News
Thailand news, politics, business, crime, lifestyle, and tourism—stay updated with breaking news and in-depth analysis from Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Pattaya, and beyond.
-
Police arrest Chiang Mai couple over home-made CBD oil
PHOTO: Urine Drug Test Chiang Mai Police have arrested a husband and wife selling homemade CBD oil (Cannabidiol) online after receiving complaints that a cancer patient died after allegedly using the oil. Police entered the house with a search warrant and found 3.4 million baht cash along with quantities of the CBD oil they were selling online. Officials received information that…
-
Sampling Saigon street food with XO Tours
PHOTOS: XO Tours Find yourself in Saigon and looking to learn more about the local street food scene? Well, if your sense of adventure is in intact and you prefer to receive your knowledge first hand, then XO Tours can provide you with a fascinating and insightful trip through the streets of Saigon. Sitting on the back of a moped…
-
Phuket social enterprise shop takes the first steps
PHOTOS: stepswiththeera.com A Bangkok-based social enterprise has made its debut in Phuket as it opened a new zero-waste shop, cafe and vocational training centre in Cherng Talay. The shop is run by Steps With Theera and provides a range of plastic substitutes including bamboo straw sets, bamboo toothbrushes and SuperBee wax wraps, alongside a refill station with beauty products from…
-
Finance Ministry launches 100 billion stimulus package to kickstart sagging economy
PHOTO: thailandshoppingdining.com The Government is kicking off a new stimulus package valued at 100 billion baht to “stimulate the grassroots economy”. Prasong Poontaneat, permanent secretary of the Finance Ministry reported that the government is preparing a brand-new stimulus package. “The Finance Ministry and related agencies will spend more than 100 billion baht on approximately 30 million low-income households nationwide.” The…
-
6 year old Burmese boy dies from bike-pickup truck crash
SOURCE: khaosod.co.th A 6 year old Burmese boy has died following a motorcycle accident when his parents crashed the vehicle onto a pick-up truck earlier this week. He died in the intensive care ward at Vachira Hospital yesterday morning (Thursday) The accident occurred on September 15 near Soi Pramote, Chaofa West Road, Chalong. The boy’s father, 39 year old Thein…
-
Delta airlines jet plunges 30,000 feet in controlled descent
PHOTO: Twitter:Harris Dewoskin “Other passengers relayed that they were hastily tapping out texts on their phones thinking that they might crash.” Passengers on a Delta flight, from Atlanta to Fort Lauderdale, were terrified when their plane plunged mid-air, dropping nearly 30,000 feet in around 9 minutes. Delta report that the flight experienced a “cabin pressurisation irregularity” during the journey. The flight…
-
More arrest warrants issued over Bangkok’s August bomb attacks
PHOTO: Voice of America The Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for five more suspects yesterday over their alleged involvement in the simultaneous bomb and arson attacks in Bangkok back on August 2. Police presented evidence against them to the court yesterday to obtain warrants for their arrest. They are accused of being members of an unlawful syndicate and collaborating to carry…
-
Could you be a digital nomad in Thailand?
Are you a digital nomad? Working online wherever you can find a seat and wi-fi? According to digital nomad websites, some of the most popular locations to work online around the world include Chiang Mai & Bangkok (Thailand), Budapest (Hungary), Belgrade (Serbia), Bali (Indonesia), Lisbon (Portugal) and Buenos Aires (Argentina). What do all these cities have in common? The main…
-
Thailand’s August exports fall further than expected
Some more lumpy economic news for Thialand as the focus is on the monthly customs clearances to provide a compass for the country’s economy. Customs-cleared exports dropped in August 4% compared to the same month a year earlier. Exports unexpectedly rose in July, according to the commerce ministry today. The decline in August has shown itself to be greater than…
-
New traffic laws come into force for Thailand today
PHOTO: ThaiVisa From today, an amendment to the Land Transport Act means traffic police can no longer confiscate driving licences. Police can still record the details of a driver’s licence but must then return it. The new system will also remove the risk of licences being lost while in the care of the police, as has happened in the past.…
-
Our oceans are key to fighting climate change
by Amélie Bottollier-Depois and Marlowe Hood “There are at least three types of actions humans can take to help repair the damage and ensure that oceans don’t turn from friend to foe.” Humanity must heal oceans made sick by climate change and pollution to protect marine life and to save itself, experts warned days before the release of a major…
-
US vaping-related illnesses surpasses 500
The links between vaping and critical lung disease appear to becoming more frequent and obvious although health authorities are struggling to find the ‘smoking gun’ that is the actual cause of the current list of cases. More than 500 people have been diagnosed with vaping-related breathing illnesses. An eighth death has also been reported. The US Food and Drug Administration says…
-
Southern Thailand smog well above safe levels
PHOTOS: Charoon Thongnual – The Nation Hat Yai, the main city in Songkhla, has been among the worst hit by the smog engulfing parts of southern Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Borneo. The business district of Hat Yai has been hard hit with PM2.5 particles exceeding the safety standards of 50 (set by the World…
-
Immigration overhaul – TM6 disappearing and TM30 App being launched
“We made the decision last Friday. Within two to three months, life will be much easier for foreign tourists and expats.” In what appears to be a major overhaul of immigration procedures, dare we say ‘modernisation’, foreign visitors will soon no longer have to fill out the “TM6” arrival forms. The white and blue form has been a source of…
-
Phuket university’s safe-sex campaign attracts 390 volunteers
Yesterday, saw the return of Prince of Songkhla University’s Safe Sex Campaign. Now in its third year, some 390 PSU students turned up to support the campaign by making safe sex packs, which are then distributed free to bars in Patong. The safe sex packs include a condom and lubricant. It was the biggest turn-out of students since this corporate social…
-
14% of condos around Bangkok are empty – good time to buy
Looking for a condo around Bangkok? Now might the right time to take the plunge with the head of the Appraisal and Estate Agents Foundation saying some areas have between 8-14% vacancy rates, some areas of Bangkok up to 17.5%. Dr Sophon Pornchokchai made the remarks at a news conference yesterday. “Adding developer price wars, plus inducements to purchase, this…
-
Robber steals Thailand Post van, then robs gold shop in Bangkok
A man dressed up in a Thailand Post uniform has got away with gold necklaces valued around 70,000 baht. He robbed the gold shop in Bang Phli, Samut Prakan and then fled in a Thailand Post van. Samut Prakan includes the southern and south-eastern suburbs of greater Bangkok. It was revealed later that Thailand Post had reported the van stolen the night before…
-
Bangkok shophouse partially collapses in the rain
An abandoned shophouse in Bangkok’s Bang Plat district partially collapsed last night. No one was injured as the three-unit shop house, spread over four floors on Soi Charansanitwong 96/2 in Bang Or subdistrict, had been empty for a while. Officials said the fourth and third floors collapsed onto the lower floors, causing glasses and pieces of wood, and concrete, to fall…
-
British Instagrammer locked up in “filthy Bangkok cell’ over missing passport pages
A British model has had a “misunderstanding” with Thai immigration officials after being locked up for 24 hours when it was discovered there were two pages missing from her passport. The model departed Scotland last Sunday for a flight to London before heading to Bangkok. According to mirror.co.uk, Lacey Montgomery-Henderson, from Glasgow, says she was treated ‘like an animal’ during…
-
Phu Quoc Cable Car – Build it and they will come
PHOTO: templesandtreehouses.com “It’s the best value tourist attraction you’ll find almost anywhere in the world!” The cable-car ride from Vietnam’s Phu Quoc island to Hon Thom, aka. Pineapple Island, is a breathtaking experience. It’s an astonishing tourist attraction on an island that has ambitions to be one of south east Asia’s most popular tourist attractions. The actual cable car ride, the…
-
South Korean serial killer identified after 33 years
PHOTO: The Korea Herald “Between 1986 and 1991 more than two million police officers were mobilised to try and find the person who raped and murdered women south of Seoul.” South Korean police have identified a suspect in one of the country’s most notorious serial murder cases more than 30 years after the killings. Between 1986 and 1991 more than two million…
-
Public toilets going underground in Pattaya
PHOTO: Bangkok.com Plans are afoot to build new public toilets underground on Pattaya beaches, according to a report in The Pattaya News. Deputy Mayor Pattana Boonsawad says 4 underground facilities will be built along Pattaya Beach Road initially, with additional amenities being opened on Jomtien and Dongtan beaches. It’s understood the washrooms need to be built below street level to…
-
Indonesia’s President Jokowi says he is “embarrassed” by fires
PHOTO: Singapore, days before the 2019 Grand Prix – DL Dozens of people have now been arrested over their alleged involvement in Indonesia’s massive forest fires. Thousands of hectares of rain forest and plantations have been burned, with the smoke and haze drifting in neighbouring Malaysia, Singapore and southern Thailand. Dedi Prasetyo, Indonesia’s National Police spokesman has confirmed 185 people…
-
New branding for the old town – tweaking Phuket’s Old Town
PHOTO: Many renovated buildings and putting the crappy overhead cabling underground is bringing the old town alive Though Phuket remains among the world’s most popular tourist destinations, injecting some 477 billion baht to the Thai economy, with its “Pearl of the Andaman Sea” branding, its future status is being questioned due to competition from Indonesia and Vietnam. In response, Phuket…
-
Thai Minister Manunya a lone voice to have 3 herbicides banned
PHOTO: The Thaiger Deputy Agriculture Minister Manunya Thaiseth (the OTHER deputy, not the embattled Thannamat Prompeo) is complaining that she appears to be a lone voice amongst the bureaucrats and politicians to have three toxic agricultural chemicals – paraquat, glyphosate and chlorpyrifos – banned within this year, as promised. She says that she’s not receiving any cooperation from the Agricultural…
-
Pattaya down the drain – big rains hit the city
PHOTOS: 77kaoded Hours of torrential rain that hit Pattaya yesterday caused flooding and made some roads impassable. But that didn’t stop some adventurous drivers giving it a red-hot shot! The road by the railway, heading towards Sattahip, was under half a metre of water in places. The area is prone to flooding when the monsoonal rains kick in, according to the…
-
2.5 million methamphetamine pills seized near Myanmar border
PHOTO: The Nation Another big delivery of methamphetamine pills has been intercepted in Chiang Mai. This time the couriers were both female. Rangers from the Pha Muang Task Force intercepted 2.5 million methamphetamine pills and arrested two females in a pick-up truck that broke through a checkpoint in the Mae Ai district early yesterday. The arrest followed a tip-off that…
-
Tragedy strikes Hannah Witheridge family again as sister dies from serious illness
ThaiVisa shares a tragic report from the BBC today that the sister of Hannah Witheridge, murdered on Koh Tao in 2014, has passed away after battling a serious illness. It’s understood that Laura Daniels, aged 30, died in hospital on Monday. The nature of the illness has not been disclosed. The family say they have had their “hearts broken” following…
-
Mixed response on Asian markets to US Fed reserve decision today
“Global markets have spent most of this month rising on bets that central banks, led by the Fed, will move to a softer monetary policy…” Asian equities are mixed this morning, with attention now turning to the US Federal Reserve’s key policy decision later today. Meanwhile investors remain skittish watching developments in the Middle East after the attack on Saudi…
-
Talks with the community will begin next week, says Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam
Thai PBS World shares a Reuters story that reports on planned talks between the Hong Kong government and the community, set to begin next week. The reports says Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam has repeated her calls for the violence to end, with the city having been gripped by protests for over three months now. The demonstrations began in…
Don't forget to check out some other things to do in Thailand - get help starting a business or finding a job in Thailand, buy Thailand property, rent a yacht or book a medical procedure worldwide.