News
Thailand news, politics, business, crime, lifestyle, and tourism—stay updated with breaking news and in-depth analysis from Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Pattaya, and beyond. The Thaiger delivers the latest national news that matters.
-
Sponsored 9 most common health issues covered by insurance for expats in Thailand
Thailand is a popular destination for expats due to its affordable lifestyle and excellent healthcare system. However, settling in a new country often brings health concerns. To ensure you’re covered for the most common medical needs, understanding what expat health...
-
US group vows to help boost Phuket tourism
PHUKET CITY: A 61-strong group of Americans met Phuket City Mayor Somjai Suwannasuppana this morning to deliver a message of hope and friendship, along with US$1,200 (48,000 baht) for grants for students affect by the tsunami.The Americans, 42 of whom are from the state of Oregon, are members of the “Flight of Friendship” organisation, which has been set up to…
-
WHO offers forensics assistance
PHUKET: The World Health Organization (WHO) has offered to send forensic scientists to Thailand to help identify tsunami victims, and has asked Thailand to support other countries hit by the tsunami.Dr Samlee Plianbangchang, WHO Regional Director for Southeast Asia, said the organization would draw on experience gained after the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.“One must always keep…
-
Sea gypsies protest at “lack of government help’
PHUKET: More than 50 sea gypsies from Rawai rallied outside the offices of Phuket Governor Udomsak Usawarangkura this morning to protest at what they say is a lack of help from the government since the tsunami.The government has said it would make one-off payments of 2,000 baht to anyone who lost his or her job because of the tsunami. But…
-
Monitoring of foreigners gets a boost
SAPHAN HIN: Phuket Administration Organization (OrBorJor) President Anchalee Vanich-Thepabutr today handed over the new 1.5-million-baht Center of International Crime Information and Immigration Service to the Phuket Immigration Office.Phuket Immigration Superintendent Pol Col Witawat Buranasompop said the building will be used by officers who will monitor the movements of foreigners in Phuket.He said more and more foreigners are coming to Phuket,…
-
Phone fury
PATTAYA: Four innocent bystanders were injured by ricocheting bullets when a bagman for a Pattaya loan shark opened fire on his mobile phone. Witnesses to the slaying of the mobile phone said the man, identified only as “Woot”, was seen at about 3 am yelling into his mobile phone on the ground floor of Niran Condo on Soi Arunothai. He…
-
Orient Thai resumes Phuket-Korea flights
BANGKOK: Orient Thai Airlines has resumed flights between South Korea and Phuket after suspending them after the tsunami.Orient Thai Airlines Chairman Udom Tantiprasongchai told the Gazette that the service has resumed with two flights a week – on Saturdays and Tuesdays.He added that, by March, the airline hopes to have flights up to their pre-tsunami frequency of four a week.Two…
-
Putting the boot in for a good cause
PHUKET CITY: Thai Cabinet ministers led by freshly reelected Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra will face ambassadors from 38 countries during a friendly soccer match at Surakul Stadium on February 26.The event is intended to help Phuket recover as a tourist destination after the tsunami.Admission is free, and the match is due to be broadcast nationwide by Thai TV station TV5.The…
-
Tsunami volunteers warned: get work permits
PHUKET: Foreign volunteers assisting in tsunami-related charity work are required to hold work permits, regardless of whether they are being paid for their efforts or not. Sayan Chuaiyjan, head of the Phuket Provincial Employment Service Office [ESO], told the Gazette yesterday that there could be no exceptions and that his office would begin to enforce the regulations soon – possibly…
-
Election: clean sweep for Democrats
PHUKET: Despite a massive campaign by Thai Rak Thai (TRT) to convince voters to back the ruling party, and despite surveys showing that Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s popularity is at unprecedented levels, Phuket yesterday reinstalled its two Democrat MPs.Indeed, Phuket voters made it quite plain that they are not ready for TRT MPs, by handing the two Democrats hefty victories.In…
-
Top Unicef official checks on progress
PHUKET: The Executive Director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef), Carol Bellamy, has been to Phuket and Phang Nga to see what is being done to help children recover from the tsunami.Unicef officers were sent to Phang Nga and Phuket within a week of the tsunami, said Ms Bellamy, and since then, Unicef has supported Thai government efforts to…
-
Porntip slams “autocrats’
PHUKET: Dr Khunying Porntip Rojanasunan has rounded on “the autocrats” she says have forced her to close the mortuary at Wat Yan Yao, Phang Nga, where she and her team had been working to identify victims of the tsunami.The work has now been transferred to Phuket, to the Thai Tsunami Victim Identification Centre (TTVI), headed by Pol Gen Nopadol Soomboonsub.Dr…
-
TAT blitz “helping to change perceptions’
PHUKET: Tour operators and journalists from eastern Europe have changed their perceptions of post-tsunami Phuket after seeing the effects for themselves, Suwalai Pinpradab, Director of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) office in Phuket has told the Gazette.“The journalists have been to Krabi, too,” said K. Suwalai. “They were very surprised to see Phi Phi Island, and Maya Bay, and…
-
Court orders businessman off SorPorKor land
PHUKET: Businessman Charoen Thavornwongwong has been ordered to leave 16 rai of land in Karon’s Nakkerd Hills, after the Phuket Appeal Court overturned the Provincial Court’s earlier judgement that he could stay on the land.The Appeal Court said that the Phuket Provincial Land Reform Office (PLRO) had been right to contest the judgement of the lower court, on the grounds…
-
Phummisak challenges Gov over water supplies
PHUKET: Former Phuket City Mayor and tin mine owner Phummisak Hongsyok has dismissed Governor Udomsak Usawarangkura’s assertion that he will use the law to force owners of private water resources to share them with the province if there is a water shortage this year.K. Phummisak, who owns two flooded former tin mines with a total capacity of three million cubic…
-
WTO Phuket action plan adopted
KATA: A multi-point Phuket Action Plan drawn up by the Executive Council of the World Tourism Organization (WTO) to speed the recovery of Phuket’s battered tourism industry has been accepted by a WTO Emergency Session that drew togther representatives from 40 countries.The multi-point plan, approved during the session held yesterday and today at the Kata Beach Hotel, contains the following…
-
F1 powerboat race postponed to March 2006
PHUKET: The Formula One powerboat race scheduled to take place next month in Ao Makham has been postponed for a year.Kata Group Chairman Pamuke Archariyachai told the Gazette today that a combination of the tsunami and the Cabinet’s slowness in approving funds to support the event had forced the decision to postpone until March 2006.“We had only a short time…
-
Stars Hingis and Keating aid Phuket
PHUKET: Former world No 1 women’s tennis player Martina Hingis will arrive in Phuket next Monday to help promote tourism to the area, just days after Irish pop star Ronan Keating recorded a music video on the island.Hingis, a five-times grand slam champion, is in Thailand to compete in the WTA Volvo Women’s Open in Pattaya, her first professional tournament…
-
Entertainment licence fees in limbo
PHUKET CITY: Wisut Romin, Deputy Secretary of the Phuket Provincial Administration Office, has hinted that licence fees may be waived for entertainment businesses damaged by the tsunami.K. Wisut told the Gazette today that the office had yet to receive details of the new fees – originally due to be announced in December 2004 by the Department of Local Administration.He said,…
-
100,000 candles light up Patong Beach
PATONG: The beach here was a blaze of flickering light last night when some 10,000 people joined the “Light Up Patong” ceremony, lighting 100,000 candles along the three-kilometer length of the beach.The event was organized by the Phuket Provincial Administration Organization and attended by 33 delegates to the World Travel Organization Executive Council extraordinary meeting, being held in Phuket yesterday…
-
We need B700m immediately – Pian
PHUKET CITY: Patong Mayor Pian Keesin has urged the government to approve immediately funding of 700 million baht to improve Patong Beach, in line with the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT)’s draft plan for reconstructing the resort.Mayor Pian told Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, during his recent visit to Phuket, that Patong was the worst-affected of all the tsunami-hit places on…
-
Island has water to last until May
PHUKET CITY: The Bang Wad reservoir will be able to supply Phuket with enough water until May, because the drop in the number of tourists caused by the tsunami has reduced water consumption, a post-tsunami review meeting has been told.Irrigation Project Director Watchara Arepornsiri told the Phuket Provincial Hall meeting, “At the moment we have 5.9 million cubic meters of…
-
3,000 Burmese “still missing’ in Phang Nga alone
PHUKET: One month after the tsunami, more than 3,000 Burmese workers in Phang Nga are still unaccounted for, a seminar was told yesterday.The meeting, arranged by the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the international NGO, the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES), heard that many Burmese are still hiding atop hills and in rubber plantations in the province – often in bad conditions –…
-
Suwat outlines tourism recovery plans
PHUKET CITY: Deputy Prime Minister Suwat Liptapanlop believes that marketing and rehabilitation of sites popular with tourists will be the keys to the recovery of the tourism industry along Thailand’s Andaman Sea coast.DPM Suwat, responsible for overseeing the recovery of the tourism industry in the Andaman region in the wake of the December 26 tsunami disaster, was reporting during a…
-
Flowers for remembrance
KHAO LAK: At a solemn ceremony in the now calm waters some five miles off Khao Lak, the Royal Thai Navy (RTN) aircraft carrier HTMS Chakri Naruebeth led a flotilla of nine other RTN vessels to place wreaths on the water for those lost in the tsunami of December 26.The German, British, Swedish and Singaporean ambassadors to Thailand, as well…
-
Candle ceremony on Patong Beach tonight
PATONG: Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor) is inviting everyone to join a “Light up Patong” event this evening, the aim being to place 100,000 candles along three kilometers of Patong Beach, in memory of the victims of the tsunami.OrBorJor President Anchalee Vanich-Thepabutr said the OrBorJor intends to make the ceremony an annual event, partly as a memorial to the victims…
-
Charity tsunami photo book on sale
PHUKET: A special joint publication of The Nation and The Phuket Gazette entitled 26.12.04: Wrath Of The Tsunami is on sale now at bookstores across Thailand and from all regular Gazette distribution agents. All net proceeds from the 48-page full-color photo memoir, priced at only 90 baht, will be donated to charities aiding tsunami victims and their families. A copy…
-
We’re doing our best to help – Thaksin
PHUKET CITY: PM Thaksin arrived in Phuket yesterday morning to hear complaints by Phuket residents about the government’s handling of the tsunami disaster.The meeting, held at the Royal Phuket City Hotel, was attended by some 500 people, including Cabinet ministers and scores of other government officials. The Cabinet ministers reported on the progress of the various relief programs assigned to…
-
Singaporean airlines offer Phuket deals
PHUKET: A couple of days after THAI Airways angered the tourism industry by abruptly dropping all of its flights from Singapore to Phuket, airlines in Singapore are doing precisely the opposite, by offering special deals to travellers.In a joint promotion with selected hotels in Phuket, Krabi and Langkawi, SilkAir is offering travellers special-value packages to these holiday destinations, valid until…
-
Scandi tour firms to spread the good word
PHUKET CITY: An inspection team representing major Scandinavian tour companies Star Tour, MyTravel & Tour, and Apollo Tours, yesterday announced that they will return home and spread the word that Phuket and the other Andaman provinces are safe tourist destinations.The team of five yesterday wrapped up a week-long inspection tour that took in some 80 hotels in Phuket and Krabi,…
-
Help offered for coping with tsunami trauma
PHUKET: Two psychotherapists, Dr Victor Adam from Singapore and David Foster, a Phuket-based Englishman, are to conduct free group sessions to help those in Thailand traumatized by the tsunami. The sessions are expected to begin on February 2. The owner of a house on the Loch Palm Golf Course has generously offered the use of it as a venue for…
Don't forget to check out some other things to do in Thailand - get help starting a business or finding a job in Thailand, buy Thailand property, rent a yacht or book a medical procedure worldwide.