Northern Thailand News

Northern Thailand news, Chiang Mai news, business, tourism, and culture—stay updated with breaking stories, local events, and travel insights from Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Pai, and beyond. Get the latest from The Thaiger, your trusted Northern Thailand news source.

  • The world mourns mass shooting at northeast Thailand daycare centre | Thaiger

    The world mourns mass shooting at northeast Thailand daycare centre

    People around the world are mourning with Thailand after a former police officer shot and stabbed to death at least 37 people at a daycare centre yesterday, before killing himself. The sickening crime that happened in the northeastern Nong Bua Lamphu province has now drawn grief and condemnation across the globe. US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan released a statement…

  • A sickening scene as little ones massacred while sleeping at Thai nursery | Thaiger

    A sickening scene as little ones massacred while sleeping at Thai nursery

    A sickening scene around a northeastern Thai nursery school has sent shockwaves around the world. While the little ones slept peacefully, a crazed former policeman took aim at their vulnerable bodies. As mass shootings seem more like something you would see in America, the news of the rampage in Thailand has shaken residents to their core. The gunman, a former…

  • Hip businesses in northeast Thai province offer tasty food and fun experiences | Thaiger

    Hip businesses in northeast Thai province offer tasty food and fun experiences

    Three hip businesses in Thailand’s northeast province of Nakhon Ratchasima are offering tasty locally made foods, and fun experiences. One business is the Green Me Organic Farm. Visitors can take a tour of the farm and harvest organic vegetables. There is also a farm-stay accommodation with six rooms available. Visitors can also buy organic vegetables, products, dishes, and drinks at…

  • Cracks in road to popular mountain in northern Thailand | Thaiger

    Cracks in road to popular mountain in northern Thailand

    Adventurers driving on the road to a popular mountain in northern Thailand might have a few obstacles ahead of them. Those obstacles include cracks in the road, along with possible mudslides. Highway officials warn drivers that the main road is fractured to the Phu Thap Boek mountain in Phetchabun province. The officials said there were cracks and subsidence on the…

  • 30 trail runners stuck in Isaan forest due to flash flood | Thaiger

    30 trail runners stuck in Isaan forest due to flash flood

    Thirty trail runners in the Ultra-Trail Phu Kradueng Wake Up Run 2022 were stuck in the Phu Kradueng National Park in the Isaan province of Loei due to a perilous flash flood last Saturday. Fortunately, all runners were rescued and are safe. One of the runners, Itthipol Samutthong, sounded the alarm on his Facebook account at 9.03pm, Saturday, October 1.…

  • Woman’s body in luggage found floating in Mekong River | Thaiger

    Woman’s body in luggage found floating in Mekong River

    Royal Thai Marine Corps police yesterday found a suitcase stuffed with the body of a dead woman floating in the Mekong River in the Isaan province of Nakhon Phanom. Officers from Nakhon Phanom Provincial Marine Police Station fished the luggage out of the Mekong about 20 metres away from the station’s dock. Officers from That Phanom Police Station, That Phanom Crown…

  • Naga Fireball Festival is coming to Isaan on October 10 | Thaiger

    Naga Fireball Festival is coming to Isaan on October 10

    Organisers of the annual Naga Fireball Festival are hoping the gala will once again recapture the imagination of all visitors after a couple of barren Covid-19 pandemic years. The festival is back in the Isaan province of Nong Khai on October 10 and promotors are predicting a bonanza event that will help boost the provincial economy by 70% to 80%.…

  • Drug chase ends in flipped car, 6 million spilled Yaba pills | Thaiger

    Drug chase ends in flipped car, 6 million spilled Yaba pills

    Chiang Rai police chased suspected drug traffickers until a truck flipped and nearly six million Yaba pills spilled out. The drug bust was the culmination of an ongoing drug smuggling investigation by the police. Several suspects are still wanted in connection to the incident that was reported yesterday. Police had been alerted to a group of drug traffickers earlier and…

  • Large, endangered Indochinamon Bhumibol crab spotted | Thaiger

    Large, endangered Indochinamon Bhumibol crab spotted

    Officials stumbled upon a nearly-extinct freshwater crab this week in Phetchabun. The Indochinamon Bhumibol crab is the second one that has been found in the northern province in the last year. And it’s just in time, as September is believed to be mating season for the two rare crabs. The crab close to extinction was found in the Wang Pong-Chon…

  • Prices plummet on cannabis, farmers ask for regulation | Thaiger

    Prices plummet on cannabis, farmers ask for regulation

    Who could have seen it coming? With the decriminalisation and deregulation of cannabis, prices have plummeted and farmers are asking for price regulation from the government. Now people can grow the plant on their own and sell the crops. The original farmers with government contracts have seen an 80% to 90% reduction in the value of their crops. In many…

  • 6-hour whiskey drinking contest draws criticism | Thaiger

    6-hour whiskey drinking contest draws criticism

    A contest to drink booze straight for six hours? Maybe not the best idea. A rice whiskey drinking competition is drawing criticism online from readers questioning the safety of such an event. The contest was advertised online on Friday and is scheduled to take place on October 11. The location appears to be Donna Kham House farm, in Ban Thaen…

  • Police lieutenant in NE Thailand reportedly kills motorcyclist in crash | Thaiger

    Police lieutenant in NE Thailand reportedly kills motorcyclist in crash

    Last night, a police lieutenant in northeast Thailand reportedly crashed into five motorcycles and killed one motorcyclist. CCTV footage caught the lieutenant ramming his truck into the motorcycles waiting for a traffic light at a traffic island in Buriram province. The motorcyclist killed was a 25 year old waiting to make a U-turn. After the crash, the lieutenant’s pickup truck…

  • Extreme mud roads not enough to stop commuting teachers | Thaiger

    Extreme mud roads not enough to stop commuting teachers

    Rain-drenched pavements on city roads are bad enough but, in rural areas of the Tak province, flood waters on the dirt roads have created clay mud swamps. Many roads are practically impassible, but some dedicated teachers are going above and beyond to commute to school each day. In the Umphang district of the northeastern province, roads have been particularly bad,…

  • Father allegedly beats 6 year old son to death in drunken rage | Thaiger

    Father allegedly beats 6 year old son to death in drunken rage

    A father faces up to 20 years in prison after he allegedly beat to death his six year old son in a drunken rage in northern Thailand. Police reported the 33 year old father confessed to killing his son and dumping the child’s body in the Ping River in Kamphaeng Phet province. Police questioned the father, named only as Korakot,…

  • Cannabis-stealing school principal thought plants were free | Thaiger

    Cannabis-stealing school principal thought plants were free

    A principal at a well-known school vehemently denied stealing a cannabis plant from a MotoGP event over the weekend, but backtracked when police presented security footage of the theft. The incident took place at the Chang International Circuit in Buri Ram on Saturday, where the newly-legalised plants were being stored for an event meant to promote cannabis tourism. The principal,…

  • Prawit billboard comes with note asking for legal leniency | Thaiger

    Prawit billboard comes with note asking for legal leniency

    In the northeastern province of Bueng Kan, billboards have been appearing promoting caretaker Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan. One recently spotted sign in the province’s main city of the same name along the Laos border came with a note attached asking authorities to go easy on them for erecting the billboard, possibly skirting payment and regulations. The sign features a large…

  • Heroic teen risks life to save boy electrocuted in NE Thailand flood | Thaiger

    Heroic teen risks life to save boy electrocuted in NE Thailand flood

    A teenager in northeast Thailand risked his life to save a young boy who was electrocuted while wading through a flood. The 12 year old boy had been near a power pole near a school in Udon Thani province on Friday. The teenager, 19 year old student Atthachai Argudom, went in to rescue the boy and ended up suffering electric…

  • Volunteers transform into superheroes for fair in northern Thailand | Thaiger

    Volunteers transform into superheroes for fair in northern Thailand

    Look out, here comes the Spiderman! Or is it? Volunteers in Thailand’s northern province of Uttaradit are dressing up as superheroes for a fruit fair held in the main city district this week from September 13-22. The volunteers are working with police to entertain children in their Spiderman, Hulk, Venom, and Captain America costumes. They are also helping children and…

  • Boy in northeast Thailand dies of respiratory disease | Thaiger

    Boy in northeast Thailand dies of respiratory disease

    A boy in Thailand’s northeast province of Nakhon Ratchasima died of a respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) on Monday. This is the first death from RSV reported this year, but a doctor from Maharat Nakhon Ratchasima Hospital warns that RSV could be more virulent this year. The doctor, Jiraruj Chomchoey, said that at least one child has been admitted to the…

  • Rain flooding likely to dampen third quarter flood of tourism | Thaiger

    Rain flooding likely to dampen third quarter flood of tourism

    Thailand has been ecstatic to finally welcome back tourists – mostly – but now, after the pandemic, a new threat to tourism has emerged. The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) said it expects a normally profitable third quarter to be muted by the flooding in 21 provinces across Thailand. The floods are expected to affect corporate travel especially. Much of…

  • POLL: Northeastern Thais favour Sudarat for Prime Minister | Thaiger

    POLL: Northeastern Thais favour Sudarat for Prime Minister

    A recent poll in the northeast of Thailand showed Khunying Sudarat Keyuraphan leading the polls so far after announcing her candidacy for Prime Minister this week. She lead with 23.4% of the votes by those polled, followed by the daughter of a former prime minister, Paetongtarn Shinawatra. The survey was conducted by E-Saan Centre for Business and Economic Research of…

  • NE Thai man kills fiancé & himself after discussing engagement ceremony | Thaiger

    NE Thai man kills fiancé & himself after discussing engagement ceremony

    A man in northeast Thailand yesterday shot and killed his fiance and himself after the couple had reportedly met to talk about their engagement ceremony. The bodies of the man, 62 year old Thongsai, and his girlfriend, 39 year old Kritsana, were found on a cassava plantation. Kritsana’s sister told police that Kritsana had gotten home from work when Thongsai…

  • UPDATE: Police superintendent transferred to “inactive” post after pub raid | Thaiger

    UPDATE: Police superintendent transferred to “inactive” post after pub raid

    UPDATE The saga continues around the pub that was raided in Thailand’s northern Chiang Rai province early yesterday morning. The police superintendent of Chiang Rai’s city district police, Colonel Kittipong Sukwattanapun, has now been transferred to an “inactive” post in the operations centre of the provincial police headquarters. The transfer is punishment for his alleged failure to control the operations…

  • Teenage girl’s body found in northeast Thailand forest | Thaiger

    Teenage girl’s body found in northeast Thailand forest

    The body of a teenage girl has been found on Friday in a forest behind her school in Thailand’s northeast province of Buri Ram. The girl, 17 year old Nichada Salangam, had reportedly skipped her last class of the day with two friends before her body was found. Nichada’s friend Chularat said the three friends had skipped class to eat…

  • Should monks be fit? Pics of monks in gym stir online anger | Thaiger

    Should monks be fit? Pics of monks in gym stir online anger

    Some buff Buddhist monks doing reps in robes have gone viral as images of them working out in a gym caused an uproar on the Internet. The photos were posted yesterday on the Buddhist News Facebook page by a man who refers to himself as an abbott and claimed he invited residents of his temple to get some exercise. “I…

  • Pervert arrested for sexually violating a Thai heroine’s monument | Thaiger

    Pervert arrested for sexually violating a Thai heroine’s monument

    A naked pervert was arrested by police for trying to have sex with a holy monument in Nakhon Ratchasima, or Korat, in the Isaan part of Thailand. The 30 year old man, Preechar Chumpla, was arrested on Friday, August 26, at the Thao Suranaree or Ya Mo Monument in the Non Somboon sub-district, Seng Sang district, in Nakhon Ratchasima province.…

  • “Parading shrimp” the most unique yearly tourist attraction in Thailand | Thaiger

    “Parading shrimp” the most unique yearly tourist attraction in Thailand

    People talk about the big tourist attractions of Thailand – the temples, beautiful beaches, bustling cities, parading shrimp… wait, what? September brings one of the most unique spectacles in Thailand, and people flock to the northeastern province of Ubon Ratchathani each year to watch as shrimp climb out of a creek when heavy rains swell the shores. The naturally occurring…

  • School burned down for robbery netting 500 baht | Thaiger

    School burned down for robbery netting 500 baht

    In Buri Ram, a desperate person burned down a school building to cover up a robbery that netted them just 500 baht. The Wat Kok Charoen Temple School was set ablaze on Friday and the unknown suspect in the arson attack left behind a bizarre note saying “I love the Prime Minister. I am sorry, I need money.” The Phlapphla…

  • 48 year old Thai man gets first ID card after a lifetime of trying | Thaiger

    48 year old Thai man gets first ID card after a lifetime of trying

    A 48 year old Thai man finally got his first ID card after a lifetime of trying, thanks to a little help from the Thai media. The man, Sena Sriphet, is from the Koh Chan district in Chon Buri province, but he moved to live with his wife in the Nong Bua sub-district, Pa Kam district, in the Isaan province…

  • Flooding from overflowing rivers soaks Chiang Rai and the border | Thaiger

    Flooding from overflowing rivers soaks Chiang Rai and the border

    Along the northern borders of Thailand, rains have swelled rivers beyond capacity and caused widespread flooding. The Sai River along the Burmese border started rising on Friday and by Saturday morning the riverbanks burst and flooded a border town in the Mae Sai district of Chiang Rai, according to the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department. Over 2,000 houses were flooded…