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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    Is private health insurance in Thailand worth it? Real costs vs risks explained

    Thailand has a strong healthcare system with both public and private options. Public hospitals offer affordable care, but many people, including expats, choose private health insurance for faster service, modern facilities, and more treatment choices. To decide if private health...

  • Inter-provincial bus services to be increased over New Year holiday

    Inter-provincial bus services to be increased over New Year holiday

    The president of the Transport Company says inter-provincial bus and van services are being extended to meet increased demand over the New Year period. According to a Bangkok Post report, Sanyalux Panwattanalikit is expecting passenger numbers to increase by 30% during the end-of-year holiday. Between yesterday and Thursday of next week, the company expects to transport an average of 60,000…

  • Celebrate the festive season at Angsana Laguna Phuket

    Celebrate the festive season at Angsana Laguna Phuket

    Sponsored Article Celebrate the festive season at Angsana Laguna Phuket, a vibrant resort located on Bang Tao Beach. A variety of enticing dining options are sure to make the festive season special at the tropical resort in Laguna Phuket Angsana Laguna Phuket is here to present you with a variety of fascinating events as we approach the most delightful time…

  • Thailand accelerates anti-doping decree to appease World Anti-Doping Agency

    Thailand accelerates anti-doping decree to appease World Anti-Doping Agency

    Officials have approved an executive decree to change Thailand’s anti-doping law in an effort to have a ban on hosting international tournaments lifted. Last month, the World Anti-Doping Agency ruled that Thailand was non-compliant with its 2021 code for failing to fully implement the organisation’s anti-doping code. According to a Bangkok Post report, Thai athletes can still participate in international…

  • Government officials ordered to work from home, private sector urged to follow

    Government officials ordered to work from home, private sector urged to follow

    The Public Health Ministry says government officials have been ordered to work from home after the New Year holiday break and the private sector is being “asked to follow suit” to protect their employees. According to a Bangkok Post report, schools may also face a return to online learning in a bid to control the spread of the Omicron variant.…

  • Tuesday Covid Update: 2,305 new cases; provincial totals

    Tuesday Covid Update: 2,305 new cases; provincial totals

    32 coronavirus-related deaths were reported by the CCSA today, raising the pandemic’s death toll in Thailand to 21,630 with 21,536 of those fatalities during the latest wave, which was first recorded on April 1. In the 24-hour period since the last count, the CCSA recorded 2,305 new Covid-19 cases and 3,070 recoveries. There are now 33,639 people in Thailand being…

  • Does Thailand recognise legal gay marriage from other countries?

    Does Thailand recognise legal gay marriage from other countries?

    Does Thailand care about civil partnerships or gay marriage? Does Thailand recognise legal gay marriage from other countries? When will parliament implement changes? Tim sits down with Benjamin Hart from Integrity Legal to talk about Civil Partnerships in Thailand.

  • TUI Nordic continue their European flights into Phuket

    TUI Nordic continue their European flights into Phuket

    Yesterday it was reported that Europe’s largest travel firm TUI Nordic announced it had cancelled scheduled chartered flights to Phuket from December to April next year. The Thaiger has since been contacted by TUI Nordic to say that the information, originally published by The Nation, was incorrect. European travel giant TUI, with their headquarters in Sweden, have now confirmed that…

  • Pattaya residents and expats accuse bank manager of fraud, hold protest

    Pattaya residents and expats accuse bank manager of fraud, hold protest

    Around 50 to 100 Thais and foreigners in Pattaya held a protest last Friday accusing the assistant manager of a local Kasikorn Bank branch of scamming them out of more than 300 million baht. A report was filed back in February accusing the assistant bank manager of defrauding people out of millions of baht, for some it was their life…

  • Evacuation drills run for students in Thailand’s border region as violence in Myanmar escalates

    Evacuation drills run for students in Thailand’s border region as violence in Myanmar escalates

    With clashes just across the border between the Myanmar state military and the ethnic army troops so close that bullets are landing on Thai soil, students in Mae Hong Son are being trained on how to escape if the gunfire reaches the school grounds. Soldiers and teachers ran drills over the weekend for students at the Baan Ta Fang school.…

  • 700 inmates fight at Isaan prison, 3 seriously injured

    700 inmates fight at Isaan prison, 3 seriously injured

    A fight involving around 700 inmates broke out at a prison in the Isaan province Sisaket over the weekend, seriously injuring three of the prisoners. Ten other inmates were also injured. At around 9am on Sunday, as they were finishing breakfast, more than 700 prisoners divided into two sides and started fighting, some using toothbrushes they had sharpened as a…

  • New Year glass half-empty for TAT due to Omicron variant

    New Year glass half-empty for TAT due to Omicron variant

    The normally optimistic Tourism Authority of Thailand is feeling slightly more downbeat amid concerns about a potential Omicron outbreak. TAT governor Yuthasak Supasorn says the threat of another Covid-19 outbreak is affecting travel sentiment. According to a Bangkok Post report, he expects New Year travel to generate just 8.04 billion baht in domestic tourism revenue. “Concerns over a possible outbreak…

  • Thailand’s Health Ministry outlines plan to tackle potential Omicron outbreak

    Thailand’s Health Ministry outlines plan to tackle potential Omicron outbreak

    Thailand is preparing for a potential outbreak of the Omicron Covid-19 variant, with plans to revive the home isolation programme. Dr Somsak Akksilp from the Public Health Ministry’s Medical Services Department says home isolation can be used for most infected people, along with community isolation facilities in Bangkok. According to a Thai PBS World report, Somsak is confident that home…

  • UPDATE: TUI Nordic to continue services into Phuket

    UPDATE: TUI Nordic to continue services into Phuket

    UPDATE: Yesterday it was reported that Europe’s largest travel firm TUI Nordic announced it had cancelled scheduled chartered flights to Phuket from December to April next year. We’ve since been contacted by TUI Nordic to say that the information, originally published by The Nation, was incorrect. A Phuket representative was quoted originally, but the Senior Product Manager of TUI Nordic,…

  • Monday Covid Update: 2,437 new cases; provincial totals

    Monday Covid Update: 2,437 new cases; provincial totals

    18 coronavirus-related deaths were reported by the CCSA today, raising the pandemic’s death toll in Thailand to 21,598 with 21,504 of those fatalities during the latest wave, which was first recorded on April 1. In the 24-hour period since the last count, the CCSA recorded 2,437 new Covid-19 cases and 3,845 recoveries. There are now 34,436 people in Thailand being…

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  • Some Tak locals say the deaths of 10 men are related to a ghost looking for a husband

    Some Tak locals say the deaths of 10 men are related to a ghost looking for a husband

    Locals reportedly believe that the deaths of 10 men in a community in the western province Tak, bordering Myanmar, were related… to a ghost of a widow. Some local men have even moved away for the time being until the “ghost” problem is solved. At one house, locals hung up a red shirt with a sign that read in Thai…

  • Local mosque leader shot and killed in Pattani

    Local mosque leader shot and killed in Pattani

    Police are investigating the murder of a local mosque’s leader who was shot and killed while driving his motorcycle in Sai Buri in Southern Thailand’s Pattani province on Sunday night. The religious leader was shot twice, in the head and in the abdomen. The gunman is still at large. Police say a gunman shot Abdulloh Walor, a member of the mosque’s…

  • 17 year old drowns on Christmas while swimming at Southern Thailand beach

    17 year old drowns on Christmas while swimming at Southern Thailand beach

    On Christmas Day, a 17 year old drowned while swimming at a beach in southern Thailand. His body was found yesterday about 500 to 600 metres from shore. The teenager went to the Nai Pret beach in Nakhon Si Thammarat’s Khanom district with two of his friends. The current was strong on Saturday and were around two to three metres…

  • Body of a foreign man found in Bangkok canal

    Body of a foreign man found in Bangkok canal

    A body of a foreign man, said to be around 50 years old, was found in canal in Bangkok’s Phra Khanong area yesterday. Earlier that day, at around 7am, a maid working nearby saw a man by the canal and said it looked like he was trying to catch fish using a black plastic bag. Her nephew later called her…

  • Thai medic says most Omicron cases mild or asymptomatic, expects jump in numbers

    Thai medic says most Omicron cases mild or asymptomatic, expects jump in numbers

    The head of the Department of Respiratory Disease and Tuberculosis at Siriraj Hospital says most of Thailand’s Omicron infections are mild or asymptomatic. However, Dr Nithipat Jearakul has warned of a surge in case numbers, according to a Nation Thailand report. To date, around 200 Omicron infections have been confirmed in the kingdom, but Nithipat says we will soon see…

  • Experts say Thailand still not prepared for another tsunami, public unaware of danger

    Experts say Thailand still not prepared for another tsunami, public unaware of danger

    17 years after the Boxing Day tsunami devastated Thailand’s south-west coast, the country remains unprepared for a repeat performance. That is the view of a number of public disaster experts, who warn that the general public is unaware of the risks posed by another tsunami. According to a Thai PBS World report, experts also say Thailand still doesn’t have an…

  • Health ministry to outline 3 best and worst-case scenarios as more infections reported

    Health ministry to outline 3 best and worst-case scenarios as more infections reported

    Following the discovery of more cases of the Omicron Covid-19 variant, the Public Health Ministry says it will outline worst-case scenarios in a statement expected tomorrow. On Sunday, 2 probable Omicron infections were reported in Chiang Mai, with 1 infection in the north-eastern province of Loei and another in the southern province of Songkhla. The Bangkok Post reports that the…

  • Department of Corrections denies Reuters forced labour story

    Department of Corrections denies Reuters forced labour story

    The Department of Corrections is striking back after a story by Reuters last week painted a brutal portrait of forced labour, violence, and coercion in Thailand’s prison system. The department denied things like threatening and physically assaulting inmates existed and that prisoners aren’t forced to work as mentioned in the Reuters article. The article painted a picture of inmates in…

  • Ministry of Tourism survey shows tourists enjoy Thailand in 2021

    Ministry of Tourism survey shows tourists enjoy Thailand in 2021

    Many expats might get complacent with all that Thailand has to offer, and be cynical about whether it’s worth the risk and complexity of coming to Thailand during the Covid-19 pandemic. But a survey conducted by the Ministry of Tourism and Sports revealed that foreign tourists have an overall positive view of travelling in Thailand. In fact, the average ratings…

  • POLL: No good leader for PM, most support no political party

    POLL: No good leader for PM, most support no political party

    37% of people support no political party and believe there is no suitable leader for the role of prime minister, according to a new poll by the National Institute of Development Administration. The NIDA poll showed that current PM Prayut Chan-o-cha led the pack of potential candidates, but only 16% of people supported him as their choice for the next…

  • COVID-19 SUNDAY UPDATE: 22 deaths, 2,532 infections

    COVID-19 SUNDAY UPDATE: 22 deaths, 2,532 infections

    Today, the CCSA reported 2,532 new Covid-19 infections, down 234 since yesterday, and 22 Coronavirus-related deaths, down 8 from yesterday. Since April 1, in the latest wave of the virus in Thailand, a total of 2,181,097 confirmed Covid-19 infections have been reported.     In the 24 hour period since the last count, the CCSA has reported 3,771 recoveries, up…

  • Risk of Covid-19 infection on flights increased due to Omicron

    Risk of Covid-19 infection on flights increased due to Omicron

    As tourism has been gaining traction until the Omicron variant threw a wrench into the works, the CCSA has warned that the chances of catching Covid-19 on flights have increased because of the more transmissible new variant. The warning has been repeated out to Thai people after a statement made by the International Air Transport Association, the global influential organization…

  • Thailand celebrates its 100 millionth vaccine, focuses on boosters

    Thailand celebrates its 100 millionth vaccine, focuses on boosters

    Health officials in Thailand celebrated the announcement that they have now administered its 100 millionth Covid-19 vaccine in the country. With the rise of the Omicron variant, more people are choosing to get the protection of a vaccine, and officials are working to rapidly increase the number of third dose booster shots administered within Thailand as many brands have now…

  • New Year’s events are not banned, Phetchabun to host 2

    New Year’s events are not banned, Phetchabun to host 2

    Authorities have cancelled state-sponsored New Year’s Eve parties – though the Tourism Authority of Thailand vowed to forge ahead with theirs – but a government spokesperson assures that the private sector is still allowed to host New Year’s countdown celebrations as long as Covid-19 safety regulations are strictly followed. Bangkok Governor Aswin Kwanmuang cancelled only 2 events that were state-sponsored…

  • Top 7 Christmas trees to check out in Bangkok

    Top 7 Christmas trees to check out in Bangkok

    Celebrating Christmas in Bangkok? Many shopping centres on lights and decorations reminding you that the best time of the year is here. Here are the most popular spots to get into the Christmas spirit in Bangkok. 1. CentralWorld CentralWorld’s holiday display is one of the biggest in Bangkok and will be up into the new year, ending around 5 January.…