Tanutam Thawan

Tanutam Thawan

Local Thai journalist speaking fluent Thai and English. Tanutam studied in Khon Kaen before attending Bangkok’s Chulalongkhorn University.
  • Tourism News

    Koh Samui looks to promotions to bolster dwindling foreign tourist numbers

    The president of the Tourism Association of Koh Samui says that foreigner numbers visiting the Gulf island have crashed in the first half of 2019. He says they’re trying to swing their focus to Thai travellers and other promotions to make up the difference. Foreign visitors to Koh Samui in the past have been mostly from Germany, China, Eastern Europe,…

  • Thailand Weather Updates

    Mae Sa and Tad Mork waterfalls in Chiang Mai closed

    PHOTO: Mae Sa waterfall Doi Suthep-Pui National Park officials in the north of Thailand have closed the Mae Sa and Tad Mork waterfalls after heavy rainfall have caused high water flows and slippery paths “that may endanger tourists”. Mae Sa waterfall is approximately 30 minutes drive north-west from Chiang Mai and Tad Mork waterfall about an hour drive north-west of…

  • Environment News

    Phuket villager braves the surf to rescue tangled turtle

    A local villager in Phuket’s north has risked his own life to retrieve a young sea turtle caught up in fishermen’s netting. The turtle was spotted, caught up in the branches of a fallen tree along the shores of Mai Khao beach. The monsoon was kicking up big waves and it’s unlikely the locals knew how to swim, especially in…

  • Northern Thailand News

    Korean auntie arrested in Chiang Rai and deported over company theft

    PHOTO: INN News The Thai Immigration Policein Chiang Rai have reported the arrest of a Korean woman, Kyoungnam known as ‘Park’. She was prosecuted by the South Korean authorities on fraud charges and had an arrest warrant issued in her name by a court in South Korea. So Miss Park attempted to hide in Thailand and evade her arrest warrant…

  • World News

    Malay tourist allegedly ploughs into roadside workers, killing five

    “Five Thai workers were killed and another injured on the Asia Highway.” Khao Sod reports that a Malaysian tourist has been charged with reckless driving causing death and injury after her car allegedly ploughed into six Thai road workers in Songkhla, southern Thailand, on Tuesday. The workers were from the Kamphaeng Phet Highway District Office doing routine maintenance along the…

  • Northern Thailand News

    Thai woman threatens to strangle child on Facebook Live

    PHOTOS: Manager Online Concerned provincial officials have visited a village in Khon Kaen, north-east Thailand, after a woman posted on Facebook live threatening to kill her one year old child. 41 year old Suphaporn Prab-arin, threatened to strangle the child with a belt then hang herself. During the video the baby was crying in a hammock nearby. After the story…

  • Thailand News

    Thai couple spend 1.5 million baht on tomb for their pug dog

    PHOTOS: khaosod.co.th A couple in Kanchanaburi Province has spent 1.5 million baht to build an elaborate ‘romanesque’ mausoleum for their pug dog who died of old age. In a rather macabre attempt at preservation, they have arranged two refrigerated coffins to ‘preserve’ their beloved woofer. Defying Buddhist convention for the deceased, the owners are keeping their dog on ice instead…

  • Expats

    Koh Samui tourists rounded up on year long overstay

    PHOTO: Naewna.com Immigration and tourist police in Koh Samui have arrested a Turkmenistan couple on overstay. They had overstayed their visas by 366 days They were acting on the orders of the Koh Samui immigration chief Pol Col Supharik Phankoson. Naewna.com has named the couple as 30 year old Mekan Nazarov and 28 year old Alina Loginova. Police headed to a house…

  • Crime News

    Pattaya bar owner arrested on human trafficking and prostitution charges

    ORIGINAL PHOTO: INN News A bar owner in Pattaya has been arrested on Saturday whilst on the run from police trying to arrest her over a string of human-trafficking and prostitution charges. The Anti-Human Trafficking Division eventually arrested the 31 year old Pattaya bar owner, also known as ‘Sudarat’, ‘Om Leelabut’, and ‘Nanthachai’. Sudarat had an arrest warrant out in…

  • World News

    Flights resume at Hong Kong airport as Beijing condemns ‘terrorism’

    The Hong Kong Airport Authority started resuming flights from 6am this morning after more than 180 departures had to be cancelled from Sunday morning. Hundreds of passengers were left stranded after all departing flights and more than 70 arriving flights were cancelled in the early evening. There were chaotic scenes inside the airport as thousands of demonstrators descended on the…

  • Phuket News

    Scaffolding collapse at VIP Mercury Condominium in Rawai, Phuket kills 1

    PHOTOS: Antonio Patong A three storey building and scaffolding collapsed in Rawai at 2.15pm Sunday afternoon, killing one person and injuring many other workers. The construction site is for the VIP Mercury Condominium project on Wiset Road in Rawai – near the Rawai Municipality Office heading towards Nai Harn Beach Park (map below). Eight people were rushed to Chalong Hospital, Vachira…

  • Northern Thailand News

    Illegal forest poachers resorting to landmines to scare off rangers in Thailand’s east

    PHOTO: Thai PBS Illegal loggers in Si Sa Ket, in eastern Thailand on the Cambodian border, have resorted to planting landmines to kill or maim forest rangers who try to interfere with their pursuit of the highly-prized Payoong, or Siamese Redwood trees in Thailand’s forest reserves. Other ordnance was found when rangers went to investigate the area. According to the…

  • Thailand News

    Serbian government grants citizenship to Thailand’s former PM Yingluck

    The Serbian government has granted citizenship to Thailand’s former PM Yingluck Shinawatra. Yingluck fled Thailand in 2017 just days before the Court handed down its findings on negligence charges against her and her government. 52 year old Yingluck, now a fugitive, fled to Dubai to join her brother Thaksin, another former Thai PM who fled in 2006 to avoid a…

  • Environment News

    Making pillows out of recycled plastic drinking straws

    PHOTOS: The Nation What to do with all those used plastic drinking straws. Here’s one local government’s attempt to re-use the plastic scourge of Thailand and put it to good use. The Nakhon Chiang Mai Municipality says they’ve been successful in turning used drinking straws into pillows. The ‘straw’ pillows will be distributed to the region’s bed-ridden patients and elderly to…

  • Politics News

    Thai Government suffers first defeat in lower house

    PHOTO: Thai PBS Highlighting the Government’s frail grip on power, the ruling Palang Pracharat government, together with its 19 coalition partners, suffered its first defeat in the lower house yesterday. The matter was over a parliamentary regulation that would specify the House speaker’s impartiality in the performance of their duties. Regulation Number 9 was debated at length in the Lower…

  • Transport News

    Bangkok bus passenger blows a fuse and stabs another passenger

    PHOTO: khaosod.co.th A passenger has blown their fuse at a 25 year old busboy travelling near Khlong Toei in the capital. The passenger threw his ticket money away and started yelling at the busboy. Another passenger, witnessing the outburst, went to the aid of the busboy and was stabbed by the angry passenger before he fled the scene. The Tungmahamek…

  • Northern Thailand News

    Three Thai airports being renovated to double passenger volumes

    PHOTO: Surat Thani Airport will be doubled in capacity Krabi, Buriram and Surat Thani provincial airports are getting a makeover to double their capacities in 2020, with a combined budget of 11.3 billion baht. Krabi airport will be renovated and expanded to handle double its capacity. The new terminal will be able to handle 8 million passengers a year. A…

  • World News

    The Philippines declares national dengue epidemic

    PHOTO: Philippine Star The Philippines has now declared a national dengue epidemic reporting that the mosquito-borne disease has now killed at least 622 people in the country in 2018. More than 146,000 dengue cases have now been reported in the first seven months of the year, a number almost double last year, according to the The Philippines’ health department. Officials…

  • Road deaths

    Koh Samui taxi driver killed, two tourists taken to hospital

    PHOTO: Sanook.com Police have now filed a full report on an an incident back on July 19 when a taxi driver was killed and two tourists critically injured driving on the Khao Laem Yai Hill, Koh Samui. Sanook.com reports that a taxi, a yellow and brown Toyota Fortuner SUV, hit the footpath on the Khao Laem Yai hill in the northwest…

  • Northern Thailand News

    Two Burmese migrants killed in Lampang van crash, 7 others injured

    PHOTOS: Lampang13.com Two Burmese migrants have been killed and seven others injured when a passenger van crashed on the road from Tak to Chiang Rai. The van transporting them from Tak to Chiang Rai hit a tree on a Lampang road early today (Tuesday) around 3.40am in Lampang province. The van fell into the ditch in the middle of the divided…

  • Travel

    Airbus starts manufacturing new A220 in Alabama, US

    The new Airbus A220 aircraft was touring south east asian countries, including a visit to Bangkok on Friday, last week. Today the aircraft manufacturers officially began manufacturing the A220 in the US. The first team of A220 production workers began work at Airbus’ Mobile, Alabama-based production facility. Some Thai-based airlines, including Thai Airways, are reported to be interested in the…

  • Bangkok News

    Police seeking arrest warrants for more suspects in Friday’s Bangkok explosions

    PHOTO: New Straits Times Police will seek warrants for the arrest of two additional suspects believed to be involved in the planting and detonating of four explosive devices at the government complex and in front of the Thai Armed Forces headquarters in Chaeng Wattana on Friday. Investigating police say they’ve now gathered all available footage from CCTV systems in the…

  • Thailand Weather Updates

    Tropical storm Wipha causes landslides in Tak

    A heavy rainstorm passing through the north has triggered landslides that closed down a two kilometre long stretch of the Mae Sot-Mae Sariang highway in Tak yesterday, according to Khao Sod. Tak is west of Chiang Mai on the border with Myanmar. Five houses and one car were severely damaged but luckily nobody was hurt. Tha Songyang District Officer Prateep…

  • Thai Life

    Wai Khru – setting a bad example for the future. Thailand’s demand for respect from its young

    Hazing (US English), initiation ceremonies (British English), bastardisation (Australian English), ragging (South Asia), or deposition, refers to the practice of rituals, challenges, and other activities involving harassment, abuse or humiliation used as a way of initiating a person into a group including a new fraternity, sorority, team or club. In Thailand, hazing is not only rife, it’s seen as a rite…

  • Things To Do

    Top 10 world’s busiest flight routes

    … and the rising stars So where is the world’s busiest airline route? Beijing to Shanghai? New York to Los Angeles? Eight of the Top 10 routes are based in Asia and nine out of ten of the world’s fastest-growing flight routes are also in Asia. You get the idea. Whilst the US has the world’s largest aviation market it’s…

  • Thai Life

    Cleaning the concrete and paving in Thailand

    With the wet season comes the rain. And with the rain, plus the ongoing hot weather, mould and algae growing on all our outdoor walls and paving. Rain + algae + mould looks awful and can be very slippery. Stains can also make your investment look old and unwanted. Black mould can cause allergies for some people You have two…

  • News

    Vaping could get you ten years in a Thai prison

    Image Credit: Ecigclick Vaping, the popular alternative to smoking cigarettes, might be OK where you come from, but in Thailand sucking on your favourite ‘vape’, or even bringing them into the country, could put put you in a Thai prison for ten years. It’s not a new law, with the import of electronic cigarettes and shisha being banned back in October…

  • News

    250,000 baht in a day. Patong’s para-sailing business.

    Following the death of Australian 70 year old businessman, Roger Hussey, in July 2017, and the subsequent investigation and promises for a ‘crackdown’ on the local parasailing industry, things appear to have settled back to ‘normal’. Again. Read about the tragic death of Mr. Hussey HERE. We have nothing against good people doing business in their own country. Most of…

  • Thai Life

    Mövenpick Resort & Spa Karon Beach appoints Harold Rainfroy as GM

    Mövenpick Resort & Spa Karon Beach Phuket has announced the appointment of Harold Rainfroy as General Manager who starts in his new role on September 14. Harold, previously the General Manager of Mövenpick Hotel Mactan Island, Cebu in the Philippines, brings with him more than 30 years of experience in the hospitality industry, mainly being based the United Arab Emirates…

  • World News

    Top 10 Museums in Asia

    Asia has a lot of museums but many are a reminder about rough days in the past, moments in time remembered so they’re not repeated. Some of these Top 10 museums are just downright creepy. But they’re all interesting. Trip Advisor’s readers have ranked the Top 10 Asian museums. Thailand didn’t make it into the Top 10 but has a…