Search Results for: Bangkok
- Phuket News
HRH Princess Soamsavali to visit Phuket
PHUKET: HRH Princess Soamsavali will visit Phuket on October 10 to preside over the official opening of two rooms bearing the name of the Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf at Bangkok Phuket Hospital.The two rooms, the King Carl Gustaf Conference Room and the Tsunami Memorial Room, are in the hospital’s new Outpatient Building.King Carl XVI Gustaf, accompanied by Queen Silvia,…
- Phuket News
TTVI center to close before December 26
PHUKET: The Chalong-based Thai Tsunami Victim Identification (TTVI) center will close some time before the anniversary of the Indian Ocean tsunami on December 26, police say. Pol Col Khemmarin Hassiri, Superintendent of the TTVI’s Thai disaster victim identification (DVI) unit, said that a written order from the Cabinet to close the center was received by the TTVI following a decision…
- Phuket News
Patong-Kamala redevelopment to start this month
PHUKET: Work on the long-awaited Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) post-tsunami redevelopment projects for Patong and Kamala beaches will get under way in October, with first-phase landscaping work on both projects to be completed by the end of November, officials say.On June 13, the TAT received approval from the Budget Bureau of 194.7 million baht for the three-phase Patong project…
- Thailand News
Monkey on your back
CHIANG RAI: Having a monkey on one’s back might sound like the very definition of hardship, but for a dog in Mae Sai it is a labor of love. Guests at the Kung Pao 38 Restaurant in Mae Sai are greeted by a rather unusual welcoming committee when they arrive: a four-year-old Labrador retriever and “Jockey”, an orphaned baby monkey…
- Phuket News
Tsunami memorial design competition opens
BANGKOK: Registration for the competition to design the national tsunami memorial opened on September 15. The competition is open until November 15, and the five shortlisted proposals will be displayed on December 26, 2005 at Khao Lak Lamru National Park.. The 1.5 billion baht-project – the cost of which has been mired in controversy – is due for completion by…
- Phuket News
New luxury resort planned for Phi Phi
PHI PHI: A new luxury resort, built by InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), is planned for Lanah Bay, Phi Phi Island, with another two resorts – one on Koh Samui and another in Pattaya – in the pipeline.The properties, slated to open in 2007, will be IHG‘s first resorts in Thailand, and will bring the total number of properties managed by IHG…
- Phuket News
Gasohol in Phuket by Monday
PHUKET: Gasohol will available at all 14 PTT gas stations on the island by Monday, Vichitpong Cheanthongsub, PTT Oil Phuket Depot Manager, told the Gazette yesterday.“Gasohol became available throughout the South yesterday [on Thursday], but some PTT gas stations are still in the process of having the tanks installed. PTT gas stations in Phuket will have gasohol available for the…
- Phuket News
ATM cash thieves arrested in Phuket
BANGKOK (Kom Chad Luek): Crime Suppression Division detectives announced at a press conference in Bangkok yesterday the arrest in Phuket on Wednesday of two Krung Thai Bank employees who allegedly stole a massive 28.8 million baht from ATM machines in the capital.The suspects, identified as Chatchai Jongsirirat, 32, and Pichet Kraibutra, 29, were employed by Krung Thai Business Service Co.…
- Phuket News
Phuket Air cuts more routes after accident
BANGKOK: Phuket Air has canceled its services between Bangkok and Mae Sot, and Bangkok and Buri Ram, after one of its aircrft skidded off the runway at Tak Airport while landing the day before yesterday. None of the 30 passengers on board was injured.The decades-old Japanese YS-11 twin-turboprop aircraft, which can carry 64 passengers, barreled into the airport’s perimeter fence,…
- Phuket News
Crackdown on land officials imminent
BANGKOK (The Nation): The top money-laundering examiner yesterday sounded an alarm that rogue officials in Phuket, Phang Nga, Ranong and Krabi were behind scams to issue land-right documents unlawfully for plots overlapping forests.“From confidential investigations by the Anti-Money Laundering Office (AMLO), [we have ascertained that] rogue officials in four southern provinces have abused their office to issue false documents for…
- Phuket News
Students to clean up Kamala Beach
KOH KAEW: After reading the recent Gazette article [August 20] about the sorry state of Kamala since the tsunami, students from The British Curriculum International School (BCIS) decided to do something about it. On Saturday, September 17, at 10 am, some 400 students will converge on Kamala Beach to clean it up as the focus of their sixth annual Clean…
- Phuket News
OrBorJor wins “transparency’ award
PHUKET: The Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor) is one of only two OrBorJor in the country to win an award from the King Prajadhipok Institute, which monitors the progress of democracy in Thailand, for its “transparent” practices.Senate President Suchon Chaleekrae handed the award to Phuket OrBorJor President Anchalee Vanich-Thepabutr at the Rama Gardens Hotel in Bangkok on Monday.OrBorJor Vice-President Sutin…
- Phuket News
Phuket Air “will not close down’
BANGKOK: Capt Chawanit Chiamcharoenvut, Executive Vice-President of Phuket Air, this afternoon confirmed to the Gazette that Phuket Air is not going out of business, but will instead expand its local routes.The announcement came after a report in today’s Bangkok Post that quoted Senator Vikrom Aisiri, founder and president of the airline, as saying the company was “preparing for a ‘soft…
- Phuket News
Phuket Air banned by France
PARIS: Problem-plagued Phuket Air hit another hurdle this week when it was revealed that it has been banned from flying into France since June 4 on safety grounds. The Bangkok-based carrier has already been barred from British and Dutch airspace.The French civil aviation authority (Délégation Générale de l’Aviation Civile – DGAC) website included Phuket Airlines in a list of six…
- Phuket News
TAT sees revival of Japanese tourism in Phuket
PATONG: The Director of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) Tokyo office expects about 300,000 Japanese to visit Phuket during the second half of 2005, as the message that it is now safe to return to Phuket is finally being heard.TAT Tokyo Office Director Patchaneelux Swatdee made the comments during a meeting of tourism industry experts at the Graceland Resort…
- Phuket News
Soccer hero to return for football clinic
PHUKET: Peter Withe, arguably Thailand’s most successful head coach ever and currently Indonesia’s national coach, is to return to Thailand to take part in a football clinic in Phuket, for children who were affected by the tsunami.This Sunday, August 28, the three-hour free clinic at Surakul Stadium for some 400 students from 19 schools will start at 8:30 am with…
- Phuket News
Bank launches mortgages for foreigners
PHUKET: Bangkok Bank has broken ranks with the Thai banking establishment to become the first Thai bank to offer mortgages targeted firmly at foreigners wanting to buy property in Thailand.The mortgages are fairly limited in scope – they can be applied only to condos; the buyer must come up with the first 50% of the purchase price; and the mortgage…
- Phuket News
TOT blamed for mobile phone jams
PHUKET: Mobile phone operators, who once touted their services as the solution to the lack of land lines on the island, are now finding themselves victims of their own success.They are fending off waves of customer complaints and trying to find solutions to the overloading of telephone networks in the peak hours between 5 pm and 10 pm.Boonkul Masangchai, Manager…
- Phuket News
Property industry club launched
PHUKET: Members of the island’s property and construction industries, along with related occupations, met last night at the Green Man pub in Chalong to launch a Phuket chapter of the Lighthouse Club, an international networking organization that also does charitable work for construction workers and their families.Officiating at the launch was a founder and former president of the Lighthouse Club…
- Phuket News
Phuket Air jumbo seized in S Korea – twice
SEOUL: A Phuket Air jumbo jet has been seized in South Korea after the carrier’s owner, Phuket Airlines Co Ltd, allegedly failed to settle debts owed to its local sales agent.The Nation in Bangkok reported August 23 that the Boeing 747-300 had been impounded at Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul.The aircraft had initially been banned from flying back to…
- Phuket News
THAI increases fuel charges – again
PHUKET: Thai Airways International (THAI) has announced yet another round of increases in its fuel surcharge on all foreign and domestic flights, to be applied to tickets issued on or after August 15.The national carrier will raise the surcharge on one-way domestic flights from 200 baht to 300 baht; similar rises will be levied on regional and international routes, depending…
- Phuket News
Jungceylon working out money woes
PATONG: Junceylon, the new entertainment complex in Patong, has hit liquidity problems, but these are being worked out and the giant center will still open in November, a source told the Gazette yesterday.The source, who asked not to be named, said that Jungceylon’s money woes started in April and the company has applied for help from the Bankruptcy Court in Bangkok…
- Phuket News
International rugby comes to Phuket
PHUKET: Rugby fans are in for a feast in the coming week as the first International 80-80 Rugby Tournament is staged on the island.Matches in the four-team tournament will be played this weekend and in the evenings next week, culminating with the play-offs and final on Sunday, August 14.80-80 rugby is a new format whereby players must weigh no more…
- Phuket News
Patong and Kamala revival budgets finally settled
PHUKET: The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) budget for renovation of Patong and Kamala has finally been settled, at 291.4 million baht, a source in the TAT’s Bangkok headquarters revealed yesterday.The source, who asked not to be named, told the Gazette that the original landscaping plans, proposed in January, foresaw spending of 750 million baht for Patong and 600 million…
- Phuket News
Missing Italian found dead
PHUKET: The body of an Italian tourist who disappeared while snorkeling at Laem Ka Yai on Friday was found the following day on the beach at Khao Khad.Pol Lt Thivakorn Kongpeth of Phuket City Police Station told the Gazette that Gianluigi Peria had been staying at Ya Nui Resort in Chalong with his companion, Silvia Rota.When he failed to return…
- Phuket News
Tsunami alarm “a success’
PHUKET: A tsunami warning has been declared a “90% success” after the alert went out late last night from the National Disaster Warning Center (NDWC).The alert, urging evacuation of the Andaman coast, came after an earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale struck the Nicobar Islands, only 664 kilometers from Phuket.At 11 pm, Plodprasop Suraswadi, Director of the NDWC in…
- Phuket News
Premiership teams head for Phuket
PHUKET: First they were coming, then there was not enough money and they were not coming. But now they will definitely be here tomorrow – representatives of the English Premier League teams Everton, Bolton Wanderers and Manchester City.The three teams will host a one-day kid’s soccer camp at Surakul Stadium, from 10 am to 5:30 pm, open to all-comers.Eam Thavornvongwongse, President…
- Phuket News
Phuket to host first 80-80 international rugby tournament
PHUKET: Dr Marut Muangkeo, President of the Thai Rugby Union (TRU), has announced that the world’s first international 80-80 rugby tournament, in which all players each must not weigh more than 85 kilograms, will be held in Phuket from August 6 to 14.Apart from the weight restriction, 80-80 rugby is full 15-a-side contact rugby played under the existing International Rugby…
- Phuket News
Police appeal for new wheels
PHUKET CITY: Phuket City Police Superintendent Col Paween Pongsirin is appealing for public donations to help buy badly-needed police vehicles for his cash-strapped department. Col Paween told the Gazette last week that although cars and motorcycles are essential for police work, seven of the department’s 14 squad cars are no longer roadworthy or are currently being repaired. He added that…
- Phuket News
Tsunami alarm system online in August
PHUKET: The island’s tsunami warning system will be linked in August via satellite to the Nonthaburi-based National Disaster Warning Center (NDWC).Patong, which has been chosen for the pilot project of the NDWC’s tsunami warning system for the entire Andaman coast, is home to three NDWC warning towers and there are plans to increase the number of towers to cover 24…