Artikel posted in 2012

  • Car cut in half on impact with Phuket power pole

    Car cut in half on impact with Phuket power pole

    PHUKET: Police are investigating what prompted a 57-year-old driver to accelerate to such a speed in the early hours of this morning that when his car flew off the road it was cut in half by a roadside power pole. Thalang Police duty officer Patiwat Yodkwan was notified of the high-speed accident at at 2:45am. Due to severity of the initial reports, he arrived at the scene, at the u-turn on Thepkrasattri Road near the Karn Keha public housing estate in Srisoonthorn, Thalang, with Kusoldharm Foundation rescue workers, Baan Nai Klum volunteers and Thalang Hospital EMS staff.

  • Phuket making waves as jet-skis get legal

    Phuket making waves as jet-skis get legal

    PHUKET: The issue of jet-ski insurance, a topic that never seems to be off the back-burner, resurfaced earlier this month at the Honorary Consuls‘ regular four-monthly meeting. British Honorary Consul Martin Carpenter asked the Marine Department chief if he could provide clear information warning tourists of the potential quagmire they face should they get into problems while renting a jet-ski. As a result of that request, Phuripat Theerakulpisut, Director of the local Marine Department office, promulgated copies of the current insurance policies held by jet-ski renters.

  • Phuket Opinion: Setting standards for everything

    Phuket Opinion: Setting standards for everything

    PHUKET: The mantra of government officials regurgitating their need to preserve “Phuket’s tourism image” and to “restore tourist confidence” in what is promoted as a world-class international tourism destination, took an interesting twist last week. (See page 7 story, current issue of the Phuket Gazette.

  • Parliament joins Phuket national park fray

    Parliament joins Phuket national park fray

    PHUKET: Narit Khamnurak, Chairman of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Land, Natural Resources and Environment (CNRE), this week led a parliamentary inquiry to follow up the investigation into resorts accused of encroaching on national park land on Phuket’s west coast. At Sirinath Marine National Park headquarters, Mr Narit together with nine officers on Friday reviewed the investigation reports compiled by Royal Forest Department (RFD) officers

  • Korean tourist to Phuket found dead snorkeling off Phi Phi Island

    Korean tourist to Phuket found dead snorkeling off Phi Phi Island

    PHUKET: A 29-year-old Korean tourist on holiday in Phuket has died while snorkeling off

  • Phuket Town basks in the glow of the Moon Festival

    Phuket Town basks in the glow of the Moon Festival

    PHUKET: Phuket City Municipality together with the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) Phuket Office, Old Phuket Cultural Foundation, Phuket Peranakan Association and the Old Phuket Town Community, yesterday held the opening ceremony of Phuket Moon Festival 2012. The Moon Festival, also known in China as the Mid-Autumn Festival, started yesterday at Queen Sirikit Park in Phuket Town will run until tomorrow evening.

  • Work begins on repairing Patong Hill road landslide site

    Work begins on repairing Patong Hill road landslide site

    PHUKET: Phuket Highways Office Director Samak Luadwonghat kept his promise made yesterday that as soon as the rains stopped today, his workers were out in force making temporary repairs to the Patong Hill road. The section of road, just west of the Chinese shrine at the top of the hill, first collapsed during heavy rains last October, then again in early May with the advent of this year’s monsoon season.

  • Lucky escape for Phuket driver as police hunt 18-wheeler

    Lucky escape for Phuket driver as police hunt 18-wheeler

    PHUKET: A 19-year-old man escaped serious injury when the Isuzu pickup he was driving slammed into an 18-wheeled truck and trailer on Thepkrasattri Road in the north of Phuket this afternoon. Thalang Police duty officer Patiwat Yodkwan arrived at the scene, near the Baan Muang Mai market in Thalang, at about 1:30pm to find Mr Ken Patan still pinned inside his black Isuzu D-MAX pickup truck

  • Three more injured turtles wash up on Phuket’s beaches

    Three more injured turtles wash up on Phuket’s beaches

    PHUKET: Another three young Olive Ridley sea turtles were discovered washed up on Phuket beaches yesterday. All were missing limbs, presumed to have been severed by discarded fishing nets. Dr Kongkiat Kittiwattanawong, who heads the Endangered Species Unit at the Phuket Marine Biological Center (PMBC), told the Phuket Gazette that the turtles were discovered by local residents and lifeguards at

  • AirAsia move to axe Phuket-Bali, Ubon flights sparks ire from ’stranded‘ travellers

    AirAsia move to axe Phuket-Bali, Ubon flights sparks ire from ’stranded‘ travellers

    PHUKET: Low cost carrier AirAsia’s decision to cease operations from Phuket to Bali and to Ubon Ratchthani has sparked a storm of angry comments directed at AirAsia’s call center by passengers feeling that they have been left stranded. Staff at the AirAsia office in Phuket told the Phuket Gazette that they had fielded many queries, mainly asking what travellers can do now.