Thaiger
- Business News
Scrub away Pattaya’s restrictions with a Walking Street wash-a-thon
Without much other good news on the horizon, Pattaya officials have celebrated almost two weeks of no new Covid-19 infections with a celebratory ‘wash down’ of Walking Street. The ritual ‘wetting’, in the Songkran tradition, was seen as a new beginning, washing away the bad spirits and the bad times that had fallen on the once-busy red light district. Sonthaya…
- Thailand News
Thailand News Today | Island Party Crackdown | January 28
Around 9,000 people will face criminal charges for allegedly defrauding the “We Travel Together” subsidy scheme which was launched to stimulate the local tourist economy and to help hotels and restaurants ravaged from the long list of restrictions and international border closure. The national police chief says the police plan to prosecute around 9,000 people for conspiring with hotel operators…
- Thailand News
Ask The Thais | Road deaths, dating foreigners, and is ‘farang’ racist?
Ask The Thais” is a new segment on The Thaiger where we ask some of our Thai staff to explain some of the unusual and sometimes inexplicable little nuances of Thai culture. You have a question? Send it in and we’ll get our MUCH BETTER LOOKING Thai staff to explain, from a Thai youth perspective, some of their culture and…
- Thailand News
Thailand News Today | Restrictions on Bangkok and Pattaya to be lifted? | January 27
A trailer truck has driven into an accident scene, crashing into 9 vehicles and critically injuring a police officer who was directing traffic in Surat Thani’s main city district. Luckily rescue workers and another police officer were able to jump out of the way before the truck ploughed through the accident scene and into a roadside tyre shop. 2 people…
- Northern Thailand News
Air pollution reaches “unhealthy” levels in Thailand’s north and northeast
18 provinces in Thailand’s north and northeast are being hit by a wave of smoke and air pollution as the burning season kicks in for the country’s agricultural sector. The next 2 months are the peak of the burning off season for agricultural waste as farmers prepare their land for the next crops of corn, rice and sugar and use…
- Thailand video news
Thailand News Today | Thailand’s vaccination roll-out | January 26
Bangkok restaurants may soon be allowed to stay open a little later. Health officials are considering easing up Covid-19 prevention measures by extending restaurant dine-in closing times to 11pm. If the proposal gets the green light, it may lead to the lifting of the alcohol ban. After the order of shutting entertainment venues and banning alcohol sales in Bangkok, Samut…
- Visa Information
Thailand Retirement and Digital Nomads – Missed visa opportunities | VIDEO
Two visas Thailand should be promoting right now! If there were two more groups, more perfect suited for the Thai lifestyle, I don’t know what they are. Thailand’s immigration laws for long-stays have always been a challenge, retirement is just one of those categories. It would seem like a perfect win win situation to invite people to come and live…
- Business News
The ‘office’ is SO last century. Say hello to the world of remote working.
Do you work from home? Or can you work anywhere have a laptop and wi-fi? Are you a trader or selling stuff online? You’re part of a growing trend in modern work practices as the fancy city office becomes an expensive relic of the ‘old normal’. 2020 became the year of people working from home. In same case, it was…
- Environment News
Stop the burn – Thai Governors told to stop farmers burning off agricultural waste
Provincial governors in Thailand’s farming areas are being told to mitigate the burning off of agri-business waste by farmers in their provinces. The annual burn-offs are the biggest cause of the December to April air pollution in Bangkok and Central Thailand which lie in the wake of the light north-easterly breezes this time of the year. The burn-offs partly co-incide with the lighter…
- Thailand News
34.7% of Thai tourist businesses closed down
“When the tourists start coming back it will be a very different holiday experience for them. Will it ever get back to the numbers before Covid? Never.” A Tourism Authority of Thailand survey, conducted between January 10 – 12, indicates that more than a third of the country’s tourism-related businesses has already shut up shop and gone out of business.…
- Covid-19 News
Thai people hope Covid-19 vaccine will help end pandemic – survey
A Bangkok University poll indicates that around half of the Thai population are holding out hope that the Covid-19 vaccine will help end the pandemic. But the same respondents fear the vaccines’ side effects. The poll was conducted on January 18-20 on 1,186 people nationwide, aged 18 and over. A bare majority, 50.1% say their jobs and incomes would be…
- Covid-19 News
State Railway of Thailand furloughs 57 locals trains from Tuesday
Thailand State Railway governor says that cancellations will affect 13 local services on the northern line, 18 on the northeastern routes, 12 in the southern region and 14 eastern trains. “Most of the cancelled trains will start at Hua Lamphong station, including trains that are popular with tourists, including services to Kanchanaburi and Hua Hin.” Niruj Maneepun says the move…
- Covid-19 News
50,000 to be tested for Covid-19 in Samut Sakhon, 198 new infections reported in Thailand today
50,000 people are lining up to be tested for Covid-19 in the hotspot of Samut Sakhon over the next 5 days as health officials step up pro-active testing in the hard-hit Thai province. The target of 10,000 people to be tested per day will focus on factory workers, communities and dormitories in an effort to change Krathum Ban and Muang…
- Crime News
Asia’s biggest drug kingpin arrested in Netherlands
Asia’s biggest drug kingpin is under arrest in the Netherlands after years of authorities chasing him worldwide. 57 year old Tse Chi Lop, a Chinese-born Canadian citizen, was arrested by Dutch police acting on a request by Australia’s federal police. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime named him as the suspected leader of the Asian mega-cartel known as “Sam…
- Covid-19 News
Czech ‘Covid’ sniffer dogs can detect Covid-19 with a 95% success rate
Czech dog trainers say canines can sniff out Covid-19 with an astonishing 95% success rate. The team of trainers in Renda, a Czech mountain village, are working in their own time to teach the dogs to tell the difference between fake samples of Covid and real ones by sniffing pieces of cloth. Lenka Vlachova, a trainer who works at Prague’s…
- Crime News
2 shot dead at Phuket Bus Terminal Saturday night
Police say 2 men were gunned down at the Phuket Bus Terminal by a colleague at the terminal along the stretch of Thepkasattri road heading into Phuket Town last night. The incident happened at about 10:15pm with the local police chief arriving along with medical staff from Vachira Hospital shortly after the incident. 60 year old Wian Iadchuthong, the alleged…
- Pattaya News
Chonburi sees 0 new Covid-19 infections for 3 days in a row
Chonburi province has reported another day of 0 cases of Covid-19, marking the third day in a row to see no cases. In the past 6 days only one case has been reported in the province and all of that person’s relatives have tested negative for the virus. The provincial health office says they will keep doing doing targeted mass testing…
- World News
Talk show king, Larry King, dies at 87 | VIDEO
Larry King, the longtime CNN stalwart and talk host has died. He was 87 years of age. He is survived by 3 sons. “Larry King Live” was a staple on the the young cable TV network for over 25 years, interviewing presidential candidates, celebrities, athletes and high-profile personalities. He retired in 2010 after taping more than 6,000 episodes of the…
- Tourism News
Phuket lifts mandatory quarantine restrictions for ‘high risk’ arrivals. But were they ever applied?
Culminating 2 weeks of mass confusion over the apparent mandatory self-quarantine for arrivals to Phuket from Bangkok and other high risk provinces, Phuket’s provincial communicable disease committee has agreed to lift the mandatory 14 day quarantine “to help boost the local economy hit by the Covid-19 pandemic”. But for the vast majority of arrivals from Bangkok (DMK and BKK) to…
- Northern Thailand News
Ring road collapses leaving at least 10 injured in Nakhon Ratchasima
An elevated section of a ring road in the northeastern province of Nakhon Ratchasima has collapsed, leaving at least 10 workers injured. The incident occurred on Sura Narai Road in tambon Khok Sung in Muang district at around 2pm today. The injured included 1 Thai and the others Cambodian and Burmese nationals. Most had cuts on their bodies while some…
- Covid-19 News
Hong Kong partially locks down, forcing thousands to undergo Covid screening
Hong Kong’s government is forcing a partial lockdown until 10,000 residents of an area in the Kowloon peninsula, complete a Covid-19 test. The 2 day lockdown in the city’s poorest neighbourhood of Jordan, comes after a new strain of the coronavirus was identified, making it the 1st lockdown that the city has seen. The area, which features many deteriorating buildings…
- Thailand News
Border districts screening cars for smuggling illegal migrants
Security officers in Thailand’s 3 border districts are under strict orders to screen all cars at security checkpoints for illegal migrant smuggling. The orders come after the arrests of 3 Thais who allegedly smuggled illegal migrants into the country using their own cars, with all cases being linked to each other. The smugglers tried to escape being detected by authorities…
- Covid-19 News
Phuket wants Bangkok arrivals to skip quarantine to help tourism revenue
Phuket’s tourism representatives are calling for an end to the mandatory quarantine levied at tourists arriving to the province from Bangkok. The tourism delegation have also told Phuket’s provincial government to be prepared to start receiving international tourists starting in October. According to The Phuket News, such a plan would include a requirement for all international travellers to Thailand to…
- Covid-19 News
Eastern provinces growing impatient with safety measures as Covid cases decrease
Thailand’s eastern provinces are growing impatient as local businesses and residents await a relaxation in Covid-19 safety measures after seeing a drop in cases. Chonburi, Chanthaburi, Trat and Rayong are under a “highly controlled” status set by the CCSA (Samut Sakhon, south west of Bangkok, also falls into the same category at this time). These provinces, along with Samut Sakhon…
- Thailand News
198 new infections, 1 death – Thailand’s Covid-19 update
After a week of high and lows in the reporting of the latest clusters, Thailand officials are reporting 198 new infections of Covid-19 today, with 180 being locally transmitted. 69 of those local infections were found via tests at medical facilities and 111 were found by proactive testing. Most of the proactive tests were found in Samut Sakhon, where the…
- Covid-19 News
Wuhan remembers Covid-19 lockdown on 1 year anniversary
Wuhan is remembering the Covid-19 lockdown that 11 million residents endured on today’s 1 year anniversary. The 76 day lockdown on January 23, 2020 saw public transportation shut down by 10am and a ban on anyone exiting the city, unless they were given special permission. In a city the size of London, locking down painted an eerily quiet landscape. But…
- Covid-19 News
Patong, Phuket Town, Chalong to fund residents’ vaccination
Patong and Phuket Town are planning to fund registered residents’ Covid-19 vaccines, Thai and foreign, with the hope to speed up the inoculation process without waiting for the national government. The mayors of both cities say they have already allocated the funds to move forward with purchasing the vaccines after the government approves which ones may be used. Like any…
- Visa Information
ASQ + Vaccine in Thailand proposal gets the thumbs down
OPINION A spokesperson from a Thai tourism association came up with the “cunning idea” yesterday to propose a ASQ + Vaccine package to travellers and tourists. So not only do you get your 14 day mandatory quarantine at an expensive hotel in Bangkok, the opportunity to submit copious amounts of paperwork and drill through the red tape. NOW you get…
- Covid-19 News
Chinese propaganda flick released about the Wuhan lockdown
A new, state-backed film marking the anniversary of the Covid-19 Wuhan lockdown, is using propaganda to praise the central Chinese city. The documentary “Days and Nights in Wuhan” chronicles the suffering that the city’s 11 million residents endured during the 76 day lockdown. 30 filmmakers contributed to the film which included footage of medical staff and front-line workers. The film…
- Thailand News
1.5 million Thais approaching poverty line
A new report by the World Bank has indicated that 1.5 million Thais are approaching the poverty line after Covid-19 ravaged the tourism-dependent economy. In 2020, the report says the poverty ratio in Thailand increased to 8.8%, compared with 2019’s figure of 6.2%. The report is troubling as the Thai economy already passed rock bottom in the 2nd quarter of…
