Phuket News
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Rise in Phuket metered taxi fares to thwart cab cheats
PHUKET: Taxi fares are set to rise in Phuket in an attempt to thwart the illegal-taxi trade and to provide legitimate taxi drivers with a decent standard of living. “We will increase taxi fares as part of our campaign to solve the problem of taxi-driver cheats in Phuket,” said Phuket Vice Governor Chamroen Tipayapongtada. “If the standard fares rise, taxi…
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Krabi killer manhunt moves to Koh Lanta
PHUKET: Police are scouring the tourist island of Koh Lanta, across Phang Nga Bay from Phuket, in their efforts to arrest double-homicide fugitive Samran “Khui” Suetrong. Samran is wanted for shooting dead his stepson’s wife, Siripan Noorod, 24, and her 19-month-old son Autthakorn Noorod, at their home in Krabi’s Khao Phanom District on Monday night (story here). A warrant for…
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Ao Chalong Yacht Club Sailing School to host Open Day
PHUKET: On Sunday September 8 Phuket’s ACYC Sail School is holding an “open day” event, starting at 10am. Club members will be taking kids and adults sailing in the Open BIC dinghies and taking bookings for their “dinghy sailing program”. There will also be kayaks to use, mirror dinghy and tasar sailing and onshore games – including a bouncy castle!…
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Beach Volleyball World Tour hits Phuket’s sands in October
PHUKET: The 2013 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour will make its penultimate stop at Karon Beach, Phuket at the end of October. This will be the 8th successive year that Thailand has staged an Open series women’s event on the FIVB calendar. The US$110,000 Phuket Thailand Open powered by PTT, which is organized by Pentangle Promotions Co., Ltd and the…
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Burmese Rambo stabbed in Phuket slap flap
PHUKET: A man humiliated by a slap on the head in front of a group of people stabbed his assailant four times, sending him to the hospital. The event transpired after an evening of drinking at a Burmese workers’ camp behind Phuket Simon Cabaret in Patong (map here). After work yesterday evening, a 30-year-old man known as “Rambo” got together…
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Grimes brothers take on tough international field – Phuket Sports
PHUKET: The Grimes brothers have had a fairly busy summer with their racing schedules, having took part in the Rotax Invitational Thailand race, which was held in conjunction with the fourth round of the Thailand Rotax Max Challenge at Bira International Kart Circuit, just south of the Bangkok.The Rotax Invitation race was held for the first part of the weekend.…
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Phuket kratom arrests continue as nation ponders decriminalizing the leaf
PHUKET: Three Burmese men were arrested in Thalang yesterday for possession of kratom leaves. Their arrest follows the felling of a kratom orchard in Patong three days ago and precedes a meeting of the Narcotics Control Board, Food and Drug Administration, Public Health Ministry and National Police next week about whether to decriminalize the leaf (story here). The arrests yesterday…
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Phuket jet-ski operators urged to be fair, polite
PHUKET: Complaints about jet-ski operators filed by tourists holidaying in Phuket have prompted the island’s authorities to launch a two-day seminar aimed at educating the operators about charging fair prices and being polite. Tourist complaints about jet-skis reached such a level that Qin Jian, Vice Consul of the Consulate-General of the People’s Republic of China, based in Haad Yai, lodged…
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Phuket expats corralled by new immigration rule for passports
PHUKET: Officers at Phuket Immigration are calling for all foreigners whose passports are set to expire within the coming year to ensure they are issued new passports and apply – and are issued – new long-term permits-to-stay* before their current permits expire. The call follows a new regulation issued by the Immigration Bureau on August 13 (click here), explained Lt…
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Phuket party thieves loot liquor store
PHUKET: Police are on the lookout for the suspects who stole 12 kegs of beer, two cartons of cigarettes and 10 bottles of whisky from a liquor store in Baan Lipon, in Phuket’s northern district of Thalang.They even stole the store’s pickup truck to make off with the party essentials, reported police.So far, officers are stumped for clues.“We have checked…
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Human bones found in Phuket could bolster sea gypsy land claims
PHUKET: Department of Special Investigation (DSI) officers have found human bones in the sea gypsy settlement in Rawai that may help bolster the gypsies’ claim to have lived on the land for generations. Establishing long duration of residency is a key element in the gypsies’ fight against private investors who have already won court orders to evict some villagers from…
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Phuket kratom plantation cleared
PHUKET: Police yesterday afternoon raided a property in Patong, on Phuket’s west coast, and cut down about 20 kratom trees. The orchard owner, named by police as Sathit Jaihaw, 37, had about 20 big kratom trees growing on his property, and in his house police found three small packages of harvested leaves pre-packed for sale. Kratom leaves yield an illegal…
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Chief vows to boost patrols to protect Phuket divers
PHUKET: The chief of the Fishery Management Center in Krabi has vowed to bolster patrols at Phuket dive destination Shark Point after photos surfaced of a gill net being dropped over the protected marine area when divers were in the water.“To ensure diver safety, we will increase the frequency of our patrols in the area to prevent any type of…
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Aldhouse pleads guilty to Phuket murder charge
PHUKET: Lee Aldhouse, the British kickboxer extradited from the UK to face murder charges in Phuket, today entered a plea of guilty to murdering former US Marine Dashawn Longfellow in Rawai three years ago. The plea was entered after Judge Montri Saroj, speaking via a court translator, reminded Aldhouse that a guilty plea would likely “help” commute a possible death…
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Two thieves “tagged’ on Phuket City Police Facebook page
PHUKET: Phuket City Police have arrested suspects in two crimes after posting CCTV images of the men on their Facebook page. The first crime took place on August 5, when Tippayo Pho’s room on Phun Pol Soi 2 in Phuket Town was robbed of a 35,500-baht MacBook and a black Lenovo laptop valued at 33,300 baht. Police collected CCTV footage…
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Golfing champion to return for defense
PHUKET: The 2011 Masters Champion Charl Schwartzel will defend his Thailand Golf Championship crown alongside colorful PGA Tour star Rickie Fowler at this year’s edition of Asia’s flagship tournament scheduled for December 12-15 at the picturesque Amata Spring Country Club in Chonburi, just outside Bangkok. The Thailand Golf Championship will once again see some of the world’s top golfers competing…
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Phuket resort staff receive lifeguard training to stave off tourist drownings
PHUKET: Amid concerns over the high number of drownings in recent years, the Phuket Marine Police are providing lifeguard training to staff at hotels and resorts in Patong.The officers are also recruiting more volunteers from Patong’s hospitality industry to join a network of people trained to swiftly report crimes.The two-day training program at the Patong Resort Hotel ended yesterday. “A…
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Phuket Police on standby to counter farmers’ protests in Deep South
PHUKET: Phuket Police are on standby to provide reinforcements for the Nakhon Sri Thammarat Provincial Police as the Deep South province braces for further protests by palm oil and rubber farmers.Oil palm and rubber farmers protesting against the depressed prices for palm oil and rubber blocked the railway at Ban Tun junction in Cha-uat district this morning.In response, Phuket Provincial…
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Manhunt in Krabi: Murderer out on bail slays stepson’s wife, toddler
PHUKET: A man out on bail for murder is charged with killing again and is being sought by Krabi Police for slaying his stepson’s wife and toddler. Police in the Khao Phanom District of Krabi received word just after midnight last night that two people had been shot dead in Phru Tiao subdistrict. When police and rescue workers arrived at…
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New evidence in American expat death points to natural causes
PHUKET: A tombstone unearthed in the tiny village of Bang Phuying last month has led a crack team of local forensic scientists to speculate that the apparent death of one of Phuket’s first American expats, Carter J. Wyatt, may have been the result of perfectly natural causes. The head of the team, Police Detective Chadjen Maikaojai, told the Phuket Gazette…
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Brown Patong Bay blamed on algae bloom
PHUKET: Phuket’s leading environment officer today speculated that the color of the seawater at Patong Bay turned an off-brown over the weekend possibly due to a “plankton bloom”. The news comes two days after officials staged a press event, led by Phuket Governor Maitri Inthusut, promoting the launch of a campaign to regularly test the quality of seawater at Phuket’s…
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Airport drug-scam allegation puzzles authorities
PHUKET: An Australian couple who told the Australian media that their luggage was tampered with and marijuana planted in it as they were leaving Bangkok may not have been telling the truth, the Phuket Gazette has found. Georgia (not her real name) told an Australian radio station (see here) that she and her boyfriend believe they were being set up…
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Phuket police call for public’s help in identifying cafe thief
PHUKET: Phuket City Police today released CCTV images of a man who robbed a cafe at the top of Rang Hill on August 5. “We’ve searched for the man ourselves, but couldn’t find him. We are now releasing these images with the hope that the public can identify him,” said Phuket City Police Deputy Superintendent Prawit Engchuan.The robbery took place…
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Phuket bartender saved from drunken swim at Patong
PHUKET: Friends of an intoxicated Phuket bartender saved him from drowning this morning after he decided to go for a swim at Patong Beach. Surachai Junmee, 29, and five friends were drinking at Loma Park (map here), after they got off work at about 2am, Patong Police Capt Teerasak Boonsang explained. “At about 6:30am, by which time they were quite…
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Phuket FC mauled by Port Lions, promotion looks slim
PHUKET: If there was any hope left for Phuket FC to still get promoted following Wednesday’s home draw to Air Force (see story), then it was all but relinquished following their away-loss last night to Singhtarua FC. Played in front of an energetic blue-and-orange-clad “Klong Toei Army” crowd at the PAT Stadium in the heart of the Thai capital, the…
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So far today that Cardiff had a 4-4-2 was…
Quote of the day: The only point of the game so far today that Cardiff had a 4-4-2 was on the list at the start of the match, the rest of the match they seem to have been playing a 1-9-1 a variation of the flat back eleven… – Trevor Fisher (Man City fan & Phuket resident) PHUKET: Fraizer Campbell…
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Phuket illegal resorts next on list, warns Parks chief
PHUKET: Department of National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP) director-general Manopat Huamuangkaew has warned that Phuket is now at the top of his priority list in demolishing illegal resorts encroaching on national park land.Mr Manopat specifially identified Sirinath National Park, on Phuket’s west coast, as his key interest in protecting public land in Phuket.The news follows work beginning on…
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Police move to detain Rohingya at purpose-built regional shelters
PHUKET: The Royal Thai Police are lobbying Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to build regional detention centers to house Rohingya refugees across Southern Thailand. The move aims to relieve the pressure on already-overflowing detention centers at immigration offices in Phuket, Phang Nga and Ranong. Maj Gen Kraibun Suadsong from the Royal Thai Police Office of Police Strategy, which oversees the Thai…
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Deputy PM calls for “one-stop’ police counters for Phuket tourists, expats
PHUKET: Deputy Prime Minister Pracha Promnok today called for every police station across Phuket to have a dedicated section to receive complaints from foreigners.The call came at a meeting at The Metropole Hotel in Phuket Town attended by Phuket Governor Maitri Inthusut, Provincial Police Commander Choti Chavalviwat and other top-ranking police officers from the Andaman provinces of Phang Nga and…
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Ten more Rohingya escape Thai Immigration, this time from Ranong again
PHUKET: Ten Rohingya detainees escaped at dawn yesterday from a detention facility at the Immigration Office in Ranong, the popular visa run destination for many expats and tourists in Phuket. The incident is the latest in a series of Rohingya escapes from various facilities in the past few months. The 10 escapees were part of a group of 118 Rohingya…
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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