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- Phuket News
B37m to tackle traffic near Heroines’ Monument
SRISOONTHORN, PHUKET: Srisoonthorn Tambon Administration Organization (OrBorTor) has received a budget of 37 million baht to expand the Heroines’ Monument roundabout and improve roads in the area. Work is expected to start in late April. Srisoonthorn OrBorTor President Thamrong Tantiwiwachakul said, “With the Heroines’ Monument located on the main road in and out of Phuket City, there are a large…
- Phuket News
National high-speed info network; Phuket already in the loop
BANGKOK (The Nation): All of Thailand’s government agencies will be able to integrate their information on to a superhighway network within four years in order to increase their efficiency and provide services on a high-speed infrastructure. Development of the 12-billion baht Government Information Network (GIN) project, which began in 2006, aims to help make the country more competitive. The executive…
- Phuket News
Colleges in bid to halt student online flesh trade
BANGKOK / PHUKET: Colleges and universities need to act against students engaging in “direct-sale” prostitution via social-network websites like Hi5, according to a well-known academic. Assoc Prof Sukhum Chaloeysap of Suan Dusit Rajabhat University, which has a campus in Phuket, said all institutes of higher learning should admit that the problem exists and join forces to combat it. Some students…
- Phuket News
Urgent need for O-negative blood for expat resident
PHUKET: Long-term Phuket resident Paul James, owner of the Expat Hotel, is in urgent need of O-negative blood. Mr James is at Bangkok Hospital Phuket, but donations of his blood type can only be made at Vachira Phuket Hospital. Vachira Phuket is located less than two kilometers from Bangkok Hospital Phuket, both being on Yaowarat Road in Phuket City. Donations…
- Phuket News
Paiboon leads fight against bogus banknotes
PHUKET CITY: Believing the problem of counterfeit banknotes to be serious, Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor) President Paiboon Upatising has spent his own money to buy 1,000 UV flashlights, which he distributed to vendors at two wet markets in Phuket City on January 23. Mr Paiboon gave the devices away free to traders at Kaset Market, the fresh market near…
- Phuket News
Phuket phone book sets record
PHUKET: The 2009 edition of the Gazette Guide, (Phuket’s ‘yellow pages’), goes on sale at noon today. It is the largest in the publication’s 12-year history, providing comprehensive contact details for 4,125 local businesses, up from 3,608 last year. The price of the directory is 120 baht. A list of retailers in Phuket, Phang-nga, Krabi, Koh Samui, Pattaya, Hua Hin…
- Phuket News
Another boatload of Rohingyas arrives in Thailand
BANGKOK / PHUKET : A boat with 78 Rohingyas arrived in Ranong on the southern Andaman coast yesterday amid mounting pressure on the government over ill-treatment of the ethnic minority from Burma. The latest boat people are aged 14 to 55. Some of those found in a rickety boat with a broken engine off the coast of Ranong near the…
- Phuket News
Murder suspect arrested in Koh Kaew
PHUKET, KOH KAEW: An employee of Bangkok Hospital Phuket was hacked and bludgeoned to death behind the deserted Phuket Country Lodge hotel on January 25.Police didn’t need to look far for a suspect – noodle shop employee Winai Kullata, 43, was found asleep, spattered with blood, next to the body of the victim, 33-year-old Somchai Suren.Details of the crime were…
- Phuket News
Norwegian survives eight-story plunge
PHUKET, PATONG: A young Norwegian tourist who fell from his eighth-story hotel room Tuesday morning miraculously survived with only minor injuries. At about 8 am, Kathu Police were informed that a foreign tourist had fallen from his room on the eighth floor of the Phuket Palace Hotel, at the south end of Patong on the road to Karon. Fearing the…
- Phuket News
Navy denies human rights violations
PHUKET: In response to allegations regarding the mistreatment of Rohingya boat people trying to gain entry into Thailand, officials from the Third Area Naval Command headquarters in Phang Nga have defended their actions.Chief of Staff Admiral Songkitti Jakabat on Sunday told the Gazette that those attempting to gain unlawful entry must be prohibited from doing so.“Once the refugees are in…
- Phuket News
Local Food Festival starts today
PHUKET CITY (SAPHAN HIN): A four-day ‘Phuket Local Food Festival’ starts today at Saphan Hin.The festival, organized by the Phuket Provincial Administrative Organization (OrBorJor), aims to promote Thai food to holiday makers and other travelers to demonstrate that Thai cuisine is not only delicious, but that it is prepared with exemplary standards of hygiene.All vendors at the festival will prepare…
- Phuket News
Argentine nabbed for motorbike theft
PHUKET CITY: While motorbike theft is a common crime in Phuket, the perpetrators are typically students of local vocational schools – not graphic artists from a country whose people are better known for their skills at soccer than thievery. A press conference at Phuket City Police Station late last week proved once again, however, that when it comes to crime…
- Phuket News
Phuket’s luxury villa market holding despite global conditions
PHUKET: The upscale luxury villa segment has outperformed the broader Phuket property market for Q4 2008 in spite of the worsening global financial downturn and recent political issues in Bangkok, according to the Phuket Luxury Villa Market Report recently released by the island’s widely respected consulting firm C9 Hotelworks. C9’s Managing Director Bill Barnett said that “while take-up rates are…
- Phuket News
OrBorJor, Nation Group organize free cram sessions
PHUKET: In implicit recognition that the mainstream education system is not sufficiently preparing students for entry into higher education, the Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor) has joined with the Phuket Educational Service Office and the Nation Multimedia Group, (of which the Phuket Gazette is a part), to hold the 1st Educational Skills Improvement Seminar at Phuket Rajabhat University. The project,…
- Thailand News
Bat-tling the cold, Isarn style
KALASIN: While temperatures of 10 degrees Celsius may not seem so cold to expats from more northerly climes, for poor Thais living in unheated shacks without warm bedding the cold season is still a real trial.Every year charity appeals are launched to find warm clothing for poor families in the North and Northeast.Villagers in the Isarn have developed alternative methods…
- Thailand News
Drug disco monk defrocked
NAKHON SRI THAMMARAT: In an interesting story that until now has not been reported in the English language press, a monk was arrested on November 17 after police discovered he had converted his cell at the temple into a mini disco and was having drug parties. After receiving a tip off that a monk at Wat Mukhathara, in Tambon Pak…
- Phuket News
Phuket man confesses to Koh Pha Ngan tourist murder
PHUKET: A Phuket man has confessed to the strangling murder of a female German tourist on Koh Phangan on the night of the island’s famous Full Moon Party, local police said. Tattoo artist Tiwat “Ood” Kasemchoke, 29, yesterday confessed that he strangled Astrid Al-Assaad Schachmer on Koh Phangan and disposed of her body in the water at Baan Naiwok Beach,…
- Phuket News
The Times: realistic or romantic about Phuket?
PHUKET: In a world-beating feature in the travel section of the New York Times this weekend, Phuket makes the grade as one of the world’s 44 “most compelling” destinations to visit in 2009. See the rankings here. Interesting and encouraging indeed. But local residents may find an agent provocateur lurking just below the surface in an editorial sub-ranking where it’s…
- Phuket News
Phuket’s kids enjoy Children’s Day
PHUKET: Youngsters are today enjoying free games, activities, stage performances and food and drink around the island for Thailand’s annual Children’s Day. Events dedicated to giving kids a good time are taking place at shopping malls, military installations, government offices, schools, hospitals and public areas all over the island.
- Phuket News
Second incineration plant to be built at Saphan Hin
PHUKET CITY: A solution to Phuket’s waste disposal crisis appears at hand now that a Malaysian firm has agreed to build a second power-producing incineration plant at Saphan Hin. Ratcharin Khawsuwan, an officer in the municipality’s finance division, said the announcement came at a press conference by Phuket City Mayor Somjai Suwansupana, Phuket Vice Governor Worapoj Ratthasima and Dato Tan…
- Phuket News
Sirinath Park standoff now in Day 2
SAKOO, PHUKET: Some 100 protesters have roadblocked the entrance to Sirinath Marine National Park, hoping authorities will do away with sharply increased entrance fees that are keeping tourists away and hurting their businesses. The new fees, which took effect about two months ago, have made access to the park much more expensive – prohibitively so for many tourists who used…
- Phuket News
Countdown to 2009 underway
PHUKET CITY: Watch out Times Square, tropical Phuket has launched its most impressive New Year’s Countdown activity ever at Surin Circle, in the heart of Phuket City. Organized jointly by the Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor) and Phuket City Municipality, the “Colorful Phuket Countdown 2009” activities kicked off with a special opening ceremony on Christmas night with opening speeches by…
- Phuket News
Phuket remembers the tsunami
PHUKET: Today marks the fourth anniversary of the Indian Ocean tsunami, which was triggered by an earthquake that measured close to nine on the Richter scale. The tsunami hit Phuket on the morning of December 26, 2004. More than 5,000 people, mostly international tourists, were killed in Thailand’s six Andaman coastal provinces when the killer waves struck. Indonesia, India and…
- Phuket News
Holiday road safety measures set
PHUKET: Nine major road checkpoints and 18 smaller “mobile units” will be in operation around Phuket from December 30 to January 5, 2009. The checkpoints form the final phase of a three-pronged effort to combat road accidents over the holiday period. This year’s strategy, coordinated by the Phuket office of the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM), started with…
- Phuket News
Crime crackdown hits city streets
PHUKET CITY: Phuket City Police have deployed 180 police officers to man six checkpoints around the city as part of a crime crackdown that began on December 17 and will end at 6 am on the morning of December 20. Phuket City Police Superintendent Wanchai Ekpornpit told the Gazette police have already opened 10 new cases as a result of…
- Phuket News
Burglar arrested with B1.5m in stolen goods
CHALONG: A cat burglar released from prison last year is now back in custody, arrested on Sunday with over 1.5 million baht in stolen goods – mostly Buddhist amulets. Also arrested were his two alleged accomplices, one a 16-year-old boy. The arrests were announced a press conference later the same day led by Police Region 8 Commander Santarn Chayanon. The…
- Phuket News
Students, teachers and heroines: all survive smash
THALANG: Fourteen tired students and staff of Kajonkietsuksa School returning home from Haad Yai had a rude awakening Tuesday night, when the bus they were traveling on crashed into the Heroines Monument at about 10 pm. The bus, nearing the end of an eight-hour journey, was carrying seven of the school’s top students, seven teachers plus the driver. The clever…
- Phuket News
Kids lifesaving carnival on Saturday
KAMALA: A “Nippers Mini Surf Lifesaving Carnival” will be held on Saturday morning, December 20, at Kamala Beach, near Kamala Park and Kamala Police Station. The competition, open to kids five to 15 years of age, is organized and conducted by the Phuket Lifeguard Club. Children from local schools and swim clubs are invited to attend the carnival, which is…
- Phuket News
Work on new Phuket City market almost complete
PHUKET CITY: Work on the new public market on Ranong Rd in downtown Phuket City is now 90% complete, according to officials at Phuket City Hall. City official Udom Tansakul yesterday told the Gazette that the only work left to be done involves installation of vendors’ stalls and other finishing touches. The city has already paid 14 of 16 installments specified…
- Thailand News
A fish in the hand is better than two in the pond
ROI-ET: As the old proverb goes, “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”. As a young soldier in Isarn recently found out, the same holds true for fish in ponds. Late last month, Royal Thai Army Private Benchaphon Dangwibul told a reporter in a rather hoarse voice that on November 24 he was on a 10-day…
