Search Results for: lion
- Phuket News
Phuket Airport to suffer overcrowding during expansion project
PHUKET: Phuket International Airport director Prathuang Sornkham, speaking at the airport’s 24th anniversary yesterday, offered an advance apology for passenger delays anticipated while the complex undergoes expansion and renovation over the next three years. Mr Prathuang told the media that the already overcrowded airport would be even more jammed than usual as, adding to the 35 regular airlines and eight…
- Thai Life
Phuket’s divers speak, the world listens
PHUKET: PADI dive professionals, from dive master to instructor examiner, united and made Phuket’s reefs their number one priority by taking part in Go Eco Phuket’s record breaking reef cleanup. Tasked with bringing up the bigger debris and the 4.5 ton net in Banana Bay those on board Khao Lak Scuba Adventures Manta Queen III were obviously excited about the…
- Phuket News
Phuket locals taught to fight crime for tourist safety project
PHUKET: About 150 employees in Patong, including rental car operators, motorbike taxi drivers and beach masseuses, attended a seminar this week designed to train them as active members of the Patong Safety Zone project, which has already been hailed as a success by police.“The Patong Safety Zone project has been running for awhile, and we have already noticed a decrease…
- Phuket News
Farewell to Phuket Governor Tri
SPECIAL REPORT: Letter from the GovernorPHUKET: Over the years, my top concerns for Phuket have been flooding, traffic and wastewater. Flooding and traffic are no longer grave concerns for me because many projects have already received funding and many are already underway.That said, with the new Phuket Governor due to arrive imminently, I would like him to rate traffic as…
- Property
Phuket Property: The island’s very own superhero
PHUKET: Growing up, I never quite got into comic book superheros. Sure there was superman, Batman and Robin, The Flash and frankly more than I could list in an entire column. I preferred reading books or watching those old black and white classic movies to all that ‘slam bam thank you ma’am’. Hollywood got hold of the trend and even…
- Property
Phuket Property: Thai property investors facing AEC land ownership hurdles, local competition issues
PHUKET: Although the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) will open up opportunities for Thai investors in other countries in the region, the investors will have to be concerned about barriers to entering the property sector in those nations, experts have said.They voiced this view at a seminar titled “AEC: Pros and Cons for the Property Sector”, conducted by the Real Estate…
- Phuket News
Petrol retailers fight Phuket pump price rise
PHUKET: Operators of local gas stations are fighting to stave off a price rise at Phuket pumps following the Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (PPAO) announcement of its intention to impose a local “maintenance tax” on fuel.The surcharge, which would raise costs for operators by no less than 3 satang per liter, was revealed to operators in a letter issued by…
- Thai Life
Phuket Environment: Jellyfish are back in the spotlight
PHUKET: A piece published recently in a London daily newspaper may have created some unnecessary alarm in Phuket. The story concerned a British tourist who apparently fell overboard while on a boat in Thailand. She was so severely stung by jellyfish that she ended up in hospital with the equivalent of third degree burns, not only excruciatingly painful but which…
- Phuket News
CCTV short circuit sparks Phuket antiques shop fire
PHUKET: An in-store CCTV system monitor is believed to have started a fire at an antiques and souvenir shop in the Phuket tourist area of Kata, destroying goods valued at more than half a million baht. Chalong Police duty officer Chianchai Duangsuwan was informed that a fire had broken out at the Sawasdee shop on Taina Road at 10:45am on…
- Phuket News
Phuket Sports: Pacquiao expected to sign contract to fight Thailand’s Buakaw
PHUKET: Emmanuel “Manny” Pacquiao (54-4-2, 38 KOs) is expected to sign a contract tomorrow agreeing to take on Thailand’s most famous fighter, Sombat Banchamek, commonly known as Buakaw, in a special fight planned for December 21. Narong Hengtrakul, one of Thailand’s most renowned international matchmakers for both conventional boxing and Muay Thai fights, will meet Pacquiao in Manila tomorrow to…
- Phuket News
Live Wire: Is Phuket smart enough for the iPhone 5?
PHUKET: Last week I talked about the iPhone 5, how it compares to the Samsung Galaxy S III, and the problems that people from Toledo to Tashkent are going to have deciding which one to buy. Here in Phuket, we have one HUGE question that doesn’t concern much of the rest of the world – and it’ll be a key…
- Business News
Phuket Business: Signs of the island’s time
PHUKET: The Phuket Provincial Government recently published its economic summary report for the first six months of the year (F6M12). The in-depth report highlights year-on-year (y-o-y) figures and trends in trade, consumerism, and in the island’s tourism, property, investment and agricultural sectors. Here, the Phuket Gazette outlines some of these.TourismThe total number of tourist arrivals in F6M12 remained steady with…
- Thailand News
Weird World News: Where dreams come true
PHUKET: Daydreaming has been the noble art of little boys and girls around the world from time immemorial, and in honor of those dreams the Phuket Gazette‘s Weird World News roundup lands headlines of a helicopter delivery of about half a million baht for candy to the creation of the biggest Ferris wheel in the world, and for those who…
- Phuket News
Work begins on repairing Patong Hill road landslide site
PHUKET: Phuket Highways Office Director Samak Luadwonghat kept his promise made yesterday that as soon as the rains stopped today, his workers were out in force making temporary repairs to the Patong Hill road. The section of road, just west of the Chinese shrine at the top of the hill, first collapsed during heavy rains last October, then again in…
- Thailand News
Thailand News: Big three apply for 3G; Tantawan rejected
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– Thailand news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community As expected, only big three apply for 3G spectrum auction Phuket Gazette / The NationPHUKET: It’s clear now that the big three in the cellular service industry will be the only bidders for the long-awaited 2.1-gigahertz spectrum on October 16. The spectrum will be used for third-generation…
- Phuket News
Phuket Vegetarian Festival to generate B600mn
PHUKET: Director Chanchai Doungjit of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) Phuket office expects this year’s Vegetarian Festival to generate about 600 million baht in revenue for the local economy. “Many Thais, including those of Chinese origin, will visit the festival and many are likely to travel as family groups as the festival falls within the school holidays,” Director Chanchai…
- Phuket News
Thai Navy in Phuket does it “Gangnam Style’
PHUKET: Thai Sailors at the Navy Third Area Command, based at Cape Panwa on Phuket’s east coast, have broken their stoic mold and posted a video on YouTube showing that they can have fun too, by dancing in the now-globally infectious Korean “Gangnam Style”. Click here to see the video. “The video was created for the farewell party last night…
- Property
Phuket Business: Tune in, turn on, pass out
PHUKET: Complementing the recent opening of the Tune Hotel Asoke in Bangkok, Phuket is looking to welcome its own premium yet low-cost, frills-optional hotel, to open in Patong in December. Owned and operated under a franchise agreement by Red Planet Hotels, the growing Tune brand presence in Thailand expands on existing branches in Haad Yai and Pattaya. Tune Hotels is…
- World News
World News: LA hikers find skull and torso; 2nd in 8 months
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– World news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Hikers find human skull, torso near canyon trail in Los Angeles Phuket Gazette / News WiresPHUKET: Hikers along a canyon trail in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Pacific Palisades on Saturday discovered a human skull and a torso, more than eight months after a similar discovery was…
- Business News
Phuket Investor: Excuse me, what is QE3?
PHUKET: Being a regular on the sun soaked shores of Phuket, watching the many boats sail by on a frequent basis, one may start thinking that QE3 is a new luxury cruise liner replacing the old QE2 that was recently decommissioned. Not the case. In the never ending roller-coaster ride that is the world of finance, this is the latest…
- Phuket News
Radar, GPS tracking to net foreign charter yacht tax dodgers
PHUKET: The chief of the Phuket office of the Marine Department says he is drawing up plans to launch a campaign targeting “hundreds” of visiting foreign yachts that avoid paying tax to Thai officials despite conducting “business” in Thai territorial waters. Named among the visiting yachts to be targeted were charter tour boats for tourist activities, such as snorkeling, diving…
- Phuket News
New hospital wing rises in Patong
PHUKET: Construction of a new 69-million-baht wing at Patong Hospital, that will double the facility’s inpatient capacity, is well underway and scheduled for completion by August next year.The new building, under construction by Pornthisan Co Ltd, will provide room for 60 more inpatient beds and another 13 private rooms, Hospital Director Phumin Silapunt explained to Phuket Vice Governor Sommai Prijasilpa…
- Phuket News
Phuket Police on lookout for snatch artists in Kata
PHUKET: Police are searching for two men who conducted a drive-by purse snatch in Kata last night. Russian tourist Irana Yazvenko, 29, told Chalong Police that she and her friend were riding a motorbike near the Club Med resort at about 9pm when two men pulled up on a motorbike alongside them, snatched her bag and sped off. Capt Teanchai…
- Thai Life
Go-Eco Phuket takes on the ocean’s silent killer
PHUKET: Rubbish. It is ugly; it costs local communities and economies; and it destroys wildlife. Every year tens of thousands of marine creatures, mammals and birds die because of the litter we drop or the fishing nets we abandon and lose at sea. If you are fed up with seeing your local dive site trashed, or rubbish left on Phuket…
- Business News
Phuket Business: New trade surplus milestone achieved
PHUKET: A new milestone was set for Phuket’s international trade last month with the the island’s annual surplus of exports over imports peaking at 11 billion baht – more than 700 million baht clear of last year’s full-year, record figure.According to Phuket Customs’ receipts for the 2012 fiscal year (October 2011 to September 2012), accounting through to the end of…
- Phuket News
Phuket Burmese decry gold shop bandits
PHUKET: A crowd of onlookers at the re-enactment of the robbery of Yong Chuan gold shop in Rassada shouted disparaging remarks and denounced the prime suspect as he retraced his getaway from the Karn Keha Housing estate yesterday. “You have shamed our community” and “We’re glad you finally surrendered,” were shouted at the suspect, named by police only as “Koson”.…
- Phuket News
Phuket Roads: Pay now, please, for the failure of planning
PHUKET: Work on Phuket’s first underpass is slated to start by the middle of next month, and is expected to shed harsh light on just how deplorably ‘planners’ have failed to develop Phuket’s road infrastructure to keep pace with the island’s development. [See front page, current issue of the Phuket Gazette. Digital subscribers click here to download the full newspaper.]…
- Thailand News
Weird World News: You never know what you’ll get, from a baby to false gold
PHUKET: Forrest Gump famously said, “My Mama always said, ‘Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.'” In honor of Mrs Gump’s timeless wisdom, this week’s Phuket Gazette Weird World News roundup is popping out a baby, drilling for gold and counting its carats in diamonds all in the name of getting more, or…
- Phuket News
United Nations launches initiative to plug ‘gaps’ in Thai disaster management
PHUKET: Marking nearly one year ago since floodwaters inundated most of Thailand and its capital Bangkok, the Royal Thai Government and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) launched a new initiative today to boost the capacity of the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM) to be able to respond to large-scale floods and other natural disasters. The DDPM is…
- Phuket News
Phuket gold thief surrenders to see ‘dying wife’
PHUKET: One of the two men wanted for making off with millions of baht in jewelry from a Phuket gold shop on Monday surrendered to police today, saying that he wanted to see his wife again before she died from a heart condition. The man, a Burmese national named by police only as “Mr Koson”, arrived in front of Phuket…
