Northern Thailand News

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  • Truck carrying 30,000 bottles of beer rolls over

    Truck carrying 30,000 bottles of beer rolls over

    PHOTO: INN News A 22 wheeler truck has flipped on its side in Chachoengsao, east of Bangkok. The truck was carrying 30,240 bottles of a famous brand of Thai beer. The driver was 53 year old Tas Nirankum from Chaiyaphum Province. Tas reported that he was on Suwinthawong 304 Road delivering 2,520 boxes of beer to Chonburi from Khon Kaen Province.…

  • Thousands throng to Chiang Rai to remember the 1st anniversary of Tham Luang saga

    Thousands throng to Chiang Rai to remember the 1st anniversary of Tham Luang saga

    PHOTO: Thai PBS Thousands of locals plus tourists, along with some of the key players in the search and rescue of 13 Mu Pa (Wild Boar) footballers trapped in the flooded Tham Luang cave in Chiang Rai’s Mae Sai district, celebrated the first anniversary of the day the team stumbled into the Tham Luang caves setting off the epic drama…

  • Miracle at Tham Luang – The Thailand cave drama unfolds, a year on

    Miracle at Tham Luang – The Thailand cave drama unfolds, a year on

    On June 23, a year ago, only a few northern Thai locals and serious cave enthusiasts knew much about the Tham Luang Caves in Mae Sai district, about an hour’s drive from Chiang Rai. But on that sunny afternoon, following their regular football practice, a group of 12 players and their coach, decided to have a quick excursion to the…

  • 26 year old Thai gored to death by wild elephants in Buri Ram

    26 year old Thai gored to death by wild elephants in Buri Ram

    FILE PHOTO: Expert Vagabond A Buri Ram man has been gored to death by a wild elephant in his tapioca plantation. The incident happened late yesterday (Wednesday). His wife told police she “played dead” to escape harm from the marauding elephants. None Din Daeng police were informed that 26 year old Surasak Phijaranakhonburi had been fatally gored on his left side…

  • 4,500 endangered baby turtles seized from passenger van in Thailand’s northwest

    4,500 endangered baby turtles seized from passenger van in Thailand’s northwest

    Customs officials and soldiers have seized more than 4,500 endangered baby turtles along with tropical fish from a passenger van in Tak, northwest Thailand. The van was stopped on the Mae Sot-Tak highway in Mae Sot district. northwestern province Thai PBS reports that the seized turtles include 586 Indian star tortoises, 75 common snapping turtles and about 3,800 Japanese turtles.…

  • Bus conductor fired, company fined for molesting ladyboy passenger

    Bus conductor fired, company fined for molesting ladyboy passenger

    An inter-provincial Thai bus conductor has been fired and the bus company fined 5,000 baht after he allegedly molested a transgender passenger on-board. The bus was travelling to Nong Bua Lamphu, near Udon Thani, north-east Thailand, from Bangkok. The bus company, which Land Transport officials have declined to name, was fined 5,000 baht by his office for providing substandard bus…

  • ‘Magic cards’ contain dangerous radioactive materials

    ‘Magic cards’ contain dangerous radioactive materials

    The Thai Office of Atoms for Peace is warning of excessively high levels of radiation from the so-called “energy cards” or ‘magic cards’ that distributors claim can cure illnesses and help relieve aches and pains. The Office of Atoms for Peace of Thailand in Chatuchak district, Bangkok, Thailand, was established in 1961 as the Office of Atomic Energy for Peace.…

  • Chiang Rai woman shot in market car park by spurned ex-lover

    Chiang Rai woman shot in market car park by spurned ex-lover

    PHOTO MONTAGE: Chiang Rai Times A 27 year old Thai woman, Sawitree Phromwong, was allegedly murdered last week by a scorned ex lover after he confronted the woman and her new boyfriend at the Pa Sak market in Chaing Rai. She was sitting in the back of a car when shot. The man then jumped back into his car, along with…

  • Police seize illegal mosquito repellents and fake nutritional supplements

    Police seize illegal mosquito repellents and fake nutritional supplements

    The Consumer Protection Police Division and the Food and Drugs Administration has raided illegal factories producing dangerous mosquito repellent and fake nutritional supplements. Investigations are underway to find the people responsible. Officials confiscated illegal Kwang Thong (golden dear) brand mosquito repellent coils factory in Nakhon Ratchasima, north-east Thailand, where 1,300 boxes of coils containing more than 10,000 packages were confiscated. The…

  • Toon’s latest run-for-charity raises 15 million baht in the first hour for north-east hospitals

    Toon’s latest run-for-charity raises 15 million baht in the first hour for north-east hospitals

    PHOTO: Facebook.com/kaokonlakao Such is the star-power and respect Thais have for rocker-turned-charity-warrior Artiwara “Toon” Kongmalai, that his latest fund-raising effort raised 15 million baht in the first hour of yesterday moorning’s run. His latest project called Kao Kon La Kao-Kao Tor Pai Duay Palang Lek Lek Phak Isan (One step each by each person, move on with a small force in…

  • North-East Thailand immigration purge nets 2,200

    North-East Thailand immigration purge nets 2,200

    PHOTO: Buriram Times North-eastern Immigration police in Khon Kaen have netted around 2,200 foreigners over a variety of immigration offences since the start of June. 622 entered the country illegally 31 for overstaying their visas 73 for working without permission 16 were wanted on arrest warrants 1,245 committed other offences 287 had been refused entry They also joined forces with…

  • Some secondary students use Wai Khru to make ‘controversial’ floral tributes

    Some secondary students use Wai Khru to make ‘controversial’ floral tributes

    High school students have used an annual Wai Khru ceremony to make political statements via they floral tributes. The students were from the Chumphol Phon Phisai School in Nong Khai, north-east Thailand, and Phitsanulok. The floral protests came to the attention of the current Thai deputy PM and defence minister Prawit Wongsuwan who was said to have ‘taken offence’. He…

  • 2.2 million meth pills seized in Chiang Rai cross-border interception

    2.2 million meth pills seized in Chiang Rai cross-border interception

    In the game of ‘catch me if you can’ between drug smugglers and Thai police, this was another successful interception of a large drug cache making its way into Thailand. Authorities intercepted 2.2 million methamphetamine pills and 11 kilograms of crystal meth (ice) in the hills north of Chiang Rai. The Nation reports that Narcotics Suppression Bureau report that the…

  • Seven injured after bus rolls over in Sisaket bus incident

    Seven injured after bus rolls over in Sisaket bus incident

    PHOTOS: หมวดทางหลวงภูสิงห์ Seven passengers have sustained injuries in a bus accident in Sisaket, far-east Thailand. Emergency responders were notified of the accident on No 24 Road in Sisaket yesterday. They arrived at the scene to find the bus rolled over in the centre-road ditch. The bus was heading from Bangkok to Ubon Ratcha Thani and carrying 15 passengers. Seven passengers…

  • Roi Et tractor driver injured after sedan embeds itself in the driver’s cabin

    Roi Et tractor driver injured after sedan embeds itself in the driver’s cabin

    PHOTOS: Asok Jaturapak Piman Rescue Foundation A tractor driver has sustained injuries after colliding with a sedan in Roi Et in north-eastern Thailand. Rescue workers headed to the accident scene on Jatura – Patumrat Road in Jatura, Roi Et yesterday. Rescue workers arrived to find a sedan embedded in a tractor off the main road. The tractor driver, 45 year…

  • Drug smugglers get away but police seize their pickup stuffed with meth pills and ‘ice’

    Drug smugglers get away but police seize their pickup stuffed with meth pills and ‘ice’

    PHOTOS: The Nation Drug smugglers have abandoned their pickup and a huge cache of drugs following a high-speed chase through the hills of Chiang Rai early yesterday morning. Once soldiers caught up with the pickup the driver and passengers had fled but left 2.2 million methamphetamine pills and 11 kilos of crystal methamphetamine (ice). According to The Nation, the Chiang Rai-based…

  • Bangkok Airways Samui Half Marathon, second in the Thailand series

    Bangkok Airways Samui Half Marathon, second in the Thailand series

    The “Bangkok Airways Samui Half Marathon”was organised to promote Koh Samui tourism and to ensure that participants recognise the importance of a healthy lifestyle. Last Sunday’s event was divided into 3 categories – a fun run of 5 kilometres, mini marathon of 10 kilometres and half marathon of 21 kilometres. All runners had an opportunity to enjoy the scenery of the…

  • Thailand’s Phu Kradueng National Park to close until September 30

    Thailand’s Phu Kradueng National Park to close until September 30

    Chief of Phu Kradueng National Park, Sombat Phimprasit says that the park will be closed from now until September 30. The park is in north-east Thailand, near Loei and just south of the Laos border. The park chief says the annual closure, during Thailand’s rainy season, is because trekking and trailing will be too tough and risky due to the difficult…

  • Weather warnings issued for Thailand’s north, central, east and upper south

    Weather warnings issued for Thailand’s north, central, east and upper south

    Residents from the upper south to the north of the country are being warned to brace themselves for heavy monsoonal rains over the next couple of days. The Thai Meteorological Department announced in an alert this morning that there is a monsoon trough across the North and the upper Northeast for Thursday and Friday. “The confluence of the southeasterly wind…

  • Buri Ram villagers urged not to harm wild elephants

    Buri Ram villagers urged not to harm wild elephants

    FILE PHOTO Buri Ram provincial officials are asking villagers living near a Thai national reserve forest not to harm wild animals, including elephants, that may wander out of the forest. Officials say they’ve spotted a large herd of 32 wild elephants in the Krapod mountain, part of the restricted area. Sa Saengsawang, the director of the province’s national resources and…

  • Dinosaur footprints found in north-eastern national park

    Dinosaur footprints found in north-eastern national park

    PHOTO: Thai PBS Footprints from a dinosaur that inhabited north-eastern Thailand 140 million years ago, have been discovered in the north-east. About a dozen of the footprints are thought to be from a Theropod dinosaur which existed on Earth during the Cretaceous period which stretched from 146 to 65 million years ago. Thai PBS reports that they were found embedded…

  • Mother disappears after abandoning newborn in rubber plantation

    Mother disappears after abandoning newborn in rubber plantation

    FILE PHOTO A mother is on the run after delivering her own baby boy in a hut on a Loei rubber plantation yesterday, just a day before her husband, who was in custody for two years, was to be released. Loei is in far north-east Thailand near the Laos border. The baby, with its umbilical cord still attached, was found…

  • 5,000 Buriram citizens register for medical marijuana possession

    5,000 Buriram citizens register for medical marijuana possession

    by Tanakorn Sangiam The 90 day registration period for persons in possession of marijuana, without facing prosecution, end this Tuesday, May 21. 5,000+ persons in Buriram, north-east Thailand, have already registered their possession during this period. A community seminar on marijuana planting and management also took place yesterday to prepare Buriram province as a key manufacturer of medical marijuana. About…

  • Two construction workers win big in the National Lottery

    Two construction workers win big in the National Lottery

    PHOTO: Daily News Two Thai construction workers have won big in this week’s national lottery. Two wins but two very different methods used to select the winning number, 926526. Wathida Trinet had been visiting Khon Kaen but works in Wang Noi to the north of Bangkok, according to Daily News. There she noticed a gecko clambering over the house number “526” and…

  • Weather warnings out for parts of the country

    Weather warnings out for parts of the country

    The annual monsoon is here. Bangkok, along with 55 other provinces in Thailand, have thunderstorms forecast over the next 24 hours. The Thai Meteorological Department have issued the warnings this morning. Storms are predicted in the central and northern regions and waves in the Andaman Sea forecast up to two metres, according to the TMD. Seree Supratid of Rangsit University’s…

  • Head-on collision kills five, injures three in Khon Kaen

    Head-on collision kills five, injures three in Khon Kaen

    Five football fans, travelling to watch the Thai Port Football Club, have been killed when their rented van crashed head-on with a water tanker in Khon Kaen this morning. Police said the incident occurred on the Chumphae Si Chomphu road in Moo 6 village in Tambon Wang Hin Lad. Three others people were injured in the collision. Four men died…

  • Thai troops kill four drug couriers and seize large haul of ketamine

    Thai troops kill four drug couriers and seize large haul of ketamine

    Thai troops have shot and killed four alleged drug couriers and seized more than 300 kilograms of ketamine. The incident happened last night in a corn plantation near a bordering river in the Mae Sai district of Chiang Rai. Acting on a tip-off that the drugs were to be smuggled from Myanmar for delivery to a Thai customer in Ban…

  • Thai government desperately needs a ‘clean air act’

    Thai government desperately needs a ‘clean air act’

    by Pratch Rujivanarom Environment campaigners are urging the government to approve a clean-air act to solve the country’s chronic smog problem and honour citizens’ right to breathe clean air. Dr Wirun Limsawart, a policy analyst at the Society and Health Institute and member of the Clean Air Network Thailand, said at a press conference there was no more time for…

  • Summer storms take their toll on the north-east this year

    Summer storms take their toll on the north-east this year

    It’s been a tough year for residents as a result of summer storms in Thailand’s north-east region. More than 5,000 homes were damaged and 16,000 residents affected by summer storms in Nakhon Ratchasima over the past three months – the assessment from the provincial disaster prevention and mitigation office head Pornchet Saengthong. “Summer storms in this northeastern province this year…

  • Tham Luang caves to be properly explored and mapped

    Tham Luang caves to be properly explored and mapped

    Local and foreign cave experts have been mapping the Tham Luang-Khunnam Nang Non cave, in the Mae Sai district in Chiang Rai, to create the first detailed map of the cave complex. The mapping follows confusion during the rescue, and mentioned last week by Vernon Unsworth, over the exact location where the boys were found. Mr. Chaiporn Siripornpaibul says the project will take about two years and is intended to discover more…