Bangkok News

Bangkok news, politics, business, crime, and nightlife—stay updated with breaking stories, events, and expat updates from Thailand’s capital. Get the latest from The Thaiger, your trusted Bangkok news source.

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  • Two foreigners arrested over cannabis oil raid in BKK

    Two foreigners arrested over cannabis oil raid in BKK

    PHOTO: The Nation A Canadian, a Brit and two Thais were arrested last week following a drug raid in Bangkok. 67 year old David Kulik from Canada was arrested last Monday in Chon Buri alongside 64 year old Brit, Joseph Toole. The Thai Narcotics Suppression Division raided the warehouse in the Bang Phli area of Samut Prakan, south of Bangkok,…

  • Nude couple pictured on top of Egyptian pyramid sparks investigation

    Nude couple pictured on top of Egyptian pyramid sparks investigation

    “Climbing pyramids is illegal in Egypt, with critics saying the incident shows a disregard for the nation’s laws and its conservative society.” The question of tourists and their behavior at national monuments and popular sites comes up again today. This time in Egypt… Read the report HERE. “A video that shows a foreign couple in a naked embrace at the…

  • King leads the way in ‘Bike for Love and Warmth’ – PHOTOS

    King leads the way in ‘Bike for Love and Warmth’ – PHOTOS

    Yesterday’s Bike Un Ai Rak event proved again that Thai’s love getting onto their bikes and joining in a royally-sponsored cycling campaign. The event was held yesterday, in the capital and provinces. Hundreds of thousands of people across the country took part in the “love and warmth” cycle rides. The main event was held in Bangkok where the ride was…

  • The wheels are rolling for today’s Bike Un Ai Rak around Thailand

    The wheels are rolling for today’s Bike Un Ai Rak around Thailand

    Cyclists were enthusiastically preparing on Sunday morning for the “Bike for Love and Warmth” ride to be led in Bangkok by His Majesty the King and coinciding with other rides starting simultaneously around the country in the afternoon. Citizens are expected to line the King’s 39km route from Dusit Palace’s Royal Plaza to Lat Pho Park in Samut Prakan. The…

  • “Kayaking for Chao Phraya” – anti river-dumping campaign

    “Kayaking for Chao Phraya” – anti river-dumping campaign

    by Kornrawee Panyasuppakun The vice rector of Thammasat University, Prinya Thaewanarumitkul, will lead other kayakers on a 400 kilometre long “Kayaking for Chao Phraya” campaign to collect trash and urge people to stop dumping their garbage in the river. The kayakers start their 14 day journey on December 10 from the point where Thailand’s major river flows. They will kayak…

  • Free Wi-Fi available at 30 BTS stations in Bangkok

    Free Wi-Fi available at 30 BTS stations in Bangkok

    Alt Telecom has launched its free Wi-Fi service in 30 BTS stations and secured the management rights to all commercial areas on Bangkok’s skytrain stations. Future plans involve providing free Wi-Fi to all BTS stations in the capital. This follows on Alt Telecom’s new concession agreement with Spotwerks (Thailand), who are currently in charge of service delivery and income generation…

  • Car driver gets slammed online for blocking ambulance

    Car driver gets slammed online for blocking ambulance

    Netizens are sharing their displeasure after video of a white car blocking an ambulance with its siren blaring has attracted attention. The video attracted 7,000 comments and 25,000 shares. A woman even gets out of the ambulance to plead with the driver to move but the driver of the white sedan refuses to budge. Eventually it moves slightly to allow the…

  • Huge fire in Bangkok guts recycling plant

    Huge fire in Bangkok guts recycling plant

    Residents from a next door four-storey apartment building have been evacuated as a result of a huge recycling factory fire in Bangkok. No one was injured in the major blaze which took fire-fighters more than three hours to get under control. Damage, including to several rooms in the apartment building, has been valued at more than 20 million baht. Pol…

  • Five dead and five injured from two families in head-on collision

    Five dead and five injured from two families in head-on collision

    PHOTO: The Nation A tragedy for several Chachoensao families last night ager a collision killed five. Chachoensao is just east of Bangkok. Five people were killed and another five critically injured after the pick-up truck of a family returning from a shopping trip collided head-on with an another pick-up truck just one kilometre before reaching the family’s home. Police and rescue…

  • School van driver accused of raping two schoolgirls

    School van driver accused of raping two schoolgirls

    A 29 year old school van driver, accused of raping two schoolgirls aged 12 and 14, has appeared at Bangkok’s Thon Buri Court as police apply for a detention order. Suspect Natthawut Chamroen, who was arrested in Thung Kru district this week, is denying charges of “taking away” girls under 15 from their parents for a lewd act, molesting and…

  • DSI calls for dissolution of foundation funding Dhammakaya cult

    DSI calls for dissolution of foundation funding Dhammakaya cult

    “The foundation operates as a quasi-Buddhist cult and commands adherents to its teachings from around the world.” The Department of Special Investigation (DSI) is calling on public prosecutors to request the courts to dissolve the Khun Yay Maha Ratana Upasika Chandra Khonnokyoong Foundation. The Foundation was implicated in the Klongchan Credit Union Cooperative (KCUC) embezzlement case. The DSI say they…

  • Walking on air. 314 metres above Bangkok.

    Walking on air. 314 metres above Bangkok.

    PHOTO: The Nation King Power International Group has opened what is being marketed as the world’s biggest glass-bottomed skywalk. The new tourist (and local) attraction is on the rooftop of the 78 storey Mahanakhon building on Narathiwat Road in Bangkok’s Bang Rak district. Mahanokon is Thailand’s tallest building at 314 metres. The glass skywalk has 360 degree panoramic view, vertically…

  • Minister raises ethical concerns of private schools listing on the SET

    Minister raises ethical concerns of private schools listing on the SET

    PHOTO: Singapore International School of Bangkok Trading in the shares of SISB Company Limited, the manager of the Singapore International School, begins today in the SET’s (Stock Exchange of Thailand) Market for Alternative Investment. The Education Minister Teerakiat Jareonsettasin says that although the move does not violate the Private School Act 2007, there was a question of ethics. The Minister has assigned…

  • Growing support for Royal bicycle tour

    Growing support for Royal bicycle tour

    by Prasert Thepsri His Majesty the King had his secretary, Air Chief Marshal Sathitpong Sukwimol, formally presented royally decorated shirts to be distributed among participants in the “Un Ai Rak: Bike for Love and Warmth” bicycle tour that the King will lead on December 9. The Supreme Commander of the Royal Thai Armed Forces and the governors of 76 provinces…

  • Wild elephants kill official in Chachoengsao

    Wild elephants kill official in Chachoengsao

    FILE PHOTO A wildlife official in Chachoengsao, east of Bangkok, has been found dead after being kicked and dragged by wild elephants. Officials at the Khao Ang Rue Nai Wildlife Sanctuary in Sanam Chai Khet district revealed that one of their colleagues was found dead at 6am yesterday morning. The victim, 46 year old Manop Karasuk, was on the Monday…

  • Monks behaving badly, ending up in hospital

    Monks behaving badly, ending up in hospital

    Two monks have become embroiled in a drunken brawl north of Bangkok last night. The two were injured in a skuffle and knife fight after they drank together at their temple in Ang Thong’s Pa Mok district. Local police were called to Wat Amphawan at 11pm. When police arrived they found 52 year old Phra Wannop Roengjai soaked in blood.…

  • Young man drowns searching for coins in krathong floats

    Young man drowns searching for coins in krathong floats

    FILE PHOTO A young man has drowned in a canal in Samut Sakhon’s central district early this morning (Friday) while searching for coins in krathong floats left after being launched last night. Police were informed around 1.30 am that the young man had gone missing in the Thahan Rua canal in front of Samut Sakhon provincial hall. A team of…

  • Airbnb launches ‘Airbnb Plus’ in Bangkok and Phuket

    Airbnb launches ‘Airbnb Plus’ in Bangkok and Phuket

    Airbnb, the community-driven travel platform, welcomes its next stage of growth in Thailand with the launch of Airbnb Plus in Bangkok. Come December, Airbnb Plus will also be available for bookings in Phuket, Asia’s number one resort destination. Airbnb Plus is a selection of homes of the highest quality offered by hosts with great reviews and attention to detail. As…

  • Uncertainty in Bangkok’s residential property market – CBRE

    Uncertainty in Bangkok’s residential property market – CBRE

    CBRE, an international property consultancy company, is reporting ‘looming uncertainty’ in the Bangkok residential property market. Although developers have recently increased their launches of condominiums, sales to Thai buyers have slowed in some locations and are likely to slow further with the coming imposition of tighter mortgage lending. Some developers are trying to find locations where there is real demand from…

  • Walk on the wild side – the new Mahanakhon SkyWalk

    Walk on the wild side – the new Mahanakhon SkyWalk

    YIKES! Is there anything more terrifying than a ride in a border visa-run passenger van? We think we’ve found it. The Mahanakhon SkyWalk – Thailand’s highest observation deck and rooftop bar at 314 metres high – offers spectacular panoramic views of Bangkok from Thailand’s tallest building. But that’s not the really scary bit. The new premium attraction, now open to…

  • Bangkok all ready for tonight’s Loy Krathong

    Bangkok all ready for tonight’s Loy Krathong

    Yesterday, Governor Aswin Kwanmuang checked nine piers along the Chao Phraya river, from Tha Chang to Rama VIII Bridge in Bangkok’s Bang Plat district. to ensure the safety of revellers for today’s Loy Krathong festivities. People traditionally release flower-decorated floats in the country’s waterways on the day to pay homage to the River Goddess. “All piers have been checked for…

  • New Suvarnabhumi airport terminal on hold

    New Suvarnabhumi airport terminal on hold

    The AoT (Airports of Thailand) has put the new second terminal plans on hold awaiting reports and opinions from stakeholders and even the International Civil Aviation Organisation. Two key organisations have been fierce critics of the new terminal, well overdue to help take the load off the already-over-capacity main terminal at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok. The Architects Council of Thailand…

  • Three arrested over copycat killings over school rivalry

    Three arrested over copycat killings over school rivalry

    “The three suspects were arrested on Monday for premeditated murder.” A technical-school student, accused of shooting dead a young man from a rival school on October 12, says they were retaliating for the killing of a former student from their school. Police say one of the three arrested suspects told them his gang from Pathumwan Institute of Technology was avenging…

  • “Round up the BKK soi dogs and send them up-country” – Soi Dog Foundation responds

    “Round up the BKK soi dogs and send them up-country” – Soi Dog Foundation responds

    The scheme to control stray dogs recently announced in Bangkok is inappropriate and unlikely to be effective, according to Soi Dog Foundation (SDF). The Thapthan shelter in Uthai Thani, where it is proposed that captured dogs will be impounded, is one of the best shelters in the country, but it is already at or near capacity. The former Bangkok Governor and…

  • Weakness in the BKK condo market

    Weakness in the BKK condo market

    PHOTO: Nara 9 – www.nara9.net Property consultants, Edmund Tie & Company – South East Asia – report that the new condo supply for 2019 is ‘unlikely to increase’ and that sales rates are disappointing in Q3. Their report says that the take-up rate of newly launched condominium projects in Q3 in Bangkok’s CBD dropped from last year’s 58% to only…

  • Don’t complain about the oranges. Market customer shot after complaint.

    Don’t complain about the oranges. Market customer shot after complaint.

    A Pathum Thani fruit vendor has been arrested today shortly after she allegedly shot and killed a customer who complained of “rotten oranges” at her market store, just north of Bangkok. Klong Luang police were alerted to the shooting at 8am inside the Iyara Market in Pathum Thani’s Klong Luang district. Police say 30 year old Saranya Saksaeng was shot…

  • 542 foreigners bailed up for deportation in latest crackdown

    542 foreigners bailed up for deportation in latest crackdown

    PHOTO: The Nation Another 542 foreigners have been rounded-up for deportation after raids, mostly in and around Bangkok. Police searched 262 locations around the country. Most of the illegal foreigners had been living in Thailand illegally and or committed alleged crimes. Pol Col Nithithorn Jintakanon, the acting traffic police chief, held a press conference at 2.30am this morning to announce…

  • 27 year old African arrested over romance scams

    27 year old African arrested over romance scams

    FILE PHOTO by Suriya Patathayo “The scam would usually involve using bogus white male identities to persuade women to wire money to pay an import tariff and fee for the delivery of overseas “gifts”. Romance scams are continually in the news and the government has been putting resources into rounding up the perpetrators and departing them, many from west African…

  • 13 year old muay thai boxer’s mother mourns the loss of her son

    13 year old muay thai boxer’s mother mourns the loss of her son

    Nirand Thasako, the mother of the 13 year old Muay Thai boxer who died on Monday following a knock out blow to the head on a Saturday match, has mourned the loss of her son. Nirand, who now lives in South Korea, made a video call to her Thai family expressing her deep grief over the death of her son,…

  • BMA says it’s time to sort out Bangkok’s soi dogs

    BMA says it’s time to sort out Bangkok’s soi dogs

    Bangkok’s governor says the time is up for the capital’s stray dogs. He says ‘enough is enough’ and that too many people are being bitten and harassed. Measures adopted by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration have so far proved insufficient and new plans are now being made to address the ongoing problem of stray dogs. The sight of soi dogs has…