PHUKET: With red shirts now rallying in provinces across Thailand’s North and Northeast, Phuket is an increasingly attractive destination for tourists over the upcoming Songkran holiday.

Members of the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD) are gathering in 17 northern provinces to support their fellow protesters in Bangkok, Interior Minister Chaovarat Chanweerakul said earlier today.

“Although protests are sprouting up, there are no reports of any danger,” he said, claiming the authorities have control of the situation.

Provincial governors are under instructions to enforce maximum security measures at government installations in their provinces, he said.
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MAI KHAO, PHUKET: The construction firm building a new bridge to Phuket has released computer generated images of what the project will look like upon completion.

Project engineer Dr Phattanapong Thonsuk of project contractor Italian-Thai Development Co said the old Sarasin Bridge has suffered from years of saltwater corrosion and wear and is being replaced following concerns by the Highway Department about its structural integrity.

The original bridge, completed in 1967, was named after Pote Sarasin, who served as head of the now-defunct National Development Ministry.

Construction conglomerate Italian-Thai built not only the original Sarasin Bridge, but also its sister span the Thepkrasattri Bridge.

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Bangkok. Five years on from the tsunami that battered Asia’s shores, experts fear a new generation of coastal dwellers will be  ill-prepared to face another giant wave as memories fade.

While sound alert systems have now been developed in many countries to forewarn governments of impending danger, getting that message out to seaside communities, and to children in particular, remains a challenge, they say.

The tidal wave that swept in on December 26, 2004 killed around 220,000 people and still haunts the beaches and coastal villages of the 12 countries devastated by the worst natural catastrophe to hit the region in decades.

But experts and officials fear that as time goes  on and fear of the sea recedes, so too will the memory of what to do if another similar disaster strikes.

“Five years on, tsunami awareness is still very high. I would not be able  to tell [if it will remain so] five or ten years from now,” said Sanny Ramos Jegillos, regional crisis prevention director for the United Nations  Development Program.
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Phuket’s Vegetarian festival (or jia chai in local Hokkien Chinese dialect) began in 1825, when the govenor of Thalang, Praya Jerm, moved the island’s principal town from Ta Reua in Thalang District to Get-Hoe in Kathu District, where were tin mines and Chinese miners. Kathu was then still covered by jungle and fever was rife. It happened that a traveling opera company (called ngiu in Thai or pua-hee in Hokkien dialect) came from China to perform for the miners
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Date: August 2009
Location: All Chinese Shrines on the Island

The largest island in Thailand, the most populous and the most popular one- Phuket is a major watershed in the tourism industry of Thailand. And festivals and events in Phuket are more than you can even think of. In this cosmopolitan island there are festivals for every faith, every religion every race, and every kind of tourist for that matter. The Por Tor Festival in Phuket is a Chinese Festival celebrated in the month of July/August. Por Tor in Chinese means “Hungry Ghosts”.

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