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5 hidden healthcare costs in Thailand and how to avoid them
Thailand's healthcare system is affordable and supported by the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) scheme, offering essential services to most citizens. However, hidden healthcare costs can surprise patients and lead to unexpected expenses. These include specialist fees, insurance gaps, emergency services,...
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Airport smokers kicked out of Thai terminals
The Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA) says they strongly support Thailand’s move to ban smoking inside the passenger terminals of all its airports, to protect employees and non-smoking travellers from exposure to secondhand smoke. On February 3 this year, the Airports of Thailand (AoT) removed all smoking rooms inside the airports of Suvarnabhumi, Don Mueang, Phuket, Chiang Mai, Hat…
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Two Thai motorcyclists injured as British man makes a “sudden U-turn”
Two Thais on a motorbike have hit a car driven by a British man in Thepprasit Road, Pattaya early yesterday morning. The Pattaya News reports that local police and Sawang Boriboon emergency responders headed to the scene where they found a Honda City with Chonburi plates stopped in the middle of the road. It had damage to the right rear side.…
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Usable water level in Khon Kaen’s main dam dangerously low
One of the north-east’s largest dams is running dry. And the dry season has just begun. About a year ago, Khon Kaen irrigation officials were discharging excess water through Ubol Ratana Dam (pronounced Ubonrat) to increase reservoir capacity to ease flood problems in Thailand’s northeastern province of Khon Kaen. Now, the same officials are urging people in the province to…
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Dog patiently watches over deceased master on Pathum Thani roadside
A man, who had left home a month ago to live by the roadside with a stray dog in Pathum Thani, has been found dead. The dog was watching over the body when others discovered the deceased man. Pathum Thani is just north of Bangkok. The deceased has been identified as 45 year old Surachai Khamsue. He was found lying…
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Army Chief spits the dummy and orders the playing of military song
Contributors Jitraporn Sennawong and Kas Chanwanpen – The Nation If you’re the Thai Army Chief, and a bit miffed that some political parties are including scaling back military spending in their election policies, what do you do? Why of course you order Army radio stations in the Kingdom to play a jingoistic, and offensive to many, military-themed song, “Nak Phaendin”. Angry…
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Baby Risso’s Dolphin rescued at Railay Beach in Krabi
PHOTO: DMCR A baby Risso’s Dolphin has been rescued after being found on Railay Beach in Krabi on Sunday. Officials at the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources (DMCR) were notified that the baby dolphin was found of the east end of Railay Beach. The DMCR says that the species is a baby Risso’s dolphin. This one is 250 centimetres…
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No alcohol sales today – Makha Bucha Day, February 19
The 24 hour ban on alcohol sales for Makha Bucha Day will remain in effect until midnight tonight. Makha Bucha is a sacred Buddhist holiday taken to refer to a day to honour the third lunar month and, in particular, the Buddha and the teachings that he delivered on the full moon day of the fourth lunar month. Any person…
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Krabi drug officers crack down on drugs and firearms
Krabi Officers have seized 210,921 methamphetamine pills, 550 grams of crystal methamphetamine, 36 firearms and 19 bullets in the latest crackdown in Krabi. Officers searched in 25 targeted area in Krabi where they have arrested 8 wanted drug suspects over the past week. Methamphetamine pills have been sold in the region for as little as 55 baht per pill. More…
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Lion Air flight slips off Borneo runway, landing in poor conditions – VIDEO
Another PR disaster for Lion Air, luckily no fatalities in this latest incident. A Lion Air Boeing 737 with 189 people on board has skidded off a Borneo runway as the pilot tried to land during heavy rain. The Lion Air flight was coming in to land at the Supadio International Airport. The aircraft was carrying 182 passengers and seven crew…
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Swedish man runs amok on Phuket’s main road
Police and rescue services were called to Phuket’s main arterial north-south road where a 57 year old Swedish man was running around the road and darting in front of traffic. Police speculate that, as his visa was running out, he may been on a suicide mission. They’ve also revealed that he is mentally unstable. Daily News reports that Thalang police,…
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Snakes! 2,000+ snakes seized in Thai-Laos border sting
182 baskets containing 2,730 rat snakes and cobras – worth 1 million baht in total – have been intercepted as they were about to be smuggled out of Thailand and into Laos. Mukdahan Wild Animals Checkpoint officials were joined by personnel from other agencies in confiscating the reptilian cache. Mukdahan is located on the far north-eastern Thai-Laos border Following a tip-off…
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Southern insurgency: Ranger shot dead in Songkhla house
FILE PHOTO: The latest shooting in a spate of recent violence in the southern provinces – The Nation A ranger based in Yala has been shot dead at his home in Songkhla’s Muang district. Pol Capt Adirek Burintrapibal, the deputy inspector of Muang Songkhla police station, was alerted at 8.30pm last night of the shooting at a house in Moo 10…
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Pattaya vendor arrested for intimidating tourists in Pattaya whilst selling fake luxury watches
PHOTOS: Tourist Police Bureau Pattaya Tourtist Police have arrested a Thai man selling fake luxury watches and allegedly intimidating tourists as he was doing so. The Tourist Police Bureau report that 26 year old Natthapong “Top’’ Phetsanan, a watch vendor in Pattaya, was arrested on Friday near a beach in Chon Buri. The arrest came after a video clip posted on…
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Now you can study the success of K-pop band BTS – University of California, Berkeley
PHOTO: BTS members posing with South Korean President Moon Jae In 400 million views, 500 million, 600 million. Just scroll through the group’s songbook on YouTube from the past five years and you will be watching music history in the making – a success built on a new pop genre, new ‘music business’ model and seven young South Koreans hell-bent…
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Motorbike driver files official complaint after accident from fallen cables in Kata
A motorbike driver has filed a report with police against a cable company after he became tangled up in their cabling while driving to work in Kata. 26 year old Chakaree Yawaekaree filled the report with Chalong Police against the local cable company. Mr Chakaree told Police that he was driving to work in Kata on Friday morning. When he…
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50+ motorbike taxi drivers blockade southern border
50 Thai motorcycle taxi drivers have set up a blockade at the Thai-Malaysian border checkpoint to protest what they allege are unworkable, stricter immigration checks now imposed by Malaysian immigration officials. The taxi drivers say they have been bringing Thai tourists across the border in Songkhla’s Sadao district to the duty-free shops in Malaysia’s Padang Besar for years. Yesterday morning’s…
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Motorbike driver dies after colliding with sedan on Thepkasattri Road, Phuket
A motorbike driver has died after colliding with a sedan driven by a Russian driver who was allegedly making a “risky” U-turn on Thepkrasattri Road in Koh Kaew yesterday. The incident happened at 3.30pm yesterday. Police and other emergency responders arrived to find a white sedan, a motorbike and a pickup truck. The motorbike driver had sustained serious injuries –…
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Weather for February 18
Bangkok Generally clear. High 32ºC. Winds S at 15 to 25 km/h. Phuket Generally clear. High 31ºC. Winds SW at 10 to 15 km/h. Chiang Mai Generally clear. High 34ºC. Winds SW at 10 to 15 km/h. Pattaya Morning thunderstorms. High 31ºC. Winds SSW at 15 to 25 km/h. Chance of rain 80%. Hua Hin Generally clear. High 32ºC. Winds…
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Summer scorcher heading our way – winter was ‘unusually’ warm
“Thailand’s summer starts this Thursday.” The Thai Meteorological Department is forecasting “an extraordinarily hot and arid summer” for Thailand from this Thursday, the official start of Thailand’s summer – the HOT season (Thailand leaps from a cool winter straight into its local summer season). Seven provinces in the North and western regions are expecting extreme heat between 40-44C. Phuwieng Prakhammintara,…
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54 year old Swede dodges traffic in Thepkasattri Road, Phuket
PHUKET: Achadtaya Chuenniran A 54 year old Swedish tourist is now in custody after running around Thepkasattri road yesterday morning dodging cars and causing traffic mayhem. Luckily no cars came in contact with the man police described as ‘mentally ill’. A video clip from the incident shows the man running in and out of the traffic on Thepkasattri Road in…
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Woman falls to her death from Bangkok hotel
A Portuguese woman has died after an incident at a Bangkok hotel in the Maha Preuktharam sub-district this morning. The 24 year old was found dead around at 8am Sunday morning after falling, or jumping, from a sixth floor open deck of a the hotel. Bang Rak police deputy inspector Pol Captain Thanapat Suwannak says the body of the foreign tourist, later…
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Tham Luang caves closing for retrieval of all rescue equipment
Chiang Rai’s Tham Luang caves, the scene of the international cave rescue last July, will close to all visitors from February 19 to allow Thai Navy SEALs to enter and recover equipment left in the cave after the rescue mission. The mission, which captured the attention of media around the world and changed the young men’s lives forever, extracted 13…
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Uighur escapees captured and back in Mukdahan jail
Seven undocumented Uighurs, who escaped from an immigration facility in northeast Mukdahan, on the Laos border in far north-east Thailand last week, have been recaptured. Pol Colonel Sith Sirikangwalkul, the acting Immigration chief for the region, says that one was recaptured on Tuesday (February 12), the same night everyone escaped, and two more were found in a forest two kilometres away…
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Thai fishing industry says new laws are ‘unrealistic’
by Kanittha Thepajorn A draft bill for the improved protection of fishing boat crews has sailed through the National Legislative Assembly. NLA members voted unanimously to endorse the Bill on Labour Protection in the Fisheries Sector. The Nation reports that the writers of the Bill say the new laws will bring the conditions on fishing vessels up to par with the…
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Amnesty for possession of cannabis in Thailand?
The Government is looking at a plan to grant amnesty to those who have been using, or have, cannabis in their possession, But only if they report to authorities within a given time frame. The Drug Committee approved three draft legislations for amnesty yesterday. If the drafts become law even possessors of cannabis, who are not patients or research units,…
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Hong Kong property tzars team up for new Phang Nga development “Aquella”
FILE PHOTO Two of Hong Kong’s leading entrepreneurs Allan Zeman and Richard Li are developing a mixed-use project in Thai Muang, Phang Nga named Aquella. The initial phase of the development includes a par 72, 18 hole golf course, resort pool villa residences with two to four bedroom unit configurations back of a massive land site that offers over 2.5…
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Bangkok Airlines schedules more flights out of Chiang Mai
Competition is heating up on two direct airline routes out of Chiang Mai – to Krabi and Luang Prabang in Laos. But Bangkok Airways is facing tough competition on the direct Chiang Mai – Krabi route, already served with three daily Thai AirAsia flights, while Bangkok Airways will schedule only three flights in March and up to the the end…
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New Camry Hybrid provides luxury in a larger model with electric advantages
by Kingsley Wijayasinha – The Nation Weekend The interest in electric cars is hotting up in Thailand but Thai manufacturers, so far, have been reluctant to take the FULL electric plunge. In the meantime Toyota is hoping their new Camry Hybrid will draw a good number of customers thanks to its packaging overhaul. The hybrid is battery operated with a…
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Car and house loans surged in 2018
The Bank of Thailand says they’re concerned about the double-digit growth in loans for cars last year. The central bank is now monitoring the trend and will keep track of statistics for the rest of 2019. Their concerns about the Thai mortgage market the year before resulted in new regulations coming into effect this April. Loans for cars were up…
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2,810 MP candidates line up for March 24 election
107 candidates, for positions as Members of Parliament, and two prime ministerial candidates have been disqualified from running in the March Thai general election. Of the 2,917 party-list registered candidates, from 77 political parties, 2,810 candidates and 68 prime ministerial candidates from 44 parties have qualified after being checked by the Election Commission. While the EC didn’t disclose the names…
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