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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Despite a ban, permission has been sought to launch 64,000 lanterns for Loy Krathong
Enthusiasts are seeking permission to fly 64,000 lanterns on the night of Loy Krathong in Chiang Mai, despite a nation-wide ban. Loy Krathong is on this Thursday. Meanwhile, the Chiang Mai provincial administration has imposed strict regulations on the release of flying lanterns into the sky as well as on the sale and ignition of firecrackers and fireworks on Loy…
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One in ten that die on Chiang Mai roads are foreigners
Ten percent of the people that die on Chiang Mai’s roads are foreigners. That equates to more than 1,000 foreign tourists and expats dying or being injured on the province’s road so far this year. The statistics also reveal that the overwhelming majority of deaths and injury were on motorcycles (the same as the rest of Thailand). Chiang Mai News…
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66 yo Austrian arrested in Chiang Mai for possessing child porn
The Thai immigration says they’ve arrested a 66 year old Austrian for downloading and possessing child porn. The Thailand Internet Crime Against Children (TICAC) division learned about someone using the Dark Web to access child porn in September. Thai police identified the person living in the Pa Daet district in the Chiang Mai city and obtained an arrest warrant. The…
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Canadian and British graffiti vandals spared jail
Canadian media is reporting that a Canadian citizen and a British man have been able to avoid jail time over the spray painting of the Tha Pae historical wall in Chiang Mai. Read the original story HERE. There was 10 years jail staring them in the face after police nabbed them over the matter. But instead of ten years in…
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Three killed in a Chiang Mai house fire
A Chiang Mai couple and their two year old child were killed when their house was engulfed in a fire early today. Police report that they were alerted of the fire at the two-floor house in Ban Pa Tun village in Tambon Pa Tun, Muang district around 5.30am this morning. After the fire was put out, three charred bodies were found…
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Chiang Mai tourism plans to promote more outlying regions for 2019
“The plan is to promote traditional, conservative activities such as temple routes, sightseeing tours in the old city and visiting craft villages.” The Tourism Authority Thailand (TAT) Chiang Mai Office has announced its performance for the past year and announced its plans for 2019. Visroot Inhyam, the director general of TAT’s northern region outlined the main issues for tourism promotion…
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Protest banners reveal resident’s names – Chiang Mai
The ongoing battle between protesters and residents of housing inside a controversial residential area on the foothills of Dom Suthem in Chiang Mai, has taken a new tack. Banners revealing the names of appeal court officials who live at the controversial housing estate at the foot of forested Doi Suthep mountain were found in Chiang Mai yesterday. Read more about the…
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Grab and illegal tuk-tuks killing Chiang Mai rental company
PHOTO: Hia Kiang, the long-term owner of a tuk-tuk rental company says it’s no longer profitable – Chiang Mai News Recent news out of the northern city suggests that all is not all in the relationship between the App-world taxis and the traditional taxi services. Chiang Mai News is reporting that a long time owner of a business renting tuk-tuks…
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Public hearings planned for bill to legalise transgender cohabitation
PHOTO: Coconuts BKK Public hearings are to be held in the capital and other provinces on November 12-16 to gauge opinions from stakeholders about the ‘partnership bill’. The Bill would, for the first time in Thailand, legalise the cohabitation of transgenders. In Bangkok the hearing will be held at the Miracle Hotel while in the provinces, hearings are to be…
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University Dean hands over iPad evidence in Chiang Mai upskirt case
by Thanakorn Wongnang A Chiang Mai University dean has turned over to police an iPad belonging to a former lecturer at the school who has been accused of using it last month to take photos beneath female students’ skirts. The lecturer has not been publicly named at this stage. It’s understood that Associate Professor Prapa Sukkasem, dean of the Faculty…
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Man questioned over bestiality “club” in northern Thailand
PHOTO: The alleged organiser of the Bobo bestiality club (right) is interviewed by police at his home (Image by Watchdog Thailand, censored to comply with Thai law) A man who was allegedly running a bestiality “club” near the northern Thai capital of Chiang Mai has been questioned by police after an investigation lasting more than a year by animal rights…
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Tourists grafitti Chiang Mai caves
Chiang Mai authorities are trying to find the people responsible for graffiti in a Chiang Mai cave. Police are threatening to prosecute the offenders and seek jail terms for anyone who is caught. Chiang Mai News is reporting that foreign names have been scratched in the walls of a cave at the Mok Fa waterfall in the Doi Suthep – Pui…
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Chiang Mai’s Canadian spray painter released on bail
A Canadian woman, arrested in Chiang Mai for spraying graffiti on an ancient wall, says she’s sorry for what she did and “terrified about what comes next”. 22 year old Brittney Schneider, was in Chiang Mai last Thursday when she said she and some others got “ridiculously drunk.” Speaking to Canadian media, she says they started to walk back to…
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Another 15 million meth pills seized in Chiang Mai arrests
Police have arrested six men and seized 15 million methamphetamine pills they were allegedly trying to smuggle from Chiang Mai to Bangkok in four pickup trucks. The arrests were made between 8.30am and 3pm on Monday in four separate incidents at two checkpoints, on a road and at a resort in Mae Ai district in Chiang Mai, and further north…
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More rain until this Friday – parts of Krabi flooded
Flooding has hit several provinces yesterday morning in the wake of heavy downpours in parts of the country. In Krabi’s Khao Phanom province, several roads were also flooded. In front of the Ban Khok Klang School, floodwater was up to 40 centimetres deep. Emergency responders helped locals move their belongings to higher ground out of concern that the waters would…
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Chiang Mai glue sniffer beats up Chinese tourists
Sanook is reporting on what they described as yet another “devastating blow to Thai tourism”. In the latest case, the alleged glue-sniffing son of a downtown tailor went after two Chinese tourists with a wooden club as they innocently took photos in a tourist area. The attack occurred in the Wua Lai Road area where there is a ‘walking street’…
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Two tourists’ graffiti might end them up in a Chiang Mai jail
A British and Canadian tourist face up to 10 years in prison after being charged with vandalism. The pair spray-painting graffiti on an ancient city brick wall in Chiang Mai. Reuters have reported that 23 year olds Furlong Lee (UK) and Brittney Schneider (Canada) were arrested at a guesthouse in Chiang Mai and are being held at the provincial court pending further questioning over…
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New Immigration chief sweeping a broom through Chiang Mai Immigration offices
SCREENSHOT: Komchadluek Responding to constant online chatter about the ‘mess’ at the Chiang Mai Immigration offices, the new Immigration chief, Maj-Gen Surachate Hakparn, is poised to transfer the existing Chiang Mai Immigration boss to an inactive post whilst further investigations are made into the office operations. People have been complaining about all matters, from long waits (some cited having to…
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Chiang Mai abbot defrocked over sexual abuse charges
FILE PHOTO An abbot in Chiang Mai has been arrested and defrocked for allegedly sexually abusing “more than 10” boys at his temple in Hang Dong district. 37 year old Phra Phansak Thitsilo, has now had his title reverted back to his lay name, Phansak Saenkhamwang, following his arrest at Wat Sriwaree Sathan in Tambon Sob Mae Kha. The warrant…
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Chinese arrivals down by half in Chiang Mai
PHOTO: Chiang Mai News A crisis meeting for tour operators has been held in Chiang Mai where they learned that Chinese tourism was down 50% in the first nine months of 2018. Some measures were put forward to woo them back – including setting up Chinese language classes to improve communication with the tourists from China. Reasons blamed for the…
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Chiang Mai flasher arrested
A Chiang Mai man has been arrested for allegedly exposing himself to foreign women in downtown Chiang Mai in recent days. Police said 54 year old Anusorn Pheraket,who lives in Tambon Wat Ket in Chiang Mai’s Muang district, was arrested late yesterday. Police have obtained a court order to detain Anusorn pending further questioning before pressing charges. Police tracked down…
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Airport tips for cheapies – Bangkok
Heading out of Bangkok and looking for a few financial short-cuts? Getting to the airport, Don Mueang or Suvarnabhumi, needs a bit of planning. To get to Don Muaeng from the Bangkok on time a taxi is probably going to be your best bet. If it’s in one of the peaks the taxi can take the ‘top floor’ route which…
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Two Chiang Mai resorts demolished for encroachment
PHOTO: Ban Leesor View Suay, one two illegal resorts slated for demolition – The Nation As land occupants cooperated rather than resisted, officials on Monday demolished two resorts encroaching on Doi Luang Chiang Dao forest in Chiang Mai province as per a court ruling, said Chiang Dao District Office deputy chief for national security Phermkiat Thephassadin Na Ayutthaya. Phermkiat led the…
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Tourists flock to Doi Inthanon for the morning mists
Tourists are heading for the hills to enjoy the first of the season’s cold snaps in northern Thailand. Both domestic and international have have been flocking to Chiang Mai’s Doi Inthanon, Thailand’s highest mountain, to enjoy the start of the cooler temperatures, dipping as low as 7 degrees Celsius. The Jom Thong district of Chiang Mai province experiences temperatures of…
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Happy Birthday Sweet 17
PHOTO: The Nation Happy birthday Lin Hui. Lin Hui is one of the stars of Thailand’s ‘panda frenzy’ a decade ago. Today she’s 17 years old and fans assembled at the Chiang Mai Zoo to sing “Happy Birthday” and maybe share some special birthday bamboo. Lin Hui’s mate Chuang Chuang got in on the fun as well, sharing her birthday…
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Australian living in Chiang Mai hangs himself from a roadside tree
An Australian man is believed to have hanged himself from a tree on a roadside in Chiang Mai’s Hang Dong district this morning. The man has been identified as Nicholas James Watek. A passer-by called the Hang Dong police around 9.30am after he saw the man hanging from a tree on Soi Bon Kai Doi Tham in Ban Doi Tham village…
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Greed unravelled the trio’s grisly plot – Phrae double murder
PHOTO: Alan and Nod receive the keys to their new pick-up truck. The bodies of 64 year old Alan Hogg and his 61 year old wife, Nod Suddaen, wee unearthed yesterday morning following a short investigation where greed brought the plot unstuck for the killers. After a few hours of interrogation three men admitted to collusion in the plot to…
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A backpack full of meth pills headed for Chiang Mai
A Chiang Mai man has been arrested las night after allegedly trying to smuggle 100,000 methamphetamine pills into the city from the Myanmar border, 100 kilometres away. Police at a checkpoint in Mae Ai district had signalled for a motorcyclist to stop but he sped off. With officers in pursuit, he lost control of his motorbike and came to grief…
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Police find bodies of Briton, Thai wife buried behind their house in Phrae
The bodies of a Briton and his Thai wife were found buried over 2 metres deep in the garden of their property in Phrae Muang district today after they went missing on September 19. The Nation is reporting that the bodies of 64 year old Alan Scott Hogg and 61 year old Nott Sudaen were found buried beside a creek on…
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Three men have confessed, one remains on the run – murder of Phrae married couple
Three men have confessed to the murder of a missing couple – a British expat and his Thai wife – in Phrae. Police say the three men were hired by the woman older brother to kill the married couple. Police made the arrests in Wang Chin district late yesterday. They say they eventually had the confessions after hours of ‘intense’…
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