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Thailand hot news, breaking stories, crime, politics, tourism, and business—stay updated with in-depth reports and exclusive interviews on the latest events across the country. Get the latest from The Thaiger, your trusted Thailand news source.

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    Planning to extend your Thai visa? Why health insurance is more important than ever

    If you plan to stay longer in Thailand, having health insurance is now more important than ever. Thai immigration often asks for proof of medical coverage when you apply to extend your visa. This applies to many types of visas,...

  • Thailand deploys troops to Khao San Road to combat water splashing tourists – VIDEO | Thaiger

    Thailand deploys troops to Khao San Road to combat water splashing tourists – VIDEO

    Call in the troops! That’s been the response from Thailand’s government after reports of foreign tourists (you get bet there were plenty of locals in there as well) engaging in “dangerous water splashing behaviour” spread like wildfire on social media at the start of the Songkran festival, well Songkran eve to be precise. Bangkok authorities deployed the military, in addition…

  • Covid test confusion ruins UK family holiday to Thailand | Thaiger

    Covid test confusion ruins UK family holiday to Thailand

    An email with another sad outcome from possible risks, albeit small, that individuals and families face returning to Thailand at this time. The Thaiger receives at least a few of these sad stories every week. Names of individuals and locations been changed or withheld on the request of the author. My name is Pete Passport. I am a journalist and travel…

  • Suvarnabhumi Airport adds arrival QR code to ease confusion | Thaiger

    Suvarnabhumi Airport adds arrival QR code to ease confusion

    Travellers are being recommended to download a QR code had been created and is available from April 14 at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport, aka. BKK. Airport management are claiming the new QR code will assist them and help them to find the booth of their booked hotel. After numerous complaints, confusion, and congestion in the arrival area, angry visitors looking for…

  • Former Thai PM denies his daughter will run for the top job | Thaiger

    Former Thai PM denies his daughter will run for the top job

    On Clubhouse this week, a favourite platform for former PM Thaksin Shinawatra, Thailand’s former elected leader denied rumours that his youngest daughter, Paetongtarn, will run in the next Thailand election as the nominated PM candidate for the Pheu Thai Party. Instead, he wants to see her in the party working on the marketing and strategic side of things. On April…

  • Time to say goodbye to Test & Go and the Thailand Pass? | Thaiger

    Time to say goodbye to Test & Go and the Thailand Pass?

    The government will propose removing the Test & Go scheme and Thailand Pass at a meeting with the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration on April 22. The Tourism Authority of Thailand is again requesting the cancellation with the tourism ministry, according to Tourism and Sports Minister, Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn. The goal is to attract more travellers and boost Thailand interrupted tourism…

  • Have a virtual water fight on Facebook or Instagram this Songkran | Thaiger

    Have a virtual water fight on Facebook or Instagram this Songkran

    Everyone is disappointed that water splashing is banned for yet another year this Songkran (officially). Instead, Meta invites you to have a virtual water fight with your loved ones on Facebook and Instagram using an augmented reality effect called “Songkran Together”. The director of Facebook Thailand says the aim is to encourage Thais to celebrate the New Year with their…

  • Songkran: Where to celebrate the Thai New Year in Thailand 2022 | Thaiger

    Songkran: Where to celebrate the Thai New Year in Thailand 2022

    Despite the lack of official water fights this year, there are still plenty of ways to celebrate Songkran 2022 in Thailand. Events in Bangkok, Ayutthaya, Songkhla, Chiang Mai, Samut Prakan and other major cities have been organised by the Tourism Authority of Thailand, or the TAT, in line with Covid-19 prevention measures. So put the water gun down and take…

  • 8 year old driving motorcycle dies in accident | Thaiger

    8 year old driving motorcycle dies in accident

    An 8 year old boy was driving a motorcycle with a sidecar attached to it when he lost control and flipped over at around 10:30am this morning in Chanthaburi province in eastern Thailand. The vehicle fell back down on top of him and crushed him. He hit his head off the concrete road and sadly died from his injuries at…

  • More than 180 trains added during Thailand’s Songkran holiday | Thaiger

    More than 180 trains added during Thailand’s Songkran holiday

    The Thai State Railway has added over 180 trains during the Songkran holidays, and will run through to April 17. 45,000 travellers are predicted to board the trains from Hua Lamphong in Bangkok on the first day of Songkran. The old Hu Lamphong train station has been kept running since plans to move all train services to Bang Sue, the…

  • Thai government to control inflation prices for consumer products | Thaiger

    Thai government to control inflation prices for consumer products

    As the Thai government attempts to control inflation, the PM Prayut Chan-o-cha says that there must be no shortages of consumer products or outages, and the prices must not be too expensive. The world wide inflation problems have been created by government’s artificially over-heating economies with quantitative easing rising energy and commodity prices and exacerbated by the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.…

  • 80 year old woman dies after falling from the seventh floor of a hospital | Thaiger

    80 year old woman dies after falling from the seventh floor of a hospital

    In Nakhon Si Thammarat, southern Thailand, an 80 year old woman has died after falling from her room on the seventh floor of a hospital where she was being treated for Covid-19. She was taken to the emergency room but it was too late. The incident happened at the Maharat Nakhon Si Thammarat Hospital in Nakhon Si Thammarat last Monday.…

  • BKFC Thailand 2: ‘Iconic Impact’ set for May 7th | Thaiger

    BKFC Thailand 2: ‘Iconic Impact’ set for May 7th

    Press Release The world’s fastest-growing & most devastating combat sport, Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC) Thailand is BACK!! Tickets are on sale NOW!! Set to return for its second and even more epic event on Saturday, May 7th, 2022, live from the Pattaya Exhibition And Convention Hall (PEACH) at the world-renowned and multi-award-winning Royal Cliff Hotel. The event will go live at 6:00 PM…

  • Bangkok gets the Sht Holiday treatment (their spelling, not ours) | Thaiger

    Bangkok gets the Sht Holiday treatment (their spelling, not ours)

    Sht holidays has blessed us with their withering review of the Thai capital. Some may wonder where exactly they visited when they cobbled together this unpleasant collection of Bangkok sex-tourism clichés. The Sht Holidays Facebook page only has 41,763 followers but does the same for tourism around the world as Rotten Tomatoes does for film-reviews. Clearly rather cynical ‘Aussie’ humour,…

  • Thai rapper ‘Elevenfinger’ suspected of bombing PM Prayut’s residence | Thaiger

    Thai rapper ‘Elevenfinger’ suspected of bombing PM Prayut’s residence

    A political rapper known as “Elevenfinger” has become the main suspect in the bombing that happened at Prime Minister of Thailand Prayut Chan-o-cha’s residence on Sunday. The rapper was pictured with the group of motorcyclists who approached the gates of the PM’s residence and threw a bomb, which exploded on the lawn opposite the house. The rapper was arrested today…

  • Deputy PM’s illegal Songkran banners removed by highway officers on ‘Road to Isaan’ | Thaiger

    Deputy PM’s illegal Songkran banners removed by highway officers on ‘Road to Isaan’

    Thailand highway officers in the central province of Saraburi have been busy removing Songkran holiday banners from Deputy PM Prawit Wongsuwan on Tuesday. The officers said the banners, adorned with the smiley face of the 76 year old Deputy PM and party powerbroker, were not approved to be installed along the roadside and might annoy drivers and cause accidents. Aside…

  • 26 killed in 200 plus vehicle accidents on Day 1 of Songkran’s ‘7 Deadly Days’ | Thaiger

    26 killed in 200 plus vehicle accidents on Day 1 of Songkran’s ‘7 Deadly Days’

    On Monday — the first day of the “Seven Deadly Days of the Songkran” — there were 237 vehicle accidents, killing 26 people and injuring 238 others. Speeding is the biggest problem so far. Thailand’s road-safety campaign spans the week of the Thai New Year, from April 11 to 17, during which vehicle accidents are notoriously common. The government has…

  • 5 Thailand expressways waive tolls for motorists during Songkran holiday | Thaiger

    5 Thailand expressways waive tolls for motorists during Songkran holiday

    Five expressways in Thailand will waive their tolls during the Songkran holiday, in order to encourage domestic tourism by helping people save money and speed up travel times back to their home provinces. From April 12 to April 18, the Bang Na-Chon Buri and Bang Phli-Suksawat expressways will be free of charge. The Chalerm Maha Nakhon, Si Rat and Udon…

  • Floods cause mass buffalo starvation at Thale Noi park in southern Thailand | Thaiger

    Floods cause mass buffalo starvation at Thale Noi park in southern Thailand

    More than 200 dead water buffaloes have been found floating today at the Thale Noi Waterfowl Park in the southern Thai province of Pattalung. Prolonged flooding in the region had destroyed the grasses that the buffalo rely on for food. Without it, they starved to death. Local authorities quickly rescued another 300 buffaloes, giving them dry grass and supplementary food…

  • Nok Air requests operational fee waivers to help restart Betong flights | Thaiger

    Nok Air requests operational fee waivers to help restart Betong flights

    I just need a little help from my friends. That’s the song Thailand budget airline Nok Air is singing, as it calls for additional support to cover its operational costs, in order to continue servicing its Betong and Nakhom Ratchasima flights. The news comes just days after the beleaguered airline signed a memorandum of understanding with local tourism agencies to…

  • Thailand predicts a million passengers to catch flights during Songkran festival | Thaiger

    Thailand predicts a million passengers to catch flights during Songkran festival

    Airports of Thailand, or AoT, expects about a million air travellers to transit through its 6 airports during Songkran this week. The estimate includes both international and domestic passengers who will catch flights to, from and around Thailand. Since the government scrapped the pre-travel PCR test requirement on April 1, the AoT says that’s the reason the number of travellers entering…

  • UPDATE: Bangkok airport claims Test & Go crowding was temporary, problem already fixed | Thaiger

    UPDATE: Bangkok airport claims Test & Go crowding was temporary, problem already fixed

    Suvarnabhumi International Airport has responded to the complaint from a Thai YouTuber about the seemingly chaotic crowds of international travellers arriving under the Test & Go entry scheme on Sunday. He said that people coming into the arrivals hall didn’t know where to go, couldn’t find their hotel transport, the awaiting hotel shuttles were randomly crowded behind barriers and it…

  • You can grow ‘as many cannabis plants as you like’ in Thai homes from June 9, but… | Thaiger

    You can grow ‘as many cannabis plants as you like’ in Thai homes from June 9, but…

    People in Thailand will be allowed to grow “as many cannabis plants” as they like in their own homes from June 9, according to Thailand’s health minister and medical marijuana pioneer Anutin Charnvirakul. However… if you don’t read the fine print you can still get into trouble with the law. As usual, the fine print is confusing. Bottomline, don’t be…

  • Opposition leader Thanathorn indicted for lèse majesté, says he’s political target | Thaiger

    Opposition leader Thanathorn indicted for lèse majesté, says he’s political target

    Public prosecutors in Thailand have indicted Progressive Movement leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit on a lèse majesté charge and for violating the Computer Crime Act on Monday. The charges centre on remarks he made during a livestream talk he gave last year, in which he discussed the government’s procurement of the AstraZeneca vaccine, and allegedly casting indirect suspicion on His Majesty the…

  • Chiang Mai elephant camp invites tourists to visit for free this Songkran | Thaiger

    Chiang Mai elephant camp invites tourists to visit for free this Songkran

    If you can’t splash each other this Songkran, splash an elephant instead — in Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai’s Maesa Elephant Camp invites tourists to splash in the water with elephants during the Songkran holidays, which will be celebrated this week from April 13 – 16. The camp is open from 9am – 3pm every day and admission is free. After…

  • Songkran travellers can enjoy FREE parking at Suvarnabhumi airport from April 11-17 | Thaiger

    Songkran travellers can enjoy FREE parking at Suvarnabhumi airport from April 11-17

    There’s good news for those flying out of Bangkok during the Thai New Year. You can now park your car at Suvarnabhumi Airport Zone C for FREE during the entire Songkran period, as the parking fees are being scrapped from April 11 to April 17. Zone C is zoned for long term parking and has 700 parking spaces. Airport authorities…

  • Thailand police seize huge quantities of illicit drugs from 120,000+ suspects in 6 months | Thaiger

    Thailand police seize huge quantities of illicit drugs from 120,000+ suspects in 6 months

    Thailand’s drug busts have continued hauling in billions of baht in confiscated assets for this fiscal year, while arrests of “drug suspects” — though still in the six-digits range — have reduced roughly 40 percent. That’s the gist of a report from the deputy national police chief, Roy Inkhapairoj, who presented the figures at a press briefing on Sunday, after…

  • Bomb thrown at PM Prayut’s house, protesters burn coffin decorated with his image | Thaiger

    Bomb thrown at PM Prayut’s house, protesters burn coffin decorated with his image

    Yesterday, a teenager threw a “ping pong” bomb at Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha’s house. On the same day, a mob of “Red Shirt” protesters took to the streets of Bangkok to burn a coffin adorned with pictures of PM Prayut’s face. Yesterday’s protests were to commemorate the 12th anniversary of the 2010 Red Shirt protests, where 90 people died…

  • Thai YouTuber complains about Test & Go: ‘Foreigners won’t come back if facing this…’ | Thaiger

    Thai YouTuber complains about Test & Go: ‘Foreigners won’t come back if facing this…’

    After reportedly seeing crowds of tourists left waiting for hotels at Suvarnabhumi International Airport, a Thai YouTuber has voiced his discontent about Thailand’s unpopular Test & Go entry scheme. He said the system was a mess, with hotel staff having to shout to finding their guests, while tourists searched for the logos of their hotels, “as if they were playing…

  • Russian tourism staff claims interest in Thailand travel has spiked for Russians | Thaiger

    Russian tourism staff claims interest in Thailand travel has spiked for Russians

    More Russians are reportedly interested in venturing down to Thailand. After Russia announced earlier this week it would lift Covid-19 restrictions on flights to 52 countries, starting April 9, some Russian tourism staff claim there was a massive increase in Thailand search inquiries by Russians. Searches for tickets to Thailand reportedly went up by 20%, according to one popular vacation…

  • Unsafe levels of smog and smoke blanket Bangkok – VIDEO | Thaiger

    Unsafe levels of smog and smoke blanket Bangkok – VIDEO

    Unsafe levels of PM2.5 ‘particulate’ cloud Bangkok and surrounding areas today. Phasi Charoen district, on the western side of the Chao Phraya, is the worst affected area, while other dangerous areas include: Phutthamonthon 1 Road in Taling Chan district, Lat Krabang Road in Lat Krabang district, Hirunrujee Road in Thon Buri district, and Charoen Nakhon Road in Khlong San district.…