nationmultimedia.com The National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department will not close all the marine national parks along the Andaman Sea. "Closing marine national parks will not help the coral reefs recover from bleaching," Director General Sunant Arunnopparat said. During a trip to survey two Phuket islands, foreign tourists were seen breaking and destroying live coral.


A daily wrap of Thailand news, with a Phuket perspective, plus relevant reports from national and international media.

bangkokpost.com has followed up a Phuketwan exclusive, concluding that state hospitals on Phuket are shouldering a heavy burden for treating elderly foreigners who cannot afford to pay their medical bills. Many retired foreigners who came to Thailand with the hope of settling down on Phuket are now struggling after spending their pensions wastefully and marrying Thai women, some of whom left them after their money ran out, the newspaper says.
Relatives back home refuse to pay for their treatment on being contacted by embassies, Vachira Phuket Hospital's public relations centre told the Post. A source urged stricter screening of visa applications and said foreign residents must be required to have health insurance.

monstersandcritics.com Although immigration regulations require foreign retirees to have proof of fixed monthly incomes, many quickly exhaust their savings on Phuket, which is well-known for its night entertainment scene and widespread prostitution. ''In a lot of cases, these patients require long-term treatment for chronic illnesses such as alcoholism,'' said the source at Vachira Phuket Hospital, which treated 377 foreign patients, most of them British, in 2010.

livemint.com Budget carrier IndiGo, which recently placed a record order for planes, will start international operations in August, pitting it against Emirates, Singapore Airlines and AirAsia. The aviation ministry has approved IndiGo's proposal to fly to four countries. On January 12, the airline announced a record order for 180 Airbus SAS A320 jets worth $15 billion.

nationmultimedia.com The five private cellular operators will start expanding the mobile number portability service currently only available in Greater Bangkok to Phuket and four other provinces on February 1.

nzherald.co.nz The Tuk-Tuk Scam is an oldie designed to trick tourists into thinking they are being taken on a worthy tourist route when actually they're driven to gem markets and tailors and pressured into making expensive purchases. Not as dire, perhaps, as being ordered at gunpoint to pay thousands of dollars for a damaged jetski - a less popular scam in Thailand, but a con all the same.

salon.com The karsts are so fantastically tall, verdant and sheer, as to be almost unbelievable. The bad part is the people. Hundreds of thousands of tourists - let me correct myself, hundreds of thousands of young and obnoxious tourists - come to this watery corner of Asia each year to behold the Phi Phi Islands.
When finally we hit the pier at Phuket, I am ready to kiss the ground. Phuket, by the way, is perhaps the only place on earth more disappointing than Phi Phi, with 10 times the tourists and a tenth of the natural beauty.

afp US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pledged to work for democracy in Burma with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi when she telephoned her on Wednesday, Clinton's spokesman said.

smh.com.au A survey conducted by the World Travel Market late last year found the economic downturn will continue to have an impact on the global travel industry for at least five years. Adventurous destinations feature strongly in predictions for 2011 hot spots.

indcatholicnews.com Christian Solidarity Worldwide welcomes the release today of a major new report highlighting human rights violations against the Chin people in Burma, just over a week before Burma is due for a Universal Periodic Review of its human rights record at the United Nations. The report, 'Life under the Junta: Evidence of Crimes against Humanity in Burma's Chin State,' published by Physicians for Human Rights, winners of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize, provides further evidence of crimes against humanity perpetrated by Burma's military regime.

monstersandcritics.com Thai authorities were mulling closing some marine parks to tourists after bleaching killed more than 50 percent of the country's coral reefs last year, officials said. The government was expected to decide this month whether to close certain dive sites to tourists in a desperate effort to rejuvenate the country's coral reefs, said Nipon Pongsuwan, head of the Phuket office of the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources.

bangkokpost.com Bay Cliff Development Co sales director Shane Suwannaphan said the company opened a sales office in Bangkok to appeal to Thai investors. "Phuket has experienced a fast recovery from both the 2004 tsunami and the [2008] airport closure. While Khao Lak has not yet recovered, Phuket had a comeback within 18 months after the tsunami." It also operates a 20-room serviced apartment called Sleep with Me.

chinahospitalitynews.com Budget airline Jetstar has announced that it will commence operating a direct services between Singapore and Hangzhou from March 22, becoming the first carrier to offer a direct service between the two destinations.

frenchtribune.com A new study has shown that in Singapore, one out of every 10 children is addicted to video games. For the study some 3000 students were observed and it was found that excessive gaming has led to some additional mental woes coming up in children.

todayonline.com The Malaysian government will launch a project to identify students with depression following a spike in the number of youths with mental health issues.

thestandard.com.hk Hutchison Whampoa's plan to spin off its ports business for separate listing have circulated for awhile. Nevertheless, the company's choice of Singapore as the berthing place is still astonishing. The loser is obviously Hong Kong, Hutchison's home port.

guardian.co.uk Thailand, as a result of its own successful anti-poverty measures, actually imports regional poverty from bordering Laos, Burma and Cambodia. It is estimated that there are between 1.8 million and 3 million documented and undocumented workers and their families in the country. Therefore it is necessary to measure poverty in wider terms than just national borders.

todayonline.com The man at the centre of Indonesia's most closely-watched corruption scandal was sentenced to seven years in jail in a case analysts say tests the country's commitment to tackling graft. Gayus Tambunan, who frequently ''escaped'' from jail, both entertained and scandalised a nation. The web of involvement allegedly included everyone from senior police and immigration officials to chief wardens and judges.



January 21 FC Phuket benefit matches for heart-attack player Camara Ahmed are scheduled for 4pm Friday when Phuket, Phang Nga, Surat Thani and Krabi will play, with tickets at 20 baht and 50 baht. On January 23, the winners of the round-robin play off.

January 22 QSI International fun run day at Bang Wad Dam, Kathu
January 23 Great Phuket Rubber Duck Race Day, Laguna Phuket
January 24 Villa Royale hosts the Baan Kata Arts Festival Concert
January 25 Muangtong United versus FC Phuket, 6pm. Tickets 50 baht, 100 baht
February 3 Chinese New Year Festival, Phuket
February 8-10Old Phuket Town Festival, food and walking street fest
February 9-13 The Bay Regatta - Phuket, Phang Nga, Krabi
February 23-26 Phuket Gay Pride Festival, Patong
February 25-26 Phuket International Blues and Rock Festival 2011
February 26-27 Phuket Spicy Soccer 7s, Phuket International Academy
March 14-19 ADFEST 2011 at Movenpick Resort, Phuket
March 27 Earth Hour commemoration on Phuket
April 13-15 Songkran Festival
May New PPAO Hospital to open, Phuket City


Fourth Asia Beach Games, Phuket