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5 best wine bars in Bangkok offering rich and quality wine
It’s wine o’clock! Whether you’re all about fruity reds, sweet whites, or funky naturals, Bangkok has many great spots to sip your favourite varieties. But with an array of options to choose from, and the constant rise and fall of...
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Police investigating murder of 3 year old found in Mukdahan forest
The body of a 3 year old girl, missing since Monday, was discovered on Thursday in the northeastern province of Mukdahan. A team of detectives is now investigating the and murder. A massive search involving about 500 police, soldiers, local officials and volunteers was launched when the child, Nong Chompoo, was reported missing in the province’s Tambon Koktoom. The team…
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Full list of businesses allowed to reopen this Sunday
Quick. Read it before it changes. The government has announced which types of businesses will be allowed to reopen on Sunday as it begins “Phase 2” of its 4 step plan to slowly unlock and reopen businesses closed across the country due Covid-19. Mind you this is the list published today. There’s a whole day tomorrow for everything to change…
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Thailand News Today – Friday, May 15
Maison Saigon7 new cases, all imported, no new deaths 7 new cases of Covid-19 this morning at the daily press briefing. The new cases bring the national total to 3,025 since the beginning of the outbreak. But today’s new infections are all among Thais returning from Pakistan, 6 men and a woman, aged 17-31. All are now in state quarantine.…
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100 billion baht fund in the works for small businesses
A pay cheque might be on the way for small businesses that kept paying their employees, despite loss of business from the pandemic. An up to 100 billion baht fund, or 3 billion USD, is planned to be set up to help Thailand’s small businesses, according to Reuters. Deputy PM Somkid Jatusripitak said assistance from the Finance Ministry will be for…
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Thailand Transport Company plans to restart 16 routes from May 18 onwards
Today a spokesman for the state-run Transport Company Limited, one of Thailand’s biggeest bus operators, announced it will open 7 routes in the northern region and 9 in the northeast and eastern regions from Monday onward “to facilitate the people who need to travel after the Transport Company temporarily ceased service due to the Covid-19 epidemic situation.” Here are the…
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UPDATE: Phuket airport reopening delayed, again
UPDATE: In a surprise reversal, The Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand has announced the postponement of the reopening of Phuket International Airport, indefinitely. Just yesterday they announced that the provincial airport was to re-open from tomorrow morning. Although Phuket has gone 13 days with no new Covid 19 infections, it was still considered a risk area that needs to be…
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Military school owner gets death sentence for student’s fatal beating
The owner of a private military school in Nakhon Sawan province, about 237 kilometres north of Bangkok, has been sentenced to death, and his wife and mother-in-law to life in prison, for the fatal beating of a 15 year old student. The provincial court handed down its judgement on Tuesday, ordering capital punishment for Natthaphol Thavornphibun, the owner of Ban…
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Chiang Mai expat finds newborn girl on roadside
Thai Rath reported that an American man found a newborn baby girl by the side of the road in Chiang Mai on Tuesday. The man, who gave his name as “Eric R.” was on his way home to his nearby condo when he saw a child’s arm sticking out from a cloth in the shade of a tree by some…
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No sex for a month, Thai disease expert claims
Coronavirus survivors should wait a month before they get ‘intimate’. At least that’s what one Thai medical expert is saying. No sex for 30 days. For some, that may be worse than 14 days of quarantine. “Semen of recovering might carry the virus”, according to Veerawat Manosutthi, senior medical expert at the Disease Control Department, told Khaosod English. The claim is found…
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Government confirms 14.5 million Thais qualify for 5,000 baht state aid
The director of the Fiscal Policy Office and spokesman for the Finance Ministry says 14.5 million Thai citizens now qualify for the government’s 5,000 baht subsidy, having passed the relevant screening criteria. Thai PBS World reports that Lawan Saengsanit says this number includes 4.4 million people who succeeded at a preliminary round of screening and have already received their first…
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Thailand’s latest Covid-19 case was a tattoo artist travelling from Phuket to Chiang Mai
Thailand’s latest Covid-19 case revealed yesterday was a tattoo artist who had travelled from Phuket Province to Chiang Mai Province last Tuesday. Reports suggest that his main goal was to take his wife and son away from Phuket, being a high-risk province, but things didn’t go as planned when he ended up as the one who got infected. The tattoo…
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Former Thai PM Thaksin says lock-down was not the way to deal with Covid-19
Former, and currently fugitive, PM Thaksin Shinawatra says he believes the lock-down introduced in Thailand to stop the spread of the Covid-19 virus was not the way to go. He maintains current restrictions are hurting the economy and their introduction was a mistake. Nation Thailand reports that Thaksin was speaking to BBC Thai when he criticised the measures put in…
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Marijuana valued at over 6 million baht seized in Mukdahan
Yesterday police in the northeastern province of Mukdaham announced the seizure of 616 kilograms of marijuana, valued at more than 6 million baht. Authorities say 5 suspects are in custody, identified as 46 year old Boonchu Sittithong, 20 year old Wilawan Lapphu, 22 year old Kittiphong Uttaprom, 34 year old Keng Sae Song and Somboon Chindalert, aged 43. Police got…
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New app latest weapon in Thailand’s fight against Covid-19
In line with developments around the world, Thailand’s Covid-19 task force has developed a contact-tracing app as the fight to eradicate the virus continues. Coconuts reports that the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society says the app, known as Thai Chana (Thailand Wins) will be used to track people’s movements in order to easily contact anyone who may have visited…
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Tourism sector prepares to resume business
Businesses that have been battered by the Covid-19 outbreak, especially those in the Eastern Economic Corridor (straddling Chonburi, Rayong, and Chachoengsao provinces) that rely mainly on tourism, are in desperate need of support. But the vice chairman of the Thai Chamber of Commerce says it’s still too early to predict when tourism will recover, as it largely relies on arrivals…
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Workers claim Chiang Mai’s Dhara Dhevi resort owes 10 million baht in unpaid wages
A group of 70 workers, representing over 200 employees at a luxury resort in northern Thailand, have filed an official complaint with Chiang Mai’s Department of Labour and Welfare, claiming they have not been paid for 4 months. Thai Residents reports that the workers are all from the 5 star Dhara Dhevi resort in Chiang Mai, which closed its doors…
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Vongfong, aka. Ambo, barrels into Philippines’ east coast
Typhoon Vongfong (aka. ‘Ambo’ in the Philippines) has made landfall, forcing tens of thousands of people to quickly evacuate whilst in the middle of lockdown amid their local Covid-19 outbreak. The typhoon struck the Phillipines east coast islands around Samar at around noon yesterday. Around 200,000 people living in the coastal areas near Samar have been affected. Vongfong packed winds of…
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University in Korat plants more than 3,000 cannabis plants
The Suranaree University of Technology in Korat (Nakhon Ratchasima) announced today that they have begun planting marijuana trees as part of their research on marijuana based medicines. A senior official at the university, Weerapong Pairsuwan, says that “up to 3,360 cannabis will be planted, with a harvest more than 1,500 kilograms later this year.” “The plants will be used in researches…
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Thailand News Today – Thursday, May 14
Tenants bailing out of pricey Bangkok offices amid pandemic Bangkok’s high-end office district is looking more like a ghost town as the coronavirus pandemic seems to have many companies bailing out of their pricey office spaces. Business owners have had a wake-up call from employees discovering the advantages of working from home. A spokesperson from Phoenix Property Development and Consultancy…
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Architecture students propose redesign and makeover of Bangkok prison
Most of Thailand’s prisons are well past their designed capacity. Living conditions for inmates are cramped and unsanitary. Now some architecture students are trying to come up with creative solutions to improve the living environment at one Bangkok prison. They’ve been working on design proposals that would make the conditions more “humane” at the Thonburi Remand Prison. “Treeward” is one design…
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Leading virologist warns against enabling second wave of Covid-19
A second wave of Covid-19 infections could easily strike Thailand unless people stick to the “new normal” of social distancing, according to Chulalongkorn University’s Head of the Centre of Excellence in Clinical Virology. Posting on Facebook today, Dr Yong Poovorawan wrote that everyone is looking forward to the second phase of easing Emergency Decree restrictions now that the rate of…
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4 alleged gang members arrested, more than a million speed pills seized
Police today announced the arrest of 3 members of a drug gang at 2 houses in Bangkok, and a fourth in the southern Narathiwat province on the Malaysian border. More than a million methamphetamine pills were seized. Police say the houses were used to store drugs smuggled from Laos. A combined team of soldiers, police and officials from the Office…
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Tenants bailing out of pricey Bangkok offices amid pandemic
Bangkok’s high-end office district is looking more like a ghost town as the coronavirus pandemic seems to have many companies bailing out of their pricey office spaces. The increasing vacancy trend of Grade-A office space is expected to continue, possibly until a coronavirus vaccine is in effect, according to managing director of Phoenix Property Development and Consultancy, Surachet Kongcheep. Business owners have…
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Suicide deaths during pandemic could exceed virus-related deaths
Stress with money and other worries, brought on by the pandemic, have led a significant number of people in Thailand to take their own lives. Those who have studied the subject in Thailand say the number of suicide deaths this year could exceed the number of coronavirus deaths. Scholars in Chiang Mai University studied suicide cases that took place between…
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PM orders ministries to study staggered work hours to reduce traffic congestion
PM Prayut Chan-o-cha has ordered authorities to study the possibility of permanently staggered working hours as the Covid-19 pandemic eases because such a policy might help ease long term traffic congestion. Staggered working hours, as well as working from home and learning from home, could be enforced in future to solve traffic problems, according to the PM. He tasked the Education…
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Covid-19 update: 1 new case, no new deaths (May 14)
The Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration announced 1 new case of Covid-19 this morning at its daily press briefing in Bangkok. Dr. Taweesilp Visanuyothin, spokesman for the CCSA, announced the new case is in Chiang Mai, which had previously been clear of new case reports for over a month. The 39 year old man had recently returned from Phuket and is…
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72 year old taxi driver disappears with millions
A elderly taxi driver has vanished without a trace after he became an overnight millionaire when he told the media a sad tale of poverty, indebtedness and lack of family support, according to one of his creditors, who is also the owner of the taxi company. Preecha Chumsombat, the owner of the Mangkorn Chao Phraya taxi rental service in Samut…
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Koh Tao residents caught without face masks made to do push-ups and jumping jacks – VIDEO
Officials on the island of Koh Tao in the Gulf of Thailand have come up with a novel way to punish people for not wearing face masks, still a legal requirement under the Covid-19 emergency decree when people are out in public. The Pattaya News reports that both tourists and Thais caught without protective face coverings are being made to…
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Thai billionaire urges government to allow tourists to return
The senior chairman of Thailand’s largest food and agriculture business, Charoen Pokphand Group (CP All), is appealing to the Thai government to open up the country to overseas visitors once more. The Bangkok Post reports that billionaire Dhanin Chearavanont says Thailand needs to start easing travel restrictions in a bid to restart the tourism industry. “Thailand’s economic losses from the lockdown…
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One death and many sick after eating dumplings
Around 2 dozen people got sick and 1 person died sometime after they ate dumplings sold by a street vendor in Samut Prakan, a province south of Bangkok. Bacteria was found in the dumplings, or kanom jeeb, after a lab test, but health officials say they’re still not sure if the bacteria caused the food poisoning. They’re still investigating before they…
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