Artikel erschien Oktober 2018

  • Phuket Vegetarian Festival program 2018

    The annual Vegetarian Festival is back and promises to be a big year for the annual nine day celebrations starting next Monday. Some of the rituals are based around self-mutilation and daring acts of fire walking. A lot of the processions and ceremonies can be quite scary, especially for the young or squeamish.

  • One of two tsunami warning buoys not working since October last year

    One of two tsunami warning buoys not working since October last year

    One of the tsunami buoys, part of the warning system for the Andaman Coast, has been broken since last year. GMM 25 news quotes the Director of the the National Disaster Warning Centre (NDWC) Suppapimit Paorik as saying… “Only one Tsunami warning buoy is still working.

  • Delayed Phuket provincial hall construction expected to resume soon

    Phuket Governor Pakkapong Tawipat yesterday visited the new Phuket provincial city hall, still under construction following numerous delays and contract failures, but now expected to be finished by June 2020. Governor Pakkapong says, “The budget for the new provincial city hall was 450 million baht. The previous construction contract has been cancelled and the construction stopped.

  • Faulty warning systems worries locals – Phuket

    Since the deadly tsunami struck Phuket in 2004, local people have trained their ears to listen to any alerts from the local warning towers only to learn that the system does not work properly. “I don’t have much confidence in the warning towers system,” Kantima Datthuyawat, a masseuse on the Kamala Beach in Phuket province, lamented.

  • Thailand donates to the Indonesian relief effort whilst thousands flee the region

    Thailand donates to the Indonesian relief effort whilst thousands flee the region

    Thai PM Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha says the Kingdom of Thailand has made a donation of 5 million baht to the relief program to assist victims of Indonesia’s earthquake and tsunami. International efforts to assist the Indonesian government to deal with the devastating natural disasters gathered pace amidst concerns over hundreds of thousands of survivors with little food and water. Thai PBS reports that General Prayut handed over the donation to Indonesian Ambassador to Thailand Ahmad Rusdi at the Government House yesterday

  • Phuket Governor inspects the Phoenix salvage site

    Phuket’s Governor Pakkapong Tawaipat headed out to the scene of the salvation operations to recover the Phoenix , the boat that sank on July 5 causing the drowning death of 47 Chinese tourists. The Phuket PR Office says a team of officials, headed up by the new Governor, departed from Chalong Pier on a speed boat at 4pm yesterday to the site of the Phoenix wreckage 19 kilometres south-west of the island  – a trip of about 20 minutes. Governor Pakkapong says, “Many government offices are working to increase confidence for tourists that are coming during the tourism season.” “Both Thai and foreign tourists especially Chinese tourists can be confident in safety measures that we have implemented.” The salvage operations for  Phoenix  have become mired in poor arrangements, several unsuccessful attempts and unsuitable weather since operations began several months ago

  • Tsunami risk is statistically very low

    by Pratch Rujivanarom The chances of an imminent repeat tsunami in the Andaman Sea is remote, while the tsunami risk in the Gulf of Thailand is even smaller to nearly impossible chance, say leading seismologists in the wake of public tsunami fears triggered by the recent devastation in Palu, Indonesia. Nevertheless, say experts, the authorities, business sector and citizens in tsunami risk areas should swiftly and strictly follow disaster response and evacuation plans. Even though a tidal wave is unlikely to hit Thailand’s coasts soon, Paiboon Nuannin, geophysics lecturer at Prince of Songkhla University’s Faculty of Science, notes that earthquake disasters remain beyond human prediction, and so public preparedness will save lives in an unforeseen emergency situation

  • Everything is OK – KCon 2018 comes to Bangkok

    In case you’ve been living under a rock, K-Pop, the garish, highly-produced pop/RnB/hip-hop fusion coming out of South Korea, is the biggest ‘thing’ in international pop music sales at the moment.

  • No more ‘tips’ at Immigration

    The new Thai immigration chief, Maj-General Surachate Hakparn, has implemented his first promise at immigration stations. The signage going up nationwide is clear and unequivocal.

  • Japan tops Thailand as Chinese tourists’ top choice for Golden Week

    Japan tops Thailand as Chinese tourists’ top choice for Golden Week

    Watch out Thailand. Japan is stealing our tourists.