News
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Sponsored Long-term life in Thailand? 5 reasons private health insurance pays off in the long run
Thailand is a great place for expats and retirees, offering a warm climate, affordable living, and rich culture. However, healthcare can be tricky for foreigners since they aren’t eligible for public health coverage, and private care can be expensive. Private...
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Japan tops Thailand as Chinese tourists’ top choice for Golden Week
Watch out Thailand. Japan is stealing our tourists. Japan has now overtaken Thailand as Chinese vacationers’ top choice for the 2018 Chinese Golden Week holiday. This according to Ctrip.com, one of the biggest travel websites in China. This is the first time Thailand has lost its top destination status to Japan during the holiday season which expect at least 7…
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Three alternatives to Maya Bay
“Stop complaining and take tourists somewhere else – National Park officials.” National parks officials, looking after the Phi Phi islands, say there are plenty of other great locations to visit besides just Koh Phi Phi Ley’s Maya Bay. They were responding to complaints from both tourists and tour operators. Tour operators say that the move to indefinitely close the famous…
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Thaiger Radio News – Saturday
Listen to the daily news from The Thaiger, anytime, anywhere…
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How is Phuket’s tsunami alert system working?
Last week’s Palu tsunami on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, has brought out some raw emotions again in Phuket and prompted questions as to whether the local alarm system is working properly – onshore and offshore. Tim Newton visited Patong Beach to check out the local systems and some of the facts behind tsunamis in the region… https://www.facebook.com/thethaigernews/videos/291301938153535/
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No vegetables are safe – Phuket Vegetarian Festival
The most colourful and vibrant celebration of the ninth lunar month of the Chinese calendar, the Phuket Vegetarian Festival 2018, is held from October 9-17. It also coincides with the Nine Emperor Gods Festival. In accordance with tradition, many religious devotees will strictly adhere to a vegetarian diet to ensure purification of the mind and body. They also traditional abstain…
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Foreigners nationwide being checked as visa changes being considered
PHOTOS: INN The new immigration chief Maj-Gen Surachate Hakparn is making his presence felt promising to investigate 60,000 migrants in a crackdown on illegal workers. He is also promising changes in the way visa extensions are done. INN reports that the crackdown began mid week, with media in tow, in the Huay Khwang, Nana and Khao San areas with the arrest…
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Koh Tao rape investigation team returns from UK tomorrow
Thai police expect to finalise their investigations next week into the alleged rape of a British tourist on Koh Tao a few months ago. The immigration police chief Maj-Gen Surachate Hakparn has been leading the investigation. Representatives of the Royal Thai Police team travelled to the UK last month to interview the 19 year old British woman who claimed to…
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One of two tsunami warning buoys not working since October last year
One of the tsunami buoys, part of the warning system for the Andaman Coast, has been broken since last year. GMM 25 news quotes the Director of the the National Disaster Warning Centre (NDWC) Suppapimit Paorik as saying… “Only one Tsunami warning buoy is still working. There are two of them. One of them remains broken since October last year.…
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Faulty warning systems worries locals – Phuket
Since the deadly tsunami struck Phuket in 2004, local people have trained their ears to listen to any alerts from the local warning towers only to learn that the system does not work properly. “I don’t have much confidence in the warning towers system,” Kantima Datthuyawat, a masseuse on the Kamala Beach in Phuket province, lamented. She said she always…
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Thaiger Radio News – Friday
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Thailand donates to the Indonesian relief effort whilst thousands flee the region
Thai PM Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha says the Kingdom of Thailand has made a donation of 5 million baht to the relief program to assist victims of Indonesia’s earthquake and tsunami. International efforts to assist the Indonesian government to deal with the devastating natural disasters gathered pace amidst concerns over hundreds of thousands of survivors with little food and water. Thai…
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Phuket Governor inspects the Phoenix salvage site
Phuket’s Governor Pakkapong Tawaipat headed out to the scene of the salvation operations to recover the Phoenix, the boat that sank on July 5 causing the drowning death of 47 Chinese tourists. The Phuket PR Office says a team of officials, headed up by the new Governor, departed from Chalong Pier on a speed boat at 4pm yesterday to the…
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Everything is OK – KCon 2018 comes to Bangkok
In case you’ve been living under a rock, K-Pop, the garish, highly-produced pop/RnB/hip-hop fusion coming out of South Korea, is the biggest ‘thing’ in international pop music sales at the moment. And KCon – a celebration of everything K-Pop – has just swept through Bangkok. No fewer than 40,000 devoted fans of the Korean Wave massed at Impact Arena and…
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No more ‘tips’ at Immigration
The new Thai immigration chief, Maj-General Surachate Hakparn, has implemented his first promise at immigration stations. The signage going up nationwide is clear and unequivocal. No Tips. That means no more payments to corrupt immigration officials or the agents who collect the tea money from tourists and either pass it on or keep it for themselves. It’s also a tacit…
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Shoot out at the Tesco Lotus
Drama at a local Tesco Lotus in Nakorn Pathom, west of Bangkok, yesterday. Sanook reports that a Thai father, who had repeatedly warned a man to stay away from his daughter, shot him then fired into the man’s pick-up in the parking lot of a Tesco Lotus in Nakorn Pathom. Police captain Wasan Tangtham found a lot of blood in…
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Extensive dredging gives Royal Phuket Marina round-the-clock access
Royal Phuket Marina, working closely with the Marine Department in Phuket, have recently completed dredging of its marina basin and access channel, increasing the depth to two metres at the lowest tide and enabling motor boats up to 35 metres round-the-clock access. “The recent dredging program is part of our ongoing commitment to customers and our desire to drive Thailand’s…
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Three Krabi districts hit with flash floods
FILE PHOTO: nationmultimedia.com A canal running through three districts in Krabi burst its banks and inundate several villages early on Thursday after hours of heavy rain overnight. Officials said the Klong Sin Poon canal that runs through Klong Thom district, Nua Klong district and Khao Phanom district overflowed at about 4am, causing widespread flooding in three districts. The canal receives…
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You’re in the drivers seat, in your BKK hotel
The MeStyle Garage Hotel Bangkok, a new themed boutique hotel, is taking guests on an offbeat journey to experience a new dimension in design – ‘garage funky’ – inspired by its founder’s passion for cars. The hotel is the latest project from MeStyle Property Co, based in the Huay Kwang district of Bangkok. About 800 metres from Huay Kwang MRT…
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Bridge over troubled floodwaters – Kamala to Patong Road
Clean up efforts are well underway following damage to the Patong-Kamala coast road on Tuesday. A damaged bridge was checked yesterday. The Kamala Administrative Organisation (OrBorTor) has issued a temporary ban for the use of some damaged areas which are part of a hotel adjacent to the road’s main bridge. A team of officials, led by the Phuket Vice Governor…
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Two tsunami warning towers on Koh Phi Phi not working
PHOTO: Tsunami warning systems on Koh Phi Phi’s Ton Sai Bay – Daily News Two towers on Koh Phi Phi have tsunami warning systems that are not working. 700 people died on the island in the 2004 Asian tsumani that killed around 5,000 people along the Andaman coast of Thailand. Daily News is reporting that, just days after thousands were killed…
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Thai public hospital system under stress
Public Health Ministry permanent secretary Dr Sukhum Kanchanapimai yesterday admitted that the country’s hospitals were overwhelmed, following an outspoken doctor’s comments that the system was “close to collapse”. Sukhum told a press conference in Nonthaburi province yesterday that crowded conditions were a reality and the bed occupation rate in many big hospitals was beyond full capacity. To tackle this long-standing…
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Thaiger Radio News – Thursday
Listen to the daily news from The Thaiger, anytime, anywhere…
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All Phuket tsunami warning towers still working – Phuket DDPM
In the wake of the Palu tsunami in Sulawesi, many Phuketians have asked us to check if the island’s tsunami warning system is working. Good news. All 19 of Phuket’s tsunami warning towers are fully operational. Only a few of them had minor problems with their audio alarm, according to the Phuket DDPM Chief. Another Indonesian earthquake, this time a…
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Burmese man drowns trying to rescue monkey
Three male Myanmar citizens did the right thing and jumped into a lagoon in Koh Kaew last night trying to rescue a monkey. But one of them drowned during his efforts to save the distressed monkey. Kusoldarm rescue divers were notified that a man had drowned at the lagoon in about 6pm. 38 year old U Mae Au, a Burmese…
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Warning for horny pachyderms in Phetchaburi
Sanook reports that the head of the Kaeng Krachan national park in Phetchaburi is warning us to take care after a video showing an elephant in ‘musth’. An elephant in musth can have up to six times greater reproductive hormones running through their veins. According to the national park chief, elephants can become dangerous to their own kind as well as…
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Interpol red-list Russian nabbed in Pattaya
PHOTO: Manager Online A Russian man, wanted on an Interpol red warrant, is now in custody after police caught up with him in Pattaya yesterday. The arrest was made after the Chon Buri police head office received a request from the Russian embassy to locate Vitalil Trofimov, who is wanted in Russia on drug trafficking charges. Police checked records and…
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Nigerian and Thai arrested over romance scam
Police have arrested a Thai woman and a Nigerian man for having allegedly deceived at least three Thai women to transfer them some 444,900 baht in a romance scam. The new immigration police chief Maj Gen Surachet Hakpal told a press conference on Wednesday that 41 year old Chigozie Orisakwe and 37 year old and Panhathai Chermchan were arrested under…
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Najib’s wife arrested, to be charged with money laundering – Malaysia
Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, the wife of the former Malaysian PM, Najib Tun Razak, has been arrested by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC). According to her lawyers, she was arrested at 3.20pm while giving a statement at the headquarters of the MACC. It has been learnt that the wife of the former prime minister will be charged with money laundering…
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Crocodile farms in Krabi checked after wandering croc captured
Officials from the Krabi Fisheries Office have checked crocodile farms around Krabi after locals caught a two metre crocodile in a mangrove forest in Klongtom this week, while another crocodile has been sighted in the same area. Read more about the crocodile being caught by locals HERE. Officials from Krabi Fisheries Office yesterday checked a crocodile farm owned by Nikorn Piwon…
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Andaman’s Barren Island Volcano erupting
PHOTO: Volcano Hotspot According to volcanodiscovery.com, the Barren Island Volcano, situated about 800 kilometres north-west of Phuket, and 130 kilometres east of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, is erupting today. There are currently no warnings or alerts about this occurrence – the volcano last erupted in December last year. According to volcanodiscovery.com, Barren Island, a possession of India in the…
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