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If you plan to stay longer in Thailand, having health insurance is now more important than ever. Thai immigration often asks for proof of medical coverage when you apply to extend your visa. This applies to many types of visas,...
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Phuket welcomes newborn elephant “Pang Saifon’
PHUKET: The owners of the Kinnari Elephant Camp in Rawai this morning announced the birth of a baby elephant at the camp. Pang Saifon, born at 1:49am, is the second elephant to be born at the camp. The newborn weighs 75 kilograms and is in perfect health, said Jirayu Nirunwiroj, a veterinarian from the Phuket Livestock Office’s Animal Health Development…
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PHUKET TOURISM: Expert warns of traffic crisis for Phuket Airport
PHUKET: Capacity at Phuket International Airport is expected to reach critical levels this year with the thriving tourist destination projected to receive a staggering nine million visitors in 2012, according to a report released by leading hospitality consultancy C9 Hotelworks today. Bill Barnett, Managing Director of C9 Hotelworks and Phuket Gazette Property columnist, reports that the airport is officially capable…
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Phuket Gazette: Thai ‘wellness tourism’ to scoop up 350bn baht: TAT
PHUKET: The Thai government is projecting that the healthcare sector will earn a total of 350 billion baht (US$11.5bn), contributing much to the government target of becoming a “World Class Health Provider” by 2014. The projection covers the period of a five-year campaign from 2010 to 2014. The strategy follows Thailand being dubbed the “Spa Capital of Asia” in 2008,…
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Phuket Tourist Police Volunteers warn of bag snatchers
PHUKET: Following a spate of snatch thefts, the Phuket Tourist Police Foreign Volunteers today issued an advisory warning tourists to keep close watch on their valuables and be on the lookout for potential bag-snatchers. Bruce Anderson, Team Leader of the Phuket Tourist Police Foreign Volunteers, told the Phuket Gazette that there have been more bag snatchings reported by foreign tourists…
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Phuket’s Soi Dog Foundation expands into Bangkok
PHUKET: Phuket’s renowned animal welfare charity Soi Dog Foundation (SDF) has joined forces with the Bangkok-based Soi Cats and Dogs organization (SCAD) to launch operations in the Thai capital. SCAD, a well established and highly regarded Thai foundation, will be integrated into SDF and Phimpakarn Petpichetchien appointed General Manager of the new operation, SDF’s founder John Dalley announced in press…
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Separate shootings leave two dead in Phuket
PHUKET: Two people died in separate shootings in Phuket last night. The first incident was an ambush attack in front of the Thepkrasattri Municipal Market, just west of the Thalang Junction on Don Chom Tao Road. A 25-year-old man identified only as “Pisut” was driving a motorbike along Don Chom Tao Road towards the junction at about 9:15pm when he…
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Phuket road victim identified as Aussie model
PHUKET: The young woman who died in a motorbike accident in Phuket early on Saturday morning has been identified as Lana O’Connell, a successful young model from the Gold Coast, Australia. Miss O’Connell was riding a motorbike along Patak Road toward Chalong Circle with her long-term partner Kenneth Trivett at about 3:30am when they struck a motorbike with sidecar. Mr…
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Jet-skis, rip-offs and noise pollution: Phuket’s honorary consuls go through the motions
PHUKET: Jet-ski scams, noise pollution in Patong and real estate rip-offs were among the issues raised by honorary consuls during their quarterly meeting with Phuket government officers yesterday. The meeting, held in the main meeting room of Phuket Provincial Hall, was chaired by Phuket Vice Governor Sommai Prijasilpa. Dr Sommai, the first-ever person to chair the meeting in English, was…
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Phuket sports: Golf guru weekly round-up
PHUKET: THE media hype around the USPGA tour this week wasn’t enough to get Phil Mickelson into the winner’s circle two weeks in a row. The Riviera Country Club, Pacific Palisades, California was the venue for the Northern Trust Open, formally known as the Los Angles Open, less than a block away from Sunset Boulevard. The Riviera C.C. is a…
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Thanachart close in on Portrait FC
PHUKET: THE Adult Futsal League (AFL) season nine presented by Thanachart Bank entered week five at Thanyapura Sports and Leisure Club (TSLC) last Thursday with a full compliment of games played in both divisions. Jitjongrut took on a struggling Honda in the evening’s first Premier Division fixture, well aware that the game was a good opportunity for them to climb…
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Shakers and Rugantino in the mix for Phuket Super Six
PHUKET: Round two of the Phuket Super Six League (PSSL) produced more evenly contested matches last week at Football Island, but the goal count continues to rise. The first fixture saw league leaders Pita Bar Phuketeers and the experienced Morning Star, in their first league outing, play a guarded game that ended with honors divided. After a goaless first half,…
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Underpass plans start driving forward
Phuket: Highways Department officials last week presented to local residents their preferred option for a two-lane underpass at the Bang Khu Intersection, north of Phuket Town. The news received mixed reviews, as the initial proposal was to build a flyover at the busy junction, which handles nearly all traffic to and from the airport. Krabi Office of Highways Deputy Director…
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Phuket hotel barman dies in motorbike crash
PHUKET: A hotel barman died instantly last night when his motorbike slammed into a utility pole in Koh Kaew, north of Phuket Town. Phuket City Police were notified of the accident, opposite the Isuzu showroom on Thepkrasattri Road, at about 11:45pm. Phuket Kusoldharm Foundation rescue workers rushed to the scene to find 40-year-old Phichit Masmalai lying face down on the…
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Phuket Police round up Rohingya refugees in Nai Harn
PHUKET: Chalong Police have rounded up 90 starving Rohingya boat people who came ashore in the south of Phuket this morning, but 12 more remain unaccounted for. The Rohingya, all males, were on their way to Malaysia when they ran out of food and their wooden boat began to fall apart at sea, forcing them to come ashore at Nai…
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Phuket beer garden fire not arson: owners
PHUKET: The owners of a beer garden that went up in flames in Phuket early this morning are denying rumors that the blaze was set by a disgruntled former employee. It took six fire engines about an hour to extinguish the fire that gutted the Kamala Beer Garden on the main road through Kamala before dawn today. Owners Chollada Nakballang,…
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Phuket Boat Lagoon to launch weekend market
PHUKET: Phuket Boat Lagoon will launch a new weekend market catering to boat owners on the weekend starting Saturday, March 10. The Weekend Boat Market is the brainchild of Boon Yongsakul, a member of the Phuket Boat Lagoon management team and a descendant of Phuket Boat Lagoon founder Kanit Yongsakul. The main concept of the market is a new shopping…
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Australian, Swede die in accidents in Phuket
PHUKET: Two foreign tourists, one Australian and one Swedish national, died in separate accidents in Phuket last night. Matthias Andersson from Sweden died after falling three storeys at a resort in Karon, where he was staying with family members. Staff at Vachira Phuket Hospital said the apparent cause of death was a head injury sustained in the fall, which occurred…
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Groundbreaking movement on Phuket Bus Terminal impasse
PHUKET: Construction workers this morning began work to remove the median strip in front of Phuket Bus Terminal 2 on Thepkrasattri Road in Rassada, raising hopes the long-dormant facility might go into operation soon. Workers were at the site at 8am, putting up warning signs to alert motorists of the work, which will close two lanes to traffic during work…
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Phuket Blues and Rock fest feasts on talent
PHUKET: Friday nights don’t get much better. A superb venue and organization matched with a range of music that voiced soulful lyrics and pumped out thumping rock rifts helped kickstart the 2012 Phuket International Blues Rock festival at Laguna Beach Resort last night. A slightly later than scheduled opening allowed visitors to drift in to the Festival Marquee having not…
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Another Phuket student dies in motorbike crash
PHUKET: A Phuket teenager returning from school was killed yesterday when he lost control of his motorbike and hit the back of a pickup truck parked by the side of the road in Srisoonthorn.Thalang Police were notified of the accident at 5:20pm. At the scene, on Srisoonthorn Road westbound in front of The Valley 2 residential estate, they found the…
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Phuket Gazette: Tourists go ape for Krabi bus stops
PHUKET: Tourists to Phuket’s neighboring Krabi Province are impressed by a new two million baht network of bus stops that feature a striking monkey design, the province’s transport chief says. Worawut Ma-in, an expert in logistics and acting chief of the Krabi Transport Office, says construction of the 13 stops has just been completed. The project was launched at the…
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Bangers bring home the bacon to Phuket
PHUKET: They’re here! The ‘Bangers on Bikes’ Bangkok to Phuket charity bike riders crossed the Sarasin Bridge just after 11am and a Gazette photographer was on hand to witness their arrival on the island. After losing four riders to exhaustion by the end of day four, the group had recouped one determined pedalist for the home leg between Takuapa and…
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Weird World News: Weather warnings of Europeans acting strange due to cold
PHUKET: While bitter weather blots Europe, the heat wave continues to stifle here in Phuket. This week’s Weird World News round-up is homage to those suffering the onslaught of the cold-snap in Europe, and ways weather can make people muddle words. Swede survives two months in a snowed-in car A SWEDISH man was found alive after being trapped in his…
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Phuket sports: MCC deliver Phuket a cricket masterclass
PHUKET: Cricket’s bible, the Wisden Almanac, may not record the result of Marylebone Cricket Club’s (MCC) match against the Phuket Cricket Group (PCG) select XI, but February 16 will long live in the memory of those who were at the ACG that day.Despite arriving the previous night from the cold conditions in Old Blighty, the MCC team showed no signs…
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Bangers bike riders hightail it to Phuket
PHUKET: Four days of hard pedaling has taken its toll, but the 2012 Bangers on Bikes Bangkok to Phuket Charity Bike Ride is nearing the final leg while the hardy cyclists are on their last legs with only 140km to go. On Monday, 11 riders and five support crew left Bangkok on a 916km saddle mission to raise 500,000 baht…
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DAM! Taxi driver forgets handbrake, plunges car into Phuket reservoir
PHUKET: A taxi driver from Khao Lak, the coastal tourist town in Phang Nga to the north of Phuket, this morning found his chicken and sticky rice too tasty to remember to put his handbrake on.The result being his Honda Civic plunging into the reservoir behind Phuket Rajabhat University.“I often come to Phuket to visit my brother, who lives here,”…
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Tourists from Taiwan to Phuket to double in 2012: PTA
PHUKET: The number of Taiwanese tourist arrivals in Phuket this year is expected double last year’s figure, a senior government official has announced.Paiboon Upatising, currently caretaker president of the Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor), said that the island can expect up to 100,000 Taiwanese arrivals in 2012 – compared with 50,000 last year.The projections were announced following the “Phuket Road…
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Phuket theater worker found hanged
PHUKET: A depressed theater worker took his life by hanging in a rented room in Phuket last night, leaving behind a farewell note and money for his parents. Phuket City Police were called to a rented room on Soi Samkong 1, Rassada, just before dusk. Arriving at the scene they found the body of Naphong “Ton” Boonnuam suspended by the…
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Phuket Court launches night, weekend hearings
PHUKET: Faced with thousands of unresolved cases, Phuket Provincial Court on Tuesday launched a “night court” service in an effort to reduce the backlog. Phuket Court Acting Chief Justice Audthakarn Foojaroen and fellow justices yesterday held a press conference at the courthouse to announce the night court hours, which run Monday to Friday from 4:30pm to 8:30pm. The night court…
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Beauties and the beach: Indian pageant contestants hit Krabi
PHUKET: The white-sand beaches and stunning limestone karsts of Krabi Province have some competition in the beauty stakes this week following the arrival of 23 contestants from the Miss Indian Princess 2012 pageant. The beauty queens received a warm welcome when they touched down on Thai Airways flight TG241 at Krabi Airport on Tuesday. The guests seemed impressed when they…
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