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    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...

  • Worshippers wade through floods to get to temple in central Thailand

    Worshippers wade through floods to get to temple in central Thailand

    Buddhist worshipers in central Thailand are journeying through massive floods to get to their temple. The water level around the Wat Ban Phat temple in Ayutthaya province’s Bang Pa-in district is up to 1.5 metres. Worshippers are taking boats to get to the temple. Photos by Nation Thailand show temple-goers crossing a rather rickety-looking wooden walkway. The water level in…

  • PM Prayut declares war on drugs to prevent mass shootings in Thailand

    PM Prayut declares war on drugs to prevent mass shootings in Thailand

    Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha declared a war on drugs and a clampdown on gun control laws after a massacre at a daycare centre in northeast Thailand sparked urgent calls for change on Thursday. A former police sergeant facing trial for drug charges murdered 37 people – including 24 children under six years old – at a daycare centre in…

  • Pickup driver arrested after killing Bangkok road sweeper

    Pickup driver arrested after killing Bangkok road sweeper

    UPDATE Police arrested a pickup driver involved in the hit-and-run incident that killed a Bangkok road sweeper yesterday morning. Officers managed to get the man after the driver took his vehicle to get repaired at a local garage in the area. Police revealed three pieces of evidence were left at the scene, a black bumper bar and broken parts from…

  • Hot to trot at the Pattaya Bikini Beach Race?

    Hot to trot at the Pattaya Bikini Beach Race?

    Are you hot to trot? Do you have a bikini bod to die for or just an average Joe or Jane who likes to keep fit and have a good time? Well, you’re in luck because the Pattaya International Bikini Beach Race 2022 ticks all of those boxes. Men and women of all shapes and sizes are welcome to take…

  • Island in eastern Thailand listed in ‘Top 100 Green Destination Stories’

    Island in eastern Thailand listed in ‘Top 100 Green Destination Stories’

    A small island in eastern Thailand has been listed in the Green Destination Foundation’s Top 100 Green Destination 2022 Stories. The island of Koh Mak is located off Trat province. The Green Destinations Foundation is based in the Netherlands, and is dedicated to sustainable tourism. Koh Mak’s story is titled, “Koh Mak, the journey to becoming the first low carbon…

  • Room to shroom on Bangkok public buses

    Room to shroom on Bangkok public buses

    A fungi picture of mushrooms growing out of the seat of a public bus in Bangkok has gone viral on Thai social media. Some netizens made fun of pictures saying shitake happens while others were more serious saying enough is enough, time to refurbish Thai public buses. Political activist Jatuporn “New” Saeoueng posted the picture of the mushrooms growing out…

  • Thai man arrested for posing as police officer

    Thai man arrested for posing as police officer

    A Thai man was arrested on Friday after he tried to fulfil his dream job – impersonating a police officer. The 30 year old man, Kamfon Kunlachart, in full police uniform, reported himself ready for work to the superintendent at a police station in the Din Daeng district of Bangkok at 9.30am on Friday, October 7. Kamfon met with the…

  • Intoxicated Phuket man carries chicken around all night long

    Intoxicated Phuket man carries chicken around all night long

    An intoxicated Phuket man had a wild night carrying around something rather… random. The man was caught on Saturday morning after walking around carrying knives and a chicken all night long on Coconut Island off the main city district. Police caught the man, 37 year old Jaran, who had reportedly scared residents. Jaran had two knives, a chicken, and an…

  • Indian tourist in Pattaya reportedly missing over US,000

    Indian tourist in Pattaya reportedly missing over US$6,000

    An Indian tourist in Pattaya is reportedly missing over US$6,000 after staying at a hotel in the city for just two days, The Pattaya News reported yesterday. The man, 45 year old Vivek Singhal, told Pattaya officials that he had arrived at his hotel on October 5. Two days later he realised that the US$6,600 he had left in the…

  • “Black Sunday” flash mob protest on Bangkok BTS

    “Black Sunday” flash mob protest on Bangkok BTS

    Protesters staged a flash mob against PM Prayut Chan-o-cha on a Bangkok BTS train yesterday, The Standard reported. The demonstrators held placards with messages including “Prayut may be some people’s hope but he is the despair of the nation.” The protesters were dressed in black, and some also wore black sunglasses. The flash mob’s leader, Sombat Boonngamanong, said the “Black…

  • Police let off CNN reporters with 5,000 baht fine over invasive massacre reporting

    Police let off CNN reporters with 5,000 baht fine over invasive massacre reporting

    Deputy police chief ‘Big Joke‘ has done a 180 degree turn on CNN, letting off reporters with just a 5,000 baht fine (US$132) each for their invasive coverage of the daycare centre massacre in Nong Bua Lamphu province in northeast Thailand. On Saturday, Surachate “Big Joke” Hakparn insisted on prosecuting two members of CNN staff for breaking into the crime…

  • Bangkok road sweeper dies in hit-and-run

    Bangkok road sweeper dies in hit-and-run

    The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) is to pay 1.6 million baht in compensation to the family of a road sweeper who died in a hit-and-run incident on Kanchanapisek Road in the capital yesterday. The driver is on the run and there was no CCTV camera footage at the scene. The 59 year old woman road sweeper, Somsi Yimchalam, was hit…

  • Curbing meth in Bangkok a focus after massacre

    Curbing meth in Bangkok a focus after massacre

    Following the horrific daycare centre massacre in Nong Bua, where the killer had been battling drug charges, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration announced plans to focus on getting meth out of the capital. After a rash of drug-related crimes including the daycare centre massacre and another similar from the next day when a man was arrested outside of his child’s school…

  • Debt, drugs and death in Phatthalung midnight murder mystery

    Debt, drugs and death in Phatthalung midnight murder mystery

    The story has emerged in today’s Bangkok Post of a Phatthalung woman who was making her way to the hospital after escaping the clutches of her abusive husband. Already in a state of shock, 26 year old Dararat Songnui was further traumatised by the site of her husband’s corpse by the road. Suphamit Chandee had been stabbed to death. A…

  • Phuket International Airport predicts 30,000 passengers daily

    Phuket International Airport predicts 30,000 passengers daily

    High season is starting this month in Phuket, and the airport is predicting up to 30,000 travellers per day. The increase in air traffic to the popular tourist destination coincides with the airport’s 34th anniversary. And to celebrate, passengers and flights – both domestic and international – are ramping up. International carriers such as Aeroflot from Russia, Pegasus Airlines from…

  • Andaman Sea coast set for UNESCO recognition

    Andaman Sea coast set for UNESCO recognition

    Three conservation areas on the Andaman Sea are to be nominated for United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) recognition by Natural Resources and Environment Minister Varawut Silpa-archa. As the islands prepare to welcome tourists on October 15, Varawut was inspecting a maintenance and waste collection project on Koh Miang of the Similan Islands in Phangnga province. Reports in…

  • Miracle at nap time – the girl who survived

    Miracle at nap time – the girl who survived

    Three-year-old Ammy slept through the whole thing. During the assault by the crazy killer who burst into her daycare centre, Ammy slumbered on, unnoticed by the man with the knives. Ammy has a habit of completely wrapping herself up in her blankets, and according to her mother, Panomphat Srithong, that might have saved her. Panomphat was working at an electronics…

  • Gun laws in Thailand to be discussed by House committee

    Gun laws in Thailand to be discussed by House committee

    An upcoming meeting of the House Committee on Police Affairs will address gun control measures in the wake of the daycare centre massacre just days ago. The vice chairman of the committee who serves as the deputy secretary-general of the Democrat Party announced plans to consider several actions to allow more responsible gun ownership in Thailand. One idea on the…

  • Once bitten… English financial advisor who took chunk out of Thai investors

    Once bitten… English financial advisor who took chunk out of Thai investors

    Foreign financial “advisors” have been defrauding the country’s ex-pats for decades. Does seeing the arrest of Briton Mark Kirkham mean that the Thai economic police are finally catching up with them? Probably not, and why would you expect them to? Kirkham, according to financial blogger Andrew Drummond, looked every inch the upstanding member of the community on his arrest at…

  • Guns, drugs and mental health – questions for a grieving nation

    Guns, drugs and mental health – questions for a grieving nation

    Since at least 37 people were killed in Thursday’s daycare centre massacre, Thailand has been forced to ask itself some very uncomfortable questions. Gregory Raymond is a lecturer in the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs researching Southeast Asian politics and foreign relations. Writing for Australia’s ABC News, Raymond identifies some areas that should be of concern to everyone…

  • Armed, drunk father tried to snatch his child from school

    Armed, drunk father tried to snatch his child from school

    One day after a former police officer killed his wife and child and slaughtered 24 children and 13 others at a daycare centre in Nong Bua Lamphu, another man was stopped and arrested before he could commit a similar act. In the Southern province of Nakhon Si Thammarat, an inebriated armed man was arrested near a school trying to grab…

  • Finnish CEO detained for alleged mistreatment of 1,100 Thai berry pickers

    Finnish CEO detained for alleged mistreatment of 1,100 Thai berry pickers

    Finnish police have arrested and detained the CEO of berry company “Polarica” under suspicion of human trafficking. CEO Jukka Kristo allegedly “deceived” 1100 Thai berry pickers and housed them in “poor conditions.” This year, Kristo’s company flew around 1100 Thais to Finland to work as berry pickers – an industry that heavily relies on a foreign workforce. The CEO has…

  • Thai woman & foreign men charged for child sex trafficking in Pattaya

    Thai woman & foreign men charged for child sex trafficking in Pattaya

    Police arrested a Thai woman and three foreign men for rape and sex trafficking teenagers aged under 15 years old in Pattaya. Officers from Mueng Pattaya Police Station reported yesterday that the teenagers, aged between 12 and 15, were trafficked from Beer Bar in Soi Bua Khao on September 11. According to a Police TV report, Beer Bar secretly offers…

  • Massacre in Thailand: No drugs detected in system of daycare centre killer

    Massacre in Thailand: No drugs detected in system of daycare centre killer

    It comes as a great shock that no drugs were detected in the body of the ruthless killer who massacred 37 people – including 24 children under 6 years old – yesterday at a daycare centre in Nong Bua Lamphu province in northeast Thailand. The former policeman was dismissed from the force for failing a drug test. He appeared in…

  • More than 1 million baht payout to massacre victims

    More than 1 million baht payout to massacre victims

    The families of the adult victims of the daycare centre massacre in the northeastern province of Nong Bua Lamphu will receive up to 1 million baht in compensation. Kom Chad Luek news agency reported the Rights and Liberties Protection Department under the Ministry of Justice is investigating the loss from the Nong Bua Lamphu massacre and will offer compensation to…

  • Pakistan’s transgenders dragged back into Dark Ages

    Pakistan’s transgenders dragged back into Dark Ages

    Early last month, Pakistani Senator Mushtaq Ahmad Khan proposed the Senate Standing Committee on Human Rights amends the Transgender Protection Act of 2018, leading to a firestorm of online abuse on both sides of the argument. Despite its desire to be known as a conservative society with strong Islamic inclinations, Pakistan is one of only a few countries with legislation…

  • Thais unhappy with Prawit’s response to daycare centre massacre

    Thais unhappy with Prawit’s response to daycare centre massacre

    The Thai people were not impressed with the insensitive statement delivered by Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan about the daycare centre massacre yesterday. Thai reporters asked Deputy PM Prawit how he planned to prevent a similar scenario in the future. He said… “What can I do about it? He is a drug addict.” Prawit offered his condolences to the victim’s…

  • Colleagues reveal daycare killer prone to mood swings

    Colleagues reveal daycare killer prone to mood swings

    Former colleagues of the daycare centre killer revealed Panya Khamrap had a long history of drug use, behavioural problems and bad mood swings and was not popular at work. The 34 year old disgraced cop reportedly armed with a shotgun, pistol and meat cleaver murdered 37 people, including 24 children, butchered while they slept at the nursery in Nong Bua…

  • Japan bomb squad called to empty case full of sex toys

    Japan bomb squad called to empty case full of sex toys

    Although certain suspicious objects can indicate that a bomb squad is needed, a suitcase in Japan featured items that can cause a different kind of explosion. The bomb squad was, indeed, called to investigate an abandoned suitcase in the Shimomata neighbourhood of Kakegawa town in Japan. But, the objects found inside the suitcase were not what one would consider as…

  • World’s oldest dog Pebbles dies at age 22

    World’s oldest dog Pebbles dies at age 22

    The world’s oldest dog, Pebbles, has died at the age of 22 in the United States. Since May of this year, the Toy Fox Terrier held the Guinness World Record for being the world’s oldest dog. After seeing headlines about TobyKeith, a 21-year-old chihuahua from Florida who was named the world’s oldest living dog, Pebbles’ owner, Julie Gregory, realised that Pebbles was…