 1, have been sentenced to death by the Surat Thani Provincial Court.At an earlier hearing on January 13, both pleaded guilty to rape-murder charges under sections 276 and 277 of…
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Gov urges action to avert water crisis
PHUKET CITY: Phuket Governor Udomsak Uswarangkura has urged the Phuket Irrigation Office (PIO) and the Phuket Waterworks Office (PWO) to ensure there is enough mains water to meet demand in 2006, when an expected five million tourists are expected to push dry-season supplies to the limit.Speaking at the monthly “Governor Meets the Press” conference at Phuket Provincial Hall yesterday morning,…
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Yacht missing from Racha Yai anchorage
KOH RACHA: A yacht sailing Phuket’s waters has disappeared, believed stolen, while the crew were having supper ashore on Koh Racha Yai on Friday. The yacht is the Wado Ryu, a white-hulled 12.5-meter sloop. The name of the yacht is painted in large letters along the hull. She is registered in Germany. Pumo Stappelton, the boat’s skipper, told the Gazette…
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Amnesty slams death sentence call
BANGKOK (The Nation): Amnesty International Thailand (AIT) yesterday supported the mother of murdered British student Katherine Horton, who has said she does not want to see her daughter’s killers executed.The alleged killers, Bualoi Kosit, 23, and Wichai Somkhaoyai, 24, who are due to be sentenced tomorrow at Surat Thani Provincial Court, face the possibility of execution for raping and murdering…
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Blood supplies running low
PHUKET CITY: Stocks of O-type blood – both negative and positive – on the island have dropped to alarming levels, prompting Somchay Chodchasiri, President of the Phuket Blood Donor Club, based at Vachira Phuket Hospital, to put out an urgent call for more donors.“We have nearly run out of supplies in Phuket,” he told the Gazette today. “Operations are sometimes…
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Victim’s mother “does not want killers executed’
CARDIFF, UK: The mother of Katherine Horton, raped and murdered on a beach on Koh Samui on New Year’s Day, does not want her daughter’s killers to be executed, a British newspaper has reported.The News of the World quoted Elizabeth Horton as saying that Bualoi Kosit, 23, and Wichai Somkhaoyai, 24, should instead spend the rest of their lives behind…
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Four held for credit card forgery
PHUKET: Four people were arrested yesterday on charges of possessing forged credit cards.The four are Tanapol Detpalit, 45, from Ang Thong Province, Ubonrat Pinket, 47, from Ayudhaya, Pornpan Poolpakdee, 25, from Phuket, and Wong Mun Bin, 27, from Malaysia.At a press conference, Deputy Commissioner of the Central Investigation Bureau Pol Maj Gen Suchat Muankaew explained, “They were arrested at a…
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Horton killers to be sentenced Wednesday
SURAT THANI: Wichai “Loh” Somkhaoyai, 24, and Bualoi Kosit, 23, the two men accused of raping and murdering 21-year-old Welsh student Katherine Horton on Koh Samui on the night of January 1, appeared in court here today. Both pleaded guilty to rape-murder charges under sections 276 and 277 of the Thai Penal Code, which stipulates either life imprisonment or the…
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B253m budget approved for Phuket tourism
PHUKET: The Cabinet has allocated a 253-million-baht budget to Phuket for the development of tourism in 2006, the Governor’s Office announced yesterday.Krabi received 284 million baht and Phang Nga 252 million for the same purpose.Phuket had proposed several projects requiring additional funding that were turned down by the central government, including two major efforts: burying power cables along the beachfront…
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MoI to consider Thai nationality for 2,000 people
PHUKET: The Ministry of Interior (MoI) has set a deadline of January 20 for Governors of tsunami-affected provinces to submit applications for Thai nationality from an estimated 2,180 people who may qualify for nationality but who have not yet applied.The estimate was arrived at after research conducted by local officials in June last year, as part of a drive to…
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Get your smart card: Mayor
PHUKET CITY: Phuket City Municipality is now offering “smart card” ID cards, providing citizens with a replacement for old identification cards. Phuket City Mayor Somjai Suwannasuppana, explained at a press conference yesterday, “People who have a valid ID card can request a smart card by submitting their existing ID card and a copy of their house registration. “A 40-baht fee…
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Monorail project would cost B20bn – consultant
PHUKET: A consultant to the Phuket Provincial Government said today that his company estimates that a proposed monorail light rail transit (LRT) system linking Phuket International Airport and Phuket City would cost 20 billion baht.Krai Tungsanga, President of Pyramid Development International Co (PDI), explained that a feasibility study into the LRT proposal began in October last year and will continue…
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Horton killers “had watched porn movie’
KOH SAMUI (The Nation, Phuket Gazette): The two fishermen who have confessed to raping and killing 21-year-old Welsh student Katherine Horton were drunk and had been watching a pornographic movie before swimming ashore to find a victim, the Deputy Police Commissioner, Region 8, Pol Maj Gen Santhan Chayanon, said yesterday.“They said they intended to find a woman to have sex…
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OrBorJor office broken into
PHUKET: The Division of Finance at the Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor) building was broken into over the weekend.Wannee Supradit, Director of the Division of Finance, told the Gazette that some OrBorJor officers work during weekends and that, on Sunday, she went to work earlier than usual because of a heavy workload.She said she noticed nothing untoward until a fellow…
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Property sales taxes topped B1bn in 2005
PHUKET: The Phuket Provincial Land Office (PPLO) collected 1.1 billion baht in property taxes and fees in 2005.The tax gathered has soared recently, thanks to booming land prices and sales of homes in property developments. By comparison, PPLO statistics show that the province collected 370 million baht from land and property sales in 2003, and 932 million baht in 2004.PPLO…
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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