Search Results for: cat
- Phuket News
Dugong doing well
CAPE PANWA: A dugong found injured and stranded at the edge of Klong Pa Khlok on March 5 has an 80% chance of survival, according to experts at the Phuket Marine Biological Center (PMBC) who have been treating her. PMBC biologist Kongkiat Kittiwattawong, told the Gazette that the young dugong will probably need to spend another 12 months at the…
- Phuket News
Entertainment venues still in limbo
PHUKET CITY: Wisut Romin, Deputy Secretary of the Phuket Provincial Administration Office (PPAO) told the Gazette yesterday that he is still waiting for the Ministry of Interior to set the fees for entertainment licenses, despite 50% of renewals having already been granted. More than 170 licensees in Phuket are now waiting to see just how much they will have to…
- Phuket News
Gov suggests Koh Maphrao for ICEC site
PHUKET: Phuket Governor Udomsak Usawarangura has suggested Koh Maphrao as an alternative location for the proposed Phuket International Convention and Exhibition Center (ICEC) as a way to break a stalemate between the government in Bangkok and local people over where the mega-project should be sited. Speaking with the Gazette at his office, Gov Udomsak said that the island, located about…
- Phuket News
Confusion over tourist visas on arrival
BANGKOK: Pol Col Chalermpong Vadhanasukha, the Deputy Superintendent of Immigration Division 3, has verified that foreigners may receive more than three consecutive tourist visas on arrival. Col Chalermpong clarified the issue after it was raised by a Gazette reader who was concerned that such a regulation was about to be enforced. The reader told the Gazette that he had learned…
- Phuket News
Anchalee outlines OrBorJor policy
PHUKET CITY: The new Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor) President Anchalee Vanich-Thepabutr said today that education, tourism development and quality-of-life issues need to be urgently addressed in order to bring about sustainable development in Phuket. In her first full day in her new job, she singled out education as the most pressing issue, saying that the national government’s decision to…
- Phuket News
Star Cruises denies terrorism caused suspension
PHUKET: Star Cruises today denied that its suspension of all cruises from Singapore to Phuket was the result of fears of terrorist attacks, following the violence in southern Thailand on April 28. Ariya Noongan, Executive Sales Officer at Star Cruises in Bangkok, today told the Gazette that the Star Cruises head office in Singapore decided “last month” to suspend the…
- Phuket News
TAT moves to calm tourist fears
PHUKET: The Phuket Gazette today obtained the following advice to the travel industry from the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), following the violence in the deep south of Thailand that saw 107 people killed in violent clashes on April 28. The Tourism situation in South Thailand 1. The disturbances are over and the situation is under control by the Thai…
- Phuket News
Still no action on Rawai Beach vendors
RAWAI: The saga of the moving of the beachfront stalls at Rawai seems no closer to an end following an announcement yesterday by Rawai Tambon Administration Organization (OrBorTor) President Arun Sorot that the amount of land required for the project is still being calculated. Rawai OrBorTor says it plans to move 14 of the vendors’ stalls – those belonging to…
- Phuket News
Bus station shopkeepers resist eviction
PHUKET CITY: Teerayuth Prasertphol, Chief of the Phuket Provincial Transportation Office (PPTO), today filed for police to arrest shopowners at the Phuket Bus Terminal who have refused to vacate government land. The shopkeepers had until Friday to move, to make way for extra parking for songtaew at the bus terminal. The official notice of eviction was posted on April 21.…
- Thailand News
The iceman cometh
NAKHON PATHOM: One of the primary targets in the Government’s war on drugs are dealers of ya bah (methamphetamine), one form of which is the highly addictive recrystalised form, known as “ice”. But if the tale told by a man in Nakorn Pathom’s Muang District is to be believed, dealers in ice made from water are now being targeted by…
- Phuket News
B255 million airport upgrade begins
PHUKET: Work has begun on a 255-million-baht expansion of Phuket International Airport. A 120-million-baht expansion of the passenger terminal – to be completed early next year – will be augmented by the creation of two additional berths for aircraft, taking the total number of berths to 27 and costing another 98 million baht. A further 37 million baht has been…
- Phuket News
Apply early for one-year permits – Immigration
PHUKET: Pol Capt Krissarat Nuesen, the Deputy Inspector of the Phuket Provincial Immigration Office (PPIO), yesterday urged foreigners seeking extensions to one-year permits-to-stay to apply at least a month before their current permits expire. “We need to receive applications about a month before the current permit expires to give us enough time to check the documents [submitted with applications],” Capt…
- Phuket News
Outboard boat ruling taxes Customs
PHUKET: After 10 days of cross-checking and confusion, Customs officials in Bangkok have now confirmed that there is no import tax on motorboats with outboard engines. Two boat owners wanting to import such boats contacted the Gazette after being informed that the 30% import tax still applied to these boats, although tax on leisure boats was dropped on February 18.…
- Phuket News
Rumors of Thaksin plans for Koh Yao denied
PHANG NGA BAY: Land prices on Koh Yao Noi and Koh Yao Yai are soaring, but local officials and residents have dismissed rumors that the boom is the result of speculation that Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is planning a mega-project for the islands. Koh Yao District Chief Songpol Konkaew told the Gazette yesterday that many foreign investors have paid deposits…
- Phuket News
Wildlife touts arrested in Patong
PATONG: Four photo-taking touts have been arrested by police and charged with having young gibbons in their possession without the required wildlife licences. One has already been fined 20,000 baht. The men were taken into custody over Songkran in Patong after a steady stream of complaints from tourists. Further charges will be laid against the four if allegations that the…
- Phuket News
Green light for bypass road widening
PHUKET CITY: Work to widen Chalermprakiat Ror IX Rd (the bypass road) to four lanes and, along one section, to six lanes, is due to begin on May 7. The 111-million-baht project, which will be paid for by the central government, will run from just south of the Dara Samut School intersection (known to many people as the Thainaan intersection)…
- Phuket News
Air hostess grants offered to needy dreamers
PHUKET: The government is offering 60 scholarships for good-looking, tall, well educated Thai women living in poverty to realize their dreams of becoming air hostesses. Under the “Eur Ah-torn Air Hostess Project”, women granted the scholarships will attend the three-month basic cabin attendant course at the Civil Aviation Training Center (CATC) in Bangkok. The project, says an announcement from the…
- Phuket News
Two-tier pricing claim baffles developers
PHUKET: Real estate developers have reacted with bafflement and irritation to an accusation that the property industry in Thailand indulges in double pricing, with foreigners paying up to 75% more than Thais do for homes. The accusation came in a report published yesterday by the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong – the biggest market by far for the…
- Phuket News
Phuket IT to overtake Singapore
PHUKET CITY: Information and communications technology (ICT) in Phuket will outstrip that of Singapore within two years, the head of Phuket’s newly-established Software Industry Promotion Agency (Sipa) has ambitiously predicted. Dr Pongsak Kerdvongbundit, President of Sipa in Phuket, also announced that the organization’s office in Saphan Hin, which was officially opened on March 1 but initially remained unmanned, is now…
- Phuket News
Warning over export of antiques
PHUKET CITY: Officers from the Customs Office at Phuket International Airport and from the Thalang National Museum have issued a reminder that people wanting to take antiques or Buddha images out of Thailand must first obtain a permit to do so. Nittaya Pinchaisiri, an officer at Thalang National Museum, said, “People who want to take antiques or Buddha images bought…
- Phuket News
Confusion over new entertainment licenses
PHUKET: About 30% of the entertainment venues on Phuket have not applied for any of the new entertainment service licenses, Wisut Romin, Deputy Secretary of the Phuket Provincial Administrative Office, has told the Gazette. Owners of entertainment venues had until March 12 to apply, after which their existing licenses automatically became void. Those who did apply are allowed to continue…
- Phuket News
Heated views at zoning seminar
PHUKET: What might have been a dry discussion of the technicalities of zoning in Phuket turned into a wide-ranging and sometimes emotional discussion of Phuket’s ills when 150 people attended a Phuket Gazette-Nation seminar on Saturday. On stage to lead discussion of “Can Zoning Save Phuket?” at Le Meridien Phuket Beach Resort were Dr Sommai Prijasila, Head of the Foreign…
- Phuket News
Hotel unions examine service charge issue
PHUKET CITY: For members of local hotel labor unions, the question of who gets service charges was high on the agenda at a recent international meeting of labor officials in Phuket. Regional representatives of the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations (IUF) gathered at the ST Hotel on March 27-28 to discuss collective…
- Phuket News
First round of zoning hearings completed
PHUKET CITY: The Phuket Public Works and Town and Country Planning Office (PWTCPO), which is responsible for drawing up a comprehensive set of island-wide zoning regulations by October 1, has completed a first round of public hearings in each of Phuket’s three districts to gauge public opinion on zoning issues. The zoning is intended to curb the unregulated development that…
- Phuket News
New base for anti-smuggling operations
AO MAKHAM: The new Customs House and pier at the Ao Makham Deep Sea Port, officially opened yesterday, is expected to play a major role in the protection of the area around the port from various maritime perils, including smuggling and environmental problems. The Customs Department will base five vessels there to intercept fuel-oil smugglers and drug runners. Anti-smuggling operations…
- Phuket News
Mayoral candidate disqualified
PHUKET CITY: The Phuket Election Commission (PEC) has barred Thanapong Kho-udom, leader of the Pattana Baan Rao (“Develop Our Home”) Party from running for Mayor of Phuket City in elections due to be held on April 4. Kittipong Thiengkunagrit, Director of the PEC, told the Gazette that electoral rules state that a mayoral candidate must have lived within municipal boundaries…
- Phuket News
Court accepts Blue Canyon case
PHUKET (The Nation): The Phuket Provincial Court has decided that a complaint filed by a founder of Murex Co, developer of the Blue Canyon Country Club, has sufficient merit for it to proceed. The court set March 29 as the date of the first hearing, allowing the accused, Sia Leng Yeun, an executive of Murex, to defend himself against the…
- Phuket News
Gazette launches private home delivery
PHUKET: In response to increasing demand from readers for home delivery, as well as pressure from advertisers for paid (vs ‘give-away’) circulation, the Phuket Gazette has today launched a “Phuket Special Delivery” subscription. Available to readers in Phuket Province only, the new service promises direct, hand delivery to homes and offices virtually anywhere on the island – “every Saturday morning,…
- Phuket News
Deadline approaches for fun venues
PHUKET: Entertainment venues on the island have just a few more days to register under a new law that requires all such venues to have licenses. From January 13, owners of the venues were given 60 days to apply for licenses under the revised provisions of Section 3 of the Entertainment Act. The 60-day period expires on Friday. Wisut Romin,…
- Phuket News
Chuan leads Democrat vote drive
PHUKET CITY: Former Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai and other Democrat Party leaders went walkabout and attended a rally at Saphan Hin on Saturday to support Anchalee Vanich-Thepabutr’s bid to win the presidency of Phuket’s Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor). Among others in attendance at the walkabout and rally were current Democrat Party leader Banyat Banthadtan and senior members Trairong Suwankiri and…
