Northern Thailand News

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    9 most common health issues covered by insurance for expats in Thailand

    Thailand is a popular destination for expats due to its affordable lifestyle and excellent healthcare system. However, settling in a new country often brings health concerns. To ensure you’re covered for the most common medical needs, understanding what expat health...

  • Chiang Rai’s Suwit Jaipom unveils charcoal portrait of HM King Bhumibol Adulyadej

    Chiang Rai’s Suwit Jaipom unveils charcoal portrait of HM King Bhumibol Adulyadej

    PHOTOS: localnews2010.com A Chiang Rai Artists, Suwit Jaipom, has unveiled a portrait of the late HM King Rama IX, that he has recently created to mark the second anniversary of King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s passing. At his studio in Ban Pang Lao in the capital district of Chiang Rai, Suwit Jaipom, the president of ArtBridge Chiang Rai and local artist, has created…

  • ‘Ailing’ monk hangs himself from a tree in Uttradit

    ‘Ailing’ monk hangs himself from a tree in Uttradit

    by Boonpim Baiya A monk appears to have committed suicide by hanging himself from a tree behind his temple in Uttaradit, a northern province. Police were contacted at 7am this morning by a fellow monk in the compound of Wat Wang Kapee. Police, a medical examiner and rescue workers headed to the temple to find the body of 58 year old…

  • Mu Pa – from Mae Sai to Ellen Degeneres Show in LA

    Mu Pa – from Mae Sai to Ellen Degeneres Show in LA

    by The Nation/Asian News Network US daytime talk-show queen, Ellen Degeneres, posted on her Facebook page that the Mu Pa soccer team will be appearing on her program tomorrow (US time). “There was no story more captivating this summer than the Thai soccer team trapped in a cave.” She also posted a picture of herself with all the 13 Mu…

  • An inspiration for the world – Mu Pa mission chief in New York

    An inspiration for the world – Mu Pa mission chief in New York

    “The recent multinational rescue operation to free the Mu Pa football team members from Tham Luang cave in Chiang Rai province should be an inspiration for people around the globe to help one another.” – Mission’s chief, Narongsak Ostanakorn “I hope this experience inspires people to start living for others,” Narongsak said. “That would be a game changer for the…

  • Mu Pa 13 get a warm welcome at Youth Games in Argentina

    Mu Pa 13 get a warm welcome at Youth Games in Argentina

    PHOTO: Mu Pa, who were rescued from Tham Luang cave in Thailand, stand during the Opening Ceremony of The Youth Olympic Games, in Buenos Aires, Argentina – EPA “When they arrived at the Buenos Aires international airport, liaisons of international athletes waiting for their teams at the airport also greeted them warmly.” The 13 members of the Mu Pa football…

  • MotoGP Day Two – Marc Marquez grabs pole position

    MotoGP Day Two – Marc Marquez grabs pole position

    Johann Zarco (5) of France and Monster Yamaha Tech 3 in Turn 3 during FP3 at the MotoGP PTT Thailand Grand Prix 2018, Chang International Circuit, Thailand on October 06, 2018. PHOTO: Naratip Golf Srisupab/SEALs Sports Images MotoGP championship leader Marc Marquez grabbed pole position in the inaugural Thailand Grand Prix Saturday, just ahead of Italian great Valentino Rossi. The…

  • Thailand MotoGP starts today in Buri Ram

    Thailand MotoGP starts today in Buri Ram

    PHOTO: Jorge Lorenzo (99) of Spain and Ducati Team in Turn 7 during FP2 at the MotoGP PTT Thailand Grand Prix 2018, Chang International Circuit, Thailand on October 05, 2018. Naratip Golf, Srisupab/SEALs Sports Images The ‘PTT Thailand Grand Prix 2018’ MotoGP is being held from today until Sunday, October 7, at the Chang International Circuit in Buri Ram, north-east Thailand.…

  • Pit stops laid on for race fans at MotoGP in Buriram

    Pit stops laid on for race fans at MotoGP in Buriram

    It’s on next weekend and Buriram is gearing up for the arrival of 100,000+ visitors. Thailand Immigration officials are also setting up home this week to handle the influx of international visitors and the teams as they arrive. But if you’re driving, take your Honda. AP Honda has agreed to provide special hospitality services and activities for visitors to the…

  • Loei mothers file complaint about local abbot sexually abusing their sons

    Loei mothers file complaint about local abbot sexually abusing their sons

    Four Loei mothers have filed a complaint with police today accusing the local abbot of a monastic centre of sexually abusing their sons. They told Khok Ngam police that the abbot in Tambon Phone Sung, Dan Sai district, had molested their sons while they were novices there. One woman (name withheld by police) says her 17 year old son was…

  • Four others rescued in Tham Luang before the Mu Pa 13

    Four others rescued in Tham Luang before the Mu Pa 13

    PHOTO: British cavers, Rick Stanton and John Volanthe Dramatic new stories out of a “Hidden Earth” cave-community event where it’s been revealed that the, now famous, Mu Pa 13 weren’t the only people trapped inside the caves in Chiang Rai. Two of the British divers who were part of the Tham Luang rescue effort, extracting the Mu Pa football team from…

  • 12 million meth pills, half tonne of ‘ice’ seized in Chiang Rai

    12 million meth pills, half tonne of ‘ice’ seized in Chiang Rai

    Been a busy day in northern Thailand as police grapple with the transporting of drugs across the borders. First, this morning there was a motorcyclist with a backpack full of meth pills. Now a much larger shipment has been intercepted. The Nation reports that Chiang Rai police have foiled an attempt to smuggle 12 million methamphetamine pills and 521 kilograms…

  • TAT plan to boost tourism to secondary locations, and Thai Airways’ bottomline

    TAT plan to boost tourism to secondary locations, and Thai Airways’ bottomline

    The TAT – Tourism Authority of Thailand – is coming to the rescue of the beleaguered national carrier, Thai Airways. They are going to promote 20 flight routes in 10 provinces for the rest of this year. This is in response to instructions from the Thai government for state-owned enterprises to work together to boost income for the airline which…

  • Unsworth sues Musk over ‘pedo’ slur

    Unsworth sues Musk over ‘pedo’ slur

    The British cave expert who was part of the international rescue team helping to bring the 13 Mu Pa footballers out of the Tham Luang caves in July, has sued Tesla founder Elon Musk for calling him a “pedo guy” and a “child rapist”, amongst other insults in a series of Tweets.” The defamation suit has been filed in LA…

  • Chiang Rai Governor Prajon hosts seminar to develop SEZs in northern Thailand

    Chiang Rai Governor Prajon hosts seminar to develop SEZs in northern Thailand

    PHOTO: Chiang Rai Times Chiang Rai Governor Prajon Prachsakul presided over the opening of the Special Economic Zone Policy Committee seminar held at the Teak Garden Resort. The seminar was designed to mobilise the development of special economic zones and promote public participation in the northern province project. According to the Chiang Rai Times, Governor Prajon told attendees that the…

  • Order a 37K brand name bag online – a 100 baht plastic bottle arrives in the mail

    Order a 37K brand name bag online – a 100 baht plastic bottle arrives in the mail

    INN are reporting that a 25 year old Khon Kaen woman has made a complaint to police saying that she had ordered a 37,000 baht second-hand brand name bag online but all she received was a plastic bottle. The woman says that hen she opened the package all she found was a plastic bottle with a Kung Fu Panda logo…

  • Police in Phayao chase an ambulance loaded with illicit drugs

    Police in Phayao chase an ambulance loaded with illicit drugs

    A dramatic chase in Phayao’s Dok Khamtai district last night (Sunday) has resulted in police seizing half a million methamphetamine pills, a large amount of crystal methamphetamine and ketamine… from an ambulance. The twist is that the ambulance was being used by the drug-trafficking gang as a cover-up for their operation. The Nation reports that Phayao police were alerted at…

  • Royal Gala Dinner ‘like a big family reunion’

    Royal Gala Dinner ‘like a big family reunion’

    PHOTO/VIDEOS: Thai PBS Thai PBS spoke to a number of the attendees at last Thursday night’s Royal Gala Dinner to commemorate and thank international and Thai volunteers who contributed to the amazing rescue of the 13 young football players from the Tham Luang caves in Mae Sai, Chiang Rai early July. Nothing would overwhelm Maj Hodges from the United States…

  • Elon Musk accuses cave rescuer of being a ‘child rapist’

    Elon Musk accuses cave rescuer of being a ‘child rapist’

    Elon Musk, the man behind the Tesla electric car and a billion dollar tech empire, has again attacked the British Chiang Rai resident who was part of the large international effort to rescue the Mu Pa 13 from the Tham Luang Caves in July. In an email to BuzzFeed News, the Tesla CEO launched into his third verbal assault on…

  • 2 dead and 11 injured in Udon Thani road crash

    2 dead and 11 injured in Udon Thani road crash

    PHOTO: Chiang Rai Times Two people have been killed and 10 injured after their passenger van smashed into a trailer-truck in Udon Thani yesterday (Monday). The accident happened on Dong Rai-Ban Phue Road in Ban Khao around midday. A 38 year old truck driver, Aniroot Jadpong, from Udon Thani, fled the scene following the incident but later reported to police. He…

  • Truck carrying gas cylinders flips over in Udon Thani

    Truck carrying gas cylinders flips over in Udon Thani

    Cooking-gas cylinders have toppled out of an overturned six-wheel truck on the Mitraparp Highway in Udon Thani’s Mueang district. The incident happened yesterday prompting the police to seal off the scene as a safety precaution. The fully loaded truck lost control while heading towards the Muang Udon Thani Museum. The crash injured two people on board. The potential of a…

  • Mango Tree hosts educational tour to train global chefs in the art of Isan cuisine

    Mango Tree hosts educational tour to train global chefs in the art of Isan cuisine

    Leading Asian restaurant operator, Mango Tree Worldwide, recently conducted a major educational trip to Northeast Thailand to teach its international chefs about the exquisite art of Isan cuisine. Isan is the vast, largely rural region of Thailand bordering Laos, Cambodia and the Mekong River. Sometimes referred to as the “Rice Bowl of Thailand” and the heart of the country’s culinary…

  • US Ambassador thanks Chiang Rai locals for looking after US rescue team members

    US Ambassador thanks Chiang Rai locals for looking after US rescue team members

    PHOTO: Ten northern artists led by Master Saravuth Kammoonchai, took turns working on the statue – The Nation Glyn Davies, the US Ambassador to Thailand, toured Chiang Rai province yesterday to thank those who welcomed the US team during the multinational rescue operations to help rescue the young Mu Pa Academy football club members in June. He visited Wat Rong Khun,…

  • How to get 300,000 Instagram followers – US ABC TV interviews Mu Pa team

    How to get 300,000 Instagram followers – US ABC TV interviews Mu Pa team

    PHOTO: Adul Samon – ABC News The 12 Mu Pa football players and their coach say they wanted to thank for the world for the outpouring of love and support that went into rescuing them from a harrowing subterranean ordeal. It was the first independent interview with the team sanctioned by the Thai government and the boys’ minders. 14 year old…

  • Flood watch on Phetchaburi, Nan, western provinces

    Flood watch on Phetchaburi, Nan, western provinces

    An update on the flood situation in many parts of the country. PHOTOS: The Nation Phetchaburi Water levels in the Phetchaburi River are rising dangerously from the overwhelmed Kaeng Krachan Dam. The dam is now 109 per cent full and 22.46 million cubic metres of water are being released every day into the river. “The river’s water level has already…

  • Nan, Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai report damage from current floods

    Nan, Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai report damage from current floods

    Weather warnings remain current for 38 Thai provinces affected by tropical storm Bebinka which is currently hovering over northern Vietnam, moving west. Meanwhile its affects are already being felt in the north. Moutain run-off has hit and washed away three sections of the main Chiang Rai-Chiang Mai road early today. The Doi Saket police station in Chiang Rai was alerted at…

  • Police ‘good nature’ is actually a really bad idea

    Police ‘good nature’ is actually a really bad idea

    In a bizarre piece of policing and an even more bizarre reaction on social media, Thai Rath has posted some video of traffic police tying a band of cloth around a father and daughter who were stopped at a checkpoint – neither with motorbike helmets. The video was posted on the Facebook page of police in the north-east with a policeman tying…

  • Weather and dam authorities say they’re ready for the impact of Bebinca

    Weather and dam authorities say they’re ready for the impact of Bebinca

    Authorities say they’re well prepared for tropical storm Bebinca, with emergency response teams in full readiness and, importantly, with water levels being lowered in every dam in the storm’s path, leaving room for greater water inflows. The Meteorological Department issued warnings yesterday saying the storm will bring heavy downpours throughout the upper regions of Thailand and may trigger flash floods in…

  • New Ferrari slams into tree in Korat

    New Ferrari slams into tree in Korat

    Been a bad week if you’re a supercar owner in Thailand. Photos from Daily News show a red plate Ferrari that collided with the back of an 18 wheel truck on the Friendship Highway (Mitraphap) in the Si Khiw area of Nakhon Ratchasima. The accident also involved a Chevrolet car that ended up under the truck in the roadside ditch.…

  • Four of the Mu Pa 13 become Thai citizens

    Four of the Mu Pa 13 become Thai citizens

    PHOTO: Adul Samon, Mongkol Boonpium, Pornchai Khamluang and assistant coach Ekkapol Chantawongse. Good news for four of the stateless Mu Pa Academy footballers. During their time in the cave it was revealed that four of the team were officially stateless – unable to get a bank account, get legally married, start a business, etc. Tonight the four officially became Thai…

  • Good news from dams in the north-east

    Good news from dams in the north-east

    Whilst provinces bordering the Mekong River, and areas in Phetchaburi downstream of the hillside dams, are all under threat from flooding at the moment, the situation is a lot better in the lower north-east provinces. The Irrigation department has issued assurances today about the water situation covering some 77 dams in the region. The Nation reports that 77 reservoirs in…