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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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    Top 10 reasons for expats to get a comprehensive health insurance in Thailand

    Moving to Thailand offers a prospect full of excitement and adventure, but in the same vein, if any injuries were to occur (and god forbid it does), the local healthcare system can be confusing at first glance for many expats...

  • 4 suspects in wildlife trade arrested across Thailand | Thaiger

    4 suspects in wildlife trade arrested across Thailand

    Environmental police arrested 4 suspected wildlife traders today in several provinces across Thailand. The Nonthaburi Provincial Court ordered arrest warrants for the group on June 14 on charges of colluding in illegal trading in wildlife and illegal possession of protected wild animals. Officers from Thailand’s Natural Resources and Environmental Crime Suppression searched spots in Bangkok, Pathum Thani, Nonthaburi, Ayutthaya, and…

  • Police arrest 2 Iranian men for scamming people in Thailand | Thaiger

    Police arrest 2 Iranian men for scamming people in Thailand

    Police arrested 2 Iranian nationals today in Chanthaburi province, eastern Thailand. The men allegedly scammed people out of money on at least 2 occasions in Samut Songkhram province, southwest of Bangkok. The men would ask people to exchange banknotes, but then snatch the victim’s money and run off without giving anything in return. The 24 year old man and 32…

  • Eastern Thailand province plans “Fun On The Beach’ event | Thaiger

    Eastern Thailand province plans “Fun On The Beach’ event

    Beach lovers get ready! Thailand’s Eastern province of Rayong will hold its “Fun on the Beach” event next weekend, with 2 Thai bands performing on Leam Charoen Beach. The event will take place from July 1-3, Friday to Sunday. The Tourism Authority of Thailand is planning activities and food trucks at the event, as well as fruit buffets. The Thai…

  • Thailand develops cannabis test kits that detect THC levels in 15 minutes | Thaiger

    Thailand develops cannabis test kits that detect THC levels in 15 minutes

    Thailand took marijuana off its list of narcotics, but extracts with higher than 0.2% tetrahydrocannabinol – the “happy” chemical – are still illegal. The law was designed to discourage the recreational use of cannabis, but no one knew how it could be enforced, until now. Thailand’s Department of Medical Sciences has developed marijuana test kits that detect THC levels in…

  • Thailand’s parliament police petition against new uniforms | Thaiger

    Thailand’s parliament police petition against new uniforms

    Thailand’s parliamentary police aren’t seeing the point of their new uniforms scheduled for next year. The country’s roughly 200 parliamentary police officers are usually issued with 2 sets of uniforms, each costing about 5,000 baht. The budget for new uniforms would altogether require at least 2 million baht. Yesterday, about 60 parliament police officers submitted a petition to House Speaker…

  • Phuket homeowner checks CCTV to find foreign couple canoodling outside house | Thaiger

    Phuket homeowner checks CCTV to find foreign couple canoodling outside house

    A Thai woman away in Germany was lost for words on Tuesday when she checked her Phuket home’s CCTV camera footage to see a foreign couple – a man and woman – having sex in front of her house. Homeowner Waralak Frisch often resides in Germany with her husband, so she installed security cameras to check on the safety of…

  • Thai AirAsia X confident of takeoff after bankruptcy setback | Thaiger

    Thai AirAsia X confident of takeoff after bankruptcy setback

  • Fight between ex-husband and new man attracts 50 police to ER in Chiang Mai | Thaiger

    Fight between ex-husband and new man attracts 50 police to ER in Chiang Mai

    A fight between a woman’s ex-husband and her new man brought chaos to an emergency room at a Chiang Mai hospital last night, so much that 50 officers arrived on the scene to sort things out. The storm began brewing between the men when the woman and her new partner went to her ex’s house to ask him to return…

  • UPDATE: Police arrest fraudulent Japanese restaurant owner at Suvarnabhumi Airport | Thaiger

    UPDATE: Police arrest fraudulent Japanese restaurant owner at Suvarnabhumi Airport

    UPDATE: Police arrest fraudulent Japanese restaurant owner at Suvarnabhumi Airport Today, Thailand’s Central Investigation Bureau arrested the fraudulent owner of Daruma Sushi, a famous Japanese restaurant chain, at Suvarnabhumi Airport. “Metha” returned to Thailand today having fled to Dubai in the UAE on June 16, after he received over 500 complaints from unhappy customers and staff. Police said Metha caused…

  • Thais face death penalty if they take cannabis-related products into Indonesia | Thaiger

    Thais face death penalty if they take cannabis-related products into Indonesia

    The Royal Thai Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, cautioned Thai people against taking cannabis and hemp into Indonesia as they could face the death penalty. The official Facebook page of the Royal Thai Embassy in Jakarta today uploaded a picture with a message saying, “The Royal Thai Embassy in Jakarta would like to warn Thai people not to carry cannabis, hemp,…

  • Expect more wind and rain in most of Thailand | Thaiger

    Expect more wind and rain in most of Thailand

    Don’t forget your umbrella when you leave the house, because Thailand’s wind and rain isn’t going away anytime soon. It is the wet season after all. The country’s meteorological department announced that thundershowers are expected across the country today, with isolated rains and gusty winds too. In Northern Thailand, there will be scattered thundershowers in the Mae Hong Son, Chiang…

  • Sri Lanka petroleum company in extreme debt, country hitting “rock bottom” | Thaiger

    Sri Lanka petroleum company in extreme debt, country hitting “rock bottom”

    Sri Lanka’s economic crisis is snowballing even further. The island nation’s PM Ranil Wickremesinghe said Sri Lanka might be falling to “rock bottom” now that its major petroleum corporation is in extreme debt. He said that because of the debt, no other countries are willing to provide Sri Lanka with fuel. “Currently, the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation is $700 million in…

  • Koh Samui tourist viewpoint to temporarily close following troubling inspection | Thaiger

    Koh Samui tourist viewpoint to temporarily close following troubling inspection

    A tourist attraction in Koh Samui is set to temporarily close after officials inspected the site. Officials from the southern province of Surat Thani discovered yesterday that Overlap Stone viewpoint had been operating without a business operator licence. Furthermore, there was no bridge construction licence for the bridge that connects to the site’s giant rock mass. Now, the viewpoint is…

  • Grab bike ‘taxis’ forced to get commercial licenses in Thailand | Thaiger

    Grab bike ‘taxis’ forced to get commercial licenses in Thailand

    A win for ‘Win’ motorcycle taxi riders today after new rules force Grab riders into the same transportation regulations. Of course, the new rules will probably force up the prices for Grab bikes from next month when the app-based ride-hailing service will have to comply with the same rules governing ‘Win Motocy’ motorcycle taxi riders. The orange-safety-vest-clad Win drivers are…

  • Deputy PM’s confidence misplaced ahead of no-confidence vote | Thaiger

    Deputy PM’s confidence misplaced ahead of no-confidence vote

    Deputy PM Prawit Wongsuwon’s confidence that small political parties will support the government in the upcoming no-confidence debate appears to be misplaced. The 76 year old leader of the ruling Palang Pracharath Party believes the targeted cabinet misters have enough support from small political parties to see off the opposition at the debate planned on July 18 and predicted to…

  • Thailand’s former PM Thaksin compares marijuana to opium | Thaiger

    Thailand’s former PM Thaksin compares marijuana to opium

    Thailand’s former PM Thaksin Shinawatra is the latest to weigh in on the “happy plant.” In a video address to Thais last night, Thaksin compared marijuana to opium, warning that people need “proper science and education.” He said that when opium first came on the scene, it also had many properties that people used it for, however, it was used…

  • Weather wreaks havoc on Pattaya | Thaiger

    Weather wreaks havoc on Pattaya

    Heavy rain, wind, and floods have wreaked havoc on Pattaya yesterday. Areas with serious flooding and damage included South Pattaya, Central Pattaya, Soi Siam Country Club Pattaya, Soi Buakhao, and Pattaya Third Road. Glass panels knocked out by fierce winds fell from buildings onto several cars in Central Pattaya. Meanwhile, several roads including Sukhumvit Road were under water, disrupting traffic.…

  • BEAM me up! App-based electric scooters come to Phuket | Thaiger

    BEAM me up! App-based electric scooters come to Phuket

    by John Magee What costs 200 baht in a taxi but 30 baht on a BEAM? Chances are that you’ve seen these little purple scooters BEAMing around Phuket, particularly in the Laguna area, Patong, and Phuket Town. Indeed, they are appearing in growing numbers not only in Thailand but also, for starters, in Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Turkey, and…

  • Japanese restaurant owner makes slippery getaway | Thaiger

    Japanese restaurant owner makes slippery getaway

    The owner of a popular Japanese buffet restaurant, Daruma Sushi, made a slippery getaway from Thailand last week leaving a trail of chaos behind and complaints from over 500 people. A number of those people had lodged fraudulent complaints against the owner with the police and the consumer protection agency. The owner disappeared a day before he closed all 27…

  • Novices caught smoking cannabis kicked out of Thailand’s monkhood | Thaiger

    Novices caught smoking cannabis kicked out of Thailand’s monkhood

    A group of novice Buddhist monks were kicked out of the monkhood yesterday after they were caught smoking cannabis from a bong at a famous temple in Buriram province in northeast Thailand. The young men – who had been ordained for a total of 4 days – were taking part in a drug addiction programme jointly run by Thailand’s Buddhist…

  • Government launch mental health app to combat depression | Thaiger

    Government launch mental health app to combat depression

    A mental health evaluation app by the Department of Mental Health, and collaborators, has been developed to identify the early signs of depression. The app can be downloaded to your smartphone as part of the Mor Prom application. In Thailand, more than 1.5 million people suffer from depression, with over 4,000 cases of suicide every year. Another 53,000 people have…

  • Jealous policeman murders wife and daughter before committing suicide | Thaiger

    Jealous policeman murders wife and daughter before committing suicide

    A police lieutenant driven by a jealous rage murdered his wife and teenage daughter before committing suicide. Officers from Tung Kru Police Station were called to a resident’s home, in Soi Pracha Uthit 54 in Bangkok, yesterday morning and found the body of 57 year old Pongsakorn Thawekaew and his 39 year old wife, Benjawan Wuttisarn, in one bedroom, and…

  • Why your flights are getting more expensive, not cheaper | Thaiger

    Why your flights are getting more expensive, not cheaper

    There’s a short-term situation and a longer-term evolution that will make your flights more expensive than they were in the past. If we briefly look back at the past 65 years of world aviation, there has been a slow, incremental decrease in passenger seat prices on flights. That was until the start of 2020. For the modern era (despite the…

  • Thai tourism targets half a million Korean visitors by end of the year | Thaiger

    Thai tourism targets half a million Korean visitors by end of the year

    The Tourism Authority of Thailand aims to draw in over 500,000 South Korean travellers in 2022 and hopes to increase that to 1.3 million next year. This comes after the easing of travel restrictions in South Korea and Thailand. In 2019, South Korea was an important market for Thailand, with around 1.9 million visitors bringing in 75 billion baht in…

  • Air Canada launches first direct North America – Thailand flight in 10 years | Thaiger

    Air Canada launches first direct North America – Thailand flight in 10 years

  • Thai police given new power to arrest fine-avoiding motorists | Thaiger

    Thai police given new power to arrest fine-avoiding motorists

    A new regulation has given power to the Royal Thai Police to arrest people who fail to pay their driving penalties on time. Deputy Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Bureau, Pol Maj Gen Jirasan Kaewsaeng-ek, says if motorists do not pay their fines, a warrant for their arrest will be filed. If a motorist receives a ticket, either in person…

  • Thailand No.3 in the global electronic payment hit parade | Thaiger

    Thailand No.3 in the global electronic payment hit parade

    A new study by ACI Worldwide, Global Data, and the Centre for Economics and Business Research, revealed Thailand is in the world’s top 3 nations in terms of electronic payment transactions. Thailand last year recorded 9.7 billion real-time electronic payment transactions, putting it in 3rd position globally after India (48.6 billion times) and China (18.5 billion times). Deputy government spokesperson…

  • Chinese woman dies in road accident in Bangkok | Thaiger

    Chinese woman dies in road accident in Bangkok

    A young Chinese woman was struck and killed while crossing the road in Bangkok in the early hours of this morning. The woman was crossing over the 3 lane road at Ratchavipha intersection on Ratchadapisek Road in Chatuchak district when she was struck by a car at around 00:50am. Police are checking CCTV cameras to confirm the details of the…

  • BMTA bus driver uses umbrella to keep rain out of his cab | Thaiger

    BMTA bus driver uses umbrella to keep rain out of his cab

    A bus driver has embarrassed his bosses at Bangkok Mass Transit Authority by driving his vehicle while holding an umbrella over his head to keep the rain off. The bus driver uploaded the picture of himself on Facebook to show his bosses the old bus he drives desperately requires some much-needed maintenance. Unsurprisingly the post went viral. The picture was…

  • Cathay Pacific plants 999 mangrove trees in Thailand | Thaiger

    Cathay Pacific plants 999 mangrove trees in Thailand

    Hong Kong’s flag carrier Cathay Pacific has planted 999 mangrove trees in the Khlong Khon Mangrove Forest in Samut Songkram, central Thailand as part of its “1 Ticket, 1 Tree” initiative. The airline launched the initiative last year, committing to planting 1 tree for every plane ticket bought in a one-month period. About 50 volunteers, including Cathay Pacific staff and…