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Sponsored 5 ways retirees in Thailand lose money (and how to stop it)
Retiring in Thailand can be affordable and enjoyable, but many retirees lose money due to common mistakes. High living costs, scams, and unexpected expenses can quickly drain savings. There are five ways that retirees in Thailand can lose money and...
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The 5th Annual Stargazer talent contest returns to CC’s Hideaway
This year the winner will receive 35,000 baht in prize money! CC’s Hideaway, located in Kata, proudly presents its fifth ‘Stargazer Talent Contest’ which will take place on April 27 between 6 pm and 11 pm. The goal of Stargazer is to create an opportunity for new individuals and groups to perform and promote their special talents and, with media…
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Summer storms leave 6,900 homes damaged this month
More than 6,900 houses, mostly in a patch through the central-north regions of Thailand, have been hit by summer storms since the beginning of April, according to the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department. Chayapol Thitisak, the director-general, says the department has received reports that 6,940 houses in 1,010 villages in 307 tambon of 115 districts had been damaged by storms…
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New Economics Party clarifies their support for pro-democracy coalition
PHOTO: Mingkwan Sangsuwan, New Economics Party leader – The Nation Leader of the New Economics Party Mingkwan Sangsuwan hasy reiterated his party’s intention to join with the pro-democracy coalition (Pheu Thai, Future Forward) and against the pro-junta party, Phalang Pracharat. Amid uncertainty over which camp New Economics would work with after the election, Mingkwan has clarified he would not join…
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Pattaya’s LONG Songkran comes to an end today
Whilst most of us have hung up our water pistols last Saturday or Sunday following Songkran revellry, punters in Pattaya have been hard at it all week. But after 9 days of water wastage and Songkran celebrations, the annual festivities come to a close in parades and official festivities today and tomorrow. Officially, according to the Pattaya Mail, April 19…
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Twitter shares the Songkran experience – 2.8 million tweets
Thais flocked to Twitter during this year’s Songkran to share their experiences. This year’s #Songkran’s festivities generated 2.8 million Tweets from April 12-16 and the conversation peaked on April 13, around 6pm, with 71,000 Tweets per minute. The celebration of the Thai Buddhist New Year, Songkran, is a time for family. It’s the time for reflection on the past year, for…
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Total five deaths in Phuket Songkran ‘Seven Day of Danger’ campaign
PHOTO: Kathu Police As reports are tallied for the seventh full day (April 17) of the ‘Seven Days of Danger’ road and marine safety campaign, there were 3 road accidents, including 1 injury and two deaths on the final day. Those two dead were from separate motorbike accidents. A motorbike driver, 68 year old Filipino man Regoberto Igaciq, died at…
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Junta warned to be careful targeting rivals with petty litigation
PHOTO: Piyabutr Sangkanokkul reports to police yesterday using the, now popular, anti-government three-finger salute – The Nation by Kai Chanwanpen While members of pro-democracy parties continue to be targeted with politically-motivated lawsuits, a political scientist is warning this tactic of eliminating political rivals through trivial matters of law could backfire and lead to a legitimacy crisis down the track. In…
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UPDATE: Visa revoked of American who funded the Phuket ‘seastead’
The Visa of the Michigan-based American man, who funded the ‘seasteading’ structure off the coast of Phuket, has been revoked while investigations continue into the legality of the matter. The factory that built the ‘seastead’ has been found with no license to build such a structure. The Phuket Immigration Chief Col Katathorn Kamthieng says, “The American man who has invested…
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HM Queen Sirikit advised to stay in hospital for treatment
Her Majesty Queen Sirikit has been admitted to Chulalongkorn Hospital in Bangkok suffering cystitis, which is an inflammation of the bladder, according to the Bureau of the Royal Household today. Queen Sirikit is the ‘Queen Mother’ of Thailand, the mother of the current King Maha Vajiralongkorn and was married to King Bhumibol Adulyadej. The Queen’s doctors examined her at 6pm…
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Day Six: Total remains at three deaths in Phuket – ‘Seven Day of Danger’
PHOTOS: Kathu Police As reports are tallied for the sixth full day (April 16) of the ‘Seven Days of Danger’ road and marine safety campaign, there was only 1 road accident, including 1 injury. The injured person was 23 year old Pantira Tansom, a motorbike passenger. She was travelling on the motorbike on Chao Fah West Road. When the motorbike…
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Central Thailand hit by Songkran storms
Over 300 houses have been damaged after thunderstorms lashed seven districts of Kamphaeng Phet province, in central west Thailand, at about 8pm last night. Officials have visited the districts this morning and found 25 damaged houses in six tambon of Muang district. The storms also damaged 162 houses in seven tambon of Phran Kratai district and 92 more damaged in…
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Day Five: Total three deaths in Phuket – ‘Seven Days of Danger’
As reports are tallied for the fifth full day (April 15) of the ‘Seven Days of Danger’ road and marine safety campaign, there were a total of 4 road accidents, including 3 injuries and 1 death on the day. The dead woman was 20 year old Kunwaree Hemmin who has died at the scene after a motorbike accident in Pakhlok…
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K-Pop dominating YouTube records – BTS and Blackpink
BTS, Blackpink, YouTube, Boy With Luv Last week’s Blackpink single-day YouTube viewing record has been beaten by fellow K-Pop supremos BTS notching up 78 million views for their “Boy With Luv” music video within its first 24 hours of hitting the video site. (Three days later it’s on 129 million with 7.8 million ‘likes’ and still going…) K-pop rival Blackpink…
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Pro-democracy coalition remains positive following weekend glitch
by Kai Chanwanpen The see-saw continues as the anti and pro-junta groups continue to tussle to form a coalition government. Meanwhile the Election Commission (EC) is no closer to announcing the allocation of Lower House seats… three weeks after the vote! They maintain that May 9 is the day they will announce the results although this deadline has been muddied…
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American Alex Dion in custody over murder of Thai national – Sydney
PHOTO: Wachiro “Mario” Phetmang – Facebook An American father, charged with the murder of a Thai man in western Sydney last year, is set to remain in custody until his next court appearance in June. Australian police have charged 38 year old Alex Dion with murder of a Thai national – the body found bound and gagged on a Sydney roadside. He…
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New fires in the North likely to be arson – Army
by Nathawat Laping Some 1,000 combined professional and volunteer firefighters are battling a major forest fire in the mountainous area overlapping Chiang Mai’s Muang and Mae Chan districts.The fire started on Sunday night in the Doi Jorakhe area of Tambon Tha Sud in Muang before spreading to Tambon Pa Teung in Mae Chan, a densely populated area and home to…
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The Great Worldwide Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp outage
OMG! Will we survive the great outage of April 14? Been turning your phone on and off? Resetting your wi-fi? Sweating that you can’t post your photo of the pad thai? It’s a worldwide Facebook outage and it’s affecting everywhere in the world. It’s also affecting the rest of the Facebook family of Apps. Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp are all…
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Day Three: Songkran road deaths show a dramatic drop
There has been 1,665 traffic accidents, with 174 deaths and 1,728 people injured in the first three days of the Songkran ‘seven days of danger’ (Thursday, Friday, Saturday). This equates to a significant drop from the 2018 road toll and lower even than Thailand’s average daily road deaths throughout the year. According to the WHO an average 66 people die…
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Day Three: Songkran ‘seven days of danger’ in Phuket
PHOTOS: Newshawk Phuket As reports are tallied for the third full day (April 13 – official Songkran Day) of the ‘Seven Days of Danger’ road and marine safety campaign, there were a total of 12 road accidents which included 16 injuries. No deaths were reported. There have been no marine incidents to report over the three days so far. The six…
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Phuket ‘Seasteaders’ told to pack up and go home
PHOTO: An artist’s impression from the seasteading website The ‘seasteading’ couple, that have set up a ‘floating’ home some 15 nautical miles off Phuket’s coast, are now the subject of an official complaint by the Thai Third Naval Area Command (that oversee Phuket’s security). Chad Andrew Elwartowski and his Thai wife, Supranee Thepdet are said to be in violation of…
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Sacred water drawing ceremony led by Bangkok Governor
PHOTO: The grand parade was just part of the lead up ceremonies for the forthcoming Coronation of His Majesty – Thai PBS Bangkok Governor Aswin Kwanmuang has led city officials in a ceremony to draw water from a pond at the Haw Sastrakhom, a small building inside the Grand Palace. The ceremony is part of the lead up to the forthcoming royal…
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Bangkok hit by zombie apocalypse? Songkran 2019.
Is it the apocalypse? Have zombies invaded Bangkok and taken everyone away? No, it’s the one time of the year when one of Asia’s biggest and busiest cities is calm and peaceful, for just one day. Well, actually just the morning because this afternoon they come out to play, Songkran style. Welcome to Songkran 2019, Bangkok. Whilst the residents have…
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Day Two: First death in Songkran ‘seven days of danger’ in Phuket
PHOTOS: Newshawk Phuket As reports are tallied for the second full day (April 12) of the ‘Seven Days of Danger’ Songkran road and marine safety campaign, one death was reported yesterday plus four injuries in four road accidents. There have been no marine incidents reported. The person who died was a 26 year old Burmese man, Ye Min Aung, who…
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The four days of Songkran. Do it like a local.
Over four days of festivities, Songkran officially begins on April 13 with each day focusing on different activities and traditions. April 13 – Wan Sangkhan Lohng On this day residents clean their houses in preparation of the New Year’s festivities and the Chiang Mai Songkran parade. This procession involves the passing of revered Buddha images and parade floats through the…
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Patong transformer short-out escalates into massive shop fire – VIDEO
PHOTOS & VIDEO: Phuket Traffic Office People were hastily cleared from around Banana Walk and Patong’s Beach Road was closed off as emergency crews battled to bring a growing fire under control. What started as a simple electrical short in a roadside transformer, quickly escalated into an inferno engulfing nearby roadside shops and nearby buildings. https://www.facebook.com/tim.long.9235199/videos/10156093448431516/ Firefighters and emergency responders…
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46 die on the roads in Day One of Songkran ‘Seven Days of Danger’
Forty-six people died and 482 were injured in road accidents on the first day of the Songkran holiday. The figures were disclosed by Transport Minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisit. The first day of the annual road safety campaign was Wednesday, April 11. Arkhom says 34.6% of the accidents were caused by drunk driving and 26.9% by speeding, with motorcycles accounting for 78.5% of the accidents (numbers rounded…
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Princess celebrates Songkran at Laos mission in Bangkok
Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn graciously attended a Songkran ceremony at the Lao Embassy in Bangkok yesterday. The Princess, who visits the Lao mission on Songkran every year, participated in the ceremonial tying of white thread on people’s wrists for good luck, and watched a performance of traditional Thai dance. Thailand and Laos mark the traditional New Year…
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No deaths in the first day of Songkran ‘seven days of danger’ in Phuket
PHOTO: Newshawk Phuket As reports are tallied for the first full day (April 11) of the ‘Seven Days of Danger’ Songkran road and marine safety campaign, no deaths were reported but five people were injured on the island. According to statistics issued by the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, Phuket the island saw 4 road accidents on Day One…
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Dutch tourist becomes first fatality of ‘Seven Dangerous Days’
A Dutch tourist is the first official Songkran fatality when his car hit the rear of a trailer truck in Kanchanaburi, in Thailand’s far west, early today. Officials say Roi Fanh Veeland (not official spelling) was the first casualty of Kanchanaburi’s “Seven Dangerous Days” Songkran road reporting period. Police say the accident happened at an intersection on the Tha Muang-Kanchanaburi…
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Will music history repeat itself this Saturday? The Beatles vs BTS
Beatles, BTS, Boy with Luv, Persona, Saturday Night Live February 19, 1964 was a big day in music history. The most popular show in the US at the time, and musically extremely influential, was the Ed Sullivan Show. What now seems to be a rather stiff, old-fashioned variety show was, at the time, a maker and breaker for new music…
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