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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    Do foreigners get free healthcare in Thailand?

    Thailand’s healthcare system is well-regarded across Southeast Asia, with options ranging from public hospitals to world-class private facilities. But when it comes to foreign residents or tourists, healthcare access isn’t as straightforward. So, do foreigners get free healthcare in Thailand?...

  • EssilorLuxottica announces a 6.3 billion baht fraud at a plant in Thailand

    EssilorLuxottica announces a 6.3 billion baht fraud at a plant in Thailand

    EssilorLuxottica has reported a 213 million US$ (6.3 billion baht) fraud in on of its plants in Thailand. EssilorLuxottica is a French-Italian multinational corporation based in Paris with subsidiaries and manufacturers around the world. Essilor Luxottica, a global designer, manufacturer and distributor of ophthalmic lenses, frames and sunglasses, has announced that its subsidiary Essilor International recently discovered fraudulent fund transfers in one…

  • Late night party blamed for major road incident east of Bangkok

    Late night party blamed for major road incident east of Bangkok

    PHOTOS: Khaosod English Police are still investigating the events that led up to a major traffic incident last Friday. A woman in Samut Prakan, east of central Bangkok, has been seriously injured after crashing her pickup truck into a power pole, causing a series of incidents. The driver, 25 year old Siriprapha Photmoo, remained unconscious in hospital over the weekend. Police…

  • 159 people dead after first three days of Thai holiday campaign

    159 people dead after first three days of Thai holiday campaign

    PHOTO: VOA 159 people have died in the first three days of the Christmas/New Year holiday 7 day safety campaign. During those three days there has been 1,504 crashes resulting in 1,549 injuries. The numbers take into account last Friday up to midnight Sunday night. The capital, Bangkok, has registered the highest death toll and the highest number of drink-driving…

  • Bangkok is in the middle of a battle between the Chao Phraya and Gulf of Thailand

    Bangkok is in the middle of a battle between the Chao Phraya and Gulf of Thailand

    The natural ebb and flow, and the eternal battle between waters flowing down the Chao Phraya and up from the sea, may affect Bangkok’s tap water supply. This year the water flowing down the mighty river may not counter the water trying to flow up towards the capital from the Gulf of Thailand. The slow sinking of Bangkok (the capital…

  • And they’re off! Hundreds of thousands leave Bangkok for New Year break

    And they’re off! Hundreds of thousands leave Bangkok for New Year break

    PHOTO: Eleven Media Group Hundreds of thousands of Bangkok residents have already started heading out of the capital, headed to various Thai provinces to welcome in 2020 in the company of friends and family. The long weekends starts from tonight with many Thais being granted a public holiday on Monday, in addition to the Tuesday and Wednesday public holidays. It…

  • Central “deeply appalled” by Nazi pics at their Christmas display

    Central “deeply appalled” by Nazi pics at their Christmas display

    UPDATE: The family of one of the people in the photo, has contacted The Thaiger and asked us to remove the photo. We have blurred one of the faces to comply with their wish after a discussion on the matter. “Three French hens, Two turtle doves and a pair of Nazi’s in a Bangkok shopping centre”. A cultural collision, a…

  • Solar eclipse today across Thailand. Here’s how to watch it.

    Solar eclipse today across Thailand. Here’s how to watch it.

    CAUTION: Looking at the sun directly and without proper equipment is dangerous and can cause blindness. Read more, along with some guidelines for viewing the solar eclipse, HERE. How it will look in your area below… The skies will darken across Thailand around midday today. The further south you are, the darker it will get as the moon moves over…

  • Chinese phone scam gangs using Thailand to hack into WeChat app

    Chinese phone scam gangs using Thailand to hack into WeChat app

    Police have raided a hotel in the Ratchada district of Bangkok after being tipped off that a group of young Chinese were spending all the time in their rooms. Hotel staff became suspicious after they were calling room service for all their meals, never venturing outside and refusing to allow the housekeeping staff in to clean the rooms. The Economic…

  • Dream Group scales back their Asia hotel expansion plans

    Dream Group scales back their Asia hotel expansion plans

    New York-based Dream Hotel Group’s plans to expand in Asia have turned into somewhat of a nightmare. The Group has closed its regional office in Bangkok shortly after hiring new executives to push forward with expansion earlier this year. A Pattaya ‘Dream’ has also failed to eventuate this year. The push in Asia, which kicked off last year with the establishment…

  • Shock closure of factory outside Bangkok leaves 1,000 workers unemployed

    Shock closure of factory outside Bangkok leaves 1,000 workers unemployed

    PHOTO: pcr.co.th A thousand workers have lost their jobs following the sudden closure of the Pongpara Codan Rubber Company, in Samut Sakhon province, just outside the Thai capital. Thai PBS World reports that employees discovered they were out of a job when they arrived for work at the automotive parts manufacturing company yesterday morning, only to find it closed. They…

  • Thanathorn’s “flash mob” enjoys widespread support amongst Thais

    Thanathorn’s “flash mob” enjoys widespread support amongst Thais

    The public is split over what is now being called the opposition’s “flash mob,” and “Skywalk Rally” organised by the Future Forward Party in central Bangkok on December 14, but supporters slightly outnumber opponents, according to a survey by the National Institute for Development Administration, or NIDA Poll. The poll was conducted on December 16-17 and included 1,277 Thai adults…

  • Senate calls for urgent expansion Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport

    Senate calls for urgent expansion Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport

    PHOTO: Oriental Express Just days after Thailand set yet another annual record for incoming visitors, a Senate committee is urging the government to speed up the expansion of Suvarnabhumi Airport. The Senate Committee on Transportation, met with Airports of Thailand officials on December 19 and both sides acknowledged the urgent need for the expansion. After learning of the progress being made…

  • Rescuers claim former transport minister tried to flee accident scene

    Rescuers claim former transport minister tried to flee accident scene

    PHOTO: Saichon Srinuanchan Thawee Kraikupt, a former transport minister and the father of government MP Pareena Kraikupt, was involved a car crash in Ratchaburi province, just west of Bangkok, that injured a 16 year old boy. His daughter Pareena was recently found guilty of illegally occupying some 700 rai of government land and forced to return most of it to…

  • Early morning fire destroys plastics factory south of Bangkok

    Early morning fire destroys plastics factory south of Bangkok

    PHOTO: Sutthiwit Chayutworakan – Bangkok Post A fire has destroyed a plastics manufacturer in southern Bangkok. The fire also destroyed an adjacent mattress warehouse. The incidents happened early this morning. Despite all the stock, equipment and three pick-ups parked out front being destroyed, there were no casualties in the blazes. More than 10 fire crews rushed to the scene on…

  • Angry aunty hurls rock at Bangkok truck

    Angry aunty hurls rock at Bangkok truck

    PHOTO: sanook.com It will probably turn out to be “a misunderstanding”, but Thai social media is buzzing with speculation as to what might have caused an elderly woman to throw a rock at a parked truck in Bangkok. It’s the curious case of the mystery angry aunty. Thai Residents reports that CCTV footage posted on the “Social Hunter” Facebook page…

  • Tsunami survivor opens school in Bangkok in recognition of Thai generosity

    Tsunami survivor opens school in Bangkok in recognition of Thai generosity

    PHOTO: Howard Liang looks on as his daughter speaks at yesterday’s launch of the new international school – The Nation A Hong Kong businessman who was in Phuket with nineteen members of his family when the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami struck, is back in Thailand to build an international school near Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport. Howard Liang says the international school is…

  • Don Mueang tollway fee increase opposed by consumer agency

    Don Mueang tollway fee increase opposed by consumer agency

    PHOTO: YouTube Plans to slap a 10% increase on the fee to use the Don Mueang Toll Way have been opposed by the Consumer Protection Board. The CPB is tasked with defending consumer rights and instigating legal proceedings in the case of infringement. Thai PBS World reports that the board claims the toll hike, which is due to come into…

  • School building, where 13 year old shot a fellow student, has been closed down

    School building, where 13 year old shot a fellow student, has been closed down

    An entire school building has been closed following a fatal shooting of a 13 year old student by another student on Wednesday in Nonthaburi, Bangkok. The class, which both were students, has been suspended until next week. The 13 year old shooter told police he shot the victim “out of desperation after being repeatedly bullied”. After the daily flag raising…

  • 13 year old shoots classmate in Bangkok afters repeated taunts

    13 year old shoots classmate in Bangkok afters repeated taunts

    PHOTO: Siam Nonthaburi Foundation A teenage schoolboy has shot dead a 13 year old classmate who he says had repeatedly insulted and bullied him at a school in Muang district yesterday morning. The fatal shooting occurred inside a public school in Bang Kraso, Nonthaburi, a north west suburb of Bankok. The 13 year old shooter was apprehended and taken to the…

  • Swedish national still missing in Bangkok

    Swedish national still missing in Bangkok

    A Hat Yai woman has asked for police help in locating her Swedish husband, who went missing shortly after they arrived in Thailand from Stockholm last Thursday. 55 year old Begt Erik Gustafsson, a welder, allegedly left with a friend and hasn’t been seen heard from since. Sixty-five year old Amphorn Maksomboon filed a missing person report with Hat Yai…

  • Rescue workers find women sitting with 10 day old corpse, waiting for dead man to come back to life

    Rescue workers find women sitting with 10 day old corpse, waiting for dead man to come back to life

    After local residents complained of the smell coming from a house in Nakhon Nayok, north east of Bangkok, a medical rescue team was sent to the property only to find a rather sad situation. The Nation reports that the team arrived at the property to find a decomposing human body, with three women sitting in the kitchen. The rescue team then…

  • “Run against Dictatorship” organisers threatened with legal action by “those in power”

    “Run against Dictatorship” organisers threatened with legal action by “those in power”

    PHOTO: The Nation Organisers of the planned Wing Lai Loong event “Run against Dictatorship” are being warned by the Thai Interior Minister Anupong Paochinda that they may face legal action if they go ahead with their politically-inspired event without prior permission from the police. The group’s planned press conference, scheduled to take place at Bangkok’s Royal Rattanakosin Hotel on Monday,…

  • Students say “Run Against Dictatorship” media event to go ahead

    Students say “Run Against Dictatorship” media event to go ahead

    PHOTO: Apichart Jinakul University students have finally been allowed to hold a press conference on the “Wing Lai Lung” (Run to Oust the Uncle) event at Thammasat University in Bangkok. Earlier requests for two other locations to hold their media gathering were denied. One of them was the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand… The professional committee of the Foreign Correspondents’…

  • “They were just being playful” – Bangkok tuk tuk driver

    “They were just being playful” – Bangkok tuk tuk driver

    “They were just being playful.” Playful indeed! A couple caught engaging in some spontaneous ‘close-and-personal’ in the back of a Bangkok tuk-tuk has got Thailand’s online community in a fluster. Whilst tourism numbers stagnate and thousands gather in the centre of the city for the biggest political rally in five years, THIS has been the biggest talking point for Thai…

  • Unidentified naked man in Bangkok death plunge

    Unidentified naked man in Bangkok death plunge

    PHOTO: Forensic police examine the body of the man who fell from a high-rise condominium in the Ratchayothin area in Bangkok on Saturday morning Police say a naked man has fallen to his death from a condominium tower in Bangkok’s Chatuchak district early on Saturday. The unidentified man’s body was found lying face down on the street. The incident happened…

  • Bangkok’s new Silom Road walking street a great success

    Bangkok’s new Silom Road walking street a great success

    PHOTO: INN News “Walk, Eat, Taste, and Explore”. And thousands descended on Silom Road to welcome the new walking street destination yesterday. Street performers, crowds and live music transformed Silom Road into Bangkok’s newest walking street yesterday with the first of the new walking street-style markets opening up in Bangkok. There was also another one in Yowarat Road in Chinatown. The…

  • Three men abandon van packed with drugs in Bangkok

    Three men abandon van packed with drugs in Bangkok

    PHOTOS: INN News Three men have abandoned a luxury passenger van in the Bang Khun Thian area of Bangkok. It was packed full of methamphetamine pills. Police Officers from the Sam Dum Police Station discovered 100 packs of methamphetamine ‘Yaba’ pills, totalling 200,000, placed inside a large bag. The suspects fled the scene choosing to give up the drugs and…

  • Walking street-led economic recovery

    Walking street-led economic recovery

    And it starts today at two locations in Bangkok. In its latest campaign to encourage more spending and boost tourism Bangkok’s government is launching a series of walking streets today before the Thai government spreads the walking street ‘boost’ to other provinces. Silom and Yaowarat roads are becoming pedestrian walkways today and other provinces have temporary walking street events starting on…

  • Video of couple having sex in Bangkok tuk-tuk goes viral – VIDEO

    Video of couple having sex in Bangkok tuk-tuk goes viral – VIDEO

    Social media users in Thailand have had plenty to say about a video that appears to show a couple having sex in the back of a tuk-tuk speeding through Bangkok. Some would say using this particular mode of Bangkok transport is exhilarating enough without adding anything else into the mix, but the Chiang Rai Times reports that one couple decided…

  • Grateful woman tries to find foreigner who saved the life of her boyfriend’s father

    Grateful woman tries to find foreigner who saved the life of her boyfriend’s father

    A Thai woman has taken to social media in an attempt to track down the foreign man who saved her boyfriend’s father after he had chest pains and an apparent heart attack in Bangkok’s Lumpini Park. The Bangkok Post reports that a foreign man performed CPR on the man after he fell unconscious and his heart stopped beating. Now the family…