News

Thailand news, politics, business, crime, lifestyle, and tourism—stay updated with breaking news and in-depth analysis from Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Pattaya, and beyond.

  • Sponsored

    Long-term life in Thailand? 5 reasons private health insurance pays off in the long run

    Thailand is a great place for expats and retirees, offering a warm climate, affordable living, and rich culture. However, healthcare can be tricky for foreigners since they aren’t eligible for public health coverage, and private care can be expensive. Private...

  • A ping pong show is coming to Bangkok | Thaiger

    A ping pong show is coming to Bangkok

    If you’ve wandered some of the seedier streets of Bangkok, you’re probably well aware of the ping pong shows on offer. But finally, Bangkok is set to see a proper ping pong show that’s entertaining and suitable for the whole family! The World Table Tennis (WTT) Star Contender 2023 series tournament is set to take place in Bangkok from April…

  • Koh Chang Karp emerges as southern Thailand’s stunning new diving spot | Thaiger

    Koh Chang Karp emerges as southern Thailand’s stunning new diving spot

    Koh Chang Karp has recently emerged as the most stunning scuba diving destination in Trang, in the southern part of Thailand. Local tour boats hailed the island as the most beautiful scuba diving site in the province. Koh Chang Karp, also known as Koh Reur Rop (battleship island), is a hidden gem located between two popular attractions in Trang: Koh…

  • Tourism Authority of Thailand partners with Agoda, Alipay, Klook and KKDay | Thaiger

    Tourism Authority of Thailand partners with Agoda, Alipay, Klook and KKDay

    Tourism Authority of Thailand has joined forces with Agoda, Alipay, Klook and KKDay in a new joint marketing initiative aimed at increasing tourism in the kingdom. Each of the platforms will launch promotions and campaigns to boost tourism in Thailand and enhance awareness of experience-based tourism activities in major and secondary Thai destinations. Representatives from the four online platforms joined TAT…

  • Police close nightclub after raid on Pattaya Walking Street | Thaiger

    Police close nightclub after raid on Pattaya Walking Street

    Pattaya Police will recommend the closure of a popular nightclub to the provincial governor after the venue’s repeated license violations on the district’s notorious Walking Street. Flexx Club on Walking Street in tambon Nong Prue, Bang Lamung district, was raided by police in the early hours of this morning for violating legal operating hours. The raid, led by Pattaya Police…

  • Thai woman dies 6 hours after breast augmentation surgery | Thaiger

    Thai woman dies 6 hours after breast augmentation surgery

    A Thai woman died just six hours after getting breast augmentation surgery at a clinic in Nonthaburi province in central Thailand. Her family is seeking justice, reports KhaoSod. The mother of the deceased, 59 year old Champee [surname reserved] said that her 37 year old daughter Kanokwan [surname reserved] lost consciousness and died less than six hours after returning home…

  • Glass beads covering the moon found to contain water | Thaiger

    Glass beads covering the moon found to contain water

    Water has been discovered inside tiny beads of glass on the moon. The discovery could potentially provide a “sustainable, responsible” source of water for future exploration, according to a new study published in the journal Nature Geoscience. Over the past few decades, several missions have shown that there is water both on the surface and trapped inside minerals on the…

  • 3 killed, 13 injured after cement truck crashes into ceremony procession | Thaiger

    3 killed, 13 injured after cement truck crashes into ceremony procession

    A cement truck driver fled the scene after crashing his vehicle into an ordination ceremony procession on a road in the Chuen Chom district of Maha Sarakham province in Isaan. Three people died and 13 were injured in the accident. The incident happened yesterday at 2.30pm on Chiang Yuen-Kam Yai Road, also known as Rural Road No. 2268, in the…

  • Russian, Chinese investors drive Phuket property market | Thaiger

    Russian, Chinese investors drive Phuket property market

    The Phuket property market is on fire now, with the help of Chinese and Russian investors. Chinese buyers are reportedly increasing their investments, buying up villas, shophouses, and even orchards, to cater to Chinese tourists. Russian property investors are also contributing to the surge in demand for villas and homes in Phuket. While Russians are interested in buying pool villas,…

  • Managing blacktip reef sharks in Maya Bay, Thailand | Thaiger

    Managing blacktip reef sharks in Maya Bay, Thailand

    The National Parks Department of Thailand aims to enhance the management of the country’s popular tourist conservation areas following the return of blacktip reef sharks to Maya Bay. Maya Bay was closed for four years, from 2018 to 2022, to facilitate the recovery of the island’s wildlife. The bay’s popularity surged after the release of the 2000 movie The Beach,…

  • Tourists in Thailand urged to download ‘Tourist Police i lert u’ app | Thaiger

    Tourists in Thailand urged to download ‘Tourist Police i lert u’ app

    Foreign tourists in Thailand are advised to download the app “Tourist Police i lert u” which they can use to quickly and conveniently contact the police in case of an emergency, according to government spokesperson Rachada Dhnadirek. Not to be confused with the Thai version of the app, “police i lert u,” the tourist version of the app is available…

  • British and Korean men arrested for robbing cannabis shop in Pattaya | Thaiger

    British and Korean men arrested for robbing cannabis shop in Pattaya

    Officers from Mueng Pattaya Police Station arrested a British and Korean man yesterday after they stole 175,000 baht from a cannabis shop in Pattaya on Saturday. Another suspect, an Irishman, is being questioned by police under suspicion of being involved in the robbery. The two thieves were identified as 47 year old Englishman Markus Powell and 52 year old Korean…

  • Thai Airways accused of favouring foreign passengers over Thais | Thaiger

    Thai Airways accused of favouring foreign passengers over Thais

    A Thai passenger who recently flew from Paris to Bangkok in Thai Airways business class accused the airline of favouring foreign passengers over Thais after a flight attendant provided services exclusively to a foreign passenger. The attendant told the Thai man that the foreigner was a Gold Status member. Thai consultant doctor Watcharaphol Alexandre Kamnerdsiri, who works in Brussels, Belgium,…

  • Thailand set to be the location of White Lotus season III | Thaiger

    Thailand set to be the location of White Lotus season III

    The location for the next series of the award-winning HBO drama White Lotus is Thailand, according to Variety magazine. Series creator, writer, and director Mike White was seen in Thailand at a Four Seasons location late last year setting media tongues wagging that the Land of Smiles would be the destination for series three of the gripping drama. Series one…

  • Countdown to ADB’s SEADS 2023: Imagining a Net Zero ASEAN | Thaiger

    Countdown to ADB’s SEADS 2023: Imagining a Net Zero ASEAN

    The Southeast Asia Development Symposium (SEADS) is back! With the theme, “Imagining a Net-Zero ASEAN,” SEADS 2023 promises to be a dynamic gathering for anyone interested in sustainability and climate action. The event is scheduled to take place on 30 March at The Westin Resort Nusa Dua in Bali, Indonesia. It will convene thought leaders and climate action advocates from…

  • 158 illegal Thai workers in South Korea arrested at Thai singer concert | Thaiger

    158 illegal Thai workers in South Korea arrested at Thai singer concert

    Police arrested 158 illegal Thai workers in South Korea after they visited two restaurants to attend concerts of a well-known Thai singer. Following the incident, the singer expressed her remorse and posted an apology video on TikTok. Chutima Sodapak, also known as Arm Chutima, was performing in concerts at two bars in Incheon City, South Korea. During her first performance,…

  • Indian man overstays visa in Thailand by 2,048 days | Thaiger

    Indian man overstays visa in Thailand by 2,048 days

    Immigration police arrested an Indian national in Chon Buri province, eastern Thailand, found to have overstayed his visa by 2,048 days (more than five and a half years). Police believe he is part of a call centre gang, reports KhaoSod. The police stopped 38 year old Jatinder Singh – who resides in the Na Jomtien area of Sattahip district –…

  • Aussie man and Thai wife say politicians’ letter saved them from death penalty in Thailand | Thaiger

    Aussie man and Thai wife say politicians’ letter saved them from death penalty in Thailand

    A free Aussie man and his Thai wife who spent four years in prison in Thailand for a crime they did not commit say that a 15-page letter from politicians in Australia is the reason they were spared the death penalty after being convicted of trafficking half a tonne of crystal meth in 2018. Luke Cook, his wife Kanyarat Wechapitak and…

  • Motorists in Thailand warned to pay outstanding fines this week or else! | Thaiger

    Motorists in Thailand warned to pay outstanding fines this week or else!

    Motorists in Thailand have been warned that they will not receive their annual vehicle registration tax sticker if they have outstanding traffic fines by this weekend. The government today announced that motorists have until Saturday, April 1 to settle any unpaid traffic fines otherwise they will not receive their annual vehicle registration tax sticker to display on their windshields. Furthermore,…

  • 10 people injured after drunk crashes car into ordination ceremony | Thaiger

    10 people injured after drunk crashes car into ordination ceremony

    A drunk driver crashed his car into an ordination ceremony at a temple in the central province of Lopburi on Saturday because of an alleged grievance with the event host. Ten people were injured at the scene with two suffering serious injuries. Officers from Koke Samrong Police Station and the Koke Samrong Hospital rescue team rushed to the Khao Saphan…

  • Government addresses public complaints | Thaiger

    Government addresses public complaints

    Here’s a story for the comments section. Got a complaint? The government is listening… probably. The Cabinet recently addressed the complaints submitted by the public and feedback submitted to state agencies and enterprises during the first quarter of the 2023 fiscal year. And while it often feels like complaints to higher authorities fall on deaf ears, the government claim that…

  • People in Thailand spend too much time on their backsides, a new report reveals | Thaiger

    People in Thailand spend too much time on their backsides, a new report reveals

    People in Thailand spend too much time sitting on their backsides, a new study reveals. The Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) revealed that 76% of Thai people spend seven hours or more sitting down, underlining the need for the nation’s population to get off their arses and engage in more physical activity to improve their health and wellbeing. MOPH director-general…

  • Police thwart attempt to pull 176 million from bank account | Thaiger

    Police thwart attempt to pull 176 million from bank account

    A Cambodian national has been arrested by police in Bangkok for using a fake passport to obtain a new bank passbook. The passbook is believed to be for a bank account with 176 million baht in savings, which is thought to belong to a call centre gang. The police were alerted to the situation on March 24 when it was…

  • Frenchman lost in Thailand forest has been found | Thaiger

    Frenchman lost in Thailand forest has been found

    UPDATE The missing Frenchman lost in the forest around Khao Eto Mountain in Prachin Buri province in central Thailand was found this morning. The search party scoured the forests all night for Sierra Gamache – who NationTV reports as 73 years old and not 70 years old as reported by DailyNews – after he got lost on his way down the…

  • Pervy man caught on CCTV sniffing woman’s underwear and licking her shoes | Thaiger

    Pervy man caught on CCTV sniffing woman’s underwear and licking her shoes

    A Thai woman in the southern province of Songkhla filed a complaint with the police after a CCTV camera captured footage of a perverted man climbing over a wall into her house, sniffing her underwear and licking her shoes before leaving. The 28 year old victim, Raenu, posted videos of the incident on a Facebook group named HATYAIZ to warn residents…

  • Thai man sets ‘high’ score for fastest joint roller at Phuket’s Cannabis Cup | Thaiger

    Thai man sets ‘high’ score for fastest joint roller at Phuket’s Cannabis Cup

    As cannabis remains one of the nation’s hottest political issues in Thailand prior to the election in May, one Thai man won 5,000 baht for rolling a perfect one-gramme joint in just 43 seconds at the first-ever Cannabis Cup in Phuket on Saturday, reports Reuters. Hailed the fastest joint roller in all of Phuket, 30 year old Phuketian Ativat Janmuangthai won…

  • Online pranksters warned they could face time in jail ahead of April Fool’s Day | Thaiger

    Online pranksters warned they could face time in jail ahead of April Fool’s Day

    The Royal Thai Police issued a warning to online pranksters ahead of April Fool’s Day that their tomfoolery could land them in jail and a heavy fine. The Technology Crime Suppression Division (TCSD) urged the nation’s natural jokers to be careful that their shenanigans on April Fool’s Day, also known as “Wan Dek Foo” in Thailand, do not break the…

  • The floating football field of the Andaman Sea | Thaiger

    The floating football field of the Andaman Sea

    The Andaman Sea is home to one of the most incredible sporting achievements in the world – a floating football field. Located on the island of Koh Panyi, the field was built by local children in 1986 using wooden planks and nails. The field is the only one of its kind in the world, and its history is one of…

  • Sukhumvit bar owner threatens tourists with gun | Thaiger

    Sukhumvit bar owner threatens tourists with gun

    While there’s no surefire way to choose which bar is good and which one is bad in the lively nightlife area of Sukhumvit in Bangkok, maybe one where the owner flaunts his gun on social media all the time isn’t the best choice. A foreign tourist in Bangkok has reported being threatened with a shotgun by the owner of a…

  • Thailand weather forecast: Hot and stormy | Thaiger

    Thailand weather forecast: Hot and stormy

    Much of Thailand can expect hot weather and summer storms in the next 24 hours, with temperatures hitting highs of 39 degrees Celsius in Bangkok, according to the Meteorological Department. Northern Thailand is expected to be hot and hazy today. In Chiang Mai, the air quality index (AQI) was measured at a ‘very unhealthy’ 220 this morning, 33.9x higher than…

  • Man throws 10 year old boy into Chon Buri reservoir, victim drowns | Thaiger

    Man throws 10 year old boy into Chon Buri reservoir, victim drowns

    A man has been accused of throwing a 10 year old boy into a reservoir in Chon Buri causing him to drown. The suspect’s grandmother, however, does not believe the accusation, adding that her grandson suffers from mental health problems and would not hurt a fly. The incident happened at Huay Shark Nork Reservoir on the Tung Klom-Tarn Man Road…