Artikel erschien Mai 2013

  • Phuket hits high on buffalo agenda

    Phuket hits high on buffalo agenda

    PHUKET: After previous editions in Cairo, Delhi, Manila, Sao Paulo and Buenos Aires, the World Buffalo Congress will this year make its way to Thailand, where Phuket will host the triennial event at the Hilton Phuket Arcadia Resort and Spa in Karon from May, 6 to 8. More than 500 participants from 35 countries are scheduled to attend the event, which this year will be held under the theme “Green Production Against Global Warming”. “The conference’s main objective is to discuss and exchange scientific and technology information and opinions in regards to the study and breeding of buffaloes,” Dr Rangsan Parnpai, president of the International Buffalo Federation (IBF), explained at a press conference earlier this week.

  • Concern piqued by fetus hammerhead sharks on display at Phuket restaurant

    Concern piqued by fetus hammerhead sharks on display at Phuket restaurant

    PHUKET: Local concern peaked in Phuket after photos began to circulate of two baby scalloped hammerhead sharks on display in front of a restaurant in Kata last week. “The ones [scalloped hammerhead sharks] at that restaurant clearly show to everybody that they are fetuses – they are not fully grown sharks, so obviously fishermen caught a female shark somewhere, chopped her open and that’s what was inside,” said Tony Andrews, Thailand’s West coast PADI Regional Manager and Project AWARE Ambassador, who was notified of the fetal sharks on display by a local diver. “If you look at the back dorsal fin, it’s not developed yet.

  • Fresh push to give Phuket beaches lifeguard boost

    Fresh push to give Phuket beaches lifeguard boost

    PHUKET: The Phuket Provincial Administrative Organization (PPAO) is pushing to get extra lifeguard watchtowers set up at five tourist-popular beaches on Phuket’s west coast. The move comes as the contract with the Phuket Lifeguard Club expires at the end of this month, coinciding with the regular arrival of the annual rainy season, when the island’s beaches claim tourists’ lives each year. “With everyone’s safety as our priority, we are planning to increase the number of lifeguard stations from 33 last year to 38 stations this year,” said Kanyarat Senrung, an officer at the PPAO’s Tourism Department.

  • After five months, missing American Brett Bean calls home

    After five months, missing American Brett Bean calls home

    PHUKET: Brett Bean, the American expat whose disappearance last November gained extensive press coverage, has contacted his family after 155 days of unnerving silence, the Phuket Gazette has confirmed. “It was a very brief call,” his mother, Lynne Bean, said. “We still do not know where he is, but it was very good to hear his voice,” she added.

  • Dwarf sperm whale treated, released in Patong

    Dwarf sperm whale treated, released in Patong

    PHUKET: A dwarf sperm whale measuring 2.4 meters long was treated with a dose of antibiotics and released back into the sea after being spotted off Patong Beach on Wednesday. Phuket Marine Biological Center (PMBC) officers received a report of the ill whale at about 8:30am.

  • Serial Phuket resort thief nabbed

    Serial Phuket resort thief nabbed

    PHUKET: A joint investigation by police from Karon, Kathu and Phuket City has resulted in the arrest of a Bangkok couple who stand accused of robbing guest rooms at nine high-end hotels and resorts in Phuket. Ritthimeth Singhaumpai, 33, and Sasithorn Seekam, 22, were arrested on Wednesday after they entered the Jungceylon car park in a black-on-black Mercedes-Benz E200 sports sedan. The arrests came after officers began following the couple, having noticed that the make and model of the Mercedes was same as the one that had been caught on CCTV at many of the resorts where the robberies had occurred.

  • 40 elephants suspected illegal as raids strike tourism trekking companies

    40 elephants suspected illegal as raids strike tourism trekking companies

    PHUKET: Officers from the regional Natural Resources and Environment Crime Suppression Division raided seven tour companies in Phang Nga this week following reports that the companies were in possession of illegal elephants. Col Watcharin Phusit, who headed the elephant raids in Phuket last year, also led the raids north of Phuket

  • Phuket Wake Park latest victim of illegal Russian raids

    Phuket Wake Park latest victim of illegal Russian raids

    PHUKET: Following the arrest of 35 Russians found allegedly working illegally in Patong nightclubs last week (story

  • Burmese girl, 6, first dengue fatality on Phuket this year

    Burmese girl, 6, first dengue fatality on Phuket this year

    PHUKET: In the wake of a six-year-old Burmese girl dying from dengue fever after arriving on the island in April, the Phuket Provincial Health Office (PPHO) is urging everyone to bolster efforts to remove possible breeding grounds for mosquitoes potentially carrying the disease. The young girl was in Phuket for less than two weeks before she was admitted to Vachira Phuket Hospital on April 16, explained PPHO Deputy Chief Krit Sakulpat. “She had been suffering from a fever for four days before she was admitted.

  • Phuket visa run destination Kuala Lumpur stops issuing 12-month non-imm B visas

    Phuket visa run destination Kuala Lumpur stops issuing 12-month non-imm B visas

    PHUKET: The Royal Thai Embassy of Kuala Lumpur, a popular visa run destination for Phuket expats, has confirmed that it is no longer issuing 12-month non-immigrant B visas. Embassy official Orawan Heemmamhad confirmed to the Phuket Gazette that the embassy in the Malaysian capital stopped issuing 12-month business visas late last year