Chiang Mai News

Chiang Mai news, politics, business, culture, and tourism—stay updated with breaking stories, local events, and expat insights from Thailand’s northern hub. Get the latest from The Thaiger, your trusted Chiang Mai news source.

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    How to reduce out-of-pocket medical expenses in Thailand?

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  • VietJet upgrades to larger planes for Chiang Mai sectors

    VietJet upgrades to larger planes for Chiang Mai sectors

    Vietjet, the Vietnamese-owned budget carrier, says it will add its newest Airbus A321 aircraft on some flights to Chiang Mai. Vietjet is the first airline to assign the 230-seat aircraft to a domestic route in Thailand replacing the smaller 180-seat A320 on two flights daily to Chiang Mai during the morning and evening peak traffic hours. By mid-September, up to…

  • Land expropriation for new Chiang Mai airport expected to start next month

    Land expropriation for new Chiang Mai airport expected to start next month

    PHOTO: chiangmaicitylife.com Chiang Mai’s second airport is progressing with the expropriation of private land set to start in September. Chiang Mai City Life reports that, following the Airports of Thailand approval of new airport projects in Chiang Mai and Phuket with the budget of 125 billion baht, the board will be proceeding on the expropriation of private land. Story about…

  • Thai woman drugs, then steals from two tourists – one of them is dead

    Thai woman drugs, then steals from two tourists – one of them is dead

    Chiang Mai police are on the hunt for a Thai woman they believe has been responsible for the drugging and robbery of two foreigners – one of them has died as a consequence of her crimes. An Indian and US tourist were independently drugged and robbed by a “pretty, short-haired” Thai woman. The Nation is reporting that the Chiang Mai…

  • Thai woman takes out guard and four cars after parking fine outside Chiang Mai airport

    Thai woman takes out guard and four cars after parking fine outside Chiang Mai airport

    A Thai woman, aged around 40, took out her anger on cars and security personnel outside the domestic terminal of Chiang Mai airport yesterday afternoon. Apparently she was angry that she had been clamped then fined for parking in the drop-off area. Witnesses say the woman had parked illegally outside and gone into the terminal. According to the Sanook report, announcements…

  • Chiang Mai’s Doi Suthep houses to be immediately vacated

    Chiang Mai’s Doi Suthep houses to be immediately vacated

    PHOTO: The Nation It’s time to go. The Chiang Mai OrBorJor and protest groups opposing the Doi Suthep housing project for judges and officials have agreed that the 45 housing units for judges must be immediately vacated. As those who still stay at a nine-unit condominium building, the meeting agreed that they must be moved too, to a smaller condo building within…

  • Gang violence flares up at a pub, ends up at hospital – Chiang Mai

    Gang violence flares up at a pub, ends up at hospital – Chiang Mai

    PHOTOS: Sanook Two gangs of young people went at it late into last night in Chiang Mai. When all the dust had settled one victim was recovering at the Chiang Mai Medical Centre. Sanook is reporting that the trouble started outside a pub in the Nimmanhaemin area of the city. A 21 year old was taken to Chiang Mai Medical Centre…

  • Protesters demand removal of the court-owned properties on Doi Suthep in Chiang Mai

    Protesters demand removal of the court-owned properties on Doi Suthep in Chiang Mai

    The fight over the Doi Suthep houses, deemed illegal several months ago, has taken a new tack over the weekend with an approach to the Department of Agriculture in Chiang Rai to build new offices and housing for judges there. But Doi Suthep protesters that’s not good enough. They say that the resolution to build new offices and residences for the…

  • Flash mobs staged to protest the buildings on Doi Suthep

    Flash mobs staged to protest the buildings on Doi Suthep

    By Nisanart Kangwanwong The Doi Suthep protesters in Chiang Mai had their campaign to remove the Thai judges housing development interrupted by the rescue mission at the Tham Luang Caves in nearby Chiang Rai. Now the “Rak Chiang Mai” community network has organised four flash mobs at four key locations of Chiang Mai’s Muang district to highlight what they says…

  • Chinese call centre gang raided in Chiang Mai

    Chinese call centre gang raided in Chiang Mai

    PHOTO: Chiang Mai City Life Thai police have had a lot of success recently tracking down call centre gangs in all parts of the country. This time in Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai City Life is reporting that a Chinese call centre scam operation was raided yesterday. Four Chinese citizens were arrested. The arrests occurred on August 7 at a housing…

  • Warning out for Samui ferry as waves reach 3 metres in Gulf of Thailand

    Warning out for Samui ferry as waves reach 3 metres in Gulf of Thailand

    The Samui Harbour Office has issued warnings to the ferry operator to be careful in both directions on the Surat Thani run with waves up high as three metres today in the Gulf of Thailand. The office has also prohibited small boats from leaving the shores of Koh Samui. The ferry boat operator was warned to check lifejackets and all…

  • Morning fire at the Chiang Mai post office

    Morning fire at the Chiang Mai post office

    The local precinct superintendent, Pol Colonel Chuwit Kongkaew, says a fire, suspected to have been caused by a short circuit, broke out this morning (Sunday) in the local post office. The incident happened at the one-storey post office building of the San Khamphaeng branch. The fire, which occurred at around 7am, took fire-fighters 30 minutes to get under control at…

  • The dog’s got to go! Mammoth vs Jao Bo.

    The dog’s got to go! Mammoth vs Jao Bo.

    PHOTO: Manager Online “Get the hell out of here! You accursed mutt!” A Chiang Mai estate resident has ramped up neighbourhood disputes to the next level. They’ve erected a huge vinyl sign to demand that the neighbour remove his dog that he says attacked his pet poodle. The dispute, besides the one between the neighbours, is between a poodle named…

  • Illegal bird feed vendors arrested at Tha Pae Gate, Chiang Mai.

    Illegal bird feed vendors arrested at Tha Pae Gate, Chiang Mai.

    Chiang Mai City Life is reporting that the pigeons at Tha Pae Gate have been an ongoing issue for the city as their numbers has been reportedly increasing. In the attempt to prevent an infestation of pigeons in the area, Chiang Mai Municipality enacted a law prohibiting any street vendor in the area to sell bird feed. For tourists and…

  • Protesters turn to ‘cursing ritual’ in the latest Doi Suthep protests

    Protesters turn to ‘cursing ritual’ in the latest Doi Suthep protests

    PHOTO: File Photo by Nisanart Kangwanwong If banners and peaceful protests don’t work, try a bit of local northern Thai ‘woo woo’ instead. As part of next month’s protests agains the Doi Suthep housing development in Chiang Mai organisers are planning a ‘cursing ritual’. The Doi Suthep Forest Reclamation Network is staging a major protest in late August to pressure…

  • Chiang Mai wife grabs husband’s Glock and shoots him dead

    Chiang Mai wife grabs husband’s Glock and shoots him dead

    PHOTO: Sanook Sanook is reporting that the police were called to a shooting crime scene shooting in a bedroom behind a convenience store in Hang Dong jurisdiction., Chiang Mai 48 year old Sawat, a civil defense volunteer in Chiang Mai was shot in the chest. He was rushed to hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival. The man’s wife, 60 year…

  • Serbians on the run after trying to fire-torch their way into a Chiang Mai ATM

    Serbians on the run after trying to fire-torch their way into a Chiang Mai ATM

    PHOTOS: Sanook Two Serbians are on the run after trying to use a make-shift fire-torch to break into a Bangkok Bank ATM in Chiang Mai. Sanook report that the pair tried to use a gas canister for cooking to help cut their way into the ATM next to the Ratchaphak University. But the walls of the ATM was too thick and…

  • Former US pilot shoots himself dead at house in Chiang Mai

    Former US pilot shoots himself dead at house in Chiang Mai

    PHOTO COMPILATION: Ban Muang A 62 year old former US pilot has shot himself in Chiang Mai on Wednesday. Ban Muang is reporting that the man’s Thai wife heard a single shot ring out at their house on the Rattanakosin Road in Chiang Mai. The woman ran to a bedroom where her husband was dead from a bullet wound to the…

  • Miracle as amulet “saves” father and son in Chiang Mai

    Miracle as amulet “saves” father and son in Chiang Mai

    Sanook is reporting that Thai media are hailing the survival of a father and son as a miracle. The father and his three year old boy walked away from a horror crash on the Chiang Mai-Lampang highway. 30 year old Chat was travelling along Route 11 on his way home with his son from Lamphun to Muang district of Lampang.…

  • Bogus ‘botox clinic’ raided in Chiang Mai

    Bogus ‘botox clinic’ raided in Chiang Mai

    PHOTOS: Thai Rath Thai Rath is reporting that a recently opened ‘beauty clinic’ in Chiang Mai has been raided resulting in the arrest of a 26 year old Thai woman. Yapha Nithijindawach claimed she trained as a doctor in South Korea but was unable to produce any evidence of the qualifications. She faces four charges including operating the clinic without…

  • Chiang Mai’s Doi Suthep housing protests ramping up for August

    Chiang Mai’s Doi Suthep housing protests ramping up for August

    The protests against the construction of the Thai judge’s residences on the slopes of Doi Suthep in Chiang Mai has gone quiet over the past month. That’s all about to change. Activists from leading non-governmental organisations from eight northern provinces will next month join a massive protest against the special housing for judges on Doi Suthep. The Nation reports that…

  • 15 year old dies in Chiang Mai boarding house fire

    15 year old dies in Chiang Mai boarding house fire

    PHOTO: Chiang Mai City Life A 15 year old girl has died following a fire that engulfed the living areas of a Christian boarding school in Fang district, north of Chiang Mai city, this morning. Fang police were alerted at 1:30am about the fire at the Christian Paolo School that is run by the Evangelical Fellowship of Thailand. Ten fire engines…

  • Chiang Rai: Rescuers prepare to bring out the final five

    Chiang Rai: Rescuers prepare to bring out the final five

    PHOTO: VOA Following last evening’s successful rescue of a further four members of the Mu Pa football team, bringing the total number safely out at 8, Thai and international divers are preparing to rescue at least another four today. Mission control spokesperson Narongsak Osotthanakorn described the rescue operation, so far, as a success. Last night the first of the four emerged…

  • First Mu Pa members emerge from Tham Luang cave

    First Mu Pa members emerge from Tham Luang cave

    File Photo Police chatter at the Tham Luang cave suggests that the first two team members have emerged from the cave mouth. The first at 5.40pm and the second one 10 minutes later. They walked out on their own feet. Their successful retrieval bodes well for the other 11 members The Governor, acting as the official spokesperson, has not confirmed…

  • Drilling down into the cave – 100 tunnels drilled so far

    Drilling down into the cave – 100 tunnels drilled so far

    As the frantic effort continues around the Tham Luang caves to find alternative ways to get to the cave chamber where the 13 footballers have been waiting since two weeks ago, ‘chimneys’ or tunnels from the top or side of the mountain, down into the cave, are being established. AFP are reporting that there have been more than 100 of…

  • Chiang Mai: New Zealander accused of masterminding murder of his Korean mother Chiang Mai

    Chiang Mai: New Zealander accused of masterminding murder of his Korean mother Chiang Mai

    Chiang Mai police have arrested a New Zealander for allegedly masterminding the murder of his Korean mother by setting it up as quarrel between his wife and his elderly mother. 50 year old Brian Lee was arrested and charged with masterminding the murder of 76 year old An Jung Ja at a house in the Mountain View village in Tambon…

  • Huge meth bust in Chiang Mai

    Huge meth bust in Chiang Mai

    The big seizures of methamphetamine pills and ‘ice’ continue around the Kingdom. In the last two months nearly 50 million pills have been collected in various stings and raids. Around 9 million methamphetamine pills and 300kg of crystal meth or “ice” was seized in Chiang Mai province shortly after the arrest of a fugitive last Monday, the police claimed. Officers…

  • Chiang Mai: Son finds father dead in car

    Chiang Mai: Son finds father dead in car

    A man has been found dead in his own car in Chiang Mai’s Muang district. The car was covered near his house when his adopted son found the car with his father inside this morning. Police estimate that 48 year old Somphet Thaso died at least two days earlier. His adopted son, Sukit Somboonpattanakoon, said Somphet could not be accounted for…

  • Heroin-swallowing smugglers nabbed in Chiang Mai and Bangkok

    Heroin-swallowing smugglers nabbed in Chiang Mai and Bangkok

    15.5 kilograms of heroin is a serious amount of illicit narcotics. Six Nepalese and one Indian national have been accused of being members of a transnational drug-trafficking syndicate, They’ve been transporting drugs by having people swallow dozens of capsules containing heroin and were arrested last week. The Nepalese suspects were identified as Singha Bir Gongbotamang, Sudarshan Thapa, Prasad Gurung, Suresh…

  • Small guest-houses and hotels closing down across Chiang Mai

    Small guest-houses and hotels closing down across Chiang Mai

    Hotels, from small to medium size, are closing down across Chaing Mai following recent crackdowns and enforcement of the Hotel Act. Similar crackdowns are underway across the country this week, notably in Krabi as well. About 100 protesters have staged protests outside City Hall demanding that their issues be raised with the Tourism Ministry and the Thai PM. Small and…

  • NBTC been told to clean up the overhead cabling mess

    NBTC been told to clean up the overhead cabling mess

    PHOTO The Nation Last year PM Prayut Chan-o-cha declared war on Thailand’s overhead electric cabling signalling provincial governments to get their overhead house in order. The clean up has been complicated by the many services that run their systems overhead – cable TV, electricity suppliers, internet and telecom providers. Now the Nation Broadcasting and Telecommunication Commission (NBTC) has been tasked…