Koh Samui News
Koh Samui news, tourism, business, and nightlife—stay updated with breaking stories, local events, and expat insights from Koh Samui, Koh Phangan, and Koh Tao. Get the latest from The Thaiger, your trusted island news source.
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Phuket Property Watch: Koh Samui puts on a game face
PHUKET: War is hell. While the opinion on developing tourism often ranges from heaven to hell or somewhere in-between those luxury hotel 400 thread count fine Egyptian bed sheets (as usual I can’t help but take a quick detour off into the realms of upscale bedding). Apparently there is an ongoing controversy over thread count linen and whether the claims…
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Samui Police arrest second Hungarian suspect for Phuket Reisz murder
PHUKET: Phuket Provincial Police Commander Choti Chavalviwat has confirmed that police on Koh Samui have arrested Hungarian national Gyorgy Lajos Kvalka, wanted in connection with the murder of fellow Hungarian Peter Reisz in Phuket. “We are in contact with police there, but at this stage we are not sure when the suspect will be brought to Phuket,” Maj Gen Choti…
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Thailand News: Power restored to Samui after three-day blackout
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Power restored on Thai resort islands after three-day blackout Phuket Gazette / The Nation PHUKET: Power was finally restored to the Thai resort islands of Koh Samui and Koh Phangan early this morning after a three-day blackout prompted thousands of peak-season tourists to leave. The electricity…
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Delegation pitches Phuket ICEC review to PM Yingluck in Samui
PHUKET: A delegation from Phuket yesterday lobbied Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to review the decision by Cabinet to shelve the 2.6-billion-baht project to build an international convention and exhibition center (ICEC) in Phuket. As PM Yingluck arrived to attend the mobile Cabinet meeting on Koh Samui this morning, Boonsupaa Tanthai, president of the Rak Phuket Club (“We Love Phuket Club”),…
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Phuket Property Watch: Battle lines are drawn in Koh Samui brand quest
PHUKET: Samui and Phuket continue to be described as the Yin and Yang of resort island destinations. Characteristics that they both share are that both are islands in Thailand that champion tourism as the overall economic prosperity jackpot. But beyond the obvious, many questions remain about how much they differ. After recently completing a mid-year hotel market update for Samui,…
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Samui crash ‘will not affect tourism’
PHUKET / SURAT THANI: The chairman of the Southeastern Thai Hotel Association is confident that Tuesday’s Bangkok Airways plane crash at Samui Airport will not affect tourism on the island. Ruangnam Jaikwang said he believed ‘tourists would understand that the crash was an accident.’ The Bangkok Airways plane skidded off the runway before crashing into an old control tower. The…
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Samui Airport reopened
SAMUI / PHUKET: Samui Airport resumed operations at 2 pm today, Bangkok Airways announced in a press release. The first departing flight was Bangkok Airways PG100, which took off at 2 pm, bound for Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport. The co-pilot of the Bangkok Airways flight that crashed into an abandoned control tower yesterday afternoon remains in critical condition at Bangkok Hospital in the…
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Blood urgently needed for Samui air crash victims
PHUKET / SAMUI: Bangkok Airways is calling for blood donations of all blood types, especially from foreigners, following the crash at Samui Airport this afternoon of Bangkok Airways flight PG 266 from Krabi to Samui.The pilot was killed and a total of 34 people were seriously injured in the accident.Samui Airport has been closed following the accident. All flights to…
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Aussies, Thais dominate Samui Regatta
KOH SAMUI: Ray Roberts, the top Asian sailor for 2008, Matt Allen, Commodore of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, and Andrew Short, also from the Sydney club, have won the top prizes in the International Racing Class (IRC)1, IRC 2 and Cruising Classes, respectively, in the 7th Samui International Yacht Regatta.Roberts, a regular racer in Phuket and Thailand, and…
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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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UK student found dead on Samui
SAMUI: The policeman in charge of the investigation into the death of British tourist Catherine Horton suspects foul play may be responsible, but said that a preliminary police examination of the body revealed no signs of assault or rape. Pol Maj Thanongsak Aksornsom of the Samui District Police told the Gazette that Miss Horton ‘s body, in a black dress,…
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Samui property agent shot
KOH SAMUI: Samui property agent Gary Pearmain and his girlfriend, Sirinya Sansenao, 25, were shot and wounded by two gunmen at their house in Baan Thongkrud at about 8 pm on Thursday.Pol Maj Sompong Krutsuwan, Inspector of Samui Police Station, told the Gazette that Mr Pearmain, a British national, was shot in the left hand and chest, and K. Sirinya…
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Dulwich to open college on Samui
KOH SAMUI: David Cook, Headmaster of Dulwich International College (DIC), has announced that the international school will open a new campus on Koh Samui next year. At a meeting of property developers and agents on Koh Samui on Friday, Mr Cook said that DIC had concluded the purchase of 65 rai of land with 300 meters of road front in…
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Dulwich mulls opening school on Samui
KOH SAMUI: Dulwich International College (DIC) may open its doors on Koh Samui following a recent decision by the college’s governing body to go ahead with a feasibility study. “The study will, we hope, provide the evidence to support such a venture. The initial response from all parties has been overwhelmingly [favorable],” said DIC Headmaster, David Cook. If the study…
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Phuket, Samui property show tops expectations
HONG KONG: Contracts worth a total of more than 180 million baht for the sale of homes in Phuket and Koh Samui were signed at the second annual Phuket & Samui Property Exhibition at Hong Kong’s Convention and Exhibition Center on September 12-14. At the show, organized by Graham Doven and Artasia Press, and co-sponsored by the Phuket Gazette, Laguna…
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Samui killer ‘may be box jellyfish’
PHUKET: A scientist and a yachtsman today suggested that the seaborne killer responsible for the deaths of two tourists in waters around Koh Pha-ngan may have been a box jellyfish, reputed to be the world’s most venomous marine creature. Two tourists were killed in separate incidents earlier this month at Koh Pha-ngan, near Koh Samui, with one victim’s legs bearing…
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Tourists raped, assaulted on Koh Samui
BANGKOK (AFP): Two female tourists from Britain and Ireland were sexually assaulted on the island resort of Koh Samui, police said yesterday. Deputy Police Chief Sant Sarutanond said a search had been mounted for two Thai men suspected of raping the British national and sexually abusing the Irish tourist over the weekend. Sant said he had asked local police to…
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Tourist raped on Koh Samui
KOH SAMUI: A 26-year-old Norwegian tourist was allegedly raped by a sorng taew (local bus) driver around midnight yesterday. The woman, identified by police as Gry Slaem, told police that she had been drinking with a friend and had fallen asleep. When she woke, her friend was gone and she did not know the way back to her room at…
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Dutchman charged in Koh Samui murder
BANGKOK (AFP): Thai police investigating the strangling of an elderly Dutch woman on the southern resort island of Koh Samui said today that they have arrested a fellow Dutch national. Helmut Johan Beute, a 35-year-old from Enschede, was arrested yesterday after police found the body of 65-year-old Martha Johanna Jansen, from Haarlem, in her holiday bungalow on Saturday. She had…
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