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.
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Sponsored Is private health insurance in Thailand worth it? Real costs vs risks explained
Thailand has a strong healthcare system with both public and private options. Public hospitals offer affordable care, but many people, including expats, choose private health insurance for faster service, modern facilities, and more treatment choices. To decide if private health...
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Rescuers evacuate residents from Phitsanulok villages in north central Thailand
PHOTO: Phitsanulok HotNews A village in Phitsanulok’s Wang Thong district in north-central Thailand, has been totally inundated after a river burst its banks early this morning. Water started rising in the Fuangfah village in the Wang Thong district around 2.30am when the Wang Thong River overflowed. Rescuers rushed to the village by boat to evacuate the residents. Levels rose very…
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New storm brings more rain to Thailand’s north-east
PHOTO: The Nation North-east provinces are being told to get ready for another bout of heavy rains that could last until tomorrow. Although ‘storm ‘Podul’ passed through the region on Friday and Saturday, another storm over southern China is impacting the weather in north-eastern Thailand. The storm currently is near Hainan Island in the northern South China Sea. The Thai…
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Torrential rain in Thailand’s north and north-east from Podul
‘Podul’, the tropical storm that came out of the South China Sea and headed westward through Vietnam into the north of Thailand, has now weakened but inundated parts of the north-east and northern Thailand in its wake. Flooding in and around Khon Kaen has been reported to be as high as three metres with over 1,000 houses inundated. Homes and cars…
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‘Podul’ batters Phrae as it weakens across northern Thailand
by Kanyasorn Thintip, Nisanart Kangwanwong – The Nation As former tropical storm “Podul” continued to weaken yesterday as it plodded westward across north -central Thailand, the Sun Men district in the northern province of Phrae was battered yesterday morning, with toppled trees and power poles, and roofs blown off houses. Provincial governor Pongrat Piromrat called an urgent meeting of all district…
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Man fakes being a nurse in Thai hospital – for 11 years
PHOTO: Sanook A male nurse who faked his qualifications has managed to get away with working in the emergency department of a hospital in Loei province, Isaan, for 11 years. The Sanook News team reports that the “nurse”, known as Kowit, was employed at the Pak Chom hospital, having used a fake graduation certificate and nursing licence from Khon Kaen…
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Museflower Life Festival – Holistic wellness weekend in Chiang Rai, October 11-14
Museflower Retreat & Spa Chiang Rai is delighted to announce its fifth annual Museflower Life Festival, celebrating all things healing, holistic, and green with more workshops and classes than before, coming this October 11 – 14, 2019. Internationally known as northern Thailand’s first all-inclusive vegetarian holistic wellness retreat, Museflower Retreat & Spa Chiang Rai is especially known for its affordable, professional…
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Khon Kaen teacher cuts pupil’s hair, then pays him to keep quiet
PHOTO: Thai Residents A teacher in Khon Kaen province in Issan is in hot water after she violated Ministry of Education guidelines by cutting a student’s hair. The Thai Residents website reports that the teacher allegedly gave the pupil 120 baht to not tell his parents what she’d done. And although other teachers at the school didn’t agree with the…
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Thai farm grows other crops to disguise marijuana farm
“Officials believe that the other crops were simply grown to disguise the 700 marijuana plants.” Police are trying to locate an enterprising Bangkok businessman who grew 700 marijuana plants in his plantation in Nakhon Ratchasima, north-east Thailand. Polcie discovered that the landed been purchased a number of years ago to establish an “integrated farm”. Police raided the man’s 20 rai plantation…
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Light plane crash lands in Sukhothai
PHOTOS: ข่าวคนสุโขทัย A private light plane has been forced to make an emergency landing in a rice field in Sukhothai’s Sri Satchanalai district, central Thailand, this morning. The pilot and the passenger were unharmed in the incident. The incident happened at 9.32am in Moo 4 village in Tambon Haad Siew. The pilot managed to glide the plane down to land…
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Farmlands flooded in Mukdahan from mountain run-off
PHOTO: The Nation Some 10,000 rai of farmland and a main road have been inundated with run-off from mountains in Mukdahan, north-east Thailand near the Laos border and Mekong River. The roads were cut off yesterday morning. The Dong Luang district chief Somsak Boonchan says the runoff from the Phuphan Noi mountain range was caused by several days of heavy…
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Chiang Rai collision kills truck driver, injures several Chinese tourists
A tourist bus with 19 Chinese tourists on board was heading to the White Temple of Chiang Rai yesterday, when it was involved in a head-on collision with a pickup truck. The truck driver was killed instantly, and several bus passengers were rushed to hospital with injuries. It comes less than a week after 10 Italian tourists were injured, one…
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John Legend & Chrissy Teigen check out the tastes at a Korat Market
American music legend, John Legend, and his Thai-American wife Chrissy Teigen headed to a Nakhon Ratchasima food market only to be surrounded by locals trying to get a quick selfie. The army of fans surround the musician, his wife and daughter to follow them around the market in the 25 minute Facebook post. It was smiles all around but as…
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British man repays street vendor’s kindness by scamming him
PHOTO: Thai Residents and Sanook Surichat, a 50 year old BBQ food vendor in Khon Kaen province, north-eastern Thailand, became the victim of a shameless petty con-artist when he tried to help the man out of financial difficulty. The man introduced himself as ‘Stuart’ and claimed to be from England. He told Surichat he had a wife and child in Bangkok…
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After 60 years, electricity arrives in Ubon Ratchatani villages
PHOTO: Thai Residents Let there be light! After waiting 6 decades. More than 200 families in two villages in Ubon Ratchatani in north-eastern Thailand are celebrating the arrival of electricity in their homes. Residents in Si Muangmai district can now enjoy the delights of television and laptop computers for the first time in 60 years. Located along a 17 kilometre…
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Department warns of possible floods and landslides for 12 provinces
FILE PHOTO Officials and emergency responders in 12 provinces have been instructed to be prepared, and put equipment on standby, to cope with possible floods and landslides until August 20 (Tuesday). Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation director-general Chayaphol Thitisak says the alert was issued because of heavy downpours in the North, the Central and southeastern coastal areas. Officials were…
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Thai farmers reluctant to scale down use of ‘toxic’ herbicides
Thai farmers say they oppose the proposed bans on herbicides paraquat, glyphosate and chlorpyrifos. The Thai government plans to phase out three chemical weed killers, widely used by Thai farmers, by the end of this year. Farmers say they oppose the restrictions of use because the chemicals provide higher crop yields, according to Thai PBS who headed out into the…
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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…
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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…
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Electronic cigarettes valued at 11.25 million baht seized in Mukdahan province
PHOTOS: Workpoint News Electronic cigarettes valued at 12.25 million baht, plus various vaping paraphernalia, has been seized in Mukdahan, in far north-east Thailand. E-cigarettes and vaping products are prohibited to import into and use in Thailand. The Mukdahan Provincial Customs Department report that they received information from related officials and planned a raid of an import shipment for a company called…
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Convicted US pedophile caught teaching children at his home in northern Thailand
Immigration police have nabbed a convicted American pedophile in Phayao in the north of Thailand. 66 year old “Mr Eric” had a language school set up at his own home in the main city district of Phayao and was allegedly teaching children English without a work permit. The man’s full name was not provided in the Siam Rath story. Siam Rath…
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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…
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Lovestruck 22 year old Thai has a ‘very bad day’
PHOTOS and STORY: Sanook.com & WorpointNews.com Diamonds are a girl’s best friend, but not a diamond thief’s. A man has stolen two diamond rings from a shopping mall in Nakhon Ratchasima. He told police he wanted the rings to show his girlfriend his ‘true love’. The two rings were valued at 84,000 baht. But true love would have to wait…
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Japanese man arrested by Thai Immigration police for alleged sex with underage girls
FILE PHOTO A 69 year old Japanese businessman has been arrested by police in Khon Kaen for allegedly having sex with at least three teenagers, multiple times. The teenagers were aged under 18 years of age. The Khon Kaen Immigration Bureau reported that that “Kazuo” (full name withheld) was arrested at a hotel in the province on Tuesday. The Nation…
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Fishermen stranded at sea off Somalia returning to Thailand
PHOTO: mcot.com Some of the Thai fishermen, that have been stranded on two foreign fishing trawlers off the coast of Somalia over the past two weeks, have now returned to Thailand. The rest are expected arrive in the next few days, thanks to work by the Labour and Foreign Affairs ministries. Thai Labour Minister Chatumongol Sonakul and Chatree Athananan, director-general…
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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…
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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…
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‘Wipha’ whips up some storms and floods around Chiang Mai
PHOTOS: Entry to a local school turns into a river – The Nation Flooded roads are slowing down traffic and movement around the Chiang Mai area as a result of the fallout from tropical depression ‘Wipha’ which crossed the North Vietnam coast, heading westward towards Thailand, over the weekend. Om Koi district saw flooded road sections, while a large tree…
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Thai man sets fire to his Mercedes Benz because Daddy won’t pay bar tab
PHOTOS: Thai Rath What do you do if you run up a 5,000 baht bar tab and Daddy won’t pick up the cost? Incinerate the Mercedes Benz that Daddy had gone guarantor. That’s precisely what Kittisak Kritklao, the son of a property developer in Udon Thani, did after running up a bill of 5,000 baht at the Tawan Daeng Pub. He told…
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Si Sa Ket province declares dengue emergency
The northeastern province of Si Sa Ket, on the Cambodian border, has declared that the prevention and control of dengue fever required urgent attention throughout its area. Local health officials say they are now especially concerned about what will happen during the last three months of the annual wet season. Governor Weerasak Wichitsaengsi signed a Memorandum of Understanding for dengue…
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Four teenagers arrested for attacking police
4 teenagers were arrested and charged on Sunday with attacking 2 policemen in front of a nightclub in the north-east province of Nakhon Phanom, near the banks of the Mekong River. Sanook reports that the incident occurred happened around midnight on July 28 after an argument broke out between the teenagers and police. After the argument started to get physical,…
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