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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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    Moving to Thailand? Here are the health documents you should prepare before you go

    The Thaiger key takeaways Valid passport, visa documents, health certificate, and vaccination records are essential for immigration and medical care in Thailand. Health insurance that meets visa requirements, like Cigna, provides protection, direct billing, and access to a wide hospital...

  • An exotic animal café in Bangkok – Foxes, racoons, kangaroos and more! | VIDEO | Thaiger

    An exotic animal café in Bangkok – Foxes, racoons, kangaroos and more! | VIDEO

    Here is an animal café in Bangkok that animal lovers, dogs and cats and a whole lot more, don’t want to miss. There are all the usual naughty and playful animals, our fluffy loyal domestic dog and cat companions, but there’s also raccoons, a Fennec fox, Arctic fox, meerkats, an Australian wallaby, squirrels, dogs, cats, and more. The Little Zoo…

  • Thailand to reduce quarantine to 7 days, meeting to confirm next Monday | VIDEO | Thaiger

    Thailand to reduce quarantine to 7 days, meeting to confirm next Monday | VIDEO

    ASQ, changes for people arriving in Thailand. After 12 months of forcing foreign travellers into a 14 day mandatory stay in a hotel, at their expense, as part of the Alternative State Quarantine program… better know as the ASQ… the Thai government have slightly relented in a revised ASQ. The updated quarantine is a response to immense pressure from the…

  • Officials mull over new guidelines for this year’s Songkran water festival | Thaiger

    Officials mull over new guidelines for this year’s Songkran water festival

    With Thailand’s massive water festival, Songkran, set to go on next month, officials are now mulling over potential guidelines to help reduce the risk of Covid-19. The culture minister says there is talk of setting up so-called “water play” areas that allow the water fights and splashes with a Covid-19 check-in at the entrance. Pattaya News says face shields, goggles…

  • Woman’s charred remains found near northern Thailand rubber plantation | Thaiger

    Woman’s charred remains found near northern Thailand rubber plantation

    The charred remains of a 19 year old woman was found near a rubber plantation in Phitsanulok, a province in northern Thailand. Police say the woman’s 18 year old boyfriend, a murder suspect, turned himself in. Jularat Kongkaew was reported missing on February 27. She had left her home the previous afternoon with her boyfriend, a Mathayom 6 student (equivalent…

  • Thailand government promotes cannabis as a cash crop at Buriram festival | Thaiger

    Thailand government promotes cannabis as a cash crop at Buriram festival

    Thailand’s government is pushing for cannabis use in all kinds of foods and products, as long as the plant’s psychoactive component, which causes the “high,” isn’t used. Over the weekend, people flocked to the Cannabis 360 festival held by the government in the Isaan province Buriram. Those at the festival could get a cone of hemp soft serve ice cream…

  • Economic think-tank says the future of tourism in Thailand hangs on vaccination | Thaiger

    Economic think-tank says the future of tourism in Thailand hangs on vaccination

    The research division of Thailand’s Kasikorn Bank says everything hangs on vaccination strategies, both here and abroad. Kevalin Wangpichayasuk from the Kasikorn Research Centre says the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines globally will have a significant impact on the recovery of tourism in the Kingdom, with 2 million foreign tourists expected to arrive in the last quarter of the year. However,…

  • Slow return of foreign tourism makes more redundancies inevitable – Airlines Association of Thailand | Thaiger

    Slow return of foreign tourism makes more redundancies inevitable – Airlines Association of Thailand

    The president of the Airlines Association of Thailand says further layoffs in the sector are inevitable, due to the slow return of international tourism. In a Bangkok Post report, Puttipong Prasarttong-Osoth says the sluggish revival of foreign tourism, now not expected until the last quarter of the year, means all carriers continue to face financial hardship. And while there was…

  • Local Thai politician arrested after allegedly firing shots at a pub | Thaiger

    Local Thai politician arrested after allegedly firing shots at a pub

    A local politician allegedly shot 4 people at a pub in Nakhon Phanom. Witnesses told the Bangkok Post that the man started firing shots at throughout the pub because he was drunk and unhappy with the table service. Police arrested 58 year old Paisal Saengnarai, who is a kamnan, the governing official of a tambon or sub district. Witnesses say…

  • Chiang Mai hotels slash prices amid ongoing slump in tourism | Thaiger

    Chiang Mai hotels slash prices amid ongoing slump in tourism

    Hotels in the northern province of Chiang Mai have been forced to cut their rates by up to 90%, in a desperate bid to attract more domestic tourists. According to a Bangkok Post report, La-Iad Bungsrithong, from the northern chapter of the Thai Hotels Association, says with tourists mainly favouring the southern beach destinations this month, hotel operators in the…

  • Pro-democracy activist hit with 6 million baht fine for removal of plants at rally site | Thaiger

    Pro-democracy activist hit with 6 million baht fine for removal of plants at rally site

    Protest leader Panusaya Sithijirawattanakul, aka “Rung”, has been hit with a fine of nearly 6 million baht, after removing plants at Bangkok’s Democracy Monument. Panusaya and 5 other activists have been charged with removing plants placed as decoration around the monument, during a political rally on February 13. She says Samran Rat police station has ordered her to pay 5.9…

  • Thailand’s pro-democracy activists ignore emergency decree warnings over weekend | Thaiger

    Thailand’s pro-democracy activists ignore emergency decree warnings over weekend

    Ignoring a police warning not to violate the emergency decree, pro-democracy activists gathered in their hundreds at Bangkok’s Democracy Monument yesterday. Although the anti-government protests have kicked off again after a 2 month hiatus, the numbers are well down on last years crowds, now measuring more in the hundreds than the thousands. The Bangkok Post reports that members of the…

  • Funeral shooting adds to Thailand’s trend of politically-motivated violence | Thaiger

    Funeral shooting adds to Thailand’s trend of politically-motivated violence

    Last week, a mayoral candidate was shot and killed and 6 others were wounded, including 3 people who were running in local elections and a local kamnan, a government official of a tambon, or sub district. Police say they believe the shooting was politically motivated. Violence related to local politics has been a trend in Thailand over the past few…

  • OPINION – Vaccinating against Covid-19, why wouldn’t you? | Thaiger

    OPINION – Vaccinating against Covid-19, why wouldn’t you?

    by Andrew J. Wood The World Health Organisation not only advises that vaccines save millions of lives each year, but they also reduce transmissions. They and their partners are working together on tracking the pandemic, advising on critical interventions and distributing vital medical supplies to those in need, thereby reducing the number of infected people to transmit the virus. Vaccines…

  • Updates on international travel to Thailand | Thaiger

    Updates on international travel to Thailand

    Thailand to introduce “area quarantine” for international visitors from April From next month, foreign visitors to the Kingdom will be able to experience the delights of “area quarantine”, after the government confirmed the scheme for 5 provinces: Phuket, Krabi, Chiang Mai, Chon Buri and Surat Thani, which includes the popular tourist islands Koh Samui and Koh Pha Ngan. Some of…

  • Freedom House downgrades Thailand to “not free” | Thaiger

    Freedom House downgrades Thailand to “not free”

    US based Freedom House, a democracy advocacy group, has downgraded Thailand from being “partly free” to “not free” in its latest global rankings. The Freedom in the World 2021 report released this week assigned Thailand a total score of 30 out of 100, dropping from 32 out of 100 in the previous survey conducted in 2019. Before, Thailand was deemed…

  • Motorists told to avoid certain areas in Bangkok as protests planned for today | Thaiger

    Motorists told to avoid certain areas in Bangkok as protests planned for today

    Bangkok motorists are being told to avoid areas where protests are planned to take place today. Kasetsart intersection, Lat Phrao intersection, Rachaprasong shopping district’s Central World shopping mall and 11th Infantry Regiment barracks in Bangkhen are the sites where demonstrators are set to infiltrate. The Metropolitan Police Commissioner says he is most concerned about the Lat Phrao intersection, due to…

  • Thailand bans assemblies, protests, mass gatherings citing Covid-19 fears | Thaiger

    Thailand bans assemblies, protests, mass gatherings citing Covid-19 fears

    Thailand’s government has banned assemblies, protests, and mass gatherings citing fears over Covid-19 spreading. The Royal Gazette, Thailand’s official site for publishing new laws and regulations, made the announcement late last night on the heels of another protest scheduled for today. The ban is in place for Bangkok and 5 other provinces including Samut Prakan, Samut Songkhram, Pathum Thani, Nakhon…

  • Thai navy receives PETA award after rescuing cats from sinking ship | Thaiger

    Thai navy receives PETA award after rescuing cats from sinking ship

    The Thai navy is celebrating receiving a PETA award after rescuing a group of cats from a sinking ship that had caught fire in the Andaman sea. The Hero to Animals Award was given to the naval officials by the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals group after Facebook user “Nookool.b” posted photos of the feline rescue mission. The ship’s…

  • Pattaya announces plans to hold Songkran Festival | Thaiger

    Pattaya announces plans to hold Songkran Festival

    The tourist city of Pattaya is planning to hold Thai New Year, or Songkran Festival, this year as long as they receive the “go ahead” from the government. The Pattaya City Mayor, Sonthaya Khunplume, made the announcement today, saying that the water festival will be held with all the traditional activities including those taking place at temples. Songkran is the…

  • Thai anti-government group to reach outskirts of Bangkok after 250 kilometre walk | Thaiger

    Thai anti-government group to reach outskirts of Bangkok after 250 kilometre walk

    A group of pro-democracy protestors, on an almost 250 kilometre walk, are expected to reach the outskirts of Bangkok today. The group has been walking for 17 days, starting from the Thao Suranaree statue in the north east to protest the imprisonment of 9 pro-democracy demonstrators who are being denied bail. The demonstrators imprisoned include 4 protest leaders from Ratsadon.…

  • Pornhub and other sites to remain blocked as they conflict with good morals for upstanding citizens | Thaiger

    Pornhub and other sites to remain blocked as they conflict with good morals for upstanding citizens

    Pornhub and other adult websites are remaining blocked in Thailand as they “conflict with good morals for upstanding citizens.” The Thai Government says the websites encourage poor moral standpoints and can affect youth in a negative manner. Itthipol Khunplume, Acting Minister of Digital Economy and Society and current Minister of Culture said the decision that was made by the previous…

  • Thai Health Minister to chair panel on travel bubbles, vaccine passports | Thaiger

    Thai Health Minister to chair panel on travel bubbles, vaccine passports

    Thailand’s Public Health Minister, Anutin Charnvirakul, will chair a meeting on Monday, in which a vaccine passport scheme and potential travel bubbles will be discussed. Anutin says those who’ve been inoculated against Covid-19 will be issued with a book to confirm their vaccination. It’s hoped this will make international travel easier, as well as boosting the public’s confidence and helping…

  • Houseowner discovers 3,000 year old skeletons on land in Ang Thong province | Thaiger

    Houseowner discovers 3,000 year old skeletons on land in Ang Thong province

    A houseowner in the central province of Ang Thong, has discovered 3 skeletons on his land that are thought to be over 3,000 years old. 54 year old Somkiat Briboon says this most recent discovery isn’t the first, as the first lot of bones was found last year after preparing his 17 rai worth of land, in Sawang Ha District,…

  • Thai Air Asia urges government to re-open the country to foreign tourism | Thaiger

    Thai Air Asia urges government to re-open the country to foreign tourism

    The low-cost carrier, Thai Air Asia, is calling on the government to accelerate the re-opening of the country to international tourism. TAA chief executive Santisuk Klongchaiya says Thailand risks losing its status as a regional hub if the country does not re-open soon in order to re-ignite tourism and airlines. According to a Bangkok Post report, he warns that Thailand…

  • Riot police officer in Bangkok tests positive for Covid-19 | Thaiger

    Riot police officer in Bangkok tests positive for Covid-19

    A riot police officer, who was deployed at the recent pro-democracy protests in Bangkok, has tested positive for Covid-19. His supervisor, chief of Wang Thonglang station Ekapop Tanprayoon, says the officer had visited Samut Sakhon, a coronavirus hotspot. Riot police who worked closely with the infected officer, Somyot Nuamcharoen, are ordered to quarantine. The Wang Thonglang police station and any…

  • “Sealed route” set at Bangkok airport for international transfers | Thaiger

    “Sealed route” set at Bangkok airport for international transfers

    Thailand is now allowing international transits and transfers at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport by using a so-called “sealed route” arranged at the airport to prevent the spread of Covid-19. The Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand has now set guidelines for passengers who have a layover at the Bangkok airport. Passengers will not be allowed to leave Concourse E. A “sealed route”…

  • Thai Airways submits rehabilitation plan | Thaiger

    Thai Airways submits rehabilitation plan

    Thai Airways has submitted a rehabilitation plan in accordance with a Central Bankruptcy Court order after the the receiver’s appointment last September. The airline’s acting president Chansin Treenuchagron says the rehabilitation plans aim to “fully restructure and help the national flag carrier to regain profits”. In a press release, the company revealed its planned recovery is expected to come from…

  • Chiang Mai 3rd most polluted city in world in yesterday’s air quality ratings | Thaiger

    Chiang Mai 3rd most polluted city in world in yesterday’s air quality ratings

    Chiang Mai ranked as the 3rd most polluted city in the world yesterday, according to AirVisual, following Lahor in Pakistan and New Delhi in India. The northern Thai city’s was recorded to have an average PM2.5 dust level higher than 200. All 4 air quality monitoring stations in the municipal area reported the PM as exceeding the safe level, with…

  • Social distancing for Songkran, Thailand’s New Year water festival | Thaiger

    Social distancing for Songkran, Thailand’s New Year water festival

    Thailand’s massive water festival Songkran, celebrating the Thai New Year, got the “okay” as long as the festivities are in line with Covid-19 prevention measures. PM Prayut Chan-o-cha says people need to abide by social distancing rules during the Songkran holiday from April 13 to 15… So make sure your water gun shoots at a long range. For long distance water…

  • First golf quarantine guests complete stay at central Thailand resort | Thaiger

    First golf quarantine guests complete stay at central Thailand resort

    Thailand has hosted the first group of international tourists to carry out a “golf quarantine” stay. 42 golfers (41 from South Korea and 1 from Japan) flew into Thailand on February 19, entering quarantine at the Artitaya Golf Resort in the central province of Nakhon Nayok. Guests following Thailand’s golf quarantine programme are required to remain in their rooms for…