News
Thailand news, politics, business, crime, lifestyle, and tourism—stay updated with breaking news and in-depth analysis from Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Pattaya, and beyond.
-
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...
-
Officials seize 12 tonnes of fake ‘coffee’ laced with hazardous materials
Here’s something to contemplate next time you’re about to enjoy your next caffeine-fix. Vietnam’s Tuoi Tre News daily newspaper is reporting that a family-run coffee producer in Vietnam’s Dak Nong province has been caught manufacturing coffee laced with harmful ingredients from used batteries, dirt and rock dust and black dye. Vietnamese authorities say they seized about 12 tonnes of dangerous…
-
Krabi wedding parade carries 2 million baht dowry
A parade of 6 trucks and trailers to celebrate the wedding of a local couple in Lamtab District, Krabi, drew a lot of attention from people in the area. The groom is 32 year old Tharapong Srisuk, who is a former sub-district chief and the bride is 27 year old Pitchaya Boonmuang. The trailers decorated with flowers carried the groom,…
-
Private investors being wooed over planned marina for Samui
Samui is looking to establish the island’s first marina and is currently looking to investors for the project in the Gulf of Thailand. Asia Pacific Superyachts reports that Koh Samui has succeeded in attracting international five-star brands, a strong luxury villas market as well as quality golf courses. The report says that superyacht sailors are now coming to the region…
-
Police make two arrests over travel scams
The owner of a Thai tour company has been arrested for deceiving 33 tourists left abandoned in Osaka, Japan last February. Tourist Police deputy chief Pol Maj Gen Surachet Hakpal says that 35 year old Sonthaya Phosri had been arrested the day before under a warrant issued by the Thonburi district court. He was charged with cheating 33 Thai tourists…
-
Big drug crackdown in Thalang
Thalang police have arrested a local drug dealer, 24 year old Saowarak ‘Tah’ Oamsin, with 4,548 amphetamine pills and 136.55 grams of crystal methamphetamine. She was arrested in a house in Paklok after police received a report from undercover officers in the area that she was selling drugs to local juveniles regularly. At the house, police found the drugs, a…
-
Soi Dog mobile clinic at Nai Harn Lake
Rawai’s Mayor visited Soi Dog’s Phuket mobile clinic at Nai Harn Lake Park today (April 18) to observe the work and progress of sterilisation and vaccination programs for the area. The mobile unit has been operating since April 9 until April 27 and it’s still not too late to bring your dogs and cats to be sterilised and vaccinated at…
-
Close the beach, put up signs. Hua Hin tackles a one-in-2-million chance.
Shark prevention measures will be introduced in the resort town of Hua Hin after a Norwegian tourist was bitten by a bull shark, even though a marine biologist says there was only a one-in-2-million chance of someone being attacked by a shark. Prachuap Khiri Khan’s deputy governor Chotnarin Kerdsom has confirmed what experts have already validated – a Norwegian tourist…
-
66 more foreigners arrested in nationwide crackdown
FILE PHOTO: The Nation Tourist police have arrested 66 more foreigners during crackdowns around the country last night (Wednesday). Pol Maj-General Surachet Hakpal, deputy tourist police chief spoke whilst in Soi Cowboy off Sukhumvit Road early this morning to announce the results of the operation. He said 11 foreigners were arrested for overstaying their visas and 51 others for unlawfully…
-
PM appoints two new ex-politicians as advisors
The PM is starting to surround himself with more politicians and fewer Army people in the lead up next year’s planned election. The PM, who has always described himself as ‘not a politician’, is showing all the signs of strategically aligning himself with the right people to make him a choice as ‘outside PM’ should the new lower house not…
-
2018 Songkran road toll total up on last year
This year’s Songkran “Seven Dangerous Days counted an appalling toll of 418 people dying on Thailand’s roads compared to last year’s 390. The figures were recorded by the Road Safety Centre said yesterday. The figures follow an ‘all out’ attempt by the Government and police to reduce the carnage on Thai roads over the Songkran break. This year also saw a…
-
Pervert cameraman scares woman in Krabi
A 37 year old woman, Parinda Asapa, contacted Ao Nang Police after she discovered a man taking a video of her taking a shower. She said that she lives in a rented flat in Ao Nang and at about 10.15 pm last night (April 17), she was taking a shower and noticed a man standing behind the wall of the…
-
Passenger nearly gets sucked out of broken Southwest Airlines 737 window
A Southwest Airlines Flight 1380 took off from LaGuardia Airport at 10:27am and landed in Philadelphia about 11:23am. The Boeing 737 was heading to Dallas with 144 passengers and five crew members. For the first 20 minutes, everything seemed calm. Then “a loud boom” suddenly jolted the plane according to passenger Marty Martinez. In what appears to be a turbine blade…
-
Rassada phone robbers arrested – 31 phones recovered
The two phone shop robbers have been arrested today (April 18) after robbing more than 60 phones. The phone shop in Rassada named ‘No.1’ was robbed on April 10 by 38 year old Chok-Anan Chaisongkram and his brother-in-law, Leng Permthong. They got in through the ceiling of the shop and removed the server of a CCTV camera. However, one of…
-
Songkran’s colour splash man arrested
A construction worker, 29 year old Payak Samniangmai, who works in the nearby area where the cars were splashed with acrylic paint on April 13, has been arrested today (April 18). There were a total of 9 cars splattered with the hard-to-remove colour paint. Original story HERE. Most of the victims mentioned that their cars got the colour paint throw…
-
Russian robber in Krabi arrested for stealing iPhone X
Police have arrested a 34 year old Russian man, Aleksei Posysaev, today (April 18) after he stole an iPhone X from a clothes shop in Ao Nang, Krabi. Earlier, the clothes shop owner, Netdao Wiwatratsamee, posted the CCTV footage of the robbery on social media and offered a 5,000 Baht reward to whoever leads to the robber and his family…
-
The Thailand Travel Mart heads to Pattaya this June
Pattaya will host the annual Thailand Travel Mart this June. The show was hosted in Pattaya back in 2001, followed by years in Bangkok before it moved to Chiang Mai in 2016 for a two-year stint. Now the annual B2B event, that showcases travel content from across the country and neighbours in the Mekong Region, moves south to Pattaya’s Ocean…
-
M comes to your Facebook Messenger
“M” is Jame’s Bond’s boss. But starting today, M is also an AI smart assistant embedded in Facebook Messenger in Thailand. Artificial intelligence and intuitive technology are becoming increasingly popular in new Apps and updates. Initially launched in April last year in the US, M has been providing people with suggestions, enriching the way people interact on the Messenger App.…
-
PM Prayut thanks everyone for “ensuring public safety” over Songkran
From the National News Bureau of Thailand… “The Prime Minister, Gen. Prayut Chan-o-cha, thanked all sides, including volunteers, for ensuring public safety during this year’s Songkran festival. The Assistant Government Spokeswoman, Col. Thaksada Sangkhachan, said the Prime Minister asked government agencies to continue organising road safety campaigns after the Songkran festival ended on Tuesday (April 17). Col. Thaksada said Gen.…
-
“You’ve got a better chance of winning the lottery,” Dr Thon Thamrongnawasawat
Screenshot from Dr. Thon’s video Dr. Thon Thamrongnawasawat of the Faculty of Fisheries at Kasetsart University, Bangkok says you have a bigger chance of winning the lottery or being run down by a charging buffalo than being bitten by a shark in Thailand. Dr. Thon’s message was loud and clear – don’t worry about sharks. Not to mention Thai roads and…
-
300,000 baht stolen – 5,000 baht reimbursed
FILE PHOTO Thai Channel 7 TV is reporting a story about safes being removed from hotel rooms in Bangkok last Friday. According to the story there were two safes removed from the Sukhumvit road hotels, along with 300,000 baht, passports and documents. But, according to the law, the hotel were only obliged to reimburse the victims 5,000 baht in compensation.…
-
Day Six – Eight accidents but no deaths on Phuket’s roads
Six days official reporting down and Phuket’s road toll remains at one. One too many, but still an improvement on past years over the Songkran seven day reporting period. During the Monday 24 hour reporting period there were five accidents in the Muang District, three in Kathu and Thalang registering no accidents at all. Police issued 1,880 fines according to…
-
National drug crackdown nets drugs worth 320 million baht
Police seized a large haul of narcotics with a street value of 320 million baht from 101 suspects in 88 drug busts during March 28-April 17. The crime-suppression operations overlapped the Songkran holidays, deputy national police chief Pol General Chalermkiat Srivorakhan told a press conference in Bangkok yesterday (Tuesday). Besides confiscating 255 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine, over 170,000 methamphetamine pills,…
-
Shark fever hits Hua Hin as experts investigate
Authorities in Hua Hin are sending a team of experts to check out the waters off Sai Noi beach, south of Hua Hin, after two days of speculation that a tourist was bitten by a shark. The Marine and Coastal Resources Department is dispatching officers in a bid to allay people’s fears. Reports of the shark attack went viral since…
-
Prawit denies any health problems
Deputy PM and Defence Minister General Prawit Wongsuwan is denying having any health problems. “I am not ill, as you can see now,” said Prawit, who is in charge of the government’s security affairs. During the long Songkran holidays there had been media reports quoting PM General Prayut Chan-o-cha, that his deputy was ill and had received treatment for heart…
-
Family ‘gang’ rob shop in Krabi
A video from CCTV camera footage shot at a clothes shop in Ao Nang, Krabi, shows a 1.32 minutes recording of a family of 3 – father, mother and a son, all western in appearance – stealing an iPhone X from the owner of the shop while pretending to be buyers. The person who posted the video on social media…
-
Krabi woman wins 1st prize in the lottery
A 32 year old Krabi local, Pornpimon Ratniyom, has just won the first prize lottery in the first round since Thai New Year, receiving a prize of 18 million Baht. Pol Capt Niwat Timkate, from Krabi Police Station, revealed the winner yesterday afternoon (April 16). The Thai lottery is announced twice each month (the 1st and 16th of each month).…
-
Former Thai boxer arrested for robbery
Chalong Police have arrested 27 year old Watchara Suwan, a former Thai boxing fighter, after robbing a Russian woman. The 27 year old Russian, Maria Koldaeva, reported to the police that she was riding on his motorcycle from Nai Harn Lake and when they arrived near the football field near Promthep Cape, he stopped the vehicle and grabbed her gold…
-
Belarusian prostitute has her day in BKK court
Anastasia Vashukevich, the Belarusian model and self-branded sex-guru detained in Bangkok, who made extravagant claims about alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 US election, is due in court today. She has offered to dump on several Russian businessmen linked with Russian President Putin with alleged links to US businessmen and politicians close to the US President. Anastasia Vashukevich, AKA Nastya Rybka, was…
-
Japanese passenger claims 3 million yen, camera stolen during Thai flight
FILE PHOTO: Thai Airways flight at Haneda Airport, Japan Police are investigating a claim from Japanese woman that 3 million yen (874,000 baht) and a camera were stolen from her bag aboard a Thai Airways flight from Tokyo. The woman, whose name has been withheld, filed a complaint with the Suvarnabhumi Airport police shortly after her flight landed at 5pm…
-
Krabi trader shames farang family gang
Thai Rath is reporting that a Thai female trader has taken to posting a rant on Facebook and offering a 5,000 baht reward for the return of an iPhone X after CCTV footage showed it being lifted by someone she claims to be Russian. Em posted on her personal Facebook page of Netdao Wiwatratsamee that the thieves arrived as a…
Don't forget to check out some other things to do in Thailand - get help starting a business or finding a job in Thailand, buy Thailand property, rent a yacht or book a medical procedure worldwide.