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    How to reduce out-of-pocket medical expenses in Thailand?

    Managing medical expenses in Thailand is important as healthcare costs continue to rise. The country’s healthcare system includes both public and private options, but even with the Universal Coverage Scheme (UCS) for citizens, many still face high out-of-pocket medical expenses....

  • A shagging dog story from Phattalung | Thaiger

    A shagging dog story from Phattalung

    PHATTALUNG: Wat Na Tom temple, hitherto a landmark of the faithful in Phattalung’s Muang District, last week spawned one of those scandals which, after hitting newsstands, has elicited sighs and perhaps uncharitable tittering. In this case, possibility of the latter is high: some 70 full-color photos support allegations by unidentified local people that the abbot of Wat Na Tom not…

  • Leeches on patrol | Thaiger

    Leeches on patrol

    A dose of tough natural justice was handed out recently by the denizens of a local swamp to a young ne’er-do-well from Ranong who was caught riding a stolen motorcycle. The 16-year-old youth was taking his girlfriend for a ride around Chalong Circle when officers directing traffic decided there was something a little suspicious in his bearing and signalled him…

  • Bag snatcher bagged | Thaiger

    Bag snatcher bagged

    CHALONG: A 16-year-old punk recently found out the hard way that crime does not always pay. At about 11 pm on June 7, Chalong Community Volunteer Police collared a boy name Ouan (not his real name), after an unsuccessful attempt to rob an 18-year-old girl late at night. The victim, Phuket Vocational College student Primrita Saisen, was returning home by…

  • Persian Gulp in Pattaya | Thaiger

    Persian Gulp in Pattaya

    PATTAYA: A tourist found out the hard way that not every woman in Pattaya likes to be groped, and that getting mixed up between grope-me-do and touch-me-not can be an expensive experience. At 3 am on May 28, Pattaya Tourist Police Sub-Inspector Pol Cap Jirawat Sukonthasup received a call from Sukanya Pakdeerattanamitr, 22, of Tambon Nong Preu, Banglamung District. Complaining…

  • Er, what’s my name today? | Thaiger

    Er, what’s my name today?

    In some places a person who frequently changes his or her name might fall under suspicion of illegal activity. But in Ubon Ratchathani Province’s Phibun Mungsaharn District it is the pillars of society – school teachers and other career bureaucrats – who change their names most often. Teachers in the district have been heading for the local registrar’s office in…

  • Errant abbot | Thaiger

    Errant abbot

    An abbot in Lampang was nabbed by a group of villagers while he was sneaking back into the wat at 4:30 am after a tryst with his paramour, a local widow. The 50-strong mob confronted the 43-year-old abbot, who was described as being “a bit on the chubby side”, and his 49-year-old paramour as she was dropping him back at…

  • Sneaky thief | Thaiger

    Sneaky thief

    BANGKOK: After waking up to find that their house had been broken into, a high-society couple in Bangkok were left more than a little confused when they discovered that the thief had ignored a selection of diamond and gold jewelry – instead making off with more than 20 pairs of shoes. The crime scene, an elegant European-style house that had…

  • Meechai takes care of his dad | Thaiger

    Meechai takes care of his dad

    SONGKHLA: Acquaintances of 45-year-old Meechai say he has a history of mental confusion that requires occasional incarceration and treatment; and indeed, as events proved in the early hours of April 16, he has difficulty sorting out questions of right and wrong. Nonetheless, all things considered, his heart seems to be in the right place. Meechai had gone with his aged…

  • Double your pleasure | Thaiger

    Double your pleasure

    Wichai Hengjarernsook is in the junk business, and so not a man to overlook a bargain when he sees it. The 24-year-old native of Samut Sakhon’s Baan Paew District, where women are far-famed for beauty, couldn’t decide which of two identical twin sisters in his village he wanted to wed. So, being an astute businessman, he popped the question to…

  • His wife’s a real bitch | Thaiger

    His wife’s a real bitch

    Disappointment famously prompts extreme measures in victims. Disappointed of proper stage effects for his fiddling, Nero burned Rome; of artistic ambitions, Van Gogh cut off his ear; and of the American colonies, George III went mad. In Lampang Province, a 39-year-old man disappointed with women fell in love with a real bitch, – a two-year-old poodle named Olé – and…

  • Death of drinker | Thaiger

    Death of drinker

    CHALONG: Probably the last thing Surasak Tayan expected as he sat drinking cola late one night outside a PTT filling station’s 7-Eleven convenience store was that his modest attempt at humorous self-deprecation would be the death of him. But it was. K. Surasak was frustrated because, at 3:30 am, he couldn’t buy a decent drink. Unfortunately, in expressing his disgust…

  • Rescuers need rescuing | Thaiger

    Rescuers need rescuing

    THALANG: Three Kusoldham Rescue Foundation workers had to call in rescuers themselves at about 3 am on March 10, after being assaulted by a group of more than 20 girls and ladyboys at the PTT filling station in Baan Lipon, Tambon Srisoonthorn. Chaiya Pariensati said he and two other rescue workers were on duty when they noticed a young woman…

  • Money no object for party guy | Thaiger

    Money no object for party guy

    THALANG: Police arrested a young drunk who ordered a feast of food and drinks at a sing-song joint in Tambon Srisoonthorn and then couldn’t pay the bill. Upon questioning, the man admitted to police that he had done this before. Forty-five times. News of the penniless party guy reached Thalang Police at about 1:30 am on February 27, when a…

  • Crack of doom | Thaiger

    Crack of doom

    PATHUM THANI: Readers living in Thailand may occasionally experience the frustration of having to deal with a sudden infestation of red ants, roaches, or termites. What can be more annoying than discovering that savory breast of barbecued chicken you left on the table moments ago is swarming with feisty red ants? Discovering your house swarming with glistening, newly hatched cobras,…

  • Growing pains in the B30 medical scheme | Thaiger

    Growing pains in the B30 medical scheme

    PRACHIN BURI: Admirers of the government’s 30-baht medical scheme may wish to consider, after reading the following, whether reform is necessary. Prachinburi resident Chaluay Pantam, 37, has watched with increasing alarm over the last two years as a ping pong ball-sized lump on his right shoulder grew into a Quasimodo-like hump “weighing more than 20 kilograms.” In the meantime, the…

  • Miss Chicky gets herself fingered | Thaiger

    Miss Chicky gets herself fingered

    PATONG: It is well-known that women, in general, spend more money than men in the effort to keep themselves attractive. But for men trying to pass themselves off as women, expenses are greater still. In the case of one Thai post-op ladyboy, the costs of ongoing upkeep proved so great that he turned to a life of crime. At 10…

  • Bungled burglary boys | Thaiger

    Bungled burglary boys

    CHON BURI: After arresting three teenagers for passing a counterfeit 1,000-baht note, Pattaya Police were stunned to learn that two of them had just stolen it from a nearby bank. After a tipoff by a vendor at the To Rung Mae Wilai Market, police arrested two homeless boys, 15-year-old “A” and 14-year-old “B” [real names withheld because they are minors],…

  • Triple play | Thaiger

    Triple play

    KOH CHANG: The guests, it has to be said, were taken aback by the wedding invitation card, which announced the nuptials of bridegroom Yeuifa Meelaap and two brides: Vassana Uysap and Jenny Saibua. A wedding for a threesome was unusual, and all the more so when one realizes that the groom was also a woman. Talking to reporters, the trio…

  • Bottled up | Thaiger

    Bottled up

    PRACHUAB KHIRI KHAN: From this peninsular province comes a cautionary tale about the perils of leaving bottles standing on the floor. Nuy (not his real name) had just finished his ablutions when he slipped on the wet floor of his bathroom and plonked down firmly on his backside. This is the kind of embarrassment many of us suffer from time…

  • Biting back | Thaiger

    Biting back

    BANGKOK: A drunken security guard had the tip of his tongue bitten off during an unsuccessful attempt to rape a 50-year-old partially-sighted woman. In a tale recounted by Pol Lt Col Paythai Thipmongkol of the Bang Khen Police, security guard Boonrawd Kanwan, 42, was off-duty and drinking with friends in the workers’ quarters of the Bangkok Mass Transit Authority (BMTA)…

  • Taking leave | Thaiger

    Taking leave

    SONGKHLA: A 23-year-old Marine private on leave from a posting in Narathiwat apparently misunderstood the meaning of “R&R”, by shooting himself in the head during a drunken game of Russian Roulette. On the evening of November 22, Pte Juthipon Singmanee, posted to the Chulabhorn Army Camp in strife-torn Narathiwat Province, was home during his leave of duty, socializing with four…

  • Woman zapped by her own security device | Thaiger

    Woman zapped by her own security device

    SURAT THANI: Sakhon Wich-aidit was fed up with thieves trying to steal the mats of rubber stored outside her home, so she installed a security system – she surrounded her property, located in a rubber plantation, with bare wire, then plugged it into the mains power. But the only victim claimed by the system was K. Sakhon herself. At about…

  • Sole food | Thaiger

    Sole food

    The father of an 8-year-old boy who eats nothing but dirty shoes and sandals is worried about his son’s health and seeking donations for medical treatment to cure him. After neighbors brought the existence of the shoe-eating boy to the attention of staff at the TV program Mun Plak Dee Na, they went to Hao village in Chiang Mai province…

  • Police hunt porn panty perv | Thaiger

    Police hunt porn panty perv

    CHON BURI: Police are on the lookout for a pervert who has been breaking into the unattended homes of young women in order to indulge in some rather messy fantasies. The most recent break-in was reported on October 31 by Kedchadarat Thepchaiphum, 22, a resident of Tambon Sattahip. K. Kedchadarat told the Sattahip Police that she left home at 7:30…

  • Rough justice for knicker nicker | Thaiger

    Rough justice for knicker nicker

    SAMUT PRAKAN: Stealing women’s underwear might be considered nothing but a prank in some countries, but it is a serious crime in Samut Prakan’s Muang District, where residents of Tambon Bangpoomai took the law into their own hands and nearly beat to death a man after he was caught pilfering panties. Yoybangpoo District Police reported the man’s arrest, which occurred…

  • Croc makes good pillow and a snappy companion | Thaiger

    Croc makes good pillow and a snappy companion

    PHICHIT: Some people like to argue about which breed of dog makes the best four-legged home security system, but a coffee vendor in this province has found that his 70-kilogram pet crocodile is just as effective at keeping burglars at bay as any Rottweiler, Pit Bull or Doberman. Prayoon “Khiat” Thong jorn, 43, bought the crocodile for 3,000 baht as…

  • The Poodle Poo incident on Soi Green Soda | Thaiger

    The Poodle Poo incident on Soi Green Soda

    KARON: The owner of two Karon beer bars has filed a complaint with the Chalong Police against a neighbor who, she says, threw dog excreta at her. Yindee Sutipakdi, 39, filed the complaint against 22-year-old Piyathida Muangbang, after the latter drove up to her home on a motorcycle and hurled a bag containing poodle poo at her. The two women…

  • Not so sty-lish behavior | Thaiger

    Not so sty-lish behavior

    KHON KAEN: A man accused by villagers of having sex with a neighbor’s pig has agreed to pay the owner 500 baht in compensation. Sa-ngad Hapanna, 39, a resident of Baan Tonnoi in Muang district, filed a complaint with the village headman after neighbors alerted her the night before that they saw the man having sex with one of her…

  • Monkey on your back | Thaiger

    Monkey on your back

    CHIANG RAI: Having a monkey on one’s back might sound like the very definition of hardship, but for a dog in Mae Sai it is a labor of love. Guests at the Kung Pao 38 Restaurant in Mae Sai are greeted by a rather unusual welcoming committee when they arrive: a four-year-old Labrador retriever and “Jockey”, an orphaned baby monkey…

  • The young lad and the sea | Thaiger

    The young lad and the sea

    PATONG: A 15-year-old German boy tried to drown himself at Patong Beach after his parents forbade him to see again a ladyboy he had met on Soi Bangla. On the evening of September 12, the boy – whose name was not released because he is a minor – was ordered to stay in his room by his parents, who feared…