Thailand News
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5 ways retirees in Thailand lose money (and how to stop it)
Retiring in Thailand can be affordable and enjoyable, but many retirees lose money due to common mistakes. High living costs, scams, and unexpected expenses can quickly drain savings. There are five ways that retirees in Thailand can lose money and...
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Bottled up
PRACHUAB KHIRI KHAN: From this peninsular province comes a cautionary tale about the perils of leaving bottles standing on the floor. Nuy (not his real name) had just finished his ablutions when he slipped on the wet floor of his bathroom and plonked down firmly on his backside. This is the kind of embarrassment many of us suffer from time…
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Biting back
BANGKOK: A drunken security guard had the tip of his tongue bitten off during an unsuccessful attempt to rape a 50-year-old partially-sighted woman. In a tale recounted by Pol Lt Col Paythai Thipmongkol of the Bang Khen Police, security guard Boonrawd Kanwan, 42, was off-duty and drinking with friends in the workers’ quarters of the Bangkok Mass Transit Authority (BMTA)…
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Deep throat dentistry
BANGKOK: A 19-year-old student spent three agonizing days with a toothbrush lodged in her stomach – after she accidentally swallowed it and nobody would believe her. The student, whose name and address were not reported, felt an itch in her throat on the evening of December 5. Rather than visit the hospital, she decided to use her standard-sized Colgate-brand toothbrush…
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Taking leave
SONGKHLA: A 23-year-old Marine private on leave from a posting in Narathiwat apparently misunderstood the meaning of “R&R”, by shooting himself in the head during a drunken game of Russian Roulette. On the evening of November 22, Pte Juthipon Singmanee, posted to the Chulabhorn Army Camp in strife-torn Narathiwat Province, was home during his leave of duty, socializing with four…
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Sole food
The father of an 8-year-old boy who eats nothing but dirty shoes and sandals is worried about his son’s health and seeking donations for medical treatment to cure him. After neighbors brought the existence of the shoe-eating boy to the attention of staff at the TV program Mun Plak Dee Na, they went to Hao village in Chiang Mai province…
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Police hunt porn panty perv
CHON BURI: Police are on the lookout for a pervert who has been breaking into the unattended homes of young women in order to indulge in some rather messy fantasies. The most recent break-in was reported on October 31 by Kedchadarat Thepchaiphum, 22, a resident of Tambon Sattahip. K. Kedchadarat told the Sattahip Police that she left home at 7:30…
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The perils of not wishing to be idle
RASSADA: Nhu Pakjaroong, 59, whose surname means “stop and relax”, was the sort of woman who refused to stay idle, said acquaintances. Rather than sit at home and look after her grandchildren, the resident of Soi Namchai in Tambon Rassada Moo 1 invited two friends to go out and scavenge the neighborhood for saleable junk. That, as it turned out,…
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Rough justice for knicker nicker
SAMUT PRAKAN: Stealing women’s underwear might be considered nothing but a prank in some countries, but it is a serious crime in Samut Prakan’s Muang District, where residents of Tambon Bangpoomai took the law into their own hands and nearly beat to death a man after he was caught pilfering panties. Yoybangpoo District Police reported the man’s arrest, which occurred…
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The Poodle Poo incident on Soi Green Soda
KARON: The owner of two Karon beer bars has filed a complaint with the Chalong Police against a neighbor who, she says, threw dog excreta at her. Yindee Sutipakdi, 39, filed the complaint against 22-year-old Piyathida Muangbang, after the latter drove up to her home on a motorcycle and hurled a bag containing poodle poo at her. The two women…
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Not so sty-lish behavior
KHON KAEN: A man accused by villagers of having sex with a neighbor’s pig has agreed to pay the owner 500 baht in compensation. Sa-ngad Hapanna, 39, a resident of Baan Tonnoi in Muang district, filed a complaint with the village headman after neighbors alerted her the night before that they saw the man having sex with one of her…
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Monkey man says he’s there to stay
KAMALA: A man living alone in a tree high up in the Kamala Hills has drawn so much interest that the local tambon president has had to order improvements to the path leading to his jungle hideaway, lest his many curious visitors continue injuring themselves in their efforts to reach him. News of the modern-day Tarzan hit the headlines on…
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Monkey on your back
CHIANG RAI: Having a monkey on one’s back might sound like the very definition of hardship, but for a dog in Mae Sai it is a labor of love. Guests at the Kung Pao 38 Restaurant in Mae Sai are greeted by a rather unusual welcoming committee when they arrive: a four-year-old Labrador retriever and “Jockey”, an orphaned baby monkey…
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Rapist gets just desserts
PRACHIN BURI: A 24-year-old textile factory worker in Prajantakham District bit the tongue off a 16-year-old boy who tried to rape her. The victim, given the pseudonym “Bee” in a Thai press report, was riding her motorbike home from work at about 10 pm on August 24 when the boy, also on a motorbike, pulled up beside her and asked…
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Scent to jail
UDON THANI: Busting drug mules can be a dirty business, as police in Udon Thani found out on the afternoon of August 15. After receiving a tip-off that a drug deal was about to go down at the Jaroernsri Complex shopping center, police led by Provincial Police Deputy Chief Inspector Yanyong Wechsot set up a surveillance unit. It was not…
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Runaway groom
TAK: Many are the tales of the foreign man who comes to Thailand, falls in love with a Thai woman and ends up destitute and deserted. But according to an August 4 report, an elderly American man has turned the tables by sweet-talking his way into the lives of at least two Thai women with talk of riches and marriage…
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The morning after
NAKHON PATHOM: The 47-year-old host of a wedding ceremony in Nakhon Chaisri District currently stands accused of twice raping a 98-year-old neighbor while drunk. A report of the alleged rape was made on July 18 by Nakhon Chaisri District Police Deputy Superintendent Surapoj Phisuttiwong, who identified the alleged rapist as Udon Som-in, a native of Ubon Ratchathani Province. Udon was…
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New Abbot fails flock
PHANG NGA: The new Abbot of Wat Yan Yao is on temporary leave after some 150 villagers staged an angry protest calling for him to step down. The reason? He banned gambling and drinking at the temple, famous for its former tsunami victim identification center. The monk, Wichjit Phuttawichito, agreed to temporarily step down to appease the villagers, who were…
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30-baht nightmare
UBON RATCHATHANI: A housewife in Muang District found out the hard way that the state’s 30-baht medical care scheme doesn’t always guarantee top-notch care. Puttachart Nammontri, 32, was admitted to Ubonrak Thonburi Hospital in Muang District to give birth to her second baby girl, on March 10 last year. She told her gynecologist, Dr Jamras Poompuang, that she wanted to…
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Fine behavior
BANGKOK: The daughter of a retired police general ran amok at Dusit Police Station after suffering the indignity of seeing her boyfriend fined for driving without a license. The incident occurred at about 11 pm on June 26. Kwanreuthai Taensawat, 31, and her 25-year-old brother Supakorn were in a pickup truck being driven by her boyfriend, Thongchai Khombaramee, when it…
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Rabbiting abbot
SARABURI: Ever wonder why clergy refer to non-clerics as “laypersons”? Perhaps it’s because those who are not in the priesthood seem to find it easier to get laid. But 59-year-old Phra Prapat Thammarat, Abbot of Wat Rongsaeng in Nongkhae District, apparently didn’t view his position as temple head as any reason not to bring his girlfriend back to his temple…
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Return to sender!
TAK: A mother in Sam Ngao District paid the ultimate price for letting her curiosity get the better of her – when she opened a parcel addressed to her daughter that turned out to be a letter bomb. The victim, 56-year-old pig farmer Phayao Ruamsuk, had collected the parcel, which was addressed to her daughter Kannitha. Kannitha, 22, had married…
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A quiet night in
NAKHON SRI THAMMARAT: A man in Srichon District put a shotgun in his mouth and blew his brains out after his wife refused to let him attend a neighbor’s funeral with her. Arriving at the scene on May 8 with doctors from Srichon Hospital, police found the body of 36-year-old Wimol Phetchoo lying on a bed, dressed only in a…
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Navel neglect
NAKHON NAYOK: The recent spate of incidents involving insects laying their eggs in human orifices took a new and disturbing turn on May 8, when the mother of a newborn found 10 maggots living inside the bellybutton of her two-day-old son. Mother-to-be Chananthida Kusonsarng, 25, was admitted to Nakhon Nayok Hospital on May 3 when her waters broke earlier than…
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Relatively dangerous
PHUKET CITY: A family sitting around a table in their home at 33 Surin Rd dived for cover when somebody lobbed a fragmentation grenade into their living room at 2 am on April 30. Homeowner Krongkwan Niemsa-ard told police that she believed she was the intended victim, because the grenade hit her on the arm and then rolled under her…
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Going Coconuts
RAWAI: A young welder from Nakorn Sri Thammarat died of a broken neck on April 27 after he fell from a coconut tree in Rawai. Sompoj Petcharat, 23, was part of a team working at a bungalow colony off Yanui Rd. Being thirsty, he decided to scale one of the many coconut trees in the area to quench his thirst.…
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Larvae carve an itchy niche
CHIANG MAI, PHUKET: Pity the poor housefly. Free of the ethical dilemmas facing humans, all it can aspire to in its short, frenetic life is to pass its genes onto the next generation. But with drought conditions lingering on in much of the country, flies are apparently finding it more difficult to locate piles of moist excrement in which to…
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In very poor taste
KATHU: Police arrested a 66-year-old English language teacher from Canada on charges of sexually molesting a minor, after the man allegedly enticed his five-year-old student to perform oral sex on him by covering his penis with honey. At 9:40 pm on April 18, a team of Kathu District Police officers led by Pol Capt Serm Kwanimit entered the home of…
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Boared to death
PHAYAO: An elderly hunter in Chun District was gored to death by a wild boar after shooting its mate and stealing their four babies, his neighbors said. In late March, Wun Sisan, 68, shot a female boar and collected its piglets to sell to villagers to raise at a cost of 1,500 baht each. About 10 days later, in the…
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Not-so-lucky charm
PHAYAO: A Phayao man is behind bars after allegedly stealing the preserved corpse of a stillborn baby boy from Phayao Hospital to use as a lucky charm. Jakree Tiemkaew, a 35-year-old builder from Tambon Ban Dam in Muang District, was taken into custody on February 22 after he took the tiny corpse to a local glass cabinetmaker and asked to…
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Prognosis is knot good
PHUKET: Doctors at Patong Hospital were left scratching their heads over the mysterious case of a teenage construction worker who was admitted to hospital after vomiting a three-inch nail and a knotted length of string. After vomiting up the string and nail, 17-year-old Samorn Ngamphosri, from Buri Ram Province, was taken to Wachira Phuket Hospital, where an X-ray determined that…
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