Thailand News
Discover the most recent and relevant news from across Thailand on The Thaiger’s National News page. Covering a wide range of topics, including politics, business, crime, and lifestyle, our dedicated team brings you breaking news, in-depth analysis, and exclusive stories from Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Pattaya, and beyond.
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18 wheels of karma
A would-be car thief was given a crushing dose of justice on the motorway between Bangkok and Pattaya, after his bid to rip off a taxi driver’s vehicle ended with him being flattened by an 18-wheel truck. Taxi driver Nirit Luangjan, 40, picked up a passenger in Bangkok one day early last month, driving the fare all the way to…
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Mystery of the missing robbers
A young Irishman who was treated for a head injury at Patong Hospital told police he was attacked and robbed while entering his hotel room. However, Police discounted his version of events – saying he was probably too drunk to remember what actually happened. Pol Lt Col Boonlert Onklang of the Kathu Police identified the self-proclaimed “victim” as an Irishman…
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Exposed to danger
PATONG: Different people held different reactions to the coup d’état that stunned the world – and, to a lesser degree, the nation – on the evening of September 19, 2006. But for some people, including many foreign tourists enjoying the nightlife in Patong, all the excitement was just another excuse to get sloppy drunk, go out and have a grope,…
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Transgender trauma
While some tourists jet in from around the globe specifically to enjoy the androgynous charms of Patong’s legion of ladyboy prostitutes, there are still cases cases where off-guard male tourists end up with a ladyboy under the misunderstanding that he is a real woman. Such misunderstandings can – and often do – result in disaster, as two recent reports in…
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Home security of the second kind
PATTAYA: A group of five ladyboys took home security into their own hands in the early hours of August 25, beating senseless a drunken teenage punk who broke into their apartment and stole 2,000 baht from their communal piggy bank. The story, reported by Banglamung Police Inspector Pol Lt Col Sutham Chaosrithong, made national news the next morning. The five…
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Mini biker gang
Three boys are now safely back at home after a four-day bicycle adventure across Roi-Et Province. The mini-biker gang set off from the home of gang leader Tawee Senputtawong, 13, in the Kasetwisai District of the province with the aim of visiting his sister who is incarcerated on theft charges in a Juvenile Observation and Protection Center in Roi-Et Town.…
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Boyfriend banzaied
The Japanese have spent the past 60 years promoting a message of peace in the world. Unfortunately for one young Thai man, traces of the Samurai warrior ethic can still be found among the legions of salarymen toiling away in offices in Bangkok. In the early hours of August 17, Pol Lt Kiatsak Kasikun, the duty officer at Khlong Tan…
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Engaging in commerce
After expelling a female student for “intolerable” behavior, school teachers at a commercial school in Nakhon Sri Thammarat are living in fear for their lives following the girl’s return accompanied by a gang of young thugs, who smashed windows and threatened to kill every teacher in the school. The contretemps started when one of the teachers overheard a girl student…
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Major embarrassment
A Senior Sergeant Major from the Border Patrol Police received a lesson in how victims of crime feel after an encounter with three attractive young women in Thung Song, Nakhon Sri Thammarat province. Officers from Thung Song Police Station were called to the JS Hotel. There, waiting for them wearing full dress uniform and a sorrowful expression, was Sgt Maj…
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Progress for pilgrims
CHIANG MAI: Chiang Mai’s famous Phrasingha Temple has unveiled its new 1.6- million-baht public bathroom, which the temple clergy hope will claim this year’s coveted “Toilet of the Year” award. Monks at the temple, which receives hundreds of Thai and foreign tourists a day and as many as 3,000 on Buddhist holidays, saw the need for improvements to its restroom…
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Unleaded, please
A determined thief learned the hard way that toy guns are not very effective in carrying out armed robberies, especially when the intended victim is packing real heat. At 12:15 am on July 11, Pol Lt Col Prayong Khotsakha, an Inspector with Udon Thani’s Muang District Police, received a report of an attempted robbery at a small gas station in…
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Build it and they will come
PHITSANULOKE: Found in all civilized parts of the world, the short-time hotel reaches its apotheosis in Bangkok, where places that have parking spaces with curtains have hosted innumerable trysts while successfully keeping their clients out of the view of prying eyes and potential blackmailers. Unfortunately, short-time hotels are not evenly distributed around Thailand and, where they can be found, they…
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A shagging dog story from Phattalung
PHATTALUNG: Wat Na Tom temple, hitherto a landmark of the faithful in Phattalung’s Muang District, last week spawned one of those scandals which, after hitting newsstands, has elicited sighs and perhaps uncharitable tittering. In this case, possibility of the latter is high: some 70 full-color photos support allegations by unidentified local people that the abbot of Wat Na Tom not…
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Leeches on patrol
A dose of tough natural justice was handed out recently by the denizens of a local swamp to a young ne’er-do-well from Ranong who was caught riding a stolen motorcycle. The 16-year-old youth was taking his girlfriend for a ride around Chalong Circle when officers directing traffic decided there was something a little suspicious in his bearing and signalled him…
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Bag snatcher bagged
CHALONG: A 16-year-old punk recently found out the hard way that crime does not always pay. At about 11 pm on June 7, Chalong Community Volunteer Police collared a boy name Ouan (not his real name), after an unsuccessful attempt to rob an 18-year-old girl late at night. The victim, Phuket Vocational College student Primrita Saisen, was returning home by…
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Persian Gulp in Pattaya
PATTAYA: A tourist found out the hard way that not every woman in Pattaya likes to be groped, and that getting mixed up between grope-me-do and touch-me-not can be an expensive experience. At 3 am on May 28, Pattaya Tourist Police Sub-Inspector Pol Cap Jirawat Sukonthasup received a call from Sukanya Pakdeerattanamitr, 22, of Tambon Nong Preu, Banglamung District. Complaining…
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Er, what’s my name today?
In some places a person who frequently changes his or her name might fall under suspicion of illegal activity. But in Ubon Ratchathani Province’s Phibun Mungsaharn District it is the pillars of society – school teachers and other career bureaucrats – who change their names most often. Teachers in the district have been heading for the local registrar’s office in…
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Errant abbot
An abbot in Lampang was nabbed by a group of villagers while he was sneaking back into the wat at 4:30 am after a tryst with his paramour, a local widow. The 50-strong mob confronted the 43-year-old abbot, who was described as being “a bit on the chubby side”, and his 49-year-old paramour as she was dropping him back at…
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Sneaky thief
BANGKOK: After waking up to find that their house had been broken into, a high-society couple in Bangkok were left more than a little confused when they discovered that the thief had ignored a selection of diamond and gold jewelry – instead making off with more than 20 pairs of shoes. The crime scene, an elegant European-style house that had…
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Meechai takes care of his dad
SONGKHLA: Acquaintances of 45-year-old Meechai say he has a history of mental confusion that requires occasional incarceration and treatment; and indeed, as events proved in the early hours of April 16, he has difficulty sorting out questions of right and wrong. Nonetheless, all things considered, his heart seems to be in the right place. Meechai had gone with his aged…
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Double your pleasure
Wichai Hengjarernsook is in the junk business, and so not a man to overlook a bargain when he sees it. The 24-year-old native of Samut Sakhon’s Baan Paew District, where women are far-famed for beauty, couldn’t decide which of two identical twin sisters in his village he wanted to wed. So, being an astute businessman, he popped the question to…
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His wife’s a real bitch
Disappointment famously prompts extreme measures in victims. Disappointed of proper stage effects for his fiddling, Nero burned Rome; of artistic ambitions, Van Gogh cut off his ear; and of the American colonies, George III went mad. In Lampang Province, a 39-year-old man disappointed with women fell in love with a real bitch, – a two-year-old poodle named Olé – and…
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Death of drinker
CHALONG: Probably the last thing Surasak Tayan expected as he sat drinking cola late one night outside a PTT filling station’s 7-Eleven convenience store was that his modest attempt at humorous self-deprecation would be the death of him. But it was. K. Surasak was frustrated because, at 3:30 am, he couldn’t buy a decent drink. Unfortunately, in expressing his disgust…
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Rescuers need rescuing
THALANG: Three Kusoldham Rescue Foundation workers had to call in rescuers themselves at about 3 am on March 10, after being assaulted by a group of more than 20 girls and ladyboys at the PTT filling station in Baan Lipon, Tambon Srisoonthorn. Chaiya Pariensati said he and two other rescue workers were on duty when they noticed a young woman…
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Money no object for party guy
THALANG: Police arrested a young drunk who ordered a feast of food and drinks at a sing-song joint in Tambon Srisoonthorn and then couldn’t pay the bill. Upon questioning, the man admitted to police that he had done this before. Forty-five times. News of the penniless party guy reached Thalang Police at about 1:30 am on February 27, when a…
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Crack of doom
PATHUM THANI: Readers living in Thailand may occasionally experience the frustration of having to deal with a sudden infestation of red ants, roaches, or termites. What can be more annoying than discovering that savory breast of barbecued chicken you left on the table moments ago is swarming with feisty red ants? Discovering your house swarming with glistening, newly hatched cobras,…
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Growing pains in the B30 medical scheme
PRACHIN BURI: Admirers of the government’s 30-baht medical scheme may wish to consider, after reading the following, whether reform is necessary. Prachinburi resident Chaluay Pantam, 37, has watched with increasing alarm over the last two years as a ping pong ball-sized lump on his right shoulder grew into a Quasimodo-like hump “weighing more than 20 kilograms.” In the meantime, the…
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Miss Chicky gets herself fingered
PATONG: It is well-known that women, in general, spend more money than men in the effort to keep themselves attractive. But for men trying to pass themselves off as women, expenses are greater still. In the case of one Thai post-op ladyboy, the costs of ongoing upkeep proved so great that he turned to a life of crime. At 10…
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Bungled burglary boys
CHON BURI: After arresting three teenagers for passing a counterfeit 1,000-baht note, Pattaya Police were stunned to learn that two of them had just stolen it from a nearby bank. After a tipoff by a vendor at the To Rung Mae Wilai Market, police arrested two homeless boys, 15-year-old “A” and 14-year-old “B” [real names withheld because they are minors],…
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Triple play
KOH CHANG: The guests, it has to be said, were taken aback by the wedding invitation card, which announced the nuptials of bridegroom Yeuifa Meelaap and two brides: Vassana Uysap and Jenny Saibua. A wedding for a threesome was unusual, and all the more so when one realizes that the groom was also a woman. Talking to reporters, the trio…
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