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Thailand news, politics, business, crime, lifestyle, and tourism—stay updated with breaking news and in-depth analysis from Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Pattaya, and beyond.
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German tourist missing after jump from Pha Ngan ferry
Rescue workers continue to search for a German man who shocked onlookers last night by jumping from a large ferry as it departed Koh Pha Ngan. The man is currently lost at sea as worried friends and community members hope for a happy ending. Last night, the deputy director of Surat Thani province Region 2 Police, was informed by the…
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Pattaya police chief transferred for fining vape carrying Chinese tourists
A senior police sergeant major from Mueng Pattaya Police Station has been transferred to Chon Buri Police Headquarters after admitting he illegally fined Chinese tourists 30,000 baht for carrying vapes. A Professional Tourist Guide Association of Thailand committee member, Paisarn Suethanuwong, revealed the wrongdoing of a Mueng Pattaya Police Station chief on a Channel 3 news show yesterday. Paisarn said…
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Qatar Airways launches thrice daily flights to Phuket
Qatari flag carrier Qatar Airways is launching three flights per day between Doha and Phuket in southern Thailand starting today, February 1, to meet the ever-growing demand. The additional flights bring the airline’s number of services to Thailand up to seven per day, including four flights to and from Bangkok. Doha is a major Middle Eastern transport hub and most…
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American man dies after crashing Ducati into trailer truck
Tragedy struck in the southern province of Phang Nga yesterday when an American man died after crashing his Ducati motorcycle into a trailer truck at 5.30pm on Phetchakasem Road. Officers from Mueng Phan Nga Police Station investigated the scene of the accident and found the body of the foreign man on the road at the back of the trailer truck.…
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Thailand tourist fee: 300 baht via air, 150 baht via land/sea
Thailand plans to charge foreign arrivals arriving by air a tourist fee of 300 baht (US$9.11) and a fee of 150 baht (US$4.56) for tourists entering the kingdom via land/sea by mid-2023. The 300 baht tourist fee for air arrivals has been in the pipeline for a long time and is set to be enforced in June after facing several Covid-19-related…
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Activists pressure opposition to do away with royal defamation law
Thai activists are pressuring the opposition Pheu Thai Party to do away with the royal defamation law if elected to office this year. The requests come at a time when three demonstrators are seriously ill after going on a hunger strike over the royal defamation law. Two of the activists are currently in the hospital and listed in serious condition. Pheu…
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Prayut tells everyone to calm down over Thai-Cambodian Muay Thai drama
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha is telling everyone to calm down regarding the row that was sparked last week between Thailand and Cambodia over the origin of Muay Thai. Cambodia, the host country of the 2023 SEA Games, changed the name of the kickboxing competition from Muay Thai to Kun Khmer and stated that the origin of Muay Thai is Cambodian.…
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Singapore man charged with starving cat to death
A man in Singapore was sentenced to 20 days in jail after being fined SGD$10,000 (about 250,000 baht) for starving his pet cat, leading to its death. The 25 year old man was unable to pay the fine and was instead sentenced to serve time in jail. According to court records, The Singaporean man adopted the cat in February 2019…
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Crazy Russian bites off British woman’s finger in Ko Pha Ngan bean bag row
A leisurely stroll on a Thai beach with two friends and a dog bizarrely evolved into a scene from a horror movie after a crazy Russian woman went berserk, chomped on a British woman’s finger and spat it out. The British woman was walking her dog with a German friend on a beach on Ko Pha Ngan Island when they…
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Grab Thailand reveals foreign tourist trends
Grab Thailand saw a 45% increase in foreign users between Q2 and Q3 in 2022, suggesting a positive outlook for the recovery of the tourism industry. The top five countries foreign Grab users came from are… Indonesia Malaysia Singapore United States Vietnam To meet the needs of foreign users, the ride-hailing super-app focussed on perfecting three key aspects of service:…
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Large waves wash away Burmese man in Koh Samui
A recent tragedy in Koh Samui is a reminder of how dangerous large waves can be in Thailand. Large waves washed away a Burmese man in Koh Samui on Monday. Witnesses said the man was a migrant worker travelling with two other male friends, and the three appeared to be drunk. The three men walked to a viewpoint near the sea.…
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Failed Phuket construction projects trigger corruption investigation
A number of failed Phuket construction projects have triggered a corruption investigation after being called into question by the STRONG Anti-Corruption Thailand Club. The Phuket government information office has shared posts online by the group that detail projects that were meant to be completed years ago, despite millions of baht being spent on them. According to The Phuket News, one…
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Corruption Index: world’s improvements flat, Thailand’s slight
In the Corruption Perceptions Index, Thailand is improving, having jumped nine places to the 101st position in 2022. The previous year, the kingdom was 110th according to Transparency International (TI), a German-based nonprofit that measures and fights corruption worldwide. The index works on a scale of 100, with 100 being completely free of corruption and zero being the most corrupt…
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German cruiseliner brings 3,000 tourists to Koh Samui
German cruise liner Mein Schiff 5 reportedly dropped 3,000 tourists on the island of Koh Samui for a bit of shopping and sightseeing. Koh Samui’s Mayor Chayapon Intarasupa says the large group arrived at Nathon Pier on Saturday in small boats as the ship approached the island. The luxury liner dropped the guests off for a one-day trip on the…
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Ukraine MP kicked out of parliament after visiting Thailand in unapproved trip
A lawmaker in Ukraine is now without his job after posting a video of him on an unapproved holiday in Thailand. Mykola Tyshchenko posted a video of him splashing around in the ocean on Facebook while saying that he was on an approved business trip in Asia. According to the Pattaya Mail, he furthered his intentions for some fun in…
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Chinese tourists wrongly fined 60,000 baht for carrying vapes, says law expert
A group of Thai tour guides revealed that a group of Chinese tourists were fined 60,000 baht for carrying vapes in Pattaya. The police also gave a 50% discount and let the tourists pay only 30,000 baht. According to Thai law, Thai police cannot arrest or fine foreigners with vapes. They have to report the issue to the court. The…
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Bangkok public bus condemned by Singaporean tourist
A Singaporean tourist condemned Bangkok Mass Transit Authority (BMTA) public buses after the driver of a bus in the capital closed its door and drove off as she was about to climb onboard. A Singaporean woman posted a video on her TikTok account, njwah, complaining about the service of a public bus in Bangkok. She wrote captions in Thai and…
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Koh Samui booms as over 200,000 tourists visit the popular island in January
The picturesque island of Koh Samui in Surat Thani province, Thailand, has seen a remarkable turnaround to its economy in the first month of 2023 with over 200,000 tourists visiting in January alone. After a year of uncertainty due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the arrival of over 200,000 tourists has been a welcome sight for the island’s local economy. The…
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Rolling Loud Thailand 2023 is coming to Songkran Festival in Pattaya
Musical heavyweights Cardi B, Chris Brown, and Travis Scott will join more than 80 other international artists at the Rolling Loud Thailand 2023 jamboree in Pattaya during Songkran Festival from Thursday, April 13 to Saturday, April 15. Pattaya is to welcome some of the world’s leading artists for the three-day music festival on the beach at Legend Siam Theme Park…
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Royalist accuses 14 year old girl of royal defamation in Thailand
Thai police summoned a 14 year old girl to a police station for questioning after an ultra-royalist accused her of royal defamation, according to Thai Lawyers for Human Rights. She is the youngest person ever to be charged with royal defamation, also called lèse-majesté. Arnon Klinkaew, a core member of an ultra-royalist group, accused the child of violating Section 112…
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Three foreign tourists rescued from Thai jungle
National park officials rescued three foreign tourists who got lost in the jungle in Koh Pha Ngan, Surat Thani province, southern Thailand, yesterday. All three are reportedly safe. At 5.30pm, the Chief of Than Sadet National Park, Tikamporn Phenchom, received a call that three foreign tourists were lost in the jungle on the Khao Ra mountain and needed help. Chief…
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Government of Thailand give green light for Eastern Aviation City takeoff
Construction on the Eastern Aviation City is ready for takeoff this year after the Government of Thailand gave the green light for work to start on the 290 billion baht (US$8.8bn) project. No official date has been confirmed but work is scheduled to start before June. The original project was officially signed in June 2020. An agreement was made between…
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Google tapped as Election Commission denies helping PM
The Office of the Election Commission (EC) reached out to Google Thailand for support in the upcoming General Election, while they deny accusations of favouring Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha. They asked the search engine tech giant to help raise awareness about the election and assist in cracking down on fake news. On Monday, EC Secretary-General Sawaeng Boonmee met with a…
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Birmingham to Bangkok: British poker player wins big and moves to Thailand
A Brummie lad won £3.6 million (145.5 million baht) playing online poker and is now “having the time of his life” in Thailand. An Englishman, 31 year old Richard Sheils, swapped Birmingham for Bangkok after becoming a professional poker player from his bedroom. Now, Sheils is living a life of partying and trips to the beach. Sheils revealed that he…
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‘Bastard police’ chief transfered following Taiwanese actress scandal
In the latest cliff-hanging episode of the “bastard police” and the Taiwanese actress the Royal Thai Police (RTP) announced that the chief of Huai Khwang Police Station has been transferred to an inactive post pending an investigation into alleged extortion. But that’s not all. It has been alleged that the police talked the Grab car driver into lying that the…
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Election billboards for Anutin may be illegal
The Rural Doctor Society raised concerns over the possible violation of election laws by 11,000 roadside billboards featuring Deputy Prime Minister and Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul. The society posted on its Facebook page calling on the Election Commission (EC) to investigate the matter. The billboards are located outside provincial, district, subdistrict and community-level hospitals under the care of the…
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Pirate ship restaurant capsizes in Pattaya
A pirate-ship-themed bar and restaurant capsized off the coast of Pattaya in eastern Thailand yesterday. Luckily, the restaurant was not open for business due to bad weather. At 4.30pm, the Sawang Boriboon Rescue Foundation was informed that the “Krakenian Private of Pattaya” was floating down the coast of Pattaya Beach from Bali Hai Pier, not far from Central Pattaya, slowly…
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4 Chinese tourists & Thai tour guide injured in Chiang Mai crash
Four Chinese tourists and a Thai tour guide were injured after a minibus crashed into an electric pole on a road in the northern province of Chiang Mai. The minivan driver was unharmed and is being questioned to find the cause of the accident. Three rescue teams and officers from Doi Saket Police Station rushed to the scene on the…
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Suicide bombing in Pakistani mosque leaves 59 dead
Peshawar, Pakistan was the site of a devastating suicide bombing yesterday as a bomber detonated himself in a crowded mosque. The attacker targeted a mosque in a highly secure compound known as the “Red Zone,” which houses counter-terrorism and police offices. Some 400 worshippers were inside the mosque when the bomber detonated explosives, resulting in 59 deaths, with 27 of…
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Remorseful husband says wife can burn ‘penis’ with ‘hot iron’ if she catches him gambling again
A remorseful husband said his wife could burn his “penis” with a “hot iron” if she catches him gambling again. The wife of the apologetic hubby, from the central province of Samut Prakarn, shared pictures and a video of her husband tied up on social media to shame him for his online gambling addiction. Local news page Khon Khao Ton…
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