Phuket News
Phuket news, politics, business, tourism, and nightlife—stay updated with breaking stories, events, and expat updates from Thailand’s top island destination. Get the latest from The Thaiger, your trusted Phuket news source.
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Managing medical expenses in Thailand is important as healthcare costs continue to rise. The country’s healthcare system includes both public and private options, but even with the Universal Coverage Scheme (UCS) for citizens, many still face high out-of-pocket medical expenses....
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Two locals attacked by Russian men in Surin
PHUKET: An allegedly unprovoked attack by several Russian men at a Phuket beach club early this morning has left two well-known local residents in hospital awaiting surgery.Canadian Tom Travers, managing partner of Indigo Real Estate agency, was knocked unconscious and had his cheekbone broken in three places during the attack. His girlfriend Jen Khamsorn suffered a broken nose when she…
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World Sports: Messi named the best – again
PHUKET: Lionel Messi, still only 25, was named the world’s best player for the fourth time in a row last night after a year in which finally produced his best form for Argentina as well as Barcelona. Messi was handed the award after a typically cheesy ceremony which featured a performance from a giant dancing armadillo named Fuleco, the mascot…
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UK, Canadian ambassadors put tourist safety on agenda
PHUKET: British Ambassador to Thailand Mark Kent and fellow ambassador Philip Calvert of Canada today placed their tourists’ safety squarely on their agenda with official visits to Phuket.This morning, Ambassador Kent and British Consul Michael Hancock focused their talks with Phuket Vice Governor Sommai Prijasilpa on what measures authorities have taken to help protect tourists on holiday in Phuket.“We are…
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Phuket Red Cross Fair lucky draw winner yet to claim B500k in gold
PHUKET: The lucky person who holds the winning ticket for the Red Cross Fair lucky draw top prize has yet to step forward and claim gold valued at nearly half a million baht. Phuket Governor Maitri Inthusut led the draw for the prize at 10:30pm on Saturday night at the central stage area at Saphan Hin (map here), where the…
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Phuket United sink Royal Navy
PHUKET: Phuket United unveiled new Brazilian winger Marcos Vinicius De Mendonco before their GMM Thai Futsal Premier League (TFPL) home game against Royal Navy on January 5. Phuket United won their last home game 7-3 against Lampang United to move up to 7th in the league. The newly installed floor covering at Saphan Hin was looking a bit worse for…
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Dubious Dane fined, sentenced but not kicked out of Phuket
PHUKET: The 18-year-old Danish man who was found guilty of falsely reporting a gang attack on Phuket’s Kamala Beach on New Year’s Eve has been fined 500 baht and handed down a two-year suspended jail sentence – but has not been deported.An officer at the Phuket Provincial Court told the Phuket Gazette this morning that Morten Budtz Berthelsen, reportedly the…
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8 injured as Phuket pickup flips, rolls into field
PHUKET: Two youngsters, a 12-year-old boy and an 18-year-old woman, are in hospital with serious head injuries after the pickup truck they were travelling in flipped and rolled down an embankment while returning to Phuket from Krabi last night. Natchanon Kaewrua, 12, and Jinta Petchkrua, 18, were thrown out of the back of the pickup when driver Somchai Kaewrua, 48,…
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Russian tour counters closed in Phuket, pending probe
PHUKET: All Russian tour counters in the Kata-Karon beach areas have been ordered to close until further notice and the local Labor Office has been requested to investigate them for possible breach for foreign worker regulations. The news came at a meeting at Kata-Karon Municipality yesterday, held to resolve the ongoing dispute between local tuk-tuk and taxi drivers and Russian…
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Phuket mangrove deforestation probe whittles down encroachment claim
PHUKET: The 70 rai of protected mangrove forests investigated on Phuket yesterday in fear it was being illegally encroached on was whittled down to only two rai after a followup probe this morning. “After I examined the Klong Mudong area in Chalong again today, I was able to determine that only about two rai of the land being reclaimed by…
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Migrant workers can stay “for now’: Phuket Employment Chief
PHUKET: Migrant workers in Phuket will not be deported while waiting to complete the nationality verification process, the Phuket Provincial Employment Office (PPEO) has confirmed. “Whether or not illegal workers will be deported will be announced after the Cabinet meeting on January 8,” PPEO chief Yawapa Pibulpol told the Phuket Gazette today. “It all depends on the Cabinet. We will…
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Marine police hook Phuket fish smuggler
PHUKET: A local resident in Rawai, at the southern end of Phuket, was arrested yesterday trying to smuggle more than 200 protected-species fish to Bangkok.Marine Police and Department of Marine and Coastal Resources (DMCR) Region 5 office in Phuket arrested Boonsuan Raknawa, 41, after officers received information about protected fish being smuggled to Bangkok via a public bus.“The suspect was…
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Anxiety key factor in Australian tourist death: Phuket hospital staff
PHUKET: While Phuket police continue their investigation into the death of 21-year-old Australian tourist Sebastian Eric Faulkner, staff at Patong Hospital have reported that the young man was showing signs of anxiety when he presented himself to the hospital just hours before his death.On recognizing the symptoms, doctors at Patong Hospital admitted him for minor depression.Mr Faulkner, from Melbourne, plunged…
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Phuket United beat Lampang United
PHUKET: Phuket United beat Lampang United 7-3 in their third home game of the Thai Futsal Premier League (TFPL) season on January 2.The match was played in front of 600 supporters at the 4,000-seat Indoor Sports Complex at Saphan Hin.Before the game, Phuket United’s head coach Suphol Senapeng told the Phuket Gazette: “Our main objective for this game is concentration…
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Villagers battle Patong tunnel to save ancestral homeland
PHUKET: With a history going back over 200 years, Baan Mon is the “original” Patong community. However the community members, numbering more than 1,000, are now in the front line as they scramble to protect their homes from the construction of the Patong tunnel – Phuket’s first road tunnel project. Baan Mon villagers claim that 90 per cent of residents…
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Phuket Opinion: Examine Phuket’s crackdown culture
PHUKET: The majority of readers who took part in the Phuket Gazette‘s recent online poll called for local authorities to strictly enforce existing laws in regards to illegal “black plate” taxis. Unfortunately, the inability or unwillingness of traffic police to consistently seek out and punish violators virtually guarantees no change in the status quo. Thus, recent efforts by the Phuket…
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Phuket suffers deadly “Seven Days of Danger’
PHUKET: The nationwide Seven Days of Danger road-safety campaign ended at midnight last night with three more deaths on Phuket’s roads than during last year’s safety efforts, but far fewer accidents reported. Nine deaths and 24 injuries in a total of 27 accidents were recorded by the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Phuket branch (DDPM-Phuket). Last year, six people…
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Phuket Police closing in on Phi Phi speedboat driver’s killers
PHUKET: Police have made headway in identifying and capturing the murderers of a Phi Phi speedboat driver who was stabbed to death in Phuket Town just before dawn yesterday. Ronnachai Chayliang, 26, was found dead in front of Wat Wichit Sangkharam, on Narisorn Road, at about 5:20am. He had suffered knife wounds to his neck, chest and back. “The body…
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Human Rights Watch urges Thailand: “Don’t deport Rohingya boat people’
PHUKET: International human rights agency Human Rights Watch today called for the Thai government to immediately halt its plan to deport ethnic Rohingya back to Burma. Thai authorities should allow the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the UN refugee agency, unhindered access to these and other boat migrants from Burma’s Arakan State to determine whether they are seeking…
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Phuket Rohingya repatriated to Myanmar
PHUKET: In a stunning development this morning, Phuket Governor Maitri Inthusut announced that the 71 Rohingya rescued from an open boat adrift off Phuket yesterday are en route to be repatriated to Myanmar. The move to repatriate the refugees, including women and children, came at the request of the refugees themselves, Gov Maitri said. Speaking at the monthly “Governor Meets…
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Krabi tourists roused by new year fire
PHUKET: Tourists on holiday in Ao Nang, Krabi, across the bay from Phuket, were roused from their new year slumber early yesterday morning as hotel staff ordered an emergency evacuation and firefighters attempted to douse a blaze in a room full of gas cylinders. Hundreds of tourists staying at the Ao Nang Buri Resort ran for the safety of Haad…
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Former NBT broadcaster Phuket’s first road death for the new year
PHUKET: A former broadcaster for the National Broadcasting Services of Thailand (NBT) has become the eighth person to die on Phuket’s roads since the Seven Days of Danger national new year road-safety campaign began last Thursday. Eak Eakwewchakul, 26, died when his Toyota sedan overshot a curve and hit a power pole near the Phuket Go-Kart track in Kathu on…
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Phuket ushers in the New Year 2013
PHUKET: About 1,000 people gathered at Queen Sirikit Park in Phuket Town this morning to join a mass blessing ceremony to usher in the new year 2013. Phuket residents, officials and tourists offered alms to 145 monks as part of the festivities this morning. Phuket Vice Governor Sommai Prijasilpa at 7am officiated the blessing ceremony, joined by Vice Governors Somkiet…
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Phuket 2012: Safety shaken, not stirred
PHUKET: The need for a quicker exit from Phuket’s nightlife capital of Patong was highlighted by the chaos on the road in the early hours of April 11, after a 7.3-magnitude, submarine earthquake, that struck off Sumatra, caused the National Disaster Warning Center to issue a tsunami “alert” (not a warning) that had coastal residents heading for the hills. A…
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Phuket’s deadly ‘Seven Days of Danger’ claims two more lives
PHUKET: Two men on a motorcycle on Thepkrasattri Road in Thalang were hit and crushed under a Phuket tour bus early this morning, bringing to seven the number of deaths in the ongoing “Seven Days of Danger” new year road-safety campaign. As is relatively standard practice in Phuket, the bus driver fled the scene and is being sought by the…
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Phuket 2012: Crimes take center stage
SPECIAL REPORT PHUKET: There were many high-profile crimes on Phuket in 2012. Perhaps none horrified the audience of the world as much as killing of Australian tourist Michelle Smith, 60. Mrs Smith, a travel agent, died from stab wounds after two men tried to steal her handbag and she fought back.Her assailants, Surasak Suwannachote and Surin Tadthong, were apprehended, tried…
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Phuket 2012: Feeling the pinch from growing pains
The government continues to pour money into Phuket’s infrastructure, as nothing seems to hamper the rapid growth of the island as a tourist destination. Billions of baht have been spent, but when will the results be felt? Stephen Fein reports.SPECIAL REPORT PHUKET: While Phuket Airport remains the single largest bottleneck for foreign arrivals, the island also continues to suffer from…
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Go Eco Phuket record-breakers win “Person of the Year’
PHUKET: As with our ‘Person of the Year Award’ last year, we have again opted for the plural and are delighted to announce that the honor goes to two of the driving forces behind the launch of the marine conservation group Go Eco Phuket. The group united dive centers throughout the island and rallied the support of the Royal Thai…
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ENGLISH FOOTBALL ROUNDUP: Man City draw on recent memory for New Year title fight
PHUKET (Reuters): Champions Manchester City go into 2013 facing a daunting seven-point deficit on Premier League leaders Manchester United and a testing encounter against stubborn Stoke City on Tuesday.Roberto Mancini’s side ended the year which delivered their first Premier League title with a gritty 4-3 triumph over Norwich City, proving their high-profile players also have the mettle for a fight.It’s…
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Phuket hospitality running on a full tank
As Phuket looks back a year full many negative news reports, the Phuket Gazette is happy to publish this reader’s first-person account of what makes living in Phuket great. PHUKET: Phuket is the Thailand I know and love. Having flown straight to the island and stayed, I have only heard rumors of “mainland” hospitality and the kindness Thai people are…
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Heavy showers set to dampen Phuket new year
PHUKET: The heavy thunderstorm showers that have drenched Phuket over the past few days are forecast to continue until at least Wednesday, according to the Thai Meteorological Department (TMD). The TMD today issued a forecast for heavy showers for New Year’s Eve and Day, with a 60% chance of precipitation across the island. Those celebrating the new year in the…
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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