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 Do foreigners get free healthcare in Thailand?
Thailand’s healthcare system is well-regarded across Southeast Asia, with options ranging from public hospitals to world-class private facilities. But when it comes to foreign residents or tourists, healthcare access isn’t as straightforward. So, do foreigners get free healthcare in Thailand?...
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Watchdog Thailand finds 67 dead cats and dogs in Bangkok house, rescues 80 more
Watchdog Thailand found 63 dead cats, one dead dog, and 80 emaciated but still alive animals inside a house in Bangkok on Friday. Many of the animal carcasses had been stuffed into a freezer. The owner of the house – who tried to flee but crashed her car – had collected donations via Facebook for all the animals she had…
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Pattaya man runs away after plunging pickup truck into pond
A Pattaya man ran away after plunging his pickup truck into a pond yesterday evening. The driver, 39 year old Suphan Pangphimai, had been speeding when he attempted to make a curve and plunged through a fence and into a lotus pond in Chon Buri’s Nong Prue district. Suphan was uninjured, and he swam out of the pond, and fled…
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Motorcycle rider dies after crashing into stage on road
A motorcycle rider died in the early hours of this morning after he crashed his bike into a stage set up in the middle of the road for the Loy Kratong Festival in the Isaan province of Nakhon Ratchasima. Officers from Phimai Police Station were notified about the accident at 5.30am. Officers found the dead motorcycle rider, 24 year old…
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Doi Inthanon in Chaing Mai spots first frozen dew of the year
The first frozen dew of this year was spotted this morning at Thailand’s highest mountain, Doi Inthanon, in Chiang Mai. The lowest temperature there is four degrees Celsius. The Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation reported that the very first frozen dew was witnessed at Doi Inthanon National Park appeared for visitors to check out. Snow is rarely…
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Middle Eastern tourists steal phones from Pattaya hotel
Pattaya Police are on the lookout for two Middle Eastern men who robbed two mobile phones yesterday from a hotel at Soi Pattaya Sai Song. A 43 year old member of the hotel staff, Siriwan Saeng-Arun, told police that the two Middle Eastern tourists requested to see a room before booking on Saturday, November 5. Siriwan showed the alleged tourists a…
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Thailand to surpass tourism target thanks to Malaysians and Indians
Thailand is set to surpass its target of 10 million tourists by the end of the year thanks to an influx of Malaysian and Indian visitors. Thailand has welcomed over 1 million tourists from Malaysia and almost 600,000 tourists from India so far in 2022. Before the pandemic, Chinese tourists topped the list of Thailand’s foreign arrivals year in and…
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Immigration police show off arrests of foreign criminals in Thailand
Officers from Thailand’s Immigration Bureau held a press conference on Friday to reveal the results of five ‘important’ recent criminal cases in the kingdom involving foreign perpetrators. Immigration police are hunting down foreign criminals in Thailand ahead of the APEC meeting in Bangkok later this month. Police recently announced a crackdown on foreign criminals to ensure the safety and security…
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Bangkok governor promises more dance space after Thai youth win international comp
Bangkok’s governor has promised to create more space for street dancing in the capital after a Thai youth dance group won several awards at an international competition. The dance troupe won 36 prizes at the UDO World Street Dance Championships 2022 in the UK in August. The categories the group won included “Ultimate Advanced,” “Super crew,” Team under 12,” “Solo…
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Thailand ends emergency Covid vaccine procurement
The winding down of the Covid-19 pandemic has hit a new milestone as the emergency use procurement of vaccines has now ended. The Ministry of Public Health announced that it has officially cancelled its plans to obtain more vaccines against the coronavirus. The end of the programme was officially published in the Royal Gazette on Thursday and was put into…
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Fly tipping with real flies – ‘Tourist’ trash angers Kanchanaburi villagers
Garbage truck drivers leaving their loads of trash on a local road instead of at the nearby dump has angered residents of Phra Chedi Sam Ong, a village in the tourist district of Sangkhla Buri, close to the Myanmar border in Kanchanaburi province. Residents blame inadequate facilities in the popular destination of Wangka, nearby. Tourists are often blamed for excessive…
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American Entrepreneur running a restaurant empire in Thailand ft.Greg Lange | Thaiger Podcast Ep.11
Greg Lange. American Entrepreneur, Restauranteur, Philanthropist and Businessman runs a restaurant empire in Thailand consisting of 12 subway outlets and 14 Mexican food restaurants called Margherita Storm & Sunrise Tacos. One of the more famous and successful expats in Thailand, Greg is not only known for his successful restaurant chain Sunrise Tacos but also for his philanthropic charity work in…
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Life of A Sex Worker In Bangkok
Sex tourism is something that happens around the world. A potentially unfortunate byproduct of the tourism industry, it’s particularly prevalent in tourism in Thailand. Statistics for sex tourism in Thailand are hard to come by. Estimates suggest there are anywhere between 250,000 and two million sex workers in the country. Many still like to paint sex workers as a different…
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Khon Kaen Zoo treats tigers and hippos to Loy Krathong feeding festival
Today, staff from Khon Kaen Zoo in northeast Thailand held an untraditional Loy Krathong festival for their resident tigers and hungry hippopotami. Loy Krathong translates to “floating banana tree trunk.” Traditionally, Thais celebrate the festival by making a buoyant decorative basket (Krathong) and float (Loy) it on a river. The Krathong floats away, along with all your worries, anger, and…
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Cricket ice cream, anyone? Another quirky food at APEC Summit in Bangkok
On top of noodles with sandworm sauce, another adventurous food is competing at the APEC Summit in Bangkok this month: cricket ice cream. The cricket ice cream is one of several “future foods” competing in the “plate to planet” competition. The competition’s website describes the ice cream, called ProTim Magnet, as a Magnum-style ice cream. It is made with crickets,…
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Delivery driver finds huge stash of Thai, Laos and Japanese banknotes under a tree
A delivery driver stumbled across a stash of Thai, Japanese, and Laos banknotes scattered beneath a tree in Udon Thani city centre, northeast Thailand, this morning. The cash – amounting to over 500,000 baht – is suspected to be fake. The driver, 43 year old Somsak Sirikhan, was sitting waiting for a job with five or six other rides. He…
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Married Thai woman hits younger lover with massive palimony claim
A young Thai man’s married older lover has responded with a massive palimony claim after he tried to break up with her. The lover also claims that the young man raped her. The 24 year old man, “A,” said he met the 46 year old woman last year when he got an internship at a train station. He said he…
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TAT wants US tourists to ‘Feel Thailand’
The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) yesterday revealed a deal to bring more tourists to the kingdom from the United States and boost the nation’s ailing economy. TAT Governor Yuthasak Supasorn announced the state-sponsored industry organized an event this week, Feel Thailand with Delta Air Lines and Korean Air, to take 50 US tour operators to popular tourist destinations in…
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New foreign land ownership law in Thailand can be scrapped if Thais don’t agree
If Thai people aren’t happy with the newly proposed foreign land ownership law in Thailand, the whole plan can be scrapped, said Minister of Interior General Anupong Paochinda in Parliament yesterday. “We can improve the regulation, such as by increasing the investment to 100 million baht. The plan can be scrapped if people have serious concerns. We won’t see it as…
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Thai artist scoops UOB Painting of the Year award
A Thai artist yesterday scooped the 41st UOB Painting of the Year award, one of the most prestigious competitions in Southeast Asia. Bangkok-born artist Chomrawi Suksom claimed the illustrious prize for his painting titled Dystopia and prize money of US$32,000. The work, created in oil, acrylic and foil on canvas artwork, is a detailed depiction of a world undergoing constant…
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Danish man crashes car into Chiang Mai moat, killing 1
A Danish man crashed a white sedan into Chiang Mai moat in northern Thailand in the early hours of this morning. He survived but his female Thai passenger could not escape the vehicle in time and drowned. A 30 year old Danish man was driving through Chiang Mai’s Mueang district “at a high speed” when he lost control, crashed into…
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Grab delivery drivers protest in Bangkok, Thailand
Around 800 Grab delivery drivers in green jackets gathered in Bangkok today to protest new policies implemented by the company which they say have significantly reduced their income. The protesters started outside Central World and later moved to Grab’s head office, completely blocking traffic on Phetchaburi Road. Recently, Grab introduced a “zoning system” which forces drivers to book a time…
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Motorcycle rider takes a nap in the middle of a main road
A weary motorcycle rider was awakened by a group of men after he slept on his parked motorcycle in the middle of a main road. The men recorded a video of the sleepy motorcycle rider and sent it to a local news Facebook page named Hear On Board (เฮียขับรถ). The video reveals the men trying to wake the man sleeping,…
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Thai man narrowly survives bite from his pet monocled cobra
A Thai man is warning exotic pet lovers not to “play with fire” after he narrowly survived a bite from his pet snake. Doctors had to amputate the man’s finger to save his life after he “trusted” his monocled cobra – a deadly venomous snake – to slither on his hands. The anonymous snake lover, Mr A, posted on Facebook…
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Lucky escape for children after pickup crashes into school bus, driver dies
Several school children and their bus driver escaped relatively unscathed after a pickup vehicle crashed into their school bus this morning. The pickup driver was killed in the collision in the Bang Khan district in southern Thailand. The two vehicles collided in front of Ban Lam Nao post office in tambon Ban Lam Nao. Police Captain Bunlue Mian-o, the deputy…
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Prisoner fakes his own death to escape cell in Pattaya, Thailand
An alleged thief faked his death yesterday in an attempt to escape his cell in Pattaya, Chon Buri province, eastern Thailand. However, the “dead” prisoner shot up like a bolt when suspecting rescue workers placed ammonia under his nose. Yesterday, officers from Pattaya City Police Station arrested and detained 53 year old Sayan [surname withheld] under suspicion of stealing 50,000…
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Truck passenger throws firecrackers at other cars
Netizens demanded police arrest a male passenger of a truck who threw firecrackers at other cars on the road in the central province of Rayong. Sanook reported that the video of a passenger on a white truck throwing a firecracker on the road was circulating on Thai social media last night at 10pm. The video does not provide a clear…
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11 provinces in Thailand warned to be aware of falling rocket parts
Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (GISTDA) today issued a warning to 11 provinces in Thailand to be aware of falling rocket parts from the sky on Saturday, November 5. A Thai researcher, and specialist on orbital mechanics from GISTDA, Sittporn Chamnarnsin, reported that a Chinese rocket, Longmarch 5B-4Y, is expected to fall from the sky on Saturday. The rocket…
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Section of Ratchadaphisek Road in Bangkok to close for 5 days for APEC Summit
As world leaders gather in Bangkok later this month for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, a stretch of Ratchadaphisek Road will be closed for public use for five days from November 14-18. The road will be closed from Asoke Intersection to Ratchada-Khlong Toei Intersection to make way for attendees of the APEC Summit, which will be held at the…
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How to not become another motorbike road death statistic in Thailand
While many have experience riding motorbikes, the driving situation in Thailand can be wildly different. As the kingdom’s roads are ranked as some of the most dangerous in the world, it helps to have your wits about you when driving. As a visitor to this beautiful country, keep in mind that you are, indeed, an outsider. This can be felt…
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Knife-wielding meth addict circles daycare centre in northeast Thailand
A man in a suspected meth-induced psychotic episode took a knife and circled a daycare centre in Non Suwan subdistrict, Buriram province, northeast Thailand yesterday morning. At around 9am, 30 year old Gongphon “Ming” Sehlah arrived at Non Suwan Child Development Centre armed with a knife and began walking around the centre. According to police, Ming entered a methamphetamine-induced psychotic…
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