Phuket News
Phuket news, politics, business, tourism, and nightlife—stay updated with breaking stories, events, and expat updates from Thailand’s top island destination. Get the latest from The Thaiger, your trusted Phuket news source.
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Pregnant Aussie teenager beaten, robbed in Phuket ladyboy attack
PHUKET: A pregnant Australian teenager was beaten and robbed by four Thai ladyboys in Patong early yesterday morning. The victim, 19-year-old “Bonnie May”, asked that the Phuket Gazette use only her nickname out of fear or reprisal by the gang of ladyboys, who she said attacked her for no reason after she asked them for directions. Speaking to the Gazette…
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Fire forces evacuation of Phuket Town theater complex
PHUKET: An electrical fire caused a panicked evacuation from a cinema complex in the heart of Phuket Town last night, but no injuries were reported. Staff at the Coliseum Paradise Mutliplex cinemas at Ocean Shopping Mall noticed smoke billowing from two electrical transformers on a fourth-floor control room at about 7pm. They tried to cool the transformers with fire extinguishers,…
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Racism gets the boot
PHUKET: “We want to make sure football is all about a power to do good, rather than anything else.” UK prime minister David Cameron vowed to rid football of racism during an anti-discrimination summit held at Downing Street recently. “What happens on the field influences what happens off the field. You see children as young as six imitating the behavior…
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Phuket tourist cheats spark foreign diplomat intervention
PHUKET: Foreign diplomats representing at least six countries are to meet Tourism and Sports Minister Chumpol Silpa-archa to address the growing problem of cheats and swindlers targeting Phuket tourists. The news was reported through state news agency the National News Bureau of Thailand. Tourism and Sports Ministry Spokesperson Watchara Kannika announced that EU Ambassador David Lipman, Head of the Delegation…
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Phuket Police investgate mysterious roadside death
PHUKET: Phuket Police are investigating the mysterious death of a 27-year-old Nakhon Sri Thammarat man found dead in his pickup truck parked by the side of a road yesterday. The body, identified by police as that of Phumin “Min” Inthongkham, was found at about 6pm in his Nissan NV pickup parked along Rassadanusorn Road, near the border of Rassada and…
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Phuket Police net 16 “shrimp-fish’ losers
PHUKET: Phuket City Police last night raided an apartment building in Chalong, arresting 16 people for gambling on the popular “shrimp-fish” board game and seizing over 400,000 baht in cash. The raid, led by Phuket City Police Deputy Superintendent Serm Kwannimit, caught gamblers off-guard at a makeshift gambling den set up in an eighth-floor room at the Santiphap apartment complex…
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Krabi tourist vans slam into fallen karst boulder
PHUKET: A boulder weighing at least one tonne plummeted off a roadside karst near the tourist-popular Ao Nang beach in Krabi this afternoon. The boulder landed in the middle of the road between Krabi Town and Ao Nang, leaving a 30-centimeter deep crater in the road surface, and splintered into smaller boulder fragments. Unable to stop in time, a tourist…
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Phuket Update: Phi Phi stabbing suspect pleads not guilty
PHUKET: A Thai man accused of stabbing a young British tourist on Phi Phi Island last year pleaded “not guilty” to charges of attempted murder before Krabi Court yesterday. The suspect, 23-year-old Hamed Poonyung, has been charged for the attempted murder of Nicholas Palmer, also 23, during a beach party in October last year. Mr Hamed appeared before Krabi Provincial…
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Phuket poll: Irksome complaints by foreigners
PHUKET: Foreigners in Phuket, both tourists and residents, have developed somewhat of a reputation for complaining over the years. The latest Phuket Gazette readers poll, online now, asks readers: Which of the following topics are you most tired of hearing foreigners in Phuket complain about? And the nominees are: • Overpriced alcohol• Double-pricing (when foreigners pay more than Thais)• Tuk-tuks,…
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Pregnant Swede still in Phuket hospital after chlorine gas exposure
PHUKET: A pregnant Swedish woman exposed to a cloud of chlorine gas at a Phuket resort on Saturday remains in the hospital, despite the resort management’s claims that all of those affected were treated and released the same day. Patong Hospital official Hathairat Rangsansarit told the Phuket Gazette today that all 37 victims, initially rushed to Patong Hospital, were later…
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Tremor hits Phang Nga, no damage reported
PHUKET: Coastal residents of Takuapa District in Phang Nga were put on alert this morning following a minor earthquake. The event turned out to be a localized tremor that caused no damage, not the effects of a larger event further away like the tsunami-causing quake that devastated Phuket and the entire Andaman coastline in 2004. Somkiat Intorrajan, director of the…
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Phuket Sports : Keeper’s ball; France leapfrog into first
PHUKET: Goalkeepers are a breed unto themselves. Both hero and villain, as with any position on the playing field. But one characteristic of a goalkeeper that can never be doubted is that of bravery. The last line of defense, the last hope when all seems lost, that is a goalkeeper. It may sound daunting, but the thrill of making a…
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Village go coco-nuts over Patong defeat
PHUKET: In a crucial Phuket Island Furniture League match, Patong and the Village faced each other at the ACG with both teams needing a win to boost their hopes of a showdown with title favorites, Laguna CC. Undefeated so far this season, the Village knew that taking points from Patong would effectively end the reigning champions expectations of at least…
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Five dead, 16 injured in Phang Nga crash
PHUKET: Five people returning from a Phuket cremation ceremony were killed on Saturday night when the crowded pickup they were riding in slammed into a tree in Phang Nga. Sixteen others were seriously injured. A songthaew (pickup modified for passenger transport) was returning Buddhist adherents from the cremation ceremony of Mai Khao Temple Abbot Luangpor Daeng when the accident occurred…
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Sweet sixteen in Phuket’s AFL round four
PHUKET: Cancelled and postponed games meant only two matches were played in round four of the Phuket Adult Futsal League presented by Thanachart Bank. Despite only two games on the card, sixteen goals were scored to ensure an exhilarating night of football. TSLC and SGS faced off in the first encounter with the home side looking to keep their unbeaten…
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Goals galore in Phuket Super Six league
PHUKET: The new Phuket Super Six League (PSSL) exploded into action with 41 goals recorded over just four games on its opening night at Football Island. Alberto Mancuso’s Ristorante Rugantino began the net-busting frenzy by knocking Joseph Arimathea’s young Eden FC team out of the park on a 10-0 scoreline. The experienced Italian team took an early lead from a…
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Slapping, spitting, boxing and bottling
PHUKET: “He’s blown his only chance, the last thing you want to do is pick a fight with Vitali.” Adam Booth, the boxing trainer of Britain’s David Haye (former WBA heavyweight champion), said Dereck Chisora lost any hope of beating WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko when he slapped him at Friday’s weigh-in… before their fight. British boxer Chisora, born in…
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Prompong in Phuket to launch tourist safety campaign
PHUKET: Government spokesman Prompong Nopparit was back in Phuket last night to launch a new tourist safety campaign that will see a rapid expansion in the number of closed-circuit television cameras in Patong and other popular tourist destinations. Mr Prompong, a party list MP for the ruling Pheu Thai Party, at 7pm held an informal meeting with the press on…
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Tourism finds Phuket swiftlet aviaries difficult to swallow
SPECIAL REPORT Having caused problems in other regions of Thailand, the growing number of swiftlet barns in Phuket came under scrutiny at Phuket Provincial Hall last week. Officials have decided to set up ‘zones’ for the business – despite the fact that it is illegal. The Phuket Gazette‘s Stephen Fein and Warisa Temram report. PHUKET: The Phuket Provincial Office will…
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Patong Carnival tops poll as Phuket’s top funfair
PHUKET: The annual Patong Carnival is Phuket’s top free funfair according to a recent readers’ poll by the Phuket Gazette. The two-week poll, launched late last month, asked readers, “Which of the following annually-staged free events do you most enjoy?” Patong Carnival ranked as the top response, garnering 59.7% of votes overall. The Old Phuket Town Festival ranked second with…
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Jetstar flights to Phuket to airlift stranded Aussies home
Suggested Heading: PHUKET: Jetstar has scheduled an additional ad-hoc service from Phuket to Australia on Sunday in order to assist travellers stranded by the overnight collapse of Air Australia on Thursday. The ad-hoc services will be operated by an A320 aircraft with up to 180 seats and will fly from Phuket to Darwin (via Singapore) with onward connections to Jetstar’s…
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Chlorine gas guests return safely to Phuket resort
PHUKET: All the guests affected by the chlorine gas cloud at the Phuket Orchid Resort in Karon this morning have safely returned to the resort, it was announced at a press conference this afternoon. “Every single person taken to hospital has returned to the resort. Not a single person has checked out. They are all okay,” said resort general manager…
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Dozens injured in Phuket resort pool chlorine “blast’
PHUKET: Dozens of tourists and resort workers were rushed to hospital this morning after a mix of pool cleaning agents “exploded” into a cloud of gas beside a pool at a Phuket resort.Staff at the Phuket Orchid Resort in Karon confirmed to the Phuket Gazette that the cloud of gas was formed by a mix of chlorine and other cleaning…
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Phuket forecast: good chance of rain this weekend
PHUKET: The weekend forecast for Phuket calls for “widely scattered to scattered” thundershowers through Monday, with variable winds and temperatures at night reaching as low as 22°C.For the 24-hour period starting at noon today, the forecast by the Thai Meteorological Department (TMD) center at Phuket Airport calls for partly cloudy conditions with scattered thundershowers covering 60% of the province.Similar forecasts…
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Phuket Gazette Sports Bag: This week in Sports
PHUKET: The starter’s gun has fired and first out of the blocks is this week’s Phuket Gazette sports round-up.Your international sports page features a sprint through the Premiership with a glance to the side at Spurs’ rout of Newcastle, Thierry Henry’s parting gift to Arsenal, Zambia’s African Cup of Nations win, another Luis Suarez shake-down and why Carlos Tevez is…
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Air Australia tourists tired, angry over Phuket ordeal
PHUKET: Australian tourists stranded in Phuket after low-cost carrier Air Australia went bust overnight last night are losing patience with the wait to get home, and some are running out of the cash needed to pay for their flight home. Trevor Moloney, 30, and Caley Wilkinson, 30, arrived Phuket 12 days ago. They were supposed to leave Phuket on board…
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Battle to keep Phuket beaches clear continues
PHUKET: The battle to keep Phuket’s beaches free of illegal vendors continues to be a pitched one, with each small advance seemingly followed by a setback.In the latest development, four local residents have set up small restaurants on the sands of Kata Beach with low-to-the-ground Japanese-style dining tables selling grilled and barbecued meats every evening starting at dusk.Orders by Karon…
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Phuket alcohol ban ahead of local elections
PHUKET: A ban on the sale of alcohol goes into effect in Srisoonthorn Municipality at 6pm tonight ahead of local elections tomorrow.Phuket Election Commission Director Kittipong Thiengkunakrit told the Phuket Gazette, “The alcohol ban will be in effect from 6pm Friday night through to midnight Saturday night due to the Srisoonthorn municipal elections on Saturday, February 18.”Mr Kittipong explained that…
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Phuket struggles to airlift stranded Air Australia tourists
PHUKET: Scores of Australian tourists have been left stranded at Phuket International Airport after low-budget carrier Air Australia grounded all flights yesterday due to insolvency. The state-run Australian Broadcasting Commission news quoted a source as saying that Air Australia was even unable to buy fuel at Phuket Airport last night for a flight ready to take tourists home. The directors…
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Phuket coral bounces back from bleaching blight
PHUKET: Considerable improvement in the condition of bleached coral reefs around Phuket and along the Andaman Coast has been noted by government researchers, it was announced at a meeting early this week. Boonchob Sudthamanaswong, Director-General of the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources Andaman Coast Group (DMCR-Andaman), chaired a seminar at the Phuket Merlin Hotel on Monday to discuss government…
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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