PHUKET: The body of a Russian man last seen spearfishing a few hundred meters offshore from Kata Beach on Friday was found washed ashore at the same beach (map
PHUKET: Police checkpoints and water-play zones will be set up to increase safety on Phuket during the Seven Days of Danger for Songkran, April 11 to April 17. “Police checkpoints will be set up around the clock during the period in order to check on drivers,” says San Jantharawong, chief of the Phuket office of the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM).
PHUKET: Police today arrested at least 25 refugees found walking along the busy Chao Fa East Road in Chalong. “The group included 18 men, six women and a 2-year-old boy. Among the six women, one was two months pregnant,” Chalong Police Superintendent Krittapas Det-intarasorn told the Phuket Gazette.
PHUKET: A young Thai woman wanted as a bag-snatcher was placed under arrest by Phuket Police yesterday after she presented herself at Thalang Police Station to seek guidance over being beaten by her boyfriend.
PHUKET: There is only one way that breakthrough projects such as Phuket’s first airport-to-beaches bus service get up and running, and that is if everyone in the community gets behind it and supports it. That means: use it. Get on the bus and go to work, to the beach, to see a friend, a movie or even spend a night on the town – just use it.
PHUKET: Phuket Gazette readers are urged to make more room in their travel bag for the Phuket Gazette this week as our bumper issue hits a record-breaking 96 pages. Leading the charge is our exclusive front page report on the new airport bus service, which is ready to launch next week and, apparently, prepared to take on the tuk-tuk and taxi drivers along its route. Our quarterly Phuket Property Review supplement bolsters this week’s property section with an in-depth look at the impact of the huge influx of Eastern Europeans to Phuket, most notably Russians, as viewed by Phuket property expert Bill Barnett.
PHUKET: Police have warned hoteliers across the island to beware of thieves targeting Phuket hotels after a Patong hotel room safe was robbed by a man who reportedly used a skeleton key to enter the room. The news follows 29-year-old Russian tourist Egor Nikolaev reporting valuables being stolen from his hotel room safe at The Bliss South Beach Patong hotel, on the Patong beach road, on Monday
PHUKET: A professional travel photographer and boutique resort owner in Phuket is offering a 100,000-baht reward for any information leading to the return of his MacBook and backup hard drive – which contain his life’s work. Brian Skyum, owner of Coco Palace Resort in Rawai, returned to Phuket after five weeks in the Philippines to find his maid was the only staffer still working for him and electronic items worth reportedly more than 500,000 baht were stolen from his room.
PHUKET: Rapin Nichanon, 58, has been the Provincial Prison Chief since 2011. Originally from Nakhon Sri Thammarat, he served as the director of Krabi Provincial Prison before moving to Phuket
PHUKET: In the latest Phuket Gazette online reader poll, asking whether the tourism infrastructure in Phuket is sufficiently developed to handle all the Russian visitors, 44% said it doesn’t matter, because very little Russian money reaches the pockets of Phuket residents anyway. The remaining responses were evenly divided between those who believe the infrastructure for Russian tourists is sufficient, those who think we need more Russian-focused businesses and speakers, and those who think all we need is more Russian speakers.