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    Why long-term expats in Thailand say insurance is worth every baht

    Thailand’s warm weather, low cost of living, and good healthcare attract many long-term expats, including retirees and remote workers. Life here feels easy and affordable, but medical costs can be high if something goes wrong. Private hospitals are popular because...

  • Phuket woman dies in motorbike accident | Thaiger

    Phuket woman dies in motorbike accident

    PHUKET: A motorbike passenger was killed last night when her driver swerved to avoid a fallen branch, putting the vehicle in the path of a fast-moving pick-up truck in the north of Phuket. Tah Chat Chai Police were notified of the accident on Thepkrasattri Road southbound at 9:25pm. Arriving a the scene, just 50 meters from the Thepkrasattri Bridge off-ramp,…

  • Four dead, five injured as pickup truck slams into Phuket tourist van | Thaiger

    Four dead, five injured as pickup truck slams into Phuket tourist van

    PHUKET: Four tourists are dead and five injured after a pickup truck loaded with fish and a van filled with tourists heading for Phuket collided in Tai Muang, Phang Nga, yesterday evening.Tai Muang Police received a report of the accident, on the Mae Yey Bridge on Petchkasem Road between Tai Muang and Takuapa Moo 1 in Thung Maphrao, Tai Muang…

  • Phuket Heroines Memorial Fair underway | Thaiger

    Phuket Heroines Memorial Fair underway

    PHUKET: The Phuket Cultural Office has a fun-packed range of activities lined up for this year’s Heroines Memorial Fair, which started on Friday in Thalang.Among the attractions taking place to honor Jan and Mook, the famous heroines who led Siamese forces in repelling an invasion by the Burmese in 1785, are group weddings, traditional dance performances and spectacular light and…

  • Phuket Opinion: There’s an Elephant in the Room | Thaiger

    Phuket Opinion: There’s an Elephant in the Room

    PHUKET: The United Nations estimates that the human population of the Earth quietly surpassed the seven billion mark last October. As a result, humankind is putting ever more pressure on the environment that sustains us. In the process, we are also driving many other animal species into extinction, some before they are even recognized by science. Few places on the…

  • Swede falls victim to Russian snatch thieves in Phuket | Thaiger

    Swede falls victim to Russian snatch thieves in Phuket

    PHUKET; A Swedish tourist in Phuket had his gold chain and other valuables snatched by a pair of women he claims were Russian, according to a local media report. Swedish tourist Peter Wentzel, 40, was walking along the Karon beach road at 11:30pm last night when two foreign women pulled up in front of him on a motorbike and asked…

  • Phuket sports: Chevrolet throttle TSLC’s title hopes | Thaiger

    Phuket sports: Chevrolet throttle TSLC’s title hopes

    PHUKET: The Adult Futsal League (AFL) saw Portrait FC edge a little closer to the Premiership title while Thanyapura lost an opportunity to put more daylight between their pursuers. In second spot before the game, Thanachart Bank faced Portrait FC in a crunch tie that would influence any possibility of catching the league leaders. In a similar start to their…

  • Phuket sports: Lizards chase the Tiger’s tail | Thaiger

    Phuket sports: Lizards chase the Tiger’s tail

    PHUKET: Unlucky for some, the 13th match of the Island Furniture League saw a battle between league newcomers the Thanyapura Tigers and former champions the Liquid Lounge Lizards (LLL), at the ACG last Sunday.Both sides were in desperate need of a win to advance up the table and boost their title hopes. In a closely fought match, the Tigers eventually…

  • Phuket sports: The boys from Brazil | Thaiger

    Phuket sports: The boys from Brazil

    PHUKET: For the second week in succession Phuket’s Fair Play League (FPL) used two different locations for their weekend fixtures with Youth Football Home hosting U14 matches and Quality Schools International (QSI) the venue for U11 matches. Four of the six teams competing in the U14 Division have a real chance of taking the title which makes winning remaining matches…

  • Phuket’s Lomas impress at Bangkok 10s | Thaiger

    Phuket’s Lomas impress at Bangkok 10s

    PHUKET: The Phuket Lomas recently participated in the two-day Bangkok Youth Rugby 10s tournament at Pattana International School with great performances from both the U12 and U16 teams in their respective divisions. On the first day of competition the Lomas U16s faced cup favourites CIMB Cobra from Malaysia. It was a tense battle in which the Lomas matched their opposition…

  • Phuket Gazette: Teacher shot by student; U.S. soldiers killed by Afghan soldier; Blogger Andrew Breitbart dies | Thaiger

    Phuket Gazette: Teacher shot by student; U.S. soldiers killed by Afghan soldier; Blogger Andrew Breitbart dies

    – World news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community U.S. teacher shot dead by student in Iraq PHUKET (News Wires): An American teacher who worked at a Christian school in northern Iraq was shot dead by a student on Thursday, according to media reports. The student then killed himself. Jeremiah Small, of Cosmopolis, Grays Harbor County, located in…

  • Dokset blames jealousy: Phuket Police | Thaiger

    Dokset blames jealousy: Phuket Police

    PHUKET: Stein Dokset, the long-term Phuket expat Norwegian charged with the murder of his ex-girlfriend Rungnapa Suktong, has told police that he accidentally killed his girlfriend in a jealousy-fueled rage, police said today. Mr Dokset was arrested on Tuesday after police found the acid-burnt decaying remains of a human body in his basement bathroom. He later confessed that the remains…

  • Phuket goes to the polls March 25, April 7 | Thaiger

    Phuket goes to the polls March 25, April 7

    PHUKET: An island-wide ban on the sale of alcohol will go into effect from 6pm on April 6 through to midnight of April 7 so island residents can vote in the upcoming Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor) presidential election. Residents living in Chalong and Rassada municipal areas will be subject to a similar ban for elections to select councilors for…

  • Senators “worried’ about Phuket beating, cheating, intimidating tourists | Thaiger

    Senators “worried’ about Phuket beating, cheating, intimidating tourists

    PHUKET: A delegation of senators from Bangkok yesterday were treated to a grave description of the problems plaguing Phuket’s tourism industry, including jet-ski ripoffs.The senators, all members of the Senate Standing Committee on Tourism, agreed that everything from the intimidation and beating of tourists to the lack of a strong public transportation system were having a serious effect on Phuket’s…

  • Hookah bars targeting Phuket youth | Thaiger

    Hookah bars targeting Phuket youth

    PHUKET: The Phuket Provincial Office is planning to crack down on hookah bars and other businesses catering to a growing demand among island youths to smoke flavored tobacco known as shisha. The proliferation of venues offering shisha to youths has risen dramatically over the past year and the situation must be quickly addressed, a provincial panel heard recently. New Phuket…

  • Phuket sports: Former FC Phuket player netted in Immigration raid | Thaiger

    Phuket sports: Former FC Phuket player netted in Immigration raid

    PHUKET: Former FC Phuket midfielder Abdoul Coulibaly was among 27 Africans arrested on Wednesday during an Immigration Police crackdown in Bangkok. The arrests were first reported on sport.mthai.com, a Thai-language website. According to the report, 25-year-old Abdoul was detained for not having proof of compliance with a requirement by Immigration that all foreigners residing in the Kingdom report their address…

  • Phuket Business Directory 2012 is on sale now | Thaiger

    Phuket Business Directory 2012 is on sale now

    PHUKET: The Gazette Guide for 2012 is now available at vendors throughout Phuket and the Andaman region, and, being eight times the size of other business directories on or off line, is the most comprehensive index to help find the service you need. With contact details of thousands of businesses classified into 142 different categories, the 362-page book is priced…

  • Rally round Phuket | Thaiger

    Rally round Phuket

    PHUKET: Following the very successful Grumpy Old Men’s Club (GOMS) rally and car treasure hunt last year, the organizers this year have invited a number of Phuket’s foremost business, social and community organizations to join a great family day out and raise funds for their organization’s ongoing projects. The now-renamed Phuket Invitational Car Rally (PICR), to be held on March…

  • Cuckhold takes revenge | Thaiger

    Cuckhold takes revenge

    PHUKET: A MAN in Chiang Mai recently confessed to taking brutal revenge on a 60-year-old man who slept with his wife. Cuckhold Kaew Intha, 47, shot Tue Jaima in the head – before hacking his penis off with a knife and placing the guilty member on the dead victim’s chest. Police from Maeka Police Station in the Northern province were…

  • Phuket driver plows into 7-Eleven store | Thaiger

    Phuket driver plows into 7-Eleven store

    PHUKET: A man accidentally rammed his car into a 7-Eleven convenience store in Phuket early yesterday morning, smashing the shopfront window and injuring two men, one seriously. Just before 2am, Thalang Police were notified of the accident, at the 7-Eleven inside the PTT gas station on Srisoonthorn Road in Cherng Talay. Arriving at the scene, officers found a Phuket-registered Honda…

  • Phuket Gazette: Davy Jones of the Monkees dies; A guitar that gently weeps | Thaiger

    Phuket Gazette: Davy Jones of the Monkees dies; A guitar that gently weeps

    PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – World news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Monkees star Davy Jones dies at 66 PHUKET (News Wires): Davy Jones, the lead singer of the popular American pop rock group ‘The Monkees’, died in Florida on Wednesday as a result of a suspected heart attack, local officials said. He was 66. Rhonda Irons, a…

  • Phuket Police probe land titles as Norwegian Dokset’s motive for murder | Thaiger

    Phuket Police probe land titles as Norwegian Dokset’s motive for murder

    PHUKET: Murder suspect Stein Havard Dokset today re-enacted his actions from nearly three years ago to show Phuket police the sequence of events that led to the death of Rungnapa Suktong. Arrested on Tuesday after a police raid discovered decaying human remains in a plastic trash can his basement bathroom, Mr Dokset today denied all but one member of the…

  • Phuket murder suspect Stein Dokset already on trial for fraud | Thaiger

    Phuket murder suspect Stein Dokset already on trial for fraud

    PHUKET: Norwegian expat Stein Havard Dokset, who this afternoon was charged with the murder of his ex-girlfriend Rungnapa Suktong, is already on trial for defrauding a Swedish man of more than 800,000 baht, the Phuket Gazette has learned. Lt Col Boonlert Onklang, Deputy Superintendent at Chalong Police, told the Gazette that a formal complaint was filed with Chalong Police on…

  • Swedish man’s fall “accidental’, say witnesses | Thaiger

    Swedish man’s fall “accidental’, say witnesses

    PHUKET: The Swedish tourist who died in hospital after falling from a third-floor hotel balcony last Friday night likely fell by accident, witnesses have told the Phuket Gazette. Matthias Andersson, who was in his 30s, had gone out to a nearby bar for 15 minutes before returning to his room, hotel staff at the Welcome Inn told the Gazette. Channisa…

  • Phuket Gazette: Central America most violent; U.S. Coast Guard crash; Hackers arrested | Thaiger

    Phuket Gazette: Central America most violent; U.S. Coast Guard crash; Hackers arrested

    PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – World news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community UN describes Central America as world’s most violent area, and the U.S. the biggest drug market PHUKET (News Wires): The United Nations (UN) on Tuesday described Central America as one of the most violent areas in the world as drug-related violence continues to rise, signaling the…

  • Ahoy Phuket! Ao Chalong Yacht Club calls for assistance to get ship shape | Thaiger

    Ahoy Phuket! Ao Chalong Yacht Club calls for assistance to get ship shape

    PHUKET: The Ao Chalong Yacht Club is calling for volunteers to lend a hand at a “working bee” on Saturday, March 3 – and is putting on free beer and a sausage sizzle for those who turn out to help. “Some of the jetty floats need replacing urgently because they are sinking. Floats that are being used to jack up…

  • Phuket sports: Weekly round-up by The Golf Guru | Thaiger

    Phuket sports: Weekly round-up by The Golf Guru

    PHUKET: The World Golf Championship (WGC) was played this week in the US. In fact 66 per cent of the World Championships have been played in the States which seems strange as it’s meant to be the World championships. I won’t go on about the old chestnut of the World Series baseball being for only American teams! The 2012 World…

  • Phuket Gazette: Pedophiles arrested; Journalists attacked; Rhino poaching; French bill unconstitutional | Thaiger

    Phuket Gazette: Pedophiles arrested; Journalists attacked; Rhino poaching; French bill unconstitutional

    PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – World news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Police arrest 17 suspected pedophiles across Europe PHUKET (News Wires): European police have arrested seventeen people and rescued eight children after a year-long investigation into online networks of alleged pedophiles, the European Police Office (EUROPOL) announced yesterday. The investigation is continuing. Europol said Operation Atlantic began…

  • Norwegian man confesses to ‘accidentally killing’ Phuket girlfriend | Thaiger

    Norwegian man confesses to ‘accidentally killing’ Phuket girlfriend

    PHUKET: The Norwegian man arrested last night after the gruesome remains of a human body were found in his Phuket home has confessed to “accidentally killing” Rungnapa Suktong, his girlfriend of nine years. Stein Havard Dokset, a 50-year-old retired car dealer from Oslo, Norway confessed to officers at Chalong Police Station today. “I did it, but it was an accident,”…

  • Phuket business: Axiom legal financing segregated portfolio | Thaiger

    Phuket business: Axiom legal financing segregated portfolio

    PHUKET: A little while back my article about litigation funding in general was published and at the time I was kind of sitting on the fence about the asset class. One of my main hang-ups had been with the fact that generally the access to it that I had seen up to that point had been via structured notes, which…

  • Phuket Live Wire: An update on international download speeds in Phuket | Thaiger

    Phuket Live Wire: An update on international download speeds in Phuket

    PHUKET: Time for an update on how Phuket’s doing for real world, measured international internet speeds. I’m not talking about the advertised 10 megabits or 100 megabits-per-second lines that only exist in marketing drivel and a few internet service provider’s fantasies. I’m talking about speeds that you and I are measuring, in the wild, right here, every day. The short…