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Chinese-speaking local guides take to the streets
More than 100 Chinese-speaking Thai tour guides have today protested and filed an official complaint to tour companies to stop supporting illegal tour guides. The complaints have become a regular fixture in the PR game between tour guides and the provincial officials. This morning about 100 Chinese-speaking Phuket tour guides protested by walking along the road in Wichit and handing…
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Jomtien’s Jetski rapist arrested after attack on 14 year old girl
An 18 year old man, who was staffing a jetski and beach equipment rental business a on Jomtien Beach south of Pattaya, has been arrested for the rape of a minor. The original story about the offense HERE. He gave the victim 40 baht following the rape, after promising her 500 baht before the incident. He said she had smiled…
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World-renowned Buddhist scholar officially opens Mindfulness Centre at UWC Thailand International School
On Sunday, November 18, world-famous Buddhist Scholar Dr. B. Alan Wallace took time out of his two-day seminar to officially open UWC Thailand’s on-campus Mindfulness Centre. His visit attracted more than 300 participants, and underpins UWCT’s perspective that mindfulness is integral to a 21st-century education. The UWCT Mindfulness Centre is used daily for secular mindfulness practice by classes ranging from…
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Man arrested over murder of woman in Mai Khao
The Tha Chatchai Police have arrested a man who has admitted to killing his ex-girlfriend in Mai Khao. A man stabbed his ex-girlfriend to death in Mai Khao on November 7 before escaping. Police believe the violent act was brought about over jealousy. The two had been together for only three months. Read more about the original reports of the…
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Ceremonies for the 47 victims held today – Phoenix
The Phoenix is expected to be brought up on to the land at the Rattanachai Shipyard in the next two days. Forensic Police are now inspecting the boat while a Buddhist ceremony was held for the 47 victims today. At 10.30am today at Rassada Pier, where the Phoenix is being temporary parked, the ceremony was led by the Phuket Governor…
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First Kunming-Krabi direct flight landed
The first direct flight from Kunming, China, full of Chinese passengers, has arrived at Krabi International Airport. The General Manager of the Krabi International Airport Apichai Aranyik has welcomed the new Lucky Airline (Boeing 737) with its first direct Charter Flight from Kunming to Krabi. The flight carried 162 passengers and arrived in Krabi at 7pm last night (Sunday). Khun…
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The new visa-fee waiver working in the north
According to the National News Bureau of Thailand, the new visa-fee waiver is working. Well, in the northern provinces anyway. The northern provinces are reporting an increase in the number of foreign visitors, thanks to the government’s free visa on arrival campaign. Wiwat Piyawiroj , Executive Vice President of Commercial at Thai Airways, says the free visa on arrival scheme for…
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ALERT: Amoxicillin use in Thai orange orchards
The Thai Public Health Ministry is checking on pharmacies and antibiotics manufacturers that may have distributed amoxicillin (an antibiotic) for farms – reportedly used widely in northern and central orange orchards – as it could lead to drug resistance or even fatal allergies in humans as well as contaminating the environment. Amoxicillin is an antibiotic often used for the treatment…
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Phoenix design failures – Forensic probe begins
Now that Phoenix has been hoisted, successfully, from 45 metres below the surface of the Andaman Sea, the next phase begins as forensic experts, engineers and naval architect pour over the wreckage to find clues and prepare reports for the forthcoming court cases. The Tourism and Sports Minister, who has been in Phuket all weekend overseeing the operations, along with…
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Flying in the dark – Lion Air crash investigation update
PHOTO: Komite Nasional Keselamatan Transportasi As an investigation into the ill-fated JT610 Lion Air flight continues, questions are now being asked if the pilots actually knew how to fly the plane – that they may not have had full knowledge of the latest model, the Boeing 737 Max 8 jet. A lawsuit against Boeing was filed last Thursday. The parents…
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Phoenix under high security at Rassada Pier
The Phoenix is now under 24 hour security guard at the Rassada Pier while waiting for a suitable tide to bring it up into the shipyard. The boat eventually broke the surface just after 3pm on Saturday. Read more about the Phoenix’s journey back to Phuket yesterday, HERE. Minister of Tourism and Sports, Mr.Weerasak Kowsurat, Royal Thai Police Deputy Commander Gen Rungroj Saengkram,…
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Phoenix returns to Phuket. But will the Chinese travellers return?
SCREENCAPTURES: Kritsada Mueanawong The vessel, that is at the centre of Thailand’s dramatic drop in Chinese tourists, will arrive back at a boatyard in Rassada today. Back on July 5 it headed out for a day of diving near Koh Hei, south west of Phuket. The day was mostly fine although there had been warnings from early in the morning…
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Weakness in the BKK condo market
PHOTO: Nara 9 – www.nara9.net Property consultants, Edmund Tie & Company – South East Asia – report that the new condo supply for 2019 is ‘unlikely to increase’ and that sales rates are disappointing in Q3. Their report says that the take-up rate of newly launched condominium projects in Q3 in Bangkok’s CBD dropped from last year’s 58% to only…
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US pedophile gets 10 years for sex with underage boys in Thailand
PHOTO: Convicted US kiddie-fiddler, Paul Alan Shapiro A 71 year old Paul Shapiro has been sentenced to 10 years jail in the US after a California Court convicted him of pedophile charges in Thailand running back as far as 2012. ThaiVisa reports that US citizen Paul Alan Shapiro was also ordered to pay $20,000 in compensation to two victims in…
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Thaiger Radio News – Sunday
Listen to the daily news from The Thaiger, anytime, anywhere…
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Hotel #4 for Centara Hotels in Krabi
PHOTO: Centara Grand Beach Resort & Villas Krabi, another of the Centara properties along the Krabi coast Centara Hotels & Resorts, Thailand’s largest hotel group, has just signed a Hotel Management Agreement for a 180 room property on Ao Nang Beach, Krabi. The new hotel will be under its ‘Centara’ brand. Centara Ao Nang Beach Resort & Spa Krabi will…
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Laguna Phuket Triathlon road closures
PHOTO: TAT The Laguna Phuket Triathlon is on today and roads around Laguna, and surrounding areas, are going to be blocked off at times as the runners and riders make their way around local public roads. The race organisers have sent riders and runners out onto the island’s main artery. Thepkasattri road is by far the busiest road that suffers…
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Meeting in Pattaya addresses Chinese tourism drop-off
PHOTO: South China Morning Post The Tourism Authority of Thailand, and its regional offices, are very good at painting a happy face, even as the numbers and trends are heading in the opposite direction of their planned growth in tourist arrivals. In Phuket, for example, where there’s been a big drop off in Chinese tourists, the local TAT is quoting…
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The Phoenix rises to the surface
PHOTOS: Facebook/สุรเชษฐ์ หักพาล The yacht sank late afternoon on July 5 in a short, sudden storm. Most boats would have quite capable of withstanding the wind squal and waves on the day. But Phoenix capsized and sank, taking with her 47 Chinese tourists. The full reasons are stilll being investigated. Today, the actual yacht rose from the depths of the…
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Don’t complain about the oranges. Market customer shot after complaint.
A Pathum Thani fruit vendor has been arrested today shortly after she allegedly shot and killed a customer who complained of “rotten oranges” at her market store, just north of Bangkok. Klong Luang police were alerted to the shooting at 8am inside the Iyara Market in Pathum Thani’s Klong Luang district. Police say 30 year old Saranya Saksaeng was shot…
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Korean man ran over by truck in Phuket accident
A Korean man has died after colliding with a six wheeler truck in Kathu yesterday The Kathu Police were notified of the incident on Wichit Songkram Road, Kathu around 4.30pm. The motorbike driver was identified by Kathu Police as 39 year old South Korean male Keewoong Lee. He was taken to Siriroj Hospital where he was later pronounced dead. A…
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66 yo Austrian arrested in Chiang Mai for possessing child porn
The Thai immigration says they’ve arrested a 66 year old Austrian for downloading and possessing child porn. The Thailand Internet Crime Against Children (TICAC) division learned about someone using the Dark Web to access child porn in September. Thai police identified the person living in the Pa Daet district in the Chiang Mai city and obtained an arrest warrant. The…
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Two Khmer Rouge leaders sentenced to life in prison
PHOTO: Pnomh Penh Post A UN-backed court has found two leaders of Cambodia’s murderous Khmer Rouge regime guilty of genocide. The judgement comes four decades after the regime which oversaw what became known as the Killing Fields, was overthrown. Most of the victims of the 1975-79 regime died of starvation, torture, exhaustion or disease in labour camps. Others were simply…
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Laguna Phuket Triathlon. Kicks off today, main event tomorrow.
PHOTO: Laguna Phuket Triathlon In 2018, Laguna Phuket Triathlon celebrates the events’s 25th anniversary – Asia’s longest running triathlon. The event will be held this weekend. The event features the best international pro triathletes including world champions vying for the US$ 20,000 prize money purse. Amateur age group also have a chance to measure themselves with the world’s best or strive…
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Rohingya refugee repatriation – FAIL
PHOTO: The Straits Times “The refugees are not willing to return now.” This, from the Refugee Commissioner at the refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh as the first wave of Rohingya refugees refused to repatriate in a program that was meant to start on Thursday. People, due to head back to their original homes in Rhakine State this week,…
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Chiang Rai shaken but not stirred
Three minor earthquakes hit the Chiang Rai area this morning according to the Meteorological Department’s Seismological Bureau. The first quake was just before 9am with a magnitude of 3.3 with an epicentre 3.3 kilometres underground at latitude 19.70 and longitude 99.72. People say they felt the tremor but there were no injuries or damage to be reported. A 2.0-magnitude tremor followed…
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Morning collision leaves 18 injured, mostly students
Fifteen students and three adults have been injured after a cold-storage truck collided with a song-taew bus on a Phatthalung road this morning, south of Krabi province. The injured were taken to Phatthalung Hospital following the 7am incident at a curve on the Asia Highway in Moo 3, Tambon Tha Kae, in Muang district. There was high drama at the…
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Canadian and British graffiti vandals spared jail
Canadian media is reporting that a Canadian citizen and a British man have been able to avoid jail time over the spray painting of the Tha Pae historical wall in Chiang Mai. Read the original story HERE. There was 10 years jail staring them in the face after police nabbed them over the matter. But instead of ten years in…
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Boeing sued by Lion Air victim’s family
PHOTO: Boeing 737 Max 8 – Boeing Dr. Rio Nanda Putrama, one of the passengers on the ill-fated Lion Air flight from Jakarta to a nearby island on October 29, had a family that, to date, know only that he was on the plane. No identified remains have been recovered. 188 others died on the same flight. Rio’s family is…
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Chinese tourists still number one visitors to Phuket
The Deputy Director of the Phuket Tourism Authority of Thailand, Montri Manator, says, “Numbers of Chinese tourists visiting Phuket in tour groups have been continuing to decrease after the Phoenix sinking on July 5 this year.” “On the other hand, Chinese tourists who are visiting Phuket by themselves, called FIT groups (Free and Independent Travellers), has not decreased. They are…
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