Three local Thai men dead!

Thursday, April 11, 2013, just before Songkran Festival, a local Thai man from Wok Tum, west coast of Koh Phangan Island, went to clean up a well, with depth of approximately 5-7 meter.

The local Thai man climbs down the well without any safety, like a ladder, a rope around his body or an oxygen mask …nothing!

He wants to put the dirt in a bucket and his daughter in law pulled up bucket with dirt.

He feel he can not breathe and he tells his daughter in law to pull him up, he climb on the wall, grab her hand and the pass out and fall down in the water.

We call Koh Phangan Rescue Service and Koh Phangan Police.

Poisonous Gas

An other Thai man from Issan, is working in the garden to pick coconut with help of his 2 monkeys. He wants to help, at this time already some neighbor have showed up, and they tell him, “Don’t go in the well with out a safety rope around your body!”

The Thai man from Issan is so caught by his instinct to help, so he doesn’t listen and he jumps in the well, and passes out. There is poisonous gas in the well and the two men are already dead!

Koh Phangan Rescue Service arrive, at this time have they found a thin ladder and it’s possible to climb down in the well. The Koh Phangan Rescue team wants to send down one man, to get rope around the other two men, to make it possible to lift them up. They send down this man, with a rope around his body, climbing on a ladder, and in 60 seconds he also passes out.

They mange to get him up quickly because of the rope around his body, they did CPR on him, he was sent to Koh Samui hospital, but he did not survive and died.

Wok Tum Koh Phangan Island

A fourth man went down the well to catch up the other two men. This fourth man had an oxygen mask on. He manages to pull up the other two men who died already!

During all this intensive and shocking rescue work somebody in the audience steal the wallet of the second man who wanted to rescue the first man. This man was the man with 2 monkeys who picked coconuts. The man took out his wallet with 18.000 THB and a mobile telephone before jumping in the well.

These kinds of accidents happen a lot in Thailand, poisonous gas in wells, lakes and other water underground muddy places.

Koh Phangan Island – Don’t go if you value your life

A British man has told British newspaper The Sun how he almost died in a stabbing at the same spot where British tourist Stephen Ashton was shot dead on Koh Phangan on January 1.

Backpacker Nathan Sharpe, 23, was speared by a six-inch blade which tore through his stomach, liver, pancreas and kidneys before grazing his spine, on Koh Phangan Island in May last year, The Sun reported.

The unprovoked attack took place yards from the bar on Koh Phangan where Mr Ashton, 23, was gunned down on New Year’s Day.

Mr Ashton was with a group of friends and three hundred other tourists in the 2013 countdown party at the Zoom Bar when he was shot by a home-made gun shortly after 4am, police said.

Mr Sharpe said, “My advice to anyone planning a trip to Koh Phangan is simple — don’t go if you value your life. Poor Stephen wasn’t as lucky as me,” he was quoted as saying.

Surgeons told Mr Sharpe it was a miracle he survived last May’s knifing.

“The police seemed more interested in making sure I paid my hospital bill than catching the man who almost killed me. They never told me anything else about the case.

“It wouldn’t surprise me if he’s still at large,” he told The Sun.

Ekkapan Kaewkla, 26, has been charged with killing Mr Ashton.

On January 2, the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO), the country’s foreign ministry, updated its online travel advisory with a strong warning over the possibility of criminal violence against tourists in Thailand, particularly on Koh Samui and neighbouring Koh Phangan.

“Western tourists have been victims of vicious, unprovoked attacks by gangs on Koh Pha Ngan. These attacks are particularly common around the time of the Full Moon parties and generally occur late at night near bars in Haad Rin,” the advisory said.

Original article with friendly support from The Phuket News

Original Koh Phangan Bullets!

Surat Thani authorities on Thursday held an urgent meeting to discuss the possibility of banning guns from Koh Phangan Island after a British man was caught in the crossfire between two groups of Thai men on New Year’s day.

Stephen Ashton, 23, was shot in the side by a stray bullet as he and his friends celebrated the first day of 2013 on the island at about 5am. He succumbed to his injuries at a hospital.

Police have arrested Ekkaphan Kaewkla on charges of murder and being in possession of a gun. The suspect allegedly confessed that he fired his homemade gun killing Ashton accidentally, as he defended himself when a group of Thai men fired at him and his group.

Surat Thani Governor Chatpong Chataraputi chaired the meeting, putting forward the proposal that guns be banned from the world famous Full Moon Party Island Koh Phangan in the south of Thailand.

Ashton was the seventh British tourist killed in Thailand since 2009.

Original article with friendly support from The Nation Thailand

Thai killer suspect confesses

The man suspected of killing Stephen Ashton allegedly confessed on Wednesday that he unintentionally shot the British tourist early in the morning of New Year’s day, police said.

Royal Thai Police adviser Pol Gen Rachot Yensuang, who interrogated Ekkapan Kaewkla on Wednesday, said the 26-year-old suspect had admitted to all charges against him and apologised for causing the death of Ashton and damage to tourism on Koh Phangan.

Pol Gen Rachot travelled from Bangkok to Koh Phangang in Surat Thani province to oversee the case.

Mr Ekkapan was initially charged with premeditated murder and illegal possession of a weapon.

Pol Gen Rachot had instructed police officers to provide better safety measures for tourists visiting Koh Phangan and Koh Samui. All tourist and entertainment venues on the islands must be free from firearms, he said.

“Any officers found to be negligent in their duties will face severe disciplinary action,” he warned.

Ashton, 23, was dancing with his friends and several hundred other tourists in the New Year countdown party at Zoom Bar on Haad Rin when he was shot by a home-made gun shortly after 4am on Tuesday during a fight between two rival groups of Thai men.

Pol Col Kittakarn Kramomthong, chief of the Koh Phangan police station, said Mr Ekkapan told police he was not drunk during the fatal shooting incident and he carried a gun because his opponents had threatened his life. The fight erupted after Mr Ekkapan and his friends came across the opponents at the bar.

“My group was outnumbered so we ran outside the bar. I drew out a gun and fired a shot into the bar aimed at my rivals. But it turned out that the tourist was hit. I’m sorry for the incident that occurred and I am ready to be punished for what I have done,” Mr Ekkapan said.

Police in charge of the case obtained evidence by questioning witnesses and checking the footage of a security camera at the bar. Mr Ekkapan was arrested hours later on Tuesday while he was hiding in a makeshift hut in a mountain near the beach, Pol Col Kittakarn added.

Wannee Thaipanich, president of the Phangan Tourist Promotion Association, said she felt regret for the family of Ashton. She said police were focusing only on searching for illicit drugs and paying little attention to guns. “It’s time for police to seriously make tourist places free of firearms,” she added.

Original article with friendly support from Bangkokpost

Koh Phangan Heaven or Hell?

Full-moon party craze on Koh Phangan Paradise Island have brought drownings, date-rapes, assaults – and now murder!

It’s described in Thailand’s tourist guides as paradise, but the ‘full-moon party’ island of Koh Phangan is for many unsuspecting visitors a vision of hell. Once a month, as the full moon rises over the island’s seemingly idyllic Haad Rin beach, tens of thousands of revelers swarm into its waterfront bars and discotheques and dance and drink the night away.

At New Year, the numbers swell to 50,000, who literally fight for space at the beach bars, where pretty Thai girls serve up drug-spiked cocktails in small buckets. Every year, at least one young reveler dies, dozens are assaulted, date-raped or ferried to mainland hospitals with serious alcohol poisoning.

This year it was the turn of a 22-year-old British holidaymaker, Stephen Ashton, who was shot dead at the Zoom beach bar during a brawl among a group of Thai men.

Ekkapan Kaewkla

Twenty-six-year-old Ekkapan Kaewkla admits he was armed but says he never intended to shoot Ashton. The Bangkok Post quotes him as saying: “My group was outnumbered so we ran outside the bar. I drew out a gun and fired a shot into the bar aimed at my rivals. But it turned out that the tourist was hit. I’m sorry for the incident that occurred and I am ready to be punished for what I have done.” He was due to appear in court today, charged with murder.

Ashton’s death prompted Britain’s ambassador in Thailand, Mark Kent, to issue a rare personal appeal to British tourists to exercise extreme care when visiting Koh Phangan at the time of the full moon.

Ashton’s death comes just one year after a 19-year-old British tourist drowned off Haad Rin beach after a heavy drinking session. Local police statistics show that several deaths since the full moon party craze began in the 1980s have occurred when revelers stagger into the surf to sober up. Others have fallen drunk from speed boats ferrying them back to neighbouring Koh Samui, another celebrated holiday island.

Koh Phangan Paradise

Drownings, murders, rapes, armed robberies, fatal road accidents and other party-related statistics fill the local police files. A party-bound bus crashed on the way to Koh Pangan last July, killing 10 people, including a British tourist.

“The local people are concerned, of course,” said Khun Wattana, owner of the Crazy Monkey bar. “But the parties make a lot of money for us. They’re good for the island economy.”

Thailand’s Tourist Authority (TAT) is worried, however, that Koh Pangan’s increasing infamy could hurt the country’s reputation as an otherwise safe tourist destination, and approaches are being made to provincial police authorities responsible for the security of the holiday islands to crack down harder on drug and alcohol abuse.

Police checks on roads leading to southern beaches and islands were stepped up over the Christmas and New Year period but supplies of methamphetamines and so-called “magic mushrooms” were reportedly readily available at the Koh Pangan New Year full-moon party.

“You could pop a pill for the price of a bucket of beer,” said one backpacker, on his way north to the Golden Triangle, after “surviving” Koh Phangan.

Koh Phangan Balls

Like so many Phangan party-goers, he was enticed by the glowing promise of a night to remember carried by such websites as Fullmoonparty-Thailand.com, which promises its readers an “unbelievably exhilarating experience you will never forget… There are no barriers here, no inhibitions, just people enjoying themselves with unified interests, to enjoy the magic that is the paradise of the full moon party.”

One Tripadvisor contributor was lost for words to describe the scene – “You have to see it to believe it.” But she added a caution: “It’s SO dangerous.”

Original article with friendly support from Edward Loxton – The Week UK

Tourist Killing Koh Phangan

The death of a young British tourist at a New Year’s celebration on the resort island of Koh Phangan Tuesday was the latest in a series of crimes against foreigners that have left many wondering if Thailand is squandering its postcard-perfect assets by failing to protect its visitors.

Local police identified the murdered tourist as 22-year-old Stephen Ashton of South London. Ashton allegedly found himself in the middle of a gang-related shootout at a 2013 countdown party at Haad Rin, a popular stretch of beach on the Gulf of Thailand island that’s renowned for its full-moon parties.

The Bangkok Post reports that he was shot in the side while dancing on the beach shortly after 3 a.m. on Jan. 1. According to local tourism officials, some 100,000 people were expected to ring in the New Year at Haad Rin.

Ashton’s family regretted that he was taken from them under “such cruel and tragic circumstances,” but said in a statement that they were “comforted in the thought that he was having a fantastic time with friends after such a difficult period following the loss of his much loved dad who passed away from a brain tumor in 2011 and the loss of his granddad a few months earlier.”

Thai police arrested a 26-year-old man identified as Ekkapan Kaewkla in connection with the shooting. Ekkapan has reportedly denied firing the shot that killed the young Brit.

The British Foreign Office updated its advice for Thailand in December, noting that seven British nationals had been murdered in the Southeast Asian nation since 2009. It singled out Koh Phangan as a place where many Western tourists have been victims of “vicious, unprovoked attacks by gangs.”

“These attacks are particularly common around the time of the full-moon parties and generally occur late at night near bars in Haad Rin. Exercise caution when walking in this area at any time, especially after dark,” it stated.

The Foreign Office also warned that there have been many incidents of “sexual offence” committed against foreign men and women in several resort areas in the Koh Samui Archipelago, which includes Koh Phangan.

The U.S. Department of State alludes to similar incidents on its country profile for Thailand.

Tuesday’s killing raised fresh concerns over the safety of tourists in Koh Phangan, where an influx of visitors has been a double-edged sword for locals. While it’s brought wealth to many, others note a dramatic rise in crime over the last decade. Even the official Koh Phangan tourist website claims “violence is frequent.”

Thailand has the highest gun ownership rate in all of Asia with 15.6 guns per 100 people. That figure puts it well ahead of Pakistan, the next closest nation in the region with 11.6 guns per 100 residents. Thailand’s Justice Ministry believes the number of young people carrying guns has increased 32 percent over the past nine years.

A rash of violence over the last 12 months reignited a debate over gun control. A senator “accidentally” shot his secretary with an Uzi submachine gun at a dinner in October, just one month before a “Gangnam Style” dance-off deteriorated into a violent shootout between two rival gangs.

Tourists, too, fell victim in 2012. Two Canadian sisters were found dead in their bungalow in the Phi Phi Islands in June, believed poisoned. A week later, an Australian travel agent on an industry tour was stabbed to death in a bag-snatch gone wrong in Phuket. More recently, two Russian women were abducted, robbed and raped in Pattaya on Christmas Day.

Motor sport governing body Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile claims Thailand has the highest U.S. tourist road fatality rate in the developing world, after Honduras. Over the New Year holiday alone (Dec. 27 to Jan. 2), the government reported a total of 254 fatalities and 2,454 injuries — most of which were attributed to drunk driving and speeding.

Despite all of this, Thailand appears to be more enticing than ever. Some 19 million foreign visitors flocked to the nation in 2011 to take in its racy nightlife, alluring beaches and spicy cuisine. That figure is expected to surpass 21 million in 2012, led by Chinese, Malaysians, Japanese, Russians and South Koreans.

Many, however, believe the nation must address growing concerns over safety if it wants to maintain the tourism industry’s rapid growth.

Foreign Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul told Bangkok-based news outlet The Nation last week that travelers’ safety was the subject of a lengthy discussion in the latest Cabinet meeting. He said authorities will do their best, but called on ordinary citizens to lend a hand.

“Please take care of foreigners. If anything happens to them, please step in to help,” Surapong said, urging people not to “hurt Thailand’s tourism industry” by ruining the country’s image abroad.

With Myanmar opening up and tourism to Vietnam soaring, Thailand faces more regional competition than ever. If the headline-making deaths continue in the coming year, visitors may begin to look elsewhere for the peace and tranquility that was once the hallmark of a trip to “The Land of Smiles.”

Original article with friendly support from Mark Johanson – International Business Times

Ekkapan Kaewkla

The family of Stephen Ashton issued a statement today expressing their devastation at his death as an innocent bystander.

And as they did so the Royal Thai Police announced that the alleged shooter would be charged with manslaughter and illegally carrying a fire-arm.

This may be of little comfort to the family reeling from the shock of the shooting of 22-year-old Stephen – who was taking a long break travelling to Australia – after leaving a job in the city, on the Thai party island of Koh Phangan early on New year’s morning.

Historically the country’s courts have handed out comparatively light sentences for manslaughter. Especially if the killer co-operates with the police.

These can be just two to three years – and have even been suspended in some cases including one in Bangkok.

Foreign diplomats were watching the situation closely. Many Embassies had made representations about safety issues on the Thai islands of Phuket, Koh Samui and Koh Phangan. Most of those issues have yet to be resolved.

British Ambassador Mark Kent has headed on a tour of the south. It was pre-scheduled but now he will be heading first to Koh Samui and Koh Phangan and will visit the murder scene on Friday. He is not expected to meet with Stephen’s mother Diana, who last night was recovering from the shock and lack of sleep back home in Purley

The family ins their statement issued through the Foreign Office said that they were “completely devastated by the loss of Stephen from our lives”

Britons are at the top of the victims list in the Samui Archipelago in the Gulf of Thailand, and there is a serious event involving a tourist at almost every one of the Full Moon Party’s on Haadrin Beach, where Ashton was shot outside the Zoom bar.

Last year was a particularly bad one for British tourists. In May there was a stabbing of a Briton, in July two British women made reports of rape, in August a 28-year-old man from London was shot in the leg, and in September another rape was reported.

Back in 2004 three Thai people died in a shoot out on Haadrin Beach and four years ago an Israeli tourist was stabbed to death.

These sort of incidents are just those reported to Consular officials. Many more victims, particularly of rape, do not report attacks to police but leave the island immediately.

The Foreign Office was forced to put out a warning about roaming Thai gangs.

It is unclear at this stage whether the Thais will go for a quick trial of 26-year-old Ekkapan Kaewkla to appease international concern or put the case through the usual process in which case conviction could be two years ago.

Ekkapan has told police that he pulled his home made gun after a fist fight broke out between his group and another group of Thai men at the Zoom Bar on Haadrin Beach. He did this because, he said, his group was losing and outnumbered. He did not intend to shoot a foreigner.

There were however indications from senior police arriving from the Regional headquarters on the mainland at Surat Thani that as in the case of Katherine Horton, 23, who was murdered and raped in Koh Samui on New Year’s Day 2006., they would go for a speedy process.

In that case three fishermen were arrested tried and sentenced within two weeks.

Original article can be found here -> Andrew Drummond – Thailand’s Alternative News Site

Thai Suspect Ekkapan Kaewkla

Police on Koh Phangan Island have arrested a Thai man after a British tourist was shot dead at a New Year’s Eve party when he was hit by a stray bullet as he danced with friends.

Police launched a search for a 26-year-old Thai man identified as Ekkapan Kaewkla, or Lae Kaewkla.

About noon, a team of police led by Pol Col Kittakarn searched for the suspect who was thought to have gone into hiding up in the mountain and arrested him in tambon Ban Tai. Mr Ekkapan was found with a home-made gun believed to have been used in the shooting.

Mr Ekkapan denied he fired the shot that killed Ashton but admitted he had fought with another group of men when partying at Zoom Bar.

Pol Col Kittakarn said police had several witnesses and enough evidence to prosecute the suspect. Royal Thai Police adviser, Pol Gen Rachata Yensuang, Pol Lt Gen Kittisan Dejsoonthornwat, the Provincial Police Region 8 deputy commissioner, and Surat Thani provincial police chief Kiattipong Khaosum-ang will interrogate the suspect at Khao Phangan station at noon on Wednesday, he added.

The Thai suspect is expected to be charged with manslaughter following an arrest, police in Thailand said.

More info at Bangkokpost

The holidaymaker was killed when a Thai man opened fire at a bar on the island of Koh Phangan in southern Thailand in the early hours of the morning.

“He was shot in the side while he was dancing on the beach,” local policeman Lieutenant Colonel Somsak Noorod told AFP, adding the area had been packed with revellers during the evening’s New Year celebrations.

Police believe the gunman was aiming at members of a rival gang.

Shooting took place at Zoom Bar on Haad Rin Beach, Koh Phangan. The British tourist was staying at Pink Bungalow. Police hunting the shooter

Details not known yet. Would seem a series of shots were fired by a drunk Thai youth. One hit the British tourist in his chest, killing him.

The incident happened at about 4am. As it is a holiday, not sure if the police informed the embassy yet. Thai media printed name at 1:30pm

Thai media reporting that the British tourist was accidentally shot & killed after drunken Thai youths opened fire at a NY party on Phangan

More infos can be found here

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Having been without power for three days, residents and tourists on the two islands in Surat Thani province woke up with electricity back on at their homes, hotel rooms and businesses.

Channel 3 reported that power was restored at 4am on Friday, two hours after engineers tested the line connecting the islands with Surat Thani’s mainland. The repairs finished at 2am, it added.

No officials were available for comment but short messages sent to the TV station from Koh Samui and Koh Phangan confirmed the report.

Surat Thani governor Chatpong Chatphut declared the two islands a disaster zone after engineers failed to restore electricity on Thursday. He said the would allow the province to spend an emergency budget of 50 million baht to help people affected by the prolonged power outage. The governor also ordered the setting up of a temporary kitchen to prepare food for people and sent trucks with equipment to produce potable water to areas where water production had been been halted.

A team of engineers on Thursday continued replairs to the underground high-voltage cable, after spending the whole of Wednesday night trying in vain to restore power. The electricity supply to the island was cut completely on Tuesday because of a rupture in a section of a 30km-long cable at tambon Taling Ngam in Samui district on the island.

The repairs could not be rushed as engineers had to make sure the work met international safety standards, said Wattana Phaekun, chief of the Provincial Electricity Authority’s (PEA) customer service section for the South. The repair work is 85% completed and officials were expected to be able to start supplying electricity by noon today, he said. The new deadline was the third after two previous delays.

Despite the assurance, provincial officials were sending power generators to the islands to meet emergency demand.

Koh Samui and Koh Phangan’s hospitals can care for patients and tourists because the hospitals use generators, permanent secretary for public health Narong Shamethaphat said. However, foreign tourists on Koh Phangan have mostly left after telecoms, restaurants and souvenir shops closed because of the blackout, Wanni Thaipanich, chairwoman of the Koh Phangan tourism promotion association, said.

Thanongsak Somwong, chairman of the Koh Samui tourism promotion association, said foreign tourists are sensitive about this kind of problem. “The blackout is expected to cause at least 12 billion baht in damage to tourism on Koh Samui,” he said.

Acting PEA governor Namchai Lowatthanatrakun said the power cable rupture resulted from a surge in electricity demand from the high tourism season this month. The PEA plans to start supplying electricity to the islands through a new underwater cable in March next year that will provide up to 200 megawatts of electricity, said Mr Wattana.

Original article posted at Bangkok Post