Phuket to get seventh golf course

Blue Canyon Country Club

By early 2009, Phuket is expected to have a seventh golf course, designed by Jonathan Morrow, who also created the island’s Red Mountain golf course, which opened to acclaim in May 2007.

Work began on the 1.2-billion-baht Phunaka Golf Club in mid-1997 on 200 rai (37 hectares) of land off Chao Fa West Rd, near Wat Luang Phu Supa.

When completed, the club will have a nine-hole golf course, a driving range, and a clubhouse with restaurant, golf equipment shop and fitness center. It will be part of an extensive housing development.

The existing golf courses in Phuket are: Blue Canyon Country Club (2 courses near the airport), Phuket Country Club (18 holes and nine holes), Loch Palm and Red Mountain in the Kathu area, Laguna Phuket on the west coast and Mission Hills on the east coast (all 18 holes).

Phuket's Cricket Sixes

Phuket's Cricket Sixes

Phuket's Cricket Sixes held at Karon stadium 16th to 20th of April was a resounding success. In all, 23 teams from 10 countries competed in the 'Cup', 'Plate', 'Bowl' and 'Spoon' leagues over four days with extraordinary camaraderie noticed by all.

On the first day a light hearted beach cricket competition warmed the players up to Phuket's unique atmosphere. Overall the weather was condusive with only six of the 42 matches shortened. One of the highlights was a floodlit Twenty20 match played by the best players from amongst all the teams.

Winners

Cup: Calcutta Cricket & Football Club
Plate: Toorak-Prahan Cricket Club
Bowl: Bounty Buccaneers
Spoon: Guwahati Town Cricket Club
Beach Cricket: Delhi Medical Association Club

Phuket golf courses receive accolades

Loch Palm Golf Club

Three of Phuket’s six golf courses have received “Laureate Course Status” from the International Golf and Life Foundation (IGOLF). The accolade recognises golf courses around the world that show “a dedicated commitment to environmental and social responsibility”.

The Laguna Phuket Golf Club was recognized for excellence in both environmental and social sectors while the Loch Palm Golf Club and the affiliated Red Mountain Golf Course received awards for restoration ecology.

“Laguna Phuket is an example of a golf club which takes both its environmental and social responsibilities seriously, with a variety of innovative actions,” said IGOLF Chairman Paul Sochaczewski.

Loch Palm and Red Mountain, like most of the Phuket golf courses, were built on abandoned tin mines, and were an act of “ecological restoration”, Mr Sochaczewski explained. What was wasteland is now a productive ecosystem and successful business that generates income and jobs, and pays a substantial amount of taxes, he noted.

IGOLF is a not-for-profit organization registered in Bern, Switzerland, which aims to establish norms of excellence based on environmental and social responsibility for golf courses around the world. There are just five IGOLF Laureate courses in Thailand.

Creation of new dive site postponed

One of the Douglas C-47's

A project to sink ten decommissioned Thai military aircraft in the sea off the west coast of Phuket has been postponed until later this year because of rough weather. Four Douglas C-47 Skytrain military transport aircraft and six Sikorsky S-58T helicopters are to be sunk about a kilometer off Bang Tao Beach, creating the largest artificial reef in Thailand.

The disassembled aircraft arrived in Phuket on April 20 after a long journey by road from Lopburi Province, where they had been stored at a military base. They have since been reassembled and will be kept at Layan Beach until a new date for dropping them in the sea has been set, probably in November.

The four-million-baht project, financed by the Cherng Talay Tambon Administration Organization, was organized by the For Sea Foundation, a Bangkok-based non-governmental organization, with the help of the Thai Diving Association and the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

Royal Phuket Marina health club opens

Royal Phuket Marina

The RPM Health Club at the Royal Phuket Marina marked its grand opening recently, at a party attended by founder members, Phuket dignitaries and invited guests, including Maggie Quigley, star of the movie Mission Impossible III.

Declaring the Club officially open, Gulu Lalvani, developer of the Royal Phuket Marina, said, “The opening of the RPM Health Club is an important milestone in making the Royal Phuket Marina part of the social fabric of the Phuket community.”
George Foose, Executive Director of Sports Engineering & Recreation Asia Ltd, the developer and operator of the club, said, “We are pleased to extend our business commitment and presence in Phuket and we cannot think of a better place in which to share our commitment to high quality products and services than here at the Royal Phuket Marina.”

The club provides a luxurious environment for personalized wellness programs, personal training, group exercise, pilates, yoga, tennis, relaxation and socializing.

Local hospitals expanding

Phuket International Hospital

Phuket International Hospital, near the Big C supermarket in the bypass road, has completed a 350-million-baht expansion, consisting of a new building with 57 inpatient rooms including two VIP suites, each with an adjoining living room and large bathroom. Six more beds will be provided for ICU patients, along with 10 beds in the new haemodialysis centre, raising the total number of beds in the hospital from 92 to 165.

Piyarat Kulvanich, the hospital’s marketing manager, told Phuket.com that the new building also houses an aesthetics center, a dental center, a cheerfully-decorated children’s clinic and indoor parking for up to 40 cars.

“We currently employ more than 500 staff of whom 30 are full-time doctors. The hospital is continuing to recruit new doctors and staff from a variety of fields to support an increasing range of medical and hospital services,” Khun Piyarat explained.

Children’s clinic

Meanwhile, Phuket’s other major private hospital, the Bangkok Hospital Phuket (BHP) is investing 200 million baht to add three floors to its existing five-story inpatient building, in response to an increasing number of patients. This is scheduled for completion in late 2009.

BHP opened its doors on Yaowarat Rd, Phuket City, in May 1995. At the time it had 50 beds. Today it has almost 200, and the new floors, when completed, will take the total up to 350. The hospital has about 750 staff, including 73 doctors. Investment to date totals more than 800 million baht.

The hospital is part of the Bangkok Hospital Group, the largest private healthcare provider in Southeast Asia with a network of 15 hospitals.

Improvements for Patong

Tuk Tuks on Patong's Beach Rd

By the next high season, tourists can expect a number of changes and improvements to Patong, the town’s deputy mayor, Chairat Sukban, has told Phuket.com

Firstly, in a bid to improve traffic flow along Thaweewong Rd (the beach road), new traffic and parking regulations are to be introduced. Under these new rules, all cars will be directed to a new road, Pang Muang Rd, where ample parking space will be available. This road, currently under construction, is expected to be complete by the coming high season, which starts on November 1.

Tuk-tuks will still be allowed to drop passengers off on the beach road, but will no longer be allowed to park all along the road waiting for custom, as they do at present. Instead, there will be passenger pick-up points big enough for two tuk-tuks at a time. Tuk-tuk organisations will use walkie-talkies to bring in more tuk-tuks as those at the pick-up point drive away with passengers.

Showtime on CCTVs!

Secondly, Khun Chairat said, ten more closed-circuit TV (CCTV) cameras will be installed in the town at a cost of 4 million baht. The town already has 16 CCTVs installed over the past year.

The cameras not only enhance security for tourists and inhabitants alike, but are also very useful to police for monitoring and controlling traffic on the town’s three main roads – the beach road, Rat U-Thit 200 Pi Rd and Phrabaramee Rd.

Finally, Phuket.com asked Khun Chairat about the latest rumours exercising the imagination of Patong’s people – word that the proposed road tunnel from Kathu to Patong, under Patong Hill, is finally going ahead. The rumours have been fuelled by a mushrooming of billboards on the topic.

Khun Chairat said that he and Patong Mayor Pian Keesin are trying hard to move the project along and to convince potential investors of the value of the tunnel, which would supplant the current dangerously steep road over the hill.

Signboard promoting Patong's Tunnel

Currently, the plan is to hire a team of experts from a Thai university to study the project in greater depth. This study is expected to cost about 40 million baht.

“It is important that we study the project and get all the necessary information to present to the [central] government in order to get the budget from them,” Khun Chairat said. “Once everything is agreed, the project can be completed within four years [two year for the studies and two years for construction]. We have to think about people’s safety; the Patong-Phuket City road has seen so many accidents over the years,” he added. “We do need a better road.”

The tunnel concept was first mooted a decade ago. Last year the governor of Phuket, Niran Kalayanamit, presented three proposals. At that time, he said he was in favour of the project but ordered researchers to get additional details. He also stressed that stakeholders and the public must be thoroughly consulted.

Cruise lines head for Thailand

Star Cruise boat

Five major cruise lines have notified the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) that they plan to include Phuket and Laem Chabang in their regional itineraries by the year 2009.

Holland American, Seabourn Cruise Line, Star Clipper, Oceania Cruises and ResidenSea told representatives of the TAT New York Office of their decision during the Seatrade Cruise Shipping Convention, held between March 10 and 13 in Miami, Florida.

The TAT sees cruise-ship travellers as a high-end market group with high spending power. At present, 12 cruise ship calls a year bring about 7,000 such tourists to Thailand.

According to the Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association, the number of cruise passengers worldwide in 2007 totalled about 12.6 million, of whom 10.6 million were from North America. Their destination was usually the Caribbean islands.

Seatrade is one of the world’s largest cruise industry events. It was attended this year – its 24th – by 11,000 participants from 80 countries worldwide and 903 exhibitors from 71 countries, 11 of them in Asia.

By Rungtip Hongjakpet Izmen