baabaabobo

Thailand a regional hub for secondary education - does this qualify as an oxymoron?

Your website is down

What a strange article from the Gazette! So the Gazette is now posting "News" articles that include the musings of anonymous posters on an Internet forum?

A tourist asks...

A guy replies...

Another posting reads...

Yet another...

I don't think Thaivisa needs the publicity - it comes out top on most search results about Thailand - and I certainly don't consider what "a guy" thinks is "News".

Come on Gazette, you need to re-think what you are in business for.

As a new member of thaivisa, and as a tourist to Phuket, I'm hesitant to take issue with you, JetsetBkk, but I've been reading thaivisa for about 2 years as a guest (not a member) and i can assure that what is posted in this forum IS NEWS to anyone who has not already read it. So what thaivisa members think and write is interesting, significant and certainly newsworthy to visitors to Phuket.

My wife and I live in Singapore and are currently staying at the Laguna Beach Resort. The Thai staff here, and the Thais we met in Phuket Town today, all seem extremely proud that Phuket is hosting the Asean meetings, a mega-event for their community.

Expats here, in Bangkok, in Singapore and around the world tend to become jaded over time, so perhaps they are not much interested in the meetings, seeing them only as a cause of (oh, terrible!) traffic jams. But for Thais, what is happening here at Laguna is an opportunity for their country to restore credibility in the world. If that means 8 days of slower moving traffic, I'm sure they couldn't care less.

Great first post ThaiMatters - I couldn't agree more and welcome to TVland.

You are right about some members being jaded and you will see many posts here made by expats who only care how they are affected and who don't see how this meeting is important to all of Thailand.

Most stories in the media have been about the security mesures surrounding the meetings and not the meetings themselves.

It seems to me the PG is just confirming that ThaiVisa is a great source for comments about what is after all a historical occasion.

As a partner in the 'popular Phuket forum' they are giving credit to the forum for being a good source of information and suggesting to its readers to check out TV.

ThaiVisa IS a great source of information - Isn't that why we post here?

Anyone went to Indigo Pearl brunch on Sunday????

I booked too late! Couldn't manage to get a table there!

Any big changes?

Yes I was there and Indigo Pearl still has the finest brunch on the island IMHO.

The only differences were that the brunch now finishes at 3pm and there is now more one-on-one preparation.

There was Peking duck, roast suckling pig, a huge tuna fish and the usual exquisite cheeses, desserts, hams, breads etc.

At each station there were people preparing food for you - for example the steaks were cut and cooked as per order.

Looked quite busy so people advised to book.

I predict that with, when any VIP is in town, there will be unusual traffic patterns, congestions and long delays at lights and intersections when VIP's are being moved place to place.

Maybe - but as all the meetings are held in the North the center and the South should be OK.

There was one confirmed case of swine flu at BIS. Parents received an e-mail.

There have been 25 confirmed cases of swine flu in Phuket, according to figures released by the Phuket Provincial Health Office (PPHO) yesterday.

In addition to the seven cases reported in the last update, there have been 18 additional cases: nine hotel employees and nine students at four different schools, all in Muang District.

PPHO deputy director Dr Wiwat Keetamanoj and fellow officers visited the four schools to talk with administrators and staff, advising them to check all students each morning.

Any students with flu-like symptoms should be sent home immediately and subsequently tested for the A(H1N1) virus that causes the disease. This is the best method of preventing the spread of the disease in a classroom environment, he said.

PPHO Director Dr Pongsawas Ratanasang asked the press not to release the names of the schools with confirmed cases and does not advise closing schools following isolated cases of infection.

“Closing the schools is pretty useless, because the students may go to cinemas, karaoke bars and game centers, where they can spread the virus to others just as easily,” he said.

The best solution is to quarantine swine flu patients and treat them at home, he said.

The PPHO has asked schools to clean rooms at least once a day and open the windows of air-conditioned rooms for at least one hour a day.

Doorknobs and toilet handles in schools, entertainment venues and restaurants should also be cleaned regularly with soap or detergent.

Dr Pongsawas said the PPHO is thus far satisfied with its ability to halt the spread of the disease, which has yet to claim any lives in Phuket. The tracking of confirmed cases has revealed that the disease has only spread “three generations” in Phuket at most, he said.

Without the preventative measures put in place the number of cases on the island might already have passed the 1,000 mark, he said.

As for the thermal scanning devices at Phuket International Airport, they have proven ineffective at detecting swine flu patients and their use will be discontinued next week, he said.

Phuket has sufficient quantities of the antiviral drug oseltamivir to treat swine flu patients, but the drug will only be administered to patients in high-risk groups, such as children under the age of five, senior citizens of 65 years old or above and people suffering from preexisting medical conditions.

Those not in risk groups should be treated with bed rest and regular medication to relieve symptoms, he said.

A vaccine against the A(H1N1) virus is expected to arrive near the end of the month. Those first in line for injections will be people most likely to come into contact with infected patients, such as medical staff, childcare workers, government officers and members of the media.

A single injection of the vaccine should be effective for two or three years, he said.

Nationwide there have been 1,473 cases of swine flu resulting in five deaths.

The most recent fatality was a 15-year-old student in Chonburi province who was already suffering from chronic illnesses including a brain tumor and diabetes.

-- Phuket Gazette 1/7/09

By the way, although you won't get Visual Voicemail, if you would like to have your Voicemail button activated to call voicemail, for AIS users, just do the following:

*5005*86*90099# and then touch call. After that, just touch the Voicemail button to connect to voicemail.

Great tip - thanks!

Try PAWS (Phuket Animal Welfare Society)

http://phuket-animal-welfare.com/

It's a start... maybe less find and fine at Chalong circle from now on.

Don't pay! It is shameful that you should have to pay TEN TIMES more because of the colour of your skin. Boycott all places that have this racist policy.

Bangkok school fumigations; Phuket nightlife venues closes in virus response

BANGKOK, June 13 (TNA) - Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) officials on Saturday began cleaning and fumigating all 435 schools under the agency’s administration in the Thai capital, while entertainment venues in Thailand’s Andaman Sea resort province of Phuket have been asked to close for five days after an employee was found to have contracted the Influenza A(H1N1) virus, officials said.

Bangkok Governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra said the two-day school cleaning campaign, ending Sunday, is aimed at preventing the spread of the flu to students under City Hall’s supervision.

The BMA campaign follows the H1N1 diagnosis Friday of a student of St. Gabriel’s College, a private school operated by the Roman Catholic Brothers of St. Gabriel in Bangkok’s Samsen district. A private tutoring school the school the student attended on the weekend will also be closed for a week to curb the spread of the disease.

Urging cooperation from all concerned state agencies, especially at border checkpoints, to help prevent the spread of the virus, Mr. Sukhumbhand said he had invited about 2,000 operators of Bangkok’s Internet cafes, school administrators, and the managers of malls and cinemas for a meeting on Monday.

He said they will be told of the danger of the disease and also be asked to help clean their business establishments properly in response to the virus, he said.

Mr. Sukhumbhand said BMA officials will join with the First Army Region in cleaning 431 temples in Bangkok during July 4-6. The campaign will start before Buddhist Lent which begins on July 8.

Meanwhile, entertainment establishments on Phuket Island were asked during a meeting Saturday to close their businesses for five days so that the owner would have enough time to clean and spray their places.

The request was made after an employee of one entertainment centre was found to have contracted the virus, becoming the first case to have been reported in the popular resort.

Blood tests on 26 employees of Phuket nightlife and other entertainment venues on the island believed to have come into close contact with Hong Kong tourists who returned home recently and were diagnosed with the virus, will be known later Saturday. (TNA)

-- TNA 13/6/09

PHUKET: The Phuket Gazette's editorial this week comes in the form of an open letter to World Boxing Council (WBC) President Jose Sulaiman on the topic of race-based pricing at the world title fight held at the Bangla Boxing Stadium in Patong, Phuket on May 29.

Dear Mr Sulaiman:

As you are no doubt aware, WBC champion Oleydong Sithsamerchai recently retained his strawweight crown in a title defense against Muhammed Rachman at the new Bangla Boxing Stadium in Patong, Phuket.

What you might not be aware of is that the host venue charged foreign spectators – tourists and local expatriates alike – a minimum of 2,000 baht (US$58) for seats, while charging Thai nationals a maximum of only 300 baht (US$8.70) to watch the same contest.

Sadly, double-pricing policies based on race or nationality are still quite common in Thailand, but to our knowledge this is the first time they have been imposed at a WBC-sanctioned event. The Phuket Gazette views this as a very negative development that could tarnish the reputation of your council, which has long enjoyed its status as the premier international sanctioning body in the Kingdom.

In the previous two WBC-sanctioned events held in Phuket, including Oleydong’s first title defense staged in Phuket City last June, admission was free to all. Thousands turned up to cheer on local favorite Oleydong, who comes from nearby Trang province.

Free admission has been the case at almost all WBC boxing events in Thailand in the past, ensuring big crowds and the kind of excitement that can only be beneficial to title fights. These contests are also routinely broadcast around the country on free-to-air television.

While the Phuket Gazette has no problem with stadiums charging for seats, the practice of imposing a two-tiered pricing structure based on perceived race or nationality is inherently inequitable, backward and – in the end – self-defeating. Is it any wonder there were so many empty seats at this latest fight?

We hope the WBC will consider such double-pricing policies in the context of the WBC Constitution and Code of Ethics, which clearly states that people in the professional boxing industry should “oppose discrimination on the basis of race, nationality or religion, and act forcefully to counteract it, never co-operating with those who practice it”.

In view of this, and in order to maintain the fairness and the integrity of the sport of boxing, we ask that the WBC take steps to apply, as a precondition, fair and equitable ticket pricing structures for events it sanctions in the future.

– The Editor

-- Phuket Gazette 08/06/09

This website says she died in Phuket

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/hea...im_in_Thailand_

Another foreign tourist arrested, jailed in Phuket

PHUKET: According to a story released this morning by AAP, Australia's national news agency, a Melbourne mother of four is facing five years in a Thai jail after allegedly "stealing" a bar mat ['coaster'] from a Phuket pub.

The report says 36-year-old Annice Smoel was arrested by undercover police as she left the Aussie Bar in Patong on May 3.

She says friends had put the bar mat in her handbag as a prank, but the undercover police working in the bar found the mat and arrested her. She spent two nights in a four-metre-by-four-metre jail cell.

"I had only just picked it up … had a quick look inside and saw there was something in it," she said.

"I was nowhere near the handbag – one of the girls involved went down to the police and confessed and apologised, and they told her to go away."

Ms Smoel, who was in the country to celebrate her mother's 60th birthday, has been stranded in Thailand for the past 17 days after police confiscated her passport.

She said she was hanging in there, but wanted to get home as soon as possible to see her four children, aged six, eight, 11 and 12.

If she is found guilty, Ms Smoel faces between two and five years in jail, the AAP report says.

Ms Smoel is now stranded in Phuket as the police have seized her passport pending adjudication of the case. It is understood that her husband has returned to Melbourne to look after the couple's children.

The incident follows the arrest and incarceration for 3 weeks of British national Simon Burrowes earlier this year after he had spoken "rudely" with an Immigration officer at Phuket International Airport. He was finally found guilty of the offense in court and fined 500 baht (approx US$ 14.28).

-- Phuket Gazette 19/5/09

Sorry for your loss. I too met your dad first in 1991 at the Anchor - still have his blue and gold namecard from that era.

This morning at the last lights before the Central festival lights a single policeman was controlling the traffic by stopping us on a green and bidding us to go on a red - Needless to say my kids were late for school.

Homeward bound: Simon Burrowes finally gets off Phuket

PHUKET: After spending a his final night in Phuket under the observation of Phuket City Immigration officers, British national Simon Burrowes finally left Phuket at 5.50pm yesterday aboard a Silk Air flight destined for Singapore, where he was scheduled to catch a connecting flight to the UK.

Asked why Mr Burrowes had to spend his final night on the island under the supervision of immigration officers despite completion of his court case and payment of a 500-baht fine for verbally abusing an Airport Immigration officer in January – when he originally planned to go home – an immigration officer told the Gazette that as Mr Burrowes had no money to pay for accommodation, they had to make sure there were no more problems.

Before coming to Thailand, Mr Burrowes was living in rented accommodation in Wembley, North-West London. He planned to return to his job and home after three months in Phuket.

Due to his extended stay in Thailand, he now faces bleak prospects back home, where he no longer has a job or housing.

Mr Burrowes said that he had “learned a lot” from his experience in the Land of Smiles, but had no plans to ever return here.

Mr Burrowes’s troubles in Phuket began in January, when he was held up at Airport Immigration by officers who suspected his passport may not have been genuine.

The suspicion was initially aroused because Mr Burrowes appeared to be shirtless in the photo on the passport, which was in fact legitimately issued.

As officers tried to verify the passport, Mr Burrowes realized his non-refundable flight would take to the skies without him.

He then became angry and abusive toward the female immigration officer holding his passport.

After pointing a finger at the officer’s face and shouting, “Give me back my [expletive deleted] passport you [expletive deleted] bitch,” Mr Burrowes snatched the passport back from the officer and walked away from the counter.

That move turned an already bad situation into a complete nightmare.

He was arrested and spent three weeks in Phuket Provincial Prison before being bailed and ordered to appear in court on verbal abuse charges. Mr Burrowes initially planned to fight the charges, but pleaded guilty on the day. He was fined 500 baht and released.

Penniless, Mr Burrowes was finally bought an air ticket home by an anonymous Thai benefactor, but when he tried to catch the flight on Friday afternoon he was again foiled by inadequate paperwork – he didn’t understand that he needed to get a police report and then have his visa renewed at the Phuket Immigration Office in Phuket City, some 50 kilometers away, before he could be allowed to leave.

Once again, he had to miss a non-refundable flight.

It was apparently “third time lucky” for Mr Burrowes yesterday evening, however. He was last seen by the Gazette successfully passing through Immigration for his flight to Singapore – again paid for by a friend.

– Tiparintron Tanaakarachod and Nick Davies

-- Phuket Gazette 17/5/09

Unless of course you happen to believe that findings of Cyanide in the stomach of a corpse does not constitute poisoning!

The police have since recanted this saying it was a misunderstanding. The Norwegian paper stands by its report

" Traces of cyanide ..found in stomache of Bergeim in PRELIMINARY autopsy report. (The cause of death should have been ascertained by last Thursday it also reports..)

However , there has been an explanation offered by a member on another forum for this alleged misunderstanding.

Turning blue upon death or a symptom of asphysiation is referred to as "cyanosis" though it has nothing to do with actual cyanide poisoning which is known to, initially turn the victim a bright red colour .

Could it be a doctor or coroner was overheard using this term, " cyanosis" and this is how this erroneous info got posted?

Just a possibility

As in the colour Cyan... interesting.

Burrowes update: more jail time possible!

PHUKET CITY: Simon Burrowes may have to spend a night in a cell at Phuket City Immigration Office while his case is processed, the Gazette has learned.

An officer at immigration said Mr Burrowes should be able to leave the country tomorrow after “some paper work” is completed.

This might mean he will have to spend a night in jail, the officer said.

Thai jails are not unfamiliar to Mr Burrowes, who spent three weeks in Phuket Provincial Prison after losing his temper with an Immigration officer at Phuket International Airport.

Mr Burrowes was due to fly out of Phuket today at 3pm after receiving a one-way ticket home to the UK, paid for by an anonymous Thai benefactor.

When he reached Phuket Airport to catch the flight, he was told that some unspecified “additional inquiries” would need to be made.

In what might have felt like a case of deja vu to the muay thai pugilist, the flight left without him.

He was driven to Phuket City Immigration Office, where he remains.

A foreign gentleman is understood to be attempting to secure Mr Burrowes’s release today.

For our previous report, click here.

Immigration officials would not permit a Gazette reporter to interview him and the officer in charge of the case at Immigration was reportedly “not available for comment”.

Martin Carpenter, Honorary British Consul in Phuket, said he was aware of the situation.

“We will provide Mr Burrowes with any assistance that we can to make sure he can get back to the UK,” he said.

“The Immigration department are probably only following procedures,” he said. “I don’t even know if the Immigration department knew if Mr Burrowes was actually leaving this afternoon.”

The consulate had not received a court report following the Burrowes case and did not know his exact immigration status, he said.

“It is up to the individual and their legal council to understand exactly what his immigration status is,” he added.

The Gazette has been unable to confirm whether the latest detention is related to unpaid overstay fines.

Mr Burrowes earlier told the Gazette that he thought the public prosecutor in his case had managed to get his 20,000 baht in overstay fines waived.

– Dan Waites and Gazette reporters

-- Phuket Gazette 15/5/09

German, 57, dies in Phuket after severe vomiting

PATONG, PHUKET: A 57-year-old German national died on the way to hospital in the early hours of May 12 with symptoms similar to those of two tourists who recently died on Phi Phi Island in Krabi.

The deceased, later identified as Ernst Hermannweid, had been staying at the Sky Inn Hotel in Patong.

Mr Hermannweid had gone for a few drinks at a bar in Patong when he complained of feeling unwell.

He returned to his hotel, where he started vomiting violently.

He was taken by a female companion to Patong Hospital, where he was reported as dead on arrival.

Extensive efforts to resuscitate him failed.

The nurse on duty at the time told the Gazette, “We tried to help him but he had passed away before he arrived at the hospital and the body was already turning blue.”

“We are now waiting for his relatives in Germany to confirm whether they would like us to perform an autopsy,” she added.

A source at the hospital said the course of Mr Hermannweid’s rapid demise was consistent with infection by the Eltor-Okawa cholera bacterium that also causes severe diarrhea. However, the source warned that it was impossible to know for sure without a full autopsy.

Mr Hermanweid was employed as a project manager by the M+W Zander consulting company, working in Malaysia and Singapore.

The company has sent a representative to Phuket and they are still waiting for a report.

The German Embassy is now working to contact Mr Hermannweid's family back in Germany.

-- Phuket Gazette 15/5/09

Unbelievable!

Burrowes misses flight!

PHUKET CITY: It seems British tourist Simon Burrowes’s troubles in Thailand will never end. His flight out of Phuket left at 3pm today, but, in a situation that is all too familiar to Burrowes, he was not on it.

Immigration officials there told him they wanted to make some “additional inquiries” before permitting him to board the plane.

A police officer accompanying Mr Burrowes decided that Mr Burrowes would have to go to the Phuket Immigration Office in Phuket City – and miss the flight that had been paid for by an anonymous Thai benefactor.

This time, it seems, he kept his cool.

“It's not that much of a surprise, really,” he told the Gazette, explaining that after all he had been through, he was fully prepared for a hitch.

“It’s nothing. It really is nothing,” he said, sounding resigned.

Accompanied by the police officer and a Thai national who has been helping Mr Burrowes since he was released from prison, at the time of writing the luckless muay thai fighter was in a car heading for Immigration in Phuket City.

Friends of Mr Burrowes are attempting to secure him a place on another flight later today.

– Dan Waites

-- Phuket Gazette 15/5/09

Burrowes misses flight!

PHUKET CITY: It seems British tourist Simon Burrowes’s troubles in Thailand will never end. His flight out of Phuket left at 3pm today, but, in a situation that is all too familiar to Burrowes, he was not on it.

Immigration officials there told him they wanted to make some “additional inquiries” before permitting him to board the plane.

A police officer accompanying Mr Burrowes decided that Mr Burrowes would have to go to the Phuket Immigration Office in Phuket City – and miss the flight that had been paid for by an anonymous Thai benefactor.

This time, it seems, he kept his cool.

“It's not that much of a surprise, really,” he told the Gazette, explaining that after all he had been through, he was fully prepared for a hitch.

“It’s nothing. It really is nothing,” he said, sounding resigned.

Accompanied by the police officer and a Thai national who has been helping Mr Burrowes since he was released from prison, at the time of writing the luckless muay thai fighter was in a car heading for Immigration in Phuket City.

Friends of Mr Burrowes are attempting to secure him a place on another flight later today.

– Dan Waites

-- Phuket Gazette 15/05/09

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Is this an example of

Biting the gland that feeds you??

Very good!