Thailand News Today – Monday, May 11

Thailand national figures for Covid-19 – May 11

This morning 6 new cases of the Covid-19 cases have confirmed across the country, bring the total in Thailand to 3,015 cases.

Of the 6 cases, 4 were reported in Phuket yesterday afternoon but were not included in yesterday’s national tally of 5 cases. Today Phuket has announced no new cases.

The other 2 cases were reported as a 6 year old boy who lived with a previously confirmed case from Narathiwat, and a Thai man in Yala at the Malaysian border who was found through proactive testing.

Regional travel bubbles, the short-term tourism solution

In the short term, the future of tourism will probably be regional travel bubbles – loose agreements between neighbouring nations to allow (reasonably) free travel between two or three countries.

Staying isolated is not an option nations can afford long-term, and travel consultants predict it’s just a matter of time before other countries create travel bubbles of their own.

Australia and New Zealand have already committed to a travel bubble but it’s not expected to start for at least a few months. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have also announced their plans to open borders from May 15.

Locally, Thailand and Vietnam are in a perfect situation for creating a regional travel corridor between the SE Asian nations over the next few months. Both have dodged the worst impacts of Covid-19 and have been reporting single-digit new cases in recent weeks whilst pouncing on small, localised outbreaks.

There’s a full version of that story at thethaiger.com

Man kills Buddhist monk in a fit of anger in Lampang

A Buddhist monk was killed last week after he spoke up about a man’s drinking habits in Lampang, just south of Chiang Mai.

But it wasn’t until yesterday that villagers discovered the body of the 69 year old monk in his pick-up truck. His body was decaying and “gave off a strong smell”.

Evidence led police to a 44 year old who eventually admitted to shooting the monk. There was a re-enactment at the crime scene yesterday.

Pattaya shopkeeper and family attacked after refusing to sell alcohol to curfew breakers

A Pattaya shop-owner and his family have been left shaken after an attack by a group of curfew breakers, apparently angry that they weren’t able to buy alcohol.

Around 10 young Thai men, apparently very drunk, arrived at the shop in the Banglamung area at 11pm on Saturday night demanding to buy alcohol.

The owner was was inside with his wife, daughter, and two grandchildren. The man refused to sell alcohol as it was after the curfew an an argument quickly became violent. They used sticks and bats to smash the shop and the family car.

The gang later returned to the shop and attacked the owner’s 53 year old wife who was attempting to protect her grandchildren from the gang.

Police maintain that know the identity of the gang and hope to make some arrests soon.

T-Rex take advantage of recently reopened shops

A fairly ordinary looking Tyranosaurus Rex has been seen out and about around Phuket recently. Nicely accessorising with flouresescent vertical striped carry bag, the T-Rex has been a common site on Phuket streets.

Whilst there is a commonly held belief that the dinosaurs went extinct 65 million year’s ago, we have the evidence that they are, in fact, getting back to the shops… just like everyone else.