Search Results for: bangkok
- Phuket News
Buses win funding boost
PHUKET TOWN: Heartened by figures that show as many as 1,200 paying passengers a day using its public bus service, the Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor) has set aside 25 million baht to buy a fleet of smaller buses. Free travel is another option being considered by the OrBorJor under expansion plans for the fledgling Green Bus service. OrBorJor Vice-President…
- Phuket News
Purachai orders Surasak out of office
PATONG: In one of his last acts as Interior Minister, Purachai Piemsomboon signed an order instructing Patong Mayor Surasak Maneesri and one of his two deputies to step down because of allegations of disreputable behavior. The order, signed on Wednesday, K. Purachai’s last day at the Interior Ministry before taking up his new post as Minister of Justice, was delivered…
- Phuket News
Truck overturns at busy intersection
PHUKET TOWN: A large truck with failed brakes crashed and overturned at the busy Tesco-Lotus Supercenter bypass intersection today. Driver Manat Boonma, 30, felt the truck’s brakes go as he approached the intersection down the bypass road about 9:30 am. “I was nearly at the junction and could not stop the truck so I decided to turn left, the road…
- Phuket News
Gov lobbies for lower import duty on yachts
PHUKET TOWN: Governor CEO Pongpayome Vasaputi yesterday urged a panel of central government financial experts to reduce the import duty on yachts. “Import taxes on yachts are too high. If charges and taxes were lower, more investors would import boats legally,” he said. The governor made his comments at a meeting to discuss provincial financial relations with the central government…
- Phuket News
Spectacle launches Pian&’s election campaign
PATONG: Former mayor Pian Keesin launched the Palang Patong Party’s (Patong Power – PPP) municipal election campaign at the weekend with a spectacular fair and a stage show that drew an audience of 500 people. PPP supporters who gathered outside the candidate’s house on Phra Baramee Rd enjoyed a free buffet, drinks and the show, plus a big-screen presentation of…
- Phuket News
Road rage over Thepkrasattri name change
PHUKET: In response to public backlash, the Phuket Provincial Highways Office (PPHO) has removed its signs along the northern section of Thepkrasattri Rd indicating the road’s original and official name, Sathienthapanakij Rd. The new signs were posted as part of a Highways Office national program to have all highways marked clearly with their proper names. PPHO Chief Visute Maiwattana today…
- Phuket News
Cloud seeding brings 80 mm of rain
PHUKET: A week of rainmaking to increase Phuket’s water supply has so far produced 80.3 millimeters of rain, Sanae Varit, Consultant to the Royal Bureau of Rainmaking and Agriculture Aviation in Bangkok, said at Phuket International Airport yesterday. The program to use chemical drops from airplanes to “seed” clouds and induce rain started on September 9 after Governor CEO Pongpayome…
- Phuket News
Dolphin rescued at Kamala
KAMALA: A 2.4-meter bottlenose dolphin beached at Kamala yesterday was rescued by local residents and is now being cared for at Phuket FantaSea theme park. Kamala residents Inge and Don McMahon helped rescue the dolphin after villagers called for their assistance just after midday. Ms McMahon today said, “We ran down to the beach after Thai villagers told us about…
- Thailand News
Pet roaches face ban
BANGKOK: Public Health Minister Sudarat Keyurapan has warned that cockroaches imported from Madagascar could face an import ban if research finds that they are dangerous to human beings. K. Sudarat’s warning follows the discovery that many vendors at the famed Chatuchak Market recently started selling the cockroches as pets. The imported cockroaches are unusually large, certainly bigger than any cockroaches…
- Phuket News
THAI discounts internal fights
PHUKET: Thai Airways is offering special discounts on domestic flights from now until December 31 to Thais and, in some cases, foreign residents. The discounts are as follows: – Young people aged 12-24 years old who are traveling on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays (except for public holidays or days in lieu of public holidays) receive a 25% discount. – Other…
- Phuket News
We do, we do, we do
PHUKET TOWN: Six couples were married in a mass wedding today at Satree Phuket School in Phuket Town, with grooms coming from as far afield as Australia and the US. Naowarat Wongkaew, 33, from Chumphon, first met Australian architect Trevor Draydon, 48, six years ago in Bangkok. “My husband likes Thai culture, especially the wedding ceremony,” she said. The Gazette…
- Phuket News
Sea Gypsy village raid nets 500 fish
RAWAI: Phuket Marine Police on Sunday seized more than 500 fish of protected species in a raid at the Sea Gypsy village off Wiset Rd. Two men seen in possession of the fish managed to escape. Pol Lt Col Prathuang Srilamontri told the Gazette that officers, acting on a tip-off, arrived at the village at 9 pm and surprised two…
- Phuket News
Chavalit backs devolution of power
PHUKET: Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, Gen Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, today reaffirmed the government’s commitment to devolution of political power from Bangkok to the provinces. In a speech at the Royal Phuket City Hotel to 600 representatives of Provincial Administration Organizations (OrBorJors) from all over Thailand, Gen Chavalit stressed that local administrations are a way of distributing power. Despite…
- Phuket News
Charity opens center to help kids
PATONG: A round-the-clock center run by international charity World Vision is now operating in Patong to help children escape the sex industry, homelessness and poverty. The one-story centre, built with 800,000 baht in donations, was officially opened yesterday on Haad Patong Rd, opposite the Club Andaman Beach Resort and behind the football field. It will be run by Patong Municipality.…
- Phuket News
Thaksin to fly in for 1-hour speech
PHUKET TOWN: Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra will fly from Bangkok on Thursday to make a one-hour speech at a national convention for members of Provincial Administration Organizations (OrBorJor). The PM is scheduled to open the two-day convention at the Royal Phuket City Hotel, starting at 9:30 am, with a speech on provincial government reform. About 800 OrBorJor members are expected…
- Phuket News
Star Tour denies cutting back tour groups
PHUKET TOWN: A major Swedish tour organizer says it will continue to send groups to Phuket despite some misgivings it has about child labor, homeless children and child prostitution on the island. At the same time, however, Marie Hallberg – a Swedish researcher who was at the center of an earlier storm over suggestions that the company might boycott Phuket…
- Phuket News
Fake Dulwich papers “full of mistakes’
PHUKET TOWN: Fake Dulwich International College certificates were part of a recently uncovered Internet scam, but were of poor quality, the Phuket Provincial Education Office said today. Among the mistakes on the imitations were subjects listed that are not taught at the college and a logo that failed to match the real one. The signature on the fakes was that…
- Thailand News
Bank protestor shows he has balls
BANGKOK: Chuay Kotchasit had led a group of 50 people from Kanchanaburi to the Ministry of Finance in Bangkok to hand in a petition to Deputy Finance Minister Varathep Ratanakorn against the Savings Bank. Chuay had led protestors against the Savings Bank in Kanchanaburi before, when the bank refused to return the money the people had put into a fund.…
- Thailand News
That ole Oedipus complex
NONG KHAI: Somchai Saenkaew, 40, attacked his younger brother Kamsai, 33, with a sickle when he found Kamsai attempting to commit what anyone in their right mind would consider to be a foul crime. Kamsai suffered wounds to his back, neck, and right arm and was left to bleed to death in the dirt in front of the family home…
- Thailand News
Who you gonna call?
AYUDHAYA: There is a new craze amongst Ayudhaya teenagers. They phone a certain number which is answered by a spooky woman’s voice. The teenagers believe that this voice is that of the ghost of a woman from Lopburi who was murdered in Bangkok. A rather modern ghost – the mysterious number is 09-6626840, a mobile phone. When a reporter called…
- Phuket News
Phuket prepares for Apec meeting
KARON: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs hosted a seminar involving about 100 officials and businesspeople this morning at Phuket Arcadia Beach Resort, to prepare for the 3rd Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) Senior Officials Meeting, to be held in Phuket next year. Apinan Pavanarit, Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Phuket will host the conference from August…
- Phuket News
18-year-old held over fake diplomas
PHUKET: Police have arrested an 18-year-old Bangkok student and are checking whether Dulwich College certificates were among fake diplomas she is alleged to have sold over the Internet. Officers spent two weeks tracing the student through an email “sting”. They raided her Rachaburi home yesterday and found fake diplomas and certificates in her computer. The girl, named only as Daeng,…
- Phuket News
Villagers lobby for expo center
MAI KHAO: About 200 people from Mai Khao yesterday lobbied Governor CEO Pongpayome Vasaputi to designate Tah Chat Chai as the location for the proposed International Exhibition and Convention Center (IECC), so that visitors will spread income among local people. Somporn Tansakul, the leader of the Mai Khao deputation, said that if the government decided to build the center in…
- Phuket News
Fishball seller in hostage drama
PHUKET TOWN: Police this morning rushed a knife-wielding man and ended a four-hour hostage siege in Soi Hutchana Nivet, near the abandoned Phya Thai hospital. The hostage drama began at about 6:30 a.m. when, it is alleged, Tiem “Tia” Srisuktham, 34, from Srisaket, first bludgeoned his nephew, “Ta”, 23, also from Srisaket, with a heavy iron bar, then killed him…
- Phuket News
Rough seas hurl two boats onto the rocks
PATONG: Two tour boats being towed from Phuket to Ranong ended up on the rocks on Saturday afternoon after the line connecting them to their tugboat snapped in rough seas. A call came in to Marine Police from a friend on shore who had received a distress call from four crewmen on the “Salten 2”, caught on the rocks near…
- Phuket News
Gov defends “average’ satisfaction rating
PHUKET TOWN: Governor CEO Pongpayome Vasaputi today defended his performance during his first six months as Governor CEO, from October last year to March. The Governor’s defense of his record followed the release of the results of a survey by the Rajabhat Institute Phuket of local levels of satisfaction with Gov Pongpayome’s performance. Addressing a public forum held at the…
- Phuket News
Sex-change operation draws a crowd
PHUKET TOWN: A large audience of doctors, hospital staff and representatives of the press today watched a man become a woman during six hours of sex-change surgery. The onlookers, including some 40 visiting members of the Thai Physicians of America Association, snacked on lunch while they watched the video conference broadcast. Phuket’s own world-renowned sex-change expert, Dr Sa’nguan Kunaporn performed…
- Phuket News
Manhunt for second war weapons suspect
PHUKET: Police yesterday began a search for a second man they believe was involved in the transport of weapons seized at the fishing port Tuesday, after they discovered he was the registered owner of the pick-up truck seized for allegedly being used to transport the weapons of war. When Prachumpon Raampung, who had been driving the Toyota Tiger pick-up, was…
- Phuket News
Gov arrests two, nets 600 ya bah pills
PHUKET TOWN: A squad of 12 officers handpicked by Governor CEO Pongpayome Vasaputi this afternoon arrested a couple, Lateng Artharn, 46, and Sa’ard Somwang, 35, on charges of possession and trafficking in ya bah (methamphetamine). The officers, all members of Phuket’s Provincial Defense Office (PDO), arrested the couple at 12:30 pm in a sting operation at the 999 hotel on…
- Phuket News
Tuk-tuk drivers reject revised fares
PHUKET TOWN: Representatives of the island’s tuk-tuk drivers today rejected the Phuket Transportation Office’s (PTO) revised scale of proposed fares, even though they would be the highest in the country. At today’s meeting, held at the PTO’s offices in Phuket Town, Transportation Chief Prasit Amarapal initially proposed a rate of 30 baht for the first two kilometers plus four baht…
