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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Sponsored How to travel around Thailand for under US$30 a day
The Thaiger key takeaways Staying in budget hostels or guesthouses and eating street food keeps daily expenses low. Mixing buses, trains, and budget flights allows affordable travel between cities and islands. Free or cheap activities, such as temples, markets, parks,...
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Bangkok: First execution in Thailand in nine years
PHOTO: Thai Rath Thailand has conducted its first execution since 2009. The Department of Corrections has confirmed that a convict has been executed by lethal injection at Bang Kwang Prison in Bangkok. 26 year old Theerasak Longji was convicted of robbing and killing a person with a knife in Trang, southern Thailand, in July 2012. The victim was stabbed 24 times. A…
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Bangkok: Taxi driver returns 270,000 baht cash
The Nation is reporting that a Bangkok taxi driver found cash worth 270,000 baht in Thai, Cambodian and US banknotes in a handbag at the weekend and handed it over to a radio station, which later managed to locate the Cambodian owner and return it to him. The passenger, 24 year old Op Simony Odum, got the money back from…
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Koh Samui: British tourist apologises for insurance scam
PHOTO: Surat Thani Immigration The Daily Mirror is reporting that a British tourist is being forced to apologise after being caught out in an insurance scam while holidaying in Koh Samui. 35 year old Adesanya Olamide Omolaja had told police he was robbed at knife point by three men who stole his backpack. Omolaja claimed the robbers escaped on motorbikes with his…
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Bamboo Island in Krabi floods with rising sea level
The sea level has risen up to 30 centimetres and caused flooding at Bamboo Island (Koh Mai Pai) in Krabi yesterday (June 18). Red flags have been put along the beach. Officers of Hat Noppharat Thara – Mu Ko Phi Phi National Park, stationed at Koh Mai Pai, have set red flags along the beach to prevent swimmers going into the water…
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Visa hassles for South African teachers
PHOTO: Study Abroad By Eric Haeg According to an official announcement from the Thai Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, citizens from South Africa, “are advised to apply for visa (sic.) at the Royal Thai Embassy or Royal Thai Consulate-General in their respective countries if they do not reside in Malaysia.” This list also includes citizens of dozens of other African, Middle…
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Chiang Mai: Controversial housing estate to be ringed with ‘No Man’s Land’ signs
The Government brokered a deal where all but four apartments would have to be removed las month. Yet people are now living in the 45 houses on the slopes of Doi Suthep in Chiang Mai. So what’s going on? The Doi Suthep Forest Reclamation Network said it would post “No Man’s Land” signs around the Chiang Mai mountain housing estate…
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Samui: Woman arrested for running illegal dental clinic
Of all the things you probably wouldn’t ever want to use – a self-taught dentist. So thanks to the police on Samui for tracking down this alleged ‘cosmetic tooth doctor’. A self-taught dental practitioner has been arrested on Koh Samui yesterday (Sunday) for opening an illegal clinic to attach fashion braces for clients. Pol Lt-Colonel Sompol Buranathet, deputy commander of…
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Controlled use of kratom and marijuana to be decriminalised
By Pratch Rujivanarom There may be a time in the near future where local police aren’t required to chase around and arrest people using kratom and marijuana, in some situation and in small quantities. Decriminalisation has worked in some countries where it is followed by solid public education. How will Thailand handle decriminalisation of these drugs? New narcotics laws to…
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Chonburi: Emotions spill onto the streets during World Cup match
Where there’s a World Cup match playing at a pub, there’s going to be alcohol. And where there’s long games there’s going to be some pent-up emotions. According to Sanook, violence erupted between a group of Thai and Chinese men during the Argentina vs Iceland World Cup match on Saturday night in Phanat Nikom, north of Pattaya and east of…
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Coastal erosion experts ringing alarm bells
“This is a big problem needing urgent solution.” Erosion is eating away five metres of land every year along a combined 42 kilometre long stretch of Thailand’s coastline. The situation is now so serious that a consulting firm is proposing that the government invoke an already-passed environmental law to protect the hard-hit coasts. Kittipoj Permpul, a public-participation expert at a consulting…
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Chonburi school hazing ceremony – Grounds for concern
School hazing ceremonies are a part of Thai culture. At schools it can be as innocent as the Wai Khru ceremony where students prostrate themselves in front of their teachers to show respect, to the more colourful ceremonies devised by older students and lecturers at universities which have also drawn concern from sections of Thai society. It’s all part of…
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Wife missing after pickup is swept into a Ranong canal
By Kanita Seetong Storms, high winds and flash flooding have wreaked havoc across the Andaman region over recent days. Flash floods have swept a pickup into a canal in Ranong’s Suk Samran district last night (Saturday), with one of the victims missing and feared dead. Ranong’s disaster prevention and mitigation chief Kittipon Wuttipongpat said the accident happened near the Wang…
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Thai economic growth forecast projections up to 6% – World Bank
The World Bank is looking to boost projections for growth in the Thai economy. In the last financial quarter, expansion of the Thai economy hit a five-year high. Ulrich Zachau, the World Bank’s director for Thailand and regional partnerships, says that a stable outlook and signs that Thai business is investing again domestically are among the positive factors for the…
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Is a fresh crackdown on alcohol-related sales and businesses on the way?
The Thai junta is warning that it intends to enforce harsh measures regulating the advertising and promotion of alcohol, in a move that will affect thousands of businesses throughout the country. Details of the law, which affected business claim is vague and open to interpretation, are provided below. There has been a number of raids on pubs, clubs and hotels…
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Chiang Mai: Judicial officers have “no plans to move out” – Doi Sutep housing controversy heats up
Despite a ban on use of the controversial housing project on the slopes of Doi Suthep in Chiang Mai, judicial officials are not only living there but refuse to move out. The campaigners against the ‘scar of Doi Suthep’ held a meeting today, to address the issue of officers living in the judicial housing, despite a government order that nobody…
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Bangkok: A car and 500 motorcycle seized in road racing crackdown
Police in Samut Prakan province, just south east of central Bangkok city, have seized a car and some 500 motorcycles in a crack down on road racing last night (Friday). Pol Maj-General Surachet Hakpal said police from 14 police stations in Samut Prakan set up road checkpoints to check for vehicles that were illegally modified for racing. They impounded a…
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Bangkok: Another 50 foreigners arrested in weekly immigration shakedown
In the latest of the weekly crackdowns on illegal immigrants, police in Bangkok have rounded up another 50 foreigners, for overstaying their visas and entering the Kingdom without the correct documentation. The Tourist police joined forces with other police agencies to search 87 areas around the country on Friday night and arrested 50 foreigners, mostly for overstaying their visa and…
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Up in smoke. 61 million meth pills and 486kg of crystal meth.
61 million meth pills and 486kg of crystal meth, 108kg of heroin, 122kg of opium, 10kg of ecstasy pills, 5kg of cocaine and 7.3 tonnes of marijuana and kratom leaves. Raids, stings and seizures around the country have netted an astonishing amount of drugs in recent months – almost one meth pill for every single Thai! So what happens to…
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Nakhon Pathom: Man shoots pregnant girlfriend dead, injures her father
A man fatally shot his pregnant girlfriend and severely injured her father and himself inside the Nakhon Pathom Hospital on Friday at around 1:30pm. Police did not identify the attacker and two victims. Witnesses told police that the young man turned up at the hospital and had a dispute with the woman and the older man who appeared to be…
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Pattaya: 19th SingSiam war games in the Gulf of Thailand
PHOTOS: trattoday.com Military exercises are taking place in the northern Gulf of Thailand between Sattahip and Koh Samui. Col. Anthony Lee, commander of Singapore’s 188th Squadron, and Rear Adm. Thawatchai Muangkham, commander of the Thai Frigate Squadron, were on site for the 19th war games at the Sattahip Naval Base. “The SingSiam games give Thai forces a chance to improve…
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Youth warned to avoid World Cup gambling trap
In the hours leading up to the kick of the 2018 Fifa World Cup, advocates against young people gambling on the football were parading in downtown Bangkok. A 2017 survey found that 2.4 million Thais engaged in football gambling valued at a reported 140 billion (yes BILLION) baht. The survey also says that 82.6 per cent of secondary student punters…
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Regional: AirAsia says MAVCOM’s ‘damaging tourism growth’
PHOTO: Sputnik International ‘Now everyone can fly,’ but not as many as AirAsia would like. They’re going into a head to head battle with the Malaysian aviation compliance body, MAVCOM. AirAsia is accusing Malaysia’s aviation body, MAVCOM, of holding back the country’s aviation and damaging tourism growth. The airline made the accusations in a rebuttal of an earlier statement released…
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National: 260,000 tonnes of electronic and plastic trash imported from China
Thai PBS is reporting that about 260,000 tonnes of trash have been imported into Thailand in the first five months of this year period this year. This compares to 116,000 tonnes imported for the whole of 2017, said This from the Customs Department spokesman Mr Chaiyuth Khamkhun. He added that, of the trash imported this year, it included 52,200 tonnes of…
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Hua Hin: 68 year old throws himself off fifth floor roof
Banmuang is reporting that a 68 year old Dutch man appears to have jumped from the fifth floor of a Hua Hin hotel. The man had been staying in the same hotel for the past month. It’s reported that many people from the next door Darun Suksa School saw the body as the school broke up for the day yesterday…
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Leading players want charter amended after election
A symposium “Thailand’s Future Democracy: Overcoming Traps and Dreams?”was held yesterday at Thammasat University’s Tha Prachan Campus. Probable players in a future political arena, Abhisit, Chaturon and Thanathorn, see the junta’s legacy as barrier to genuine democracy. The Junta-sponsored charter, which imposes curbs on politicians, remains the prime target of big political parties who aim to replace it after the…
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60,000 counterfeit travel mugs seized in BKK raids
Most of us will have a branded 100 baht T-shirt somewhere in one of our drawers, maybe even a fake Louis Vuitton bag or wallet, or a Tag Heuer watch we haggled in a Patpong market for 1,500 baht. Fakes are everywhere in Thailand. But travel mugs? 60,000 travel mugs?! Some 60,000 plastic coffee cups, tumblers and mugs bearing brand…
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Chiang Mai: Doi Suthep homes “at risk from natural disasters”
A separate issue has arisen in the case of the controversial buildings on the slopes of Doi Suthep in Chiang Mai. Building engineers are pointing their fingers at the steep slopes around structures that were initially built to be the residences of court officials in Chiang Mai province, saying they’re a potential natural disaster waiting to happen. There are “significant…
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Illegal timbers seized in Phang Nga
A team of Border Patrol Police based in Phang Nga this week have seized 13 logs inside a palm plantation in Phang Nga. The discovery came after police received tip-offs about deforestation in Khura Buri, Phang Nga. More than 20 border patrol police investigated and found 13 logs size 2.50 – 2.80 metres in the forest. These logs are now…
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Bangkok: 400,000 baht spending spree and holiday with stolen ATM cards
SCREENCAPTURES: Channel 7 Credit card theft is an ongoing cat and mouse game between criminals, bank encryption technology and lawyers fighting to recover lost funds from victims. In this case the cards were recovered and the culprits apprehended. Channel 7 report that CCTV footage from a 7/11 store in Bangkok revealed on Thai TV showed the moment when a Thai…
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Southern Insurgency: Emergency decree extended another three months
The government has extended the state of emergency in the three southernmost provinces for a further three months. The extension was announced in the Royal Gazette yesterday (Wednesday). The emergency decree covers Narathiwat except Sungai Kolok district, Yala except Betong district and Pattani except Mae Lan district. The announcement of the emergency decree in Royal Gazette states that the extension is…
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