Search Results for: cat
- Thai Life
Looking back: Prah Mongkol Visut of Phuket – a lifetime
PHUKET: Prah Mongkol Visut is one of Phuket’s most revered monks. Locals fondly refer to him as ‘Luang Pu Supha’. On September 17, Luang Pu Supha celebrated his 115th birthday, unofficially making him the oldest living man in the world. Luang Pu Supha was born in 1896. Since then, the revered monk has seen drastic and unimaginable change in his…
- Property
Phuket Property: Foreign currency exchange risks
PHUKET: Many foreigners who have decided to buy a residential property in Thailand are required to use funds held in foreign currency in their country of origin. Property transactions in Thailand utilize myriad ways in which a buyer pays the purchase price to the seller. For instance, a buyer may be required to make payments to the seller upon signing…
- Phuket News
Phuket Airport tipped to reach breaking point
PHUKET: With tourism numbers surging, Phuket International Airport is expecting a record four million passenger arrivals for the year 2011. As arrivals to Asia’s leading resort destination in the first half of the year increased 20% over the same period in 2010 and an unprecedented number of new hotel rooms opened, sagging infrastructure is creating a widespread danger to the…
- Phuket News
Fried Noodles: Transformer explodes, food cart incinerated
PHUKET: The explosion of an electrical transformer in Phuket this afternoon incinerated a noodle vendor’s cart, injured a woman, and damaged several vehicles. The fire followed the explosion of a transformer in front of a townhouse project across from the Ocean View Phuket Hotel on Sirirat Road, which runs from Patong to Karon. Roadside noodle vendor Kanjana Sonjai, 29, said,…
- Phuket News
Phuket’s rice prices set to rise
PHUKET: Menus in Phuket and across Thailand will soon be revised with the price of rice set to jump as a result of the Yingluk administration’s changes to the rice mortgaging scheme. Pitched as a mechanism to increase rice farmer’s incomes and spending power, the controversial program – first implemented by the Thaksin administration six years ago – will offer…
- Phuket News
Phuket Live Wire: Choosing the right internet landline
PHUKET: In my last Live Wire column I talked about the three general types of internet connections available in Phuket: landlines, wireless and satellite. This week I’ll explain how to find the right landline. Next week I’ll tackle wireless. The most important point to understand about landlines is that they’re changing all the time. Two years ago, 3BB had the…
- Phuket News
Rubber barriers saving lives in Phuket
PHUKET: Old car tyres being used to create median strips along Chao Fa West Road in Chalong have reduced fatal accidents by almost 100 per cent, say Phuket police. The rubber barriers comprise tyres stacked three high, tied together and painted red and white. “We have installed these stacks on the median of dangerous sections of road,” explained Chalong Police…
- Phuket News
Phuket’s “baby dumping’ rise sparks stateless alarm
PHUKET: The rising number of babies being abandoned on Phuket is causing alarm among the authorities, with the director of the Phuket Shelter for Children and Families voicing concern that babies who cannot be identified possibly becoming “stateless”. The shelter has been notified of more than 20 babies being abandoned since October 1 last year. The actual number is probably…
- Phuket News
Rampaging Phuket elephant whereabouts unclear
PHUKET: The whereabouts and future plans for Captain, the bull elephant that went on a rampage on September 12 sending a Ukrainian honeymooner to hospital with two broken legs, remain unclear amid dubious claims by the owners of Camp Chang Kalim. In response to claims that Captain was the same elephant involved in a previous rampage in January 2010 that…
- Phuket News
Siam Niramit Phuket set for December opening
PHUKET: The new Siam Niramit Theater off the bypass road in Phuket is almost complete and should be ready to open in December, its operators say. Ratchada Niramit assistant managing director Wallapa Phokawat said work on the 2-billion-baht project is now almost 90 per cent complete. The 50-rai complex is located behind the Hino dealership off the southbound bypass road…
- Phuket News
Phuket Vegetarian Festival blasts into 2011
PHUKET: Devotees at Chinese shrines across Phuket raised their go teng poles at dusk last night and began reciting incantations to invite the Jade Emperor and Nine Emperor Gods to descend from the heavens. Among the VIPs joining Kathu Mayor Chai-anan Sutthikul in declaring the Phuket Vegetarian Festival 2011 officially open at the Kathu Shrine – the “original home” of…
- Thai Life
Uniforms: fashion or ‘fitting in’ around Phuket?
PHUKET: It’s not unusual to see people in starched uniforms all over Phuket or even Thailand – on the job, after work and during the weekend. For reasons of safety and convenience, certain professions or groups in every culture call for a uniform, whether it be police officers, fireman or school children. But in Thailand, it’s taken a step further,…
- Thai Life
Phuket cinema: ‘Friends with Benefits’
PHUKET: Friends with Benefits will appeal especially to those who have lived or would like to live under the circumstances implied by its title. You can almost hear the echoes of Harry Burns from 1989’s When Harry Met Sally cautioning, “Men and women can’t be friends because the sex part always gets in the way.” Thankfully for showbiz, the young…
- Thai Life
Riding works of art in Phuket
PHUKET: A thriving little business in Patong called “Metal Arts” produces metal sculptures for customers from Australia, Europe, America and more. Their most recent projects include painstakingly assembled rideable motorcycle sculptures. Currently, there is one at Jungceylon priced at 130,000 baht. Mr Sornthong Yimyai, owner of Metal Arts, has a vocational certificate in mechanics and has been creating metalwork projects…
- Thai Life
Foreign teacher employability in Phuket
PHUKET: Soon Thai schools throughout Phuket will finish this year’s first term and break for a respite before the second term begins in late October. This being the case, prospective teachers will be hitting the pavement in search of a job and this is a perfect time to assess an applicant’s chances of employment. While certainly not scientific, the following…
- Phuket News
Phuket Town cable burying on hold for Vegetarian Festival
PHUKET: Work installing underground utility cables in Old Phuket Town has been suspended for the duration of nine-day Vegetarian Festival, which starts with the arrival of the new moon tomorrow. “There will be many processions along the streets of the Old Town. The traffic jams would be a nightmare if they continued working while the annual festival was going on,”…
- Phuket News
Lifeguards look to becoming career life-savers
PHUKET: More people are looking to become lifeguards as a career choice, says Prathaiyuth Chuayuan, president of the Phuket Lifeguard Club (PLC). The news comes after the Phuket Lifesaving Carnival, held at Kata Beach last Saturday, saw a record 56 entrants compete in the annual beach sports event. “It is very good thing that once they finish training with us,…
- Phuket News
Toyota Motorsport heralds Phuket “pulling power’
PHUKET: Engines will be revving at Saphan Hin next weekend, when Phuket hosts the fifth leg of the Toyota Motorsport “Sprint to Win” series. Toyota executives on Thursday joined Phuket Vice Governor Weerawat Janpen, sexy-model-turned-racer Natalie Davis and other dignitaries at a press conference at the Royal Phuket City Hotel to announce the event. The Phuket event is the second…
- Phuket News
Phuket’s Quiksilver Thailand 2011 Surfing Competition finals day today!
PHUKET: The Quiksilver Thailand 2011 Surf Competition finals are being held today – so get on down to Patong Beach in Phuket and catch the region’s best surfers in action! Day three report: All surfing divisions were in action on Friday in the last day of qualifying for today’s finals. Thirteen competitors enjoyed one meter waves in the Women’s Division…
- Thai Life
Phuket Gardening: Take a leaf out of my book
PHUKET: As anyone who lives here in Phuket can testify, green leaves are as crucial to Thai cuisine as lettuce is to a western salad and mint to English roast lamb. Indeed, the edible leaves of at least three herbs – coriander, basil and mint – are present in many international dishes, both east and west of the Indian Ocean.…
- Phuket News
Phuket school inks agreement with Shelton College, Singapore
PHUKET: Phuket’s Kajonkietsuksa School has established an exchange program with Shelton College International in Singapore in a move aimed at preparing its students for bright futures in the travel and tourism industries. The agreement became official after the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two schools on Wednesday morning at Kajonkietsuksa School. The terms of the MoU…
- Phuket News
Phuket truck driver killed in roadside crash
PHUKET: The driver of a tractor-trailer was killed last night when his fully-loaded rig crashed into the back of another large truck parked along the side of Thepkrasattri Road in Phuket. The driver’s girlfriend, who was asleep in the back of the cab, survived the crash but is being treated for serious injuries at Vachira Phuket Hospital. Thalang Police identified…
- Phuket News
Phuket “Number 3′ in Thailand for AIDS
PHUKET: Phuket has the third-highest reported incidence per capita of HIV/AIDS in Thailand, with Patong having one of the highest concentrations of people in the province contracting the virus, the Health Office has revealed. “The current statistics for HIV/AIDS-infected patients in Phuket is quite shocking,” Dr Wiwat Seetamanotch, Deputy Director of the Phuket Public Health Office, told a recent meeting…
- Phuket News
Thanyapura nets international tennis event
PHUKET: Tennis on Phuket has received a spectacular boon with Thanyapura Sports and Leisure Club (TSLC) announcing that their facility will host one round of the Chang International Tennis Federation (ITF) Thailand Pro Circuit 2011 tournament. The competition will run from October 29 to November 12 and is the very first tennis event of this caliber to be held in…
- Phuket News
Phuket update: ‘Kru Kiew’ denies torture charge
PHUKET: A daycare center worker caught on tape hitting her students has confessed to assault, but denies the more serious charge of torture under the Child Protection Action, the Phuket Gazette has learned. Phuket City Police Officer Wirat Tenthong said the teacher, Pranee “Kru Kiew” Jantalert, confessed to harming the children, but denied the abuse constituted a violation of Article…
- Phuket News
Paiboon calls for “dam healthy Phuket’
PHUKET: Phuket Provincial Administration Organization President Paiboon Upatising has called for plans to redevelop Bang Wad Dam and Bang Neaw Dam – Phuket’s two main water reservoirs – to include jogging tracks and bike lanes as key recreational features at the sites. Mr Paiboon called for the healthy additions yesterday at a public hearing at Kathu Municipality offices to announce…
- Phuket News
Use of force “necessary’ in Phuket beach eviction: Police
PHUKET: Local police have defended their use of force in removing vendors from a Phuket beach on Sunday, saying that the officers present did only what was needed to arrest the ringleader. Tensions flared when police and municipal officers staged a dawn raid to tear down three restaurants deemed to be encroaching on government land at Karon Beach. The three…
- Phuket News
Phuket Live Wire: Getting connected
PHUKET: WHEN it comes to Internet connections in Phuket, there are three major considerations: reliability, speed and price. In that order. It’s almost impossible to measure reliability. Why? Because glitches in Internet connections these days tend to be one-off. It’s rare to see the whole island go down. Most reliability problems I’ve seen have to do with poorly strung wires,…
- Phuket News
MoF voices support for Phuket convention center
PHUKET: Ministry of Finance General Inspector Prasit Suebchana met Phuket Vice Governor Somkiet Sangkhaosutthirak today to reaffirm that his ministry will fight for Phuket’s convention center to go ahead. The international convention and exhibition center (ICEC) project stalled early this month when the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MNRE) announced that the project’s plan had failed its initial environmental…
- Phuket News
Boy, 15, stabbed at Phuket’s Chalong Pier
PHUKET: A 15-year-old boy was stabbed in the back last night while sitting with friends on Chalong Pier, a main departure point for tourists and divers heading out to the islands and reefs off Phuket. One of the security guards at the scene told the Phuket Gazette that the incident happened at about midnight. “Taweechai [Jansamud] probably had a fight…
