Thailand News
Thailand news, politics, business, crime, and lifestyle—get breaking updates from Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Pattaya, and beyond. Stay informed on Thai society, economy, tourism, and expat life with The Thaiger.
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Cut and run
CHONBURI: In the latest incident involving a philandering lover, a jealous girlfriend and a sharp knife, a young man from Petchaboon province awoke on the morning of September 4 to find to find a very private part lying in a pool of blood on the floor next to his bed. The victim, identified as 20-year-old Amnart Pinkratok, was rushed to…
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A very rich diet
PHAYAO: Doctors performing emergency abdominal surgery were dumbfounded when they found more than two kilograms of coins and other objects inside the patient’s gut. Sanguan, 37, was taken to Phayao Hospital by relatives after complaining of severe stomach pain on August 31. Doctors knew something was amiss when they looked at X-ray images of Sanguan’s stomach – it looked like…
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The love that lasts
SUPHAN BURI: Love is sweeter the second time round for Suphan Buri newlyweds Sunthon Thanabutr, 74, and Sumrith Aom-aerm, 75. The love-struck third-agers, both of whom have been married and widowed, knew each other more than half a century before their chance meeting at an “Elders’ Day” event held at Wat Pho Takuan earlier this year. K. Sumrith said that,…
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Cops and fobbers
BANGKOK: A former security guard at the Israeli Embassy in Bangkok was arrested on August 8 for impersonating a police officer and illegal possession of a firearm, police said. Following reports of gunfire at 5 am , two police officers from the Makkasan Police station found Theerapong Sawaiprekon, 30, in a police uniform at the scene. The former security guard…
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Crack worship
SUKHOTHAI: Villagers who discovered a long crack in a wall surrounding Khong Pong temple in Sri Samrong District believe it was made by an angry naga, or serpent-god. The crack was first noted on July 22, when pupils came to ask temple administrator Sawai Pradit why the 200-year-old temple had cracks resembling a serpent’s track around its exterior wall. Dumbfounded,…
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Death by aromatherapy
BANGKOK: A woman in Bang-wa District died of asphyxiation after turning her bathroom into a makeshift sauna and aromatherapy chamber in an attempt to shed unwanted flab. Tanakrit Kianthong, a grilled pork vendor, told police he returned home on July 3 to find his wife Pattaporn, 43, lying dead on the floor of the second-story bathroom of the couple’s three-story…
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Pig farmer’s matrimonial madness
SURAT THANI: A mentally disturbed pig farmer threatened to hang himself and his baby daughter from a flagpole if the police did not comply with his demands to be locked up in a prison cell for 18 months. It was later learned that the crazed man was desperate to find a retreat from his long-term lovers. The incident occurred just…
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Taking candy from baby
BANGKOK: A daughter delivered her father’s safe, containing over 2 million baht in cash and valuables, to swindlers who called her and told her that her father owed them a lot of money. Rapipat Surapipit, 57, Personnel Manager of Plaza Athenee Hotel in Bangkok, told police that his daughter (name and age unreported) was at home with the family’s 24-year-old…
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Great ball of fire!
KOH SIREH: When firefighters responded to a call from the 100-year-old Muslim community on Koh Sireh at about 4:30 on the morning of May 24, little did they know that they were about to witness a gaseous and ghostly apparition. It took city and provincial firefighting units about 30 minutes to extinguish the blaze at 12/24 Soi Si Sena and…
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Crapuccino, anyone?
THAILAND: Name any addictive drug and you will find users seeking ever-more efficient ways of getting it into their bloodstreams. The latest case is caffeine, the state-sanctioned stimulant found in coffee. Under the guise of “alternative medicine”, caffeine junkies are now taking coffee enemas. They claim that a good dose of java administered directly into the colon can have a…
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Dark times for black dogs
SRISAKET: Black dogs in Nongsimai Village 2 were slaughtered recently after a local shaman convinced villagers that soaking string in the blood of a black dog and wrapping it around their homes would offer protection from the dreaded phi porp – a female ghost that kills married men and eats their innards. After two village men died in mysterious circumstances,…
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Milkmaid of human kindness
BANGKOK: You won’t find many 71-year-old women bragging about their bosoms, but a fortune teller in Bangkok recently invited reporters to squeeze her breasts to prove that they were filled with milk. And not just any old milk. The woman, whose chest measures an impressive 38 inches, claims to have an abundant supply of “supernatural” milk that can ease pain,…
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Beach blanket bingo
KARON: In an effort to find beer for himself and his new best friend from Burma, the transvestite cashier of a local bar broke into two mini-marts and helped himself. But, high as he was on the twin passions of beer and very close friendship, he left his address book on the beach among the empty beer bottles – allowing…
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Food fight
PHITSANULOK: They say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, but a housewife in Nernmaprang District wound up dead with a shotgun blast through her stomach – after serving her drunk husband a dinner that he deemed mai aroy (not delicious). The wife, 33-year-old Somtong Kamyuang of Tambon Chompoo Village 3, had prepared dinner for her husband…
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Sexist Grim Reaper
RAYONG: Residents of Village 7 of Tambon Baan Laeng, Muang District, held a Buddhist sadaokhro merit-making ceremony on March 11 to try to turn around a string of untimely deaths that has caused the number of male residents to plummet to the point where there are 141 males and 269 females. One might imagine that the surviving males might like…
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Really tough love
NAKHON SRI THAMMARAT: Some parents learn too late that the time to teach their offspring some discipline is when they are still young. The retired cop who pulled a out a .22 caliber pistol and shot his only son on the afternoon of March 4 in Thoong Song District may be one such parent. When police arrived at the scene,…
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Cursed by spirits
BANGKOK: A man from Buri Ram province who went on a three-day drinking binge returned to his job in the capital with a terrible pain in his abdomen – which he apparently tried to cure by operating on himself. The man, identified as a 32-year-old Sanan Jodrum, having three days vacation, did what most low-paid laborers in Bangkok do: he…
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Instant death
KHON KAEN: There are plenty of coffee lovers in Thailand, but one itinerant sugarcane cutter from Khon Kaen took caffeine craving to new heights. Banjong Singhakul, 45, found that he could bypass the annoying process of mixing the stuff with hot water by simply munching down mouthfuls of instant coffee granules. Unfortunately, too much of anything is never a good…
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The horror of the morning after
PATHUM THANI: Some people may be familiar with the surprise of waking up on the morning of New Year’s Day to find an unexpected creature lying beside them in bed. Few, however, take the trouble to report such incidents to the police. Fewer still are the cases where police haul the offending bedmate off to jail. Pol Lt Col Sarawut…
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Eye-for-an-eye justice
YASOTHORN: The family of an 11-year-old boy in Muang District’s tambon Khlum-ngen turned up at the local police station to file charges against the boy’s teacher, accusing her of spraying lime juice into their son’s eyes as a form of punishment. Pensri Thongwichai said that her son, Sapasit, developed an eye infection because of mistreatment by his teacher, Ajarn Pannee…
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A definite case of penis envy
NAKHON PATHOM: Phallic symbols have been worshiped by man since time immemorial, and in Nakhon Pathom’s Phra Phathom Chedi district lives one man who is doing his best to keep that tradition alive. Not only has he collected 300-400 wooden lingams, but he proudly wears 100 of them – all at once suspended – from a special belt strapped around…
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Banged to rights
NAKHON SRI THAMMARAT: As 40-year-old Somsak Chinaphan sat in front of a mom and pop store in Phibul District on October 27, local police turned up and placed him under arrest for rape. Accompanying the arresting officials, and boldly pointing the finger of blame, was his ex-wife and mother of their three children, 38-year-old Somreudee Chinaphan. K. Somsak, the owner…
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Pricey pawing
PATHUM THANI: Udomdech Rattanasathien, Secretary to Public Health Minister Sudarat Keyuraphan, led a team of department officials and police on a raid at another dubious treatment facility, also in Phatum Thani, on October 7. This raid followed complaints by a female patient that she had been sexually assaulted during treatment – by a well-known monk. The woman said her treatment…
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Massively massaged
PATHUM THANI: When it comes to traditional Thai massage, some like it harder than others. But few people suffering from stiffness or poor circulation want to emerge from massage treatment looking as if they had just gone five hard rounds in a Muay Thai fight – which was the type of service a renegade massage parlor in Pathum Thani had…
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Man discovers screw worm
NAKHON NAYOK: Watch out Pfizer – a fireman who recently gobbled down fistfuls of live earthworms on TV claims the slimy, dirt-eating creatures give him extra stamina in bed. And unlike Viagra, they don’t cost 400 baht each. Paisit Chanta, 39, said he’d been eating worms since he was 10, when he got hungry while fishing. His wife, Chuleeporn Chanta,…
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A cow of a day
NAKHON SRI THAMMARAT: Cows, women, motorcycle owners and rubber plantation workers in Nakhon Sri Thammarat’s Tung Song will sleep better this month in the knowledge that an ex-convict is back in police custody after confessing to a spate of motorbike thefts and some thoroughly repugnant crimes. Tung Song police pulled over the suspect, 37-year-old Boontham Chanasongkraam, as he was riding…
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Drunk with noose cooks own goose
TRANG: One can cheat death for only so long, as residents of tambon Kok Lor in Trang province learned recently when an elderly villager hanged himself “accidentally on purpose” while drunk. The “accidental” suicide occurred on August 16, when 76-year-old Sian Ninlata suspended a rope from a roof beam, placed his head in the noose and stumbled around drunk on…
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Why love’s a blast
KAMPHAENG PHET: They say you’re never too old to fall in love. But if that’s true, then it must follow that you’re never too old to blow away a romantic rival with a shotgun in a fit of jealous rage, either. When 73-year-old land owner Samraan Imsuwat rented out a piece of land to 71-year-old Nou See-uso to cultivate jasmine…
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Tiger attack: one dead, two critical
PHRAE: Given the madness and mayhem that afflict Thai roads, it’s only natural that people want to spend as much time as possible in the safety of their homes. But a recent tragedy in Phrae province shows that even being at home in front of the TV is no guarantee of safety from drunk drivers. At about midnight on August…
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When the village headman loses it
BURI RAM: A mentally-disturbed man in Buri Ram’s Ban Dan district sliced off the head of his brother-in-law then walked around the village in a demented state, carrying the head in a plastic bag and laughing. The incident occurred in Tambon Prasaat on the morning of August 2. The victim, a 68-year-old farmer named Bun Tharuangrum, was living in the…
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