PHUKET: Authorities have closed the ramp road to the domestic terminal at Krabi International Airport after heavy rain over the past week washed away the earth underneath a retaining wall, causing the road to subside. The damage was reported by a tourist at 9:30am on Saturday, Krabi Airport Director Sunyaluk Kraiboot told the Phuket Gazette. “The retaining wall collapsed, causing about 10 meters of the road outside the terminal to sink,” he explained.
PHUKET: Tourist safety issues have been a hot topic in the news lately as the number of accidents and crimes involving foreign visitors continues to grow with the largely unregulated expansion of the island’s tourism industry. Despite the often colorful announcements of an impending “crackdown” on this or that, or the establishment of another new “safety zone” or other largely cosmetic, public-relations campaign, the fact is that the island’s socio-economic development in recent years seems to make it an increasingly attractive destination for a wide range of visitors: from stateless Rohingya arriving over open ocean in rickety boats to those touching down at Phuket International Airport in private jets before being whisked away to a five-star resort or someone’s mega-villa..
PHUKET: Local officials laid out plans for increased security at government offices and popular Phuket locations as police continue their investigation into the bomb that exploded at Provincial Hall on August 1 (story
PHUKET: Three 11-year-old Phuket students will be competing in a national English-language competition in Bangkok this weekend after having come in second place in the southern regional competition in June. The primary school students, Fonthip “Plo” Tanphaibul; Satakamon “Mona” Sawasdiphat; and Poramate “Fluke” Phuchareon, began working on their 20-minute group presentation about the Phuket Heroines in May, and are now ready to stand before the judges of the National Academic Competition at Maung Thong Thani in Bangkok and share their local heritage – in English. “They’ve been working hard.
PHUKET: Phuket is one of several main tourism destinations in the country that will not be promoted under the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) international marketing campaign for next year. Instead, the focus will be on less-developed tourism areas, Director of the Phuket-TAT office Chanchai Doungjit revealed yesterday. “We will not be promoting tourism centers that are already well-established.
PHUKET: The bomb blast at Phuket Provincial Hall yesterday (story
PHUKET: The Phuket Gazette has confirmed reports of an explosion at the Phuket Provincial Hall complex in Phuket Town just after 2pm today.
PHUKET: Ten men were rescued after spending two hours holding onto floating debris between the Krabi coast and Phi Phi Island, off Phuket, late yesterday afternoon. The cargo boat Unity, carrying food, construction materials and other supplies bound for Phi Phi, was struck by large waves reaching up to four-meters high after passing Koh Por Da, the boat’s captain, Thaweep Choonoon told the Phuket Gazette
PHUKET: A simulated terrorist bomb drill held at Phuket International Airport yesterday went off without a hitch, organizers said. In the exercise, members of the Phuket Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) unit and Airports of Thailand (AoT) staff short-circuited one bomb with a high-pressure water device, responded to a “fire” when a second was detonated, and cared for “injured” participants
PHUKET: Three Thai musicians have been arrested for the murder of 51-year-old American tourist Bobby Ray Carter Jr and the assault of his 27-year-old son in Krabi early this morning. According to one of the suspects, Ratikorn Romin, 27, from Phang Nga, a fight broke out between the three musicians and the Americans, who had joined them on-stage last night at Ao Nang’s Longhorn Saloon Bar, before the evening took a deadly turn. The police were called to the scene at about 1:30am and were confronted with the aftermath of a night of drinking and live music gone horribly wrong.