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.
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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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Golf match raises 400,000 baht for charity
PHUKET: The golf tournament organized by the British Business Association of Phuket (BBAP) on October 14 raised a grand total of 400,665 baht for charity, the BBAP has announced. Despite occasional heavy showers, the contest, at the Blue Canyon Country Club, drew 121 players. Of the total raised, 300,000 baht will go to the Phuket Old People’s Home for construction…
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Motorbike death rate drops sharply
PHUKET: Eight people died in traffic accidents between August 20 and September 20, according to statistics from the Wachira, Thalang and Patong government hospitals. All the victims were on motorcycles, reported Ampaipan Pawawattananusorn of the Phuket Provincial Health Office. The death-rate on motorcycles in August/September was considerably lower than the average of 14.7 a month for the first nine months…
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Most prisoners serving time for drugs
PHUKET: Violation of narcotics laws is the number one conviction for prisoners serving time in the Phuket Provincial Prison. “Drugs are by far the biggest reason most Thais and foreigners are in here,” Pairoj Pankaew, chief of the prison, told the Gazette today. “Sixty percent of the total number of inmates were convicted on drug charges. Most of them were…
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Money-laundering regulations start tomorrow
PHUKET: From tomorrow, anyone wanting to withdraw more than 2 million baht in cash from a bank account – or deposit more than that amount in cash – will have to fill in certain forms in order to comply with the Money Laundering Control Act of 1999. “This applies to cash transactions of more than 2 million baht. The purpose…
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Monk caught cavorting in guise of Army officer
BANGKOK (AFP): A Buddhist abbot caught masquerading as a well-heeled military officer was being investigated by police today after his secret life of luxury cars, bars and girls was exposed. Abbot Thammathorn Wanchai was defrocked and arrested when his illicit activities were broadcast nationwide by a television crew who had followed him for days. Their report showed him leaving his…
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Chart Pattana picks Phuket candidates
PHUKET TOWN: The Chart Pattana Party has finally chosen its candidates for Phuket’s two parliamentary seats in the coming general election. Samkhan Saengfai, managing director of PB Holdings, is to stand for Voting District 1, which covers Phuket Town apart from Tambon Rassada and Tambon Koh Kaew. K. Samkhan, Gazette readers may recall, was the man who tried to launch…
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Hostage-taker hacked to death
CHANTABURI (AFP): A man who took a child hostage at knifepoint was hacked to death yesterday with his own weapon by the boy’s enraged relatives, police said today. The unidentified man, believed to be in his 20s, was dressed only in underwear when he burst into the boy’s home, grabbed him and demanded to be driven out of the village…
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Police announce softer traffic policy
PHUKET TOWN: Although they will continue stopping those who break traffic laws, Phuket’s police say they will be more systematic about it, and will issue fewer tickets for traffic offenses than before. The new policy follows riots in the streets of Nakhon Sri Thammarat recently when motorcycle owners went on the rampage in protest against what they saw as excessively…
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Rape victim goes home
PHUKET TOWN: The Scottish rape victim, 22-year-old tourist Dawn Farmer, left Phuket yesterday for home, but police say they will stay in touch with her, and her departure will not stop them from hunting her rapist. However, Pol Lt Col Paween Pongsirin, deputy superintendent of Phuket Town Police Station, admitted that his officers are finding it hard to identify the…
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Another week of rain, says weatherman
PHUKET: The current bad weather in Phuket is likely to continue for another week as a tropical depression passes over the island, Amorn Chantanavivate, director of the Southwestern Regional Meteorological Center, said today. The rain and wind are being caused by a moderate southwest monsoon over the Andaman Sea and the southwestern coast of Thailand, he explained.
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Japanese women fight off rapists
PHUKET TOWN: Two Japanese women were nearly raped by two illegal Thai guides in the early hours of Wednesday. Usuki Sato, 27, and Soko Yakanimoto, 26, came to Phuket on Tuesday and were staying at the Panwaburi Hotel on Cape Panwa. The following day, they went out with the two Thai guides, who usually hang around the front of the…
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Swingin’ monk gets the sack
BANGKOK (AFP): An abbot at a Thai temple was forced to leave the monkhood in disgrace today after being caught carousing with a group of women in a karaoke bar. Phra Pativetviset, from the Bangkok temple Wat Sriboonruang, was banished after being captured on film during a police raid on the karaoke joint last weekend. Despite wearing a disguise of…
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Decade of inaction on twin city slammed
PHUKET TOWN: The man behind a twin-city agreement between Phuket and the French Riviera city of Nice slammed the provincial government today for ignoring the agreement for more than 10 years, causing Phuket to miss some big opportunities to learn from Nice and to attract more French visitors. Jessada Kraipusspong, former deputy managing director of Asia Voyage and Pansea Group…
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Tambons angry over slow progress in investigation
PA KHLOK: The chairman of the Phuket OrBorTor Association (POA), an umbrella organization for the island’s Tambon councils, says the POA is ready to complain to the Ministry of Interior about the slow progress made by police investigating the attempted assassination of Pa Khlok OrBorTor member and journalist Siripoj Cheechang. K. Siripoj was working to stop a local “investor” from…
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Airport limo operators slam “black’ taxis
PHUKET AIRPORT: Legitimate limousine operators fed up with illegal “black taxis” taking business from them at the airport protested today to the Phuket office of the Airports Authority of Thailand (AAT). Representatives of the Phuket Limousine and Business Service Cooperative Ltd (PBC), led by Vitoon Sae’iw, the organization’s secretary, presented the AAT with a video that they said shows the…
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Hotels reiterate refusal to pay new tax
PHUKET: The committees of the Thai Hotels Association (THA), Southern Chapter, and the Phuket Tourist Association (PTA) today announced that they will not collect hotel tax from tourists on behalf of the Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor) until the organization is able to clarify a number of issues. The refusal to collect the tax came in response to the latest…
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Lions Club raffle results
PHUKET TOWN: The Lions Club of Phuket Pearl has announced the winners of its “Smile for the Future” raffle and food fair, drawn on Saturday at Saphan Hin during the club’s annual fund-raising event. The winner of the first prize, a Nissan pick-up truck, was K. Chalermpong (ticket number 19195). Sompong Aunmettajit (ticket number 27367) won the Yamaha motorcycle, Maneerat…
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Contractor takes drastic measures to get payment
PHUKET: A building contractor was so irritated by a dispute over payment with a customer that he did some extra work around her house this morning. He nailed planks across all her doors and windows, making her a prisoner in her home with her two small children. House owner Paetai “Noi” Kaeser, 35, living at 78/392 Soi 3, Phuket Villa…
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Elephant owner sought after death crash
LAMPANG (AFP): Police in this northern Thai province were today looking for the owner of a female elephant which was in a collision with a truck, resulting in the deaths of two people. Police tracked down the elephant yesterday, a day after it collided with a fuel tanker truck while crossing a main road leading to Chiang Mai. The truck…
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Police arrest motorbike hit-man
PHUKET: A finance company employee was shot dead while on his way home at 8:20 this morning. His killer was arrested just three hours later. Pol Maj Sanya Thongsawas of Phuket Town Police Station said that the victim, Aroon Yutitham, 28, was riding his motorbike from Phuket Town to his home at 8/4 Moo 1, Tambon Wichit, and had stopped…
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Efforts to stop deadly child disease stepped up
PHUKET: The Phuket Provincial Health Office has set up protection measures at the Phuket International Airport to ensure that an epidemic in Singapore of Coxsackie B virus – better known as hand, foot and mouth disease – does not spread to Thailand. The potentially deadly disease has already spread to Malaysia, with 221 cases reported, and two deaths. In Singapore,…
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Loch Palm killer “may be psychopath’
KATHU: A leading psychiatrist says he believes that the unidentified woman found dead near the Loch Palm Golf Club on Saturday may have been murdered by a psychopath. “The damage to the victim’s body shows that the murderer may be a psychopath, and probably sadistic as well,” said Dr Chanuan Sampatanrak of Wachira Phuket Hospital. “This is a very unusual…
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Chaos reigns over park fees
PHUKET: Conflicting announcements from the Royal Forestry Department (RFD) have left tour operators and dive companies wondering just what the policy on national park entry fees is, how it will be applied, and when. On August 15, the RFD announced an increase in entry fees – for foreigners only – to 200 baht for adults and 100 baht for children.…
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Bad weather will last 3 more days
PHUKET: The island will experience strong winds and heavy rain over the next few days as a tropical depression passes over the province, Amorn Chantanavivate, the director of the Southwestern Regional Meteorological Center, said today. The current bad weather is being caused by a moderate southwest monsoon over the Andaman Sea and the southwestern coast of Thailand, he explained. Storms…
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Bangkok autopsy for murder victim
KATHU: The mutilated corpse of an unidentified woman found near the Loch Palm Golf Club on Saturday has been sent to the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Bangkok for an in-depth autopsy. “We have sent the body to the institute because no pathologist in Phuket can perform complex analysis such as DNA testing,” explained Pol Maj Tanapong Moktong of the…
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Woman found brutally murdered
TUNG TONG: The mutilated body of a woman, believed to be Thai, was found near the Loch Palm Golf Club on Saturday afternoon. Pol Capt Teerarat Choychanchaikul of the Tung Tong Police Station said the victim died of blood loss from six stab wounds – two in her stomach, one in her throat, one in an armpit, one in her…
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Four injured in early-morning crash
PHUKET TOWN: Two Korean men and two Thai men were injured in a two-car accident early yesterday morning. Pol Capt Kitipong Klaikaew of Thung Thong Sub-District Police Station said that a pick-up truck and a jeep collided on Wichitsongkram Rd, west of the Thainaan Restaurant, at 2 am. At the scene – a part of the road that locals call…
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Massive manhunt for rapist
PHUKET TOWN: The Provincial Police Office today launched a city-wide hunt for a man who raped a British tourist, Dawn Farmer, 22, on Tuesday night. They also issued a sketch of the man, drawn from a description given by the victim. Saying that the crime is “a blot on Thailand’s reputation in the tourism industry”, the head of all Thailand’s…
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Injured activist regains consciousness
PHUKET: Environmental activist Siripoj Cheechang, critically injured in what appears to be have been an assassination attempt on Wednesday morning, has regained consciousness, his doctor reported this afternoon. Dr Niran Taweekul, a neurosurgeon at Wachira Phuket Hospital, said that K. Siripoj is now in stable condition. “Last night, he was responding to us, but we can’t check his ability to…
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Activist injured, Governor slams “gangsterism”
PA KHLOK: The new Governor of Phuket has warned that he will confront gangsterism in the province after an environmental activist was critically injured in what appears to have been an assassination attempt. The activist, Siripoj Cheechang, 35, was run over by a pick-up truck that knocked him off his motorcycle, and then turned around and ran over him. Visiting…
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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