Phuket News
Discover the latest news and updates from Thailand’s most famous and beautiful island, The Thaiger’s hometown, having previously operated as the Phuket Gazette.
Our team brings you breaking news, in-depth analysis, and exclusive stories from Phuket, covering everything from local politics and business to lifestyle and tourism. Learn about the island’s stunning beaches, vibrant nightlife, and thriving expat community, as well as keeping updated on events, and attractions.
The Thaiger is your ultimate guide to staying connected with Phuket’s ever-evolving landscape. To keep up with the most reliable news source on the island, subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on social media.
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Sponsored Top 5 luxury villas in Phuket and Koh Samui for your next holiday
Ask people to name the most beautiful places in Thailand, and you'll often hear Phuket and Koh Samui being mentioned. Who would disagree? One is renowned for its bustling nightlife, vibrant culture, and lively beach scene, while the other is...
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New Phuket bus schedule App
The Phuket Land Transport Office is launching a new application called “Bus Beam” connecting people with public transportations, gathering all the schedules for bus services around Phuket. There are 6 bus operators who have joined the application so far. The Deputy Director General of Land Transport Department, Cherdchai Sanansrisakorn along with Phuket’s Vice Governor, Prakob Wongmaneerung, chaired the opening ceremony…
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Tourist disappears after swimming off Patong Beach
A 27 year old Ukrainian tourist disappeared after swimming off Patong Beach last evening (December 10). A team of Patong lifeguards along with the Kulsoldham Phuket Foundation volunteers combed the beach area following a report that a tourist had gone missing at about 6.30pm (sunset last night was at 6.09pm). A boat driver, who is a witness, says that he…
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Worms found in famous local canned fish tin
Phuket woman Sarantip Chaeton found worms in a tin of canned fish. Her post on social media has become viral with more than 124,544 shares. She revealed on December 9 that she bought the canned fish on December 8. Her sister bought three cans which all mention an expiry date of October 16, 2020, with the manufacturing date being October…
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Surprise proposal at Phukethon
The mini-marathon runner at yesterday’s Phukethon, Pakornkij Kanchanaroj, made a surprise proposal to his girlfriend, Nannapat Saepua, after finishing the run together. The groom has revealed that the couple are from Nakhon Si Thammarat. He is a power plant engineer and his future wife is a social work officer and they have been together for 9 years. The two families…
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MONDAY MORNING BRIEFING – All your local news in 3 minutes
PHOTO: Kata Rocks winds up their 2017 Kata Rocks Superyacht Rendezvous. Enjoy your public holiday today, if you’re lucky enough to have it off. It’s Constitution Day. A beautiful sunny day ahead with just a few clouds. Should be the same for the next three days too. Here’s today’s main news stories…. “I borrowed the watch from a friend” Deputy…
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Thalang & Chalong drug arrests
Thalang police arrested two Phuket men with 4,000 methamphetamine pills whilst Chalong police were busy arresting a man from Surat Thani with 3,474 methamphetamine pills along with 109 grams of crystal methamphetamine. The two cases have an estimated street value in excess of 2 million baht. On December 8, Thalang police arrested 24 year old Jirapat Samranrat and 24 year…
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Headless corpse found in a Thalang drain
Thalang police received a report about a dead body found in a drain on Thepkasattri Road in Thalang heading towards Phuket Town last night (December 9). At the scene, police found a large crowd crowded around a drain with a strong smell coming from it. After opening it up, police found a decayed male body without his head. The man…
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SUNDAY MORNING BRIEFING – All your local news in 3 minutes
Sunday, Sunday. The Phukethon has been run and won, the Phuket King’s Cup wraps today and the Kata Rocks Superyacht Rendezvous has their big closing party tonight for the mega-yachts visiting the island. Even though districts around Phuket are suffering severe flooding, including just north in Phang Nga, Phuket is waking up to a fine day ahead with only a…
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Blade Runner. Cool tech gives Cola new legs.
After a first set of prosthetics, Cola now has new ‘bouncy’ blades to run on. Cola the two-legged dog has scored an Asian first – he’s the first dog in the world to be fitted with blades of the kind used by Paralympic sprinters. And he took to his new legs like a champion, racing up and down the beach…
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SATURDAY MORNING BRIEFING – All your news in 3 minutes
Saturday – Ahh, the weekend. Many things happening around the island. Tonight you have another Boat Lagoon Weekend night of music, crafts, food, entertainment and chilling. Starts at 6pm. Also the Kata Rocks Superyacht Rendezvous on today as the fleet makes its way from Kata Rocks to The Surin for a beach party – you’ll see some magnificent vessels making…
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DAY FOUR – Phuket King’s Cup. Wind softens but competition heats up.
It’s been a week of consistently excellent winds (and gusts which peaked at 25 knots at times), but lighter conditions appeared for Day Four. This had the potential to alter standings heading into today, as well as tomorrow’s final race. Today also marked the conclusion of a great week of racing across all of the Phuket King’s Cup Regatta Dinghy…
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Road closures for the Phukethon Marathon on Sunday
The upcoming Phukethon 2017, with the Marathon being run on December 10, will force some roads to be closed down for the duration of the running event. Drivers are invited to plan ahead to avoid the runners on this date. More than 10,000 runners are coming to Phuket this weekend for the Phukethon event. The marathon is scheduled to start…
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THAIGER TODAY Friday, December 8
Prawit’s been given 30 days to ‘please explain’ | Flood crisis in Nakhon Si Thammarat | Last night’s island downpour | Australian couple in hospital with mounting bills following bike accident | 50,000 SIM cards seized on the Cambodian border.
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FRIDAY NEWS BRIEFING – All your news in 3 minutes
PHOTO: A Province-wide drama unfolding in Nakhon Si Thammarat. Patong wakes up this morning to start mopping up the heavy flood waters from last night. Heavy rain pelted Phuket’s party town, and other parts of the island, from around 10pm for four hours. Yesterday morning Patong also had heavy floods leading to two electricity poles along the Patong – Karon…
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NLA visits Rawai sea gypsy village to check on environmental issues
The First Vice Presidnet of National Legislative Assembly of Thailand (NLA) and his team visited the Rawai sea gypsy village yesterday (December 6) following a complaint about a retention wall near the beach and natural waterway issues. Prior to the visit the team attended a meeting with Phuket authorities including the Phuket Governor, Phuket Land Office Chief, representative of Muang…
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Prachasamakkee villagers block land office from measuring land border
During a visit at the Prachasamakkee Community today (December 7), the team at the Phuket Provincial Land Office and the lawyer of the plaintiff against the villagers were not allowed to check the measurement of the village land to make a plan to file to the court. The villagers claim that the 77 defendants haven’t had any appointment for the…
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THAIGER TODAY Thursday, December 7
Two fallen electrical poles cause traffic disruption this morning | Severe flooding in Nakhon Si Thammarat | No 3-Star Michelin restaurants in BKK | NACC chasing an explanation from Prawit | Phramongkutklao Hospital bomber sent to jail.
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Patong Tunnel update
Patong Mayor, Chalermluck Kebsup, has provided an update about progress on the long-mooted infrastructure project. She says the proposal has now passed the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) stage and will be considered by the main planning committee soon. “After we checked with the Expressway Authority of Thailand, who is responsible for the project, we found out that the tunnel project…
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Kamala vendors complain about illegal foreign vendors
30 local vendors of Kamala Beach led by Samran Kodsan headed to the Kamala Police Station yesterday (December 6) to complain about foreign vendors working illegally on Kamala Beach. The vendors say that the foreigners from Myanmar, Bangladesh and Vietnam have been working as vendors on the beach for a while and often try to pressure beachgoers to buy their…
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THURSDAY MORNING BRIEFING – All your news in 3 minutes
A lot of rain overnight so there has been some wet and slippery roads around the island this morning. Patong Police Station, as usual, suffers when there’s heavy rain. More racing down at Kata today for the Phuket King’s Cup. Nakhon Si Thammarat is really copping heavy rains and our Deputy PM is being asked ‘please explain’ about his ‘bling’.…
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Phuket locals protest over community land claim
About 100 villagers from the Prachasamakkee community gathered at the Phuket provincial hall at 9 am today (December 6) to call for their rights to live on the land of the community, after 70 villagers have been sued by a person claiming to be the landlord. The protest was led by the community leader, Surasak Tainapriew, alongside the secretary of…
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THAIGER TODAY Wednesday, December 6
THAIGER TODAY. Wednesday, December 6. Heat on the Deputy PM to explain his expensive watch | Pattaya driver tests positive to drugs | Floods starting to abate | 2 missing after Nakhon Si Thammarat bus gets swept away | Big drug hauls in BKK and Songkhla.
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Car crash in Krabi kills six
A pickup truck traveling from Trang province to Krabi lost control and hit an electric pole, killing all 6 passengers last night (December 5). The pick up truck driven by a retired policeman, 61 year old Prayad Jongrak, with other 5 family members, was found crashed into the high-voltage electric pole on Petchakasem Road heading towards Krabi in Nuaklong district.…
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WEDNESDAY MORNING BRIEFING – All your news in 3 minutes
Day three of the Phuket King’s Cup today and fresh winds are waiting for the 83-strong fleet off Kata. Our Deputy PM has got into hot water over a flashy watch, a mother is being asked to explain why she chained up her daughter and a truck has fallen on a passenger van killing two in Chiang Mai. Welcome to…
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Four-year absence of leatherback turtles at Phuket nesting beaches
With the leatherback turtle already listed internationally as a critically endangered species, the National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department yesterday expressed serious concern that none of the animals had returned to beaches in Phuket and Phang-nga to lay eggs since 2013. Director-general Thanya Netithammakun raised the alarm over the survival of the leatherbacks, as there have no reports of…
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7 year old girl chained up by her mother
After pictures of a 7 year old Myanmar girl chained went viral in social media, Phuket Social Development and Human Security officers visited the scene today (December 5), which is a room in an apartment in Phuket Town. The girl and her 9 year old brother are safe at Phuket Children and Family Shelter. “We got the report last night…
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Official opening of Wang Kee On Waterfall in Patong
At 9 am today (December 5), Patong Mayor, Chalermluck Kebsup, hosted the official opening of Wang Kee On Waterfall as the new attraction in Patong, even though it’s been there all the time. “As today is the birthday of The Late King Bhumibol Adulyadej, we agreed to officially open the waterfall to the public on this special day. Patong Municipality…
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THAIGER TODAY Tuesday, December 5
THAIGER TODAY. Tuesday, December 5. Tragic Pattaya road accidents prompts questions | Songkhla schools closed because of flooding | Wang Kee Aon waterfall re-opens in Patong | Fake bomb causes security alert at Myanmar Embassy | Toon meets the PM.
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Phuket King’s Cup – Racing Day One. Plenty of wind!
Plenty of wind on Day One and the rest of the week is shaping up well in the wind department. Race Day One kicked off with some of the best conditions seen at the PKCR in recent years, winds around 19 knots and more of the same anticipated tomorrow. A total of 83 keelboats and multihulls took to the waves,…
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Patong Municipality announces the reopening of the waterfall in the town’s heart
Patong Mayor, Chalermluck Kebsup, says that the Wang Kee Aon waterfall in the middle of Patong used to be the main attraction in Patong and HRH King Bhumibol Adulyadej 9 also paid a visit in 1959, which was an important early part of putting Patong on the domestic map for Thailand tourism. “However, later, when the land in front of the…
Phuket is a province in the south of Thailand. Phuket's beaches face the Andaman Sea allowing the west coast beaches fantastic sunsets right throughout the year. If you're looking for news in Phuket, go to thethaiger.com/phuket Or follow our instant news in our Facebook pages.
The good news is that Phuket is famous for its foodie scene with an enormously diverse range of local and international foods - Phuket and southern favorites, street food along with international choices catering for the 12 million visitors to the island each year. Thaiger follows Phuket news and information 24 hours a day with regular updates.
Phuket is only 'just' an island with a 300 metre bridge linking it to Thailand's mainland. We're always reporting in the news that the channel beneath is frequently dredged to maintain Phuket's status as an island. On the other side of Sarasin Bridge is the Province of Phang Nga.
Getting to Phuket is easy as the island has land, air and sea connections. Phuket is also used as a take-off point for local island trips as Thailand's largest island is surrounded by over 30 pristine islands. Koh Phi Phi and the famous Maya Bay are always in the news and would be the best known of the island's just off Phuket's shores.
Phuket is an island and a province. It's the largest island in Thailand – 48 km north to south, 21 km east to west.
It's about 20% smaller, in area, than Singapore but much less densely populated. Whilst the island nation of Singapore boasts a population of nearly 6 million, Phuket has a permanent population of around 400-450,000 (but varies a lot with the influx of tourists and a workforce that is always changing). Most of Phuket remains jungle and tropical rainforest despite an acceleration of development over the past 20 years.
Unlike some of Thailand's other popular islands (that are in the Gulf of Thailand), the news is that Phuket is located in the Andaman Sea.
Phuket is 878 km north of the equator.
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