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Thailand news, politics, business, crime, lifestyle, and tourism—stay updated with breaking news and in-depth analysis from Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Pattaya, and beyond.
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Phuket Poll: Is B60mn “musical fountain’ worth it?
PHUKET: The Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor) recently launched its 60-million-baht “musical fountain”, purported to be the largest of its kind in Thailand. At the opening of the fountain last month, OrBorJor President Paiboon Upatising said it was destined to become a must-see attraction that will draw tourists to Phuket, particularly Saphan Hin, and showcase Phuket’s unique history and culture.…
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Phuket dinghies join flood relief effort
PHUKET: Five rubber dinghies loaded with safety equipment left Phuket this morning for the flood-ravaged central plains, where they will assist in transporting goods and passengers until the situation there returns to normal. Four of the vessels are on loan from the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources (DMCR) Region 5 office in Phuket, and are operated by that agency’s…
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Mystery surrounds Aussie death plunge in Phuket
PHUKET: An Australian tourist on holiday in Phuket died over the weekend after falling off a hotel balcony in Patong. It is believed he was sleepwalking at the time. The story broke in the Thai press by Manager Online news site, which identified the deceased as 33-year-old Dean William McKeon. The site also posted graphic images of the late Mr…
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Thailand Floods: A Phuket view of the damage in a nutshell
PHUKET: Severe flooding has wreaked havoc and caused enormous damage across Thailand. Although Phuket is not among the 28 provinces currently on the radar of the national government’s new flood crisis ‘War Room’, monsoon rains are an ongoing threat here, despite the hiatus so far today. The damage nationally: 30 provinces in all regions except the South (where Phuket lies)…
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Construction worker drowns in Phuket klong
PHUKET: A construction worker trying to catch fish drowned in a fast-moving klong in Phuket’s Thalang District this afternoon. Thalang Police identified the deceased as 51-year-old Sawai Suksabai, a resident of Sukhothai province. Police were notified of the drowning by the victim’s friend, Soonthorn Nopsawan. The two men set out with a net to trap fish in the swollen waters…
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Phuket braced for landslides as more rain falls
PHUKET: Phuket officials are urging more residents to evacuate as torrential rain continues to fall on exposed soil at a landslide risk zone along the bypass road northbound in Rassada. Rassada Mayor Suratin Lianudom, who has been at the scene all day, told the Phuket Gazette this afternoon that officials are closely monitoring several stretches of the road. This morning…
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Special report: Phuket foreigners losing homes to con men
PHUKET: Phuket homeowners are a prime target for regional fraud gangs that leave their “marks” heartbroken and penniless, with wives of wealthy foreigners often falling victim. Reports of people being cheated out of tens of millions of baht in such scams are rife on the island, but the victims are often too ashamed to come forward to warn others. Under…
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Phuket crash uproots tree, two slightly injured
PHUKET: Two people were injured in Phuket this afternoon when the driver of a pickup truck lost control on the bypass road, hit a tree on the median strip and collided with a sedan heading in the opposite direction. The accident occurred at about 2pm on the stretch of the bypass road in front of the Premium Outlet Mall in…
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Hajj 2011: Phuket Airport prepped for pilgrims
PHUKET: Phuket International Airport is making special preparations to help Thai Muslims from the South as they prepare to embark on this year’s Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Airport Director Duangchai Condee says the Thai pilgrims will leave Phuket for Saudi Arabia aboard four Thai Airways flights, two each on Monday and Tuesday. This year, pilgrims from Haad Yai…
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Phuket News Hound: Thai flood deaths continue climb; 36 more dead in Mexican drug bloodbaths; Italians love wiretaps
Phuket NEWS Hound – world NEWS compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community U.S. Immigrant Population reaches 40 million Phuket Gazette The population of immigrants in the United States has grown to more than 40 million people, according to a study released yesterday by the nation’s New Center for Immigration Studies (CIS). The center’s analysis of Census Bureau data…
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Phuket officials “helpless’ in bypass road landslide threat
PHUKET: Local officials have decided on a “hands-off” approach to the nearly 250,000 cubic meters of soil threatening to break loose, destroy buildings and spill across the heavily-trafficked bypass road, a major artery skirting Phuket Town Following a landslide on Wednesday morning and the alarming results of an examination of the risk area, the Rassada Municipality mayor, local officials and…
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Phuket PAD remembers protest victims
PHUKET: Phuket members of the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) yesterday took part in an alms-giving ceremony to remember the victims of the October 7, 2008 clashes between PAD protesters and government troops who forcibly removed them after a 193-day blockade at Government House in Bangkok. The merit-makers offered donations of food and other necessary items to monks at Wat…
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Calling all Phuket’s statisticians
PHUKET: When the game of cricket is mentioned to people who have never been involved with this multi-faceted sport, invariably a statement is made to the effect, “I don’t understand the rules and how it’s scored”. Well, here is your chance to learn the intricacies of cricket scoring from one of the region’s most highly respected and experienced scoring technicians.…
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Weird World News: Recipes for disaster when entertaining guests
PHUKET: If you’ve ever had a friend or date come over for a meal only to wince in disgust, spit out a half-chewed mouthful of goop, make a few nonsensical excuses and promptly leave, then it’s safe to say you’re a dud in the kitchen. If you don’t know a courgette from a zucchini or a spatula from a spade,…
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Tush-tattooed teens end clerical career
NAKHON SAWAN: A monk at a local temple in this central Thailand province has been defrocked after tattooing the buttocks of two 15-year-old schoolgirls. In a single session, Phra Theera Chaya Chansophana tattooed the two girls and nine male students, all of whom were wearing school uniforms when they arrived to see him. Parents and teachers of the teens claim…
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Phuket divers sought for coral cleaning day
PHUKET: Fifty divers are needed to take part in the clean-up of a popular dive site off the coast of Phuket later this month. The clean-up, to take place at Koh Hei (Coral Island) on October 29, is part of three days of activities organized by the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) office in Phuket Town, the Thailand Diving Association…
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Landslide threat prompts Phuket evacuation
PHUKET: Residents in a landslide risk zone in Phuket have been ordered to evacuate following fears of a major slide that could bury businesses and block the bypass road. The order followed a landslide on Wednesday morning behind the Adisak Equipment store on the bypass road northbound in Rassada. Store owner Adisak Lertchuwongsa said, “The soil slid down suddenly at…
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Phuket panel pushes for minimum wage hike
PHUKET: The Phuket provincial subcommittee for minimum wage rate review has applied to the Central Wage Committee in Bangkok to increase the minimum daily wage in Phuket to 300 baht, effective from January 1. A 300-baht-per-day minimum wage for all government employees was passed by Cabinet on Tuesday and made retroactive to October 1 of this year. Sutthipong Saisakares, chief…
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Phuket officials assess Patong Hill landslide damage
PHUKET: Phuket Highways Department engineers are today assessing the damage from a landslide that toppled electric power poles and may have dangerously undermined the foundation along a stretch of Patong Hill road yesterday. The slide occurred at about 1pm, washing some 100 rubber trees downslope and toppling four electric poles. A crack of a few centimeters wide appeared along a…
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Tesco Lotus dismisses Phuket closure rumors
PHUKET: Tesco Lotus executives have dismissed rumors that the opening of its new hypermarket in Thalang will be followed by the closure of its flagship property near Phuket Town. “The one in Phuket Town will stay open as long as people continue to shop there,” said corporate affairs executive Martin Clutterbuck. The comments came following the opening ceremony of the…
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Record entries for Phuket Beach Volleyball
PHUKET: The Phuket Thailand Open powered by PTT will complete the 2011 FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch World Tour, and once again the event has proved its increasing popularity by attracting the highest number of entries for a women’s tournament out of 29 stages on the World Tour calendar. This year’s tournament has attracted 82 entries from 32 countries, including 28…
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Jürgen Zack – training tips for the Phuket Triathlon
PHUKET: Jürgen Zack has won the European Ironman Championship five times, the Ironman Austria twice and has been Ironman Australia Champion. This supreme German athlete has also had three top ten finishes at the most gruelling distance event in the world – The Ford Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii. With just eight weeks to go before the island’s Tri-Fest…
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Malaysian tourist dies during Phuket Veg Fest finale
PHUKET: An elderly Malaysian tourist died while watching the final street procession of the 2011 Phuket Vegetarian Festival in Phuket Town last night. Heng Yak Seng, 76, came to Phuket with a tour group from Malaysia, which has a large ethnic Chinese population interested in Phuket’s signature cultural event. Pol Capt Somchai Nuboon of the Phuket City Police said, “Mr…
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Phuket News Hound: Steve Jobs is dead; Phuket tennis tourney shaping up; Listeria alarm in US
Phuket NEWS Hound – World news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Apple co-founder Steve Jobs has died Phuket Gazette Apple co-founder Steve Jobs died last night in California. In a statement, Apple’s Board of Directors confirmed the passing of Jobs. “Steve’s brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of…
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Tesco Lotus Thalang opens in Phuket
PHUKET: Phuket’s second Tesco Lotus shopping mall is now open for business in Thalang, with a grand opening ceremony featuring scholarship presentations to needy local students set for tomorrow. The new mall, located on Thepkrasattri Road southbound near Thalang Hospital, covers more than 17,000 square meters and has 99 shops. The department store itself employs 274 staff, all from Phuket,…
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Phuket landslide victim ‘doing well’
PHUKET: The local leader who was buried alive in a landslide in Phuket earlier this week is recovering well, relatives say. The victim, 38-year-old Witsanu Yidsua, was watching television in his bedroom on Monday morning when part of a neighboring home collapsed and slid downslope, crashing through a concrete wall and burying him up to his neck in chunks of…
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Phuket Property Watch: Battle lines are drawn in Koh Samui brand quest
PHUKET: Samui and Phuket continue to be described as the Yin and Yang of resort island destinations. Characteristics that they both share are that both are islands in Thailand that champion tourism as the overall economic prosperity jackpot. But beyond the obvious, many questions remain about how much they differ. After recently completing a mid-year hotel market update for Samui,…
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Phuket floods: roads closed, landslide hits Patong
PHUKET: Downpours this morning have caused havoc across Phuket, with road closures and major traffic delays reported across the island – and another landslide in Patong. The Department of Disaster Mitigation and Prevention office at Patong Municipality this morning told the Gazette they received a report of a landslide on Soi Kuan Yang, located off Patong Hill road between Wat…
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PATA: Phuket should brace for a “new breed of tourist’
PHUKET: The tourism industry in Phuket should take preemptive steps to prepare itself for a major shift in tourism dynamics, a high-powered meeting of industry players was told recently. A shift in global economics has prompted a trend for visitors to Phuket to be more likely to come from within the Asia-Pacific region, specifically India and China, said Bert van…
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Phuket News Hound: Helicopter crash kills one
Phuket NEWS Hound – world NEWS compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Helicopter crash in New York City kills British woman Phuket Gazette A helicopter carrying five people crashed in New York City this morning, killing a British woman, officials said. The accident occurred at around 3:20pm local time yesterday afternoon (3:20am today in Phuket) when a privately-owned helicopter…
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