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Thailand news, politics, business, crime, lifestyle, and tourism—stay updated with breaking news and in-depth analysis from Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Pattaya, and beyond.
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Canadian senior seriously injured after fall in Pattaya
PHOTO: View over Pattaya from the Pratunmak Hill area A Canadian museum owner has been injured after a fall in the upscale Pratumnak Hill area in Pattaya. Rescue workers were notified of the incident at 4pm yesterday (Tuesday) and rushed to the scene to find the 86 year old man with a broken leg. He was rushed to hospital. According to…
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Bangkok less popular, Taipei heads the list – World’s favourite city for expats
PHOTO: This year’s #1 city for expats – Taipei, Taiwan – Time Out Bangkok has dropped from #5 (in 2018) to #20 this year in the annual Expat City Ranking – a big drop from its former position as a darling of the world expat community. But Asian cities continue to dominate the annual global Top 5 in the Expat City…
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Four family members killed, 8 injured, after van driver falls asleep at the wheel in Prachuap Khiri Khan
PHOTO: sanook.com A horrific road accident has claimed the lives of four family members, and left eight other passengers with serious injuries after the van they were travelling in hit a tree in Prachuap Khiri Khan, central-southern Thailand. The incident happened as the van headed south on the Phetkasem Highway. The family were travelling from Ratchaburi in central Thailand to…
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Pattaya Police up their game in knee-jerk reaction to German TV report
PHOTOS: The Pattaya News If you want to get things moving in Thailand, make a documentary saying how bad things are and show it on international TV. A German documentary slamming Pattaya has so far had more success than a hundred directives from head office. The documentary was titled Achtung Abzocke. The documentary portrayed Pattaya in a less-than-flattering light, so…
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Ride-hailing service Grab to be legalised in Thailand
PHOTO: Investvine Grab Car and Grab Bike, the ride and taxi hailing apps, are likely to become legal in Thailand after the head of the Land Transport Department said public consultation was mostly positive. The DLT received around 1000 supportive comments and observations in a consultation, according to Thai news agency Sanook. The department will submit its findings to the Transport…
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Tesco to sell assets in Thailand and Malaysia
Tesco, Britain’s biggest supermarket chain, has announced it may sell off its businesses in Thailand and Malaysia. A statement says that “following inbound interest, it has commenced a review of the strategic options for its businesses in Thailand and Malaysia, including an evaluation of a possible sale of these businesses.” In other words, they want to sell. “The evaluation of strategic…
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Russian tourist bitten by a monkey on To Sae Hill, Phuket town
PHOTOS: Phuket Hotnews On December 10, a report emerged that a tourist had been bitten by a monkey on the popular To Sae Hill viewpoint in Phuket Town. The video shared on social media shows that the man was bleeding a lot from his arm before another man helped attend to the wound to stop the blood. A volunteer who…
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Phuket’s high season delayed until after Christmas
PHOTO: The Hotel Specialist “Diversifying Phuket’s market to rely less on Chinese tourists is key to improving tourism in the province.” It will be a quiet Christmas in Phuket as the island’s high season will come late for hotels this year, with most reservations are for after the Christmas celebration. Tourism in Phuket usually increases in November, but this year’s November…
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High winds, strong waves harm southern fishing businesses
PHOTO: Sumeth Panpetch Fishermen in the Ranot district of Songkhla province in southern Thailand, are struggling to make a living as strong winds and waves of three to five metres in height continue to batter the southern Gulf coast. The Nation reports that dangerous conditions in the Gulf of Thailand have been preventing local fishermen from going to sea for…
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Driver sees red, smashes window of car parked in disabled zone
PHOTO: Thai PBS World A driver who’s had enough of able-bodied people parking in disabled parking bays has vented his frustration by smashing the car window of one such offender. The incident is understood to have taken place in the parking lot of a Big C in Chiang Rai, with the man posting about it on social media, saying he…
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UPDATE: Polish and Thai kayak pair still missing off Phuket
PHOTOS: Newshawk Phuket As we enter day four of the search for 26 year old Mateusz Juszkiewicz from Poland and his female Thai friend, 23 year old Werakan Sirirakon, there is no update other than the pair are still missing. Last evening Rawai’s mayor, Arun Solos revealed that the missing pair were wearing life vests when they set off for…
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Stray bullet hits minivan, kills female passenger
PHOTO: sanook.com A 27 year old woman has died after a stray bullet hit the minivan in which she was travelling and penetrated the right-hand side of her body. The incident appears to be an accident. Thai Residents reports that the shooting took place around 1.30am yesterday morning. It’s understood the woman was travelling from Buriram in Thailand’s north east, to Bangkok…
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Phuket King’s Cup regatta organisers deny allegations of coral destruction at Kata
SCREENSHOT: Part of the post from the Kata Beach Shore Diving The 2019 King’s Cup Regatta in Phuket has been run and won, packed up and gone home. The annual event, run for the 33rd time this year, is one Thailand’s most prestigious yachting regattas and traditionally allows its vessels to anchor in the natural Kata harbour, using the Beyond…
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Hotel association wants rules on short-term rentals, home sharing
PHOTO: Airbnb and other accommodation-share businesses, plus a glut of newly opened hotels rooms across the country, is putting pressure on the traditional hotel model The Thai Hotels Association has again asked for a meeting with the Minister of the Interior to discuss the impact of short-term rentals and home sharing services like Airbnb on the domestic hotel business. The…
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British diver’s lawyer claims jury blundered in Elon Musk defamation trial
PHOTO: Getty Images “That is a serious problem. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a bullying billionaire or a penniless troll, that behaviour is destructive.” – Vernon Unsworth’s lawyer, Mark Stephens Elon Musk could face a retrial in his defamation case after a lawyer for the British cave diver Vernon Unsworth, based in Chiang Rai, claimed the jury blundered. The Tesla founder…
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UPDATE: No sightings after a full second day of searching for missing kayak couple off Phuket
PHOTOS: Phuket People’s Voice Air and sea searches continue today as up to one hundred people are now involved in the search for a Polish tourist and his Thai girlfriend who went missing after they, and their kayak, went missing off Phuket on Saturday evening. Read that story HERE. 26 year old Mateusz Juszkiewicz from Poland and a female Thai…
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You introduce new visa requirements? We don’t send any tours.” – Taiwan
PHOTO: Chiang Rai Times “This is not the first time the Thailand Trade and Economic Office has come under fire for enforcing unpopular policies that were introduced without a lot of thought.” It’s now emerged that the proposed requirement for Taiwanese tourists to submit financial statements to obtain a Thai visa happened after the Travel Agents Association of Taiwan threatened to…
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Thai army takes delivery of Chinese battle tanks
Thailand’s Army has taken delivery of Chinese tanks and armoured personnel carriers, just three months after receiving armoured infantry vehicles from the US. The army received 10 shiny new tanks and 38 armoured personnel carriers from China. All the hardware was taken to the Adisorn Cavalry Centre in Saraburi province for inspection. The government hasn’t officially acknowledged its Chinese acquisitions…
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Pattaya officials shamed into beefing up tourist security after German TV report
Pattaya officials are stepping up tourist safety measures after a German TV program reported widespread scams in the popular Thai ‘sin city’. The Thai Interior Ministry has told agencies to tighten tourist security in what’s widely seen as a knee-jerk reaction to the criticism in the documentary. The TV show Achtung Abzocke documented scams such as taxi fare price gouging,…
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Artist eats $120,000 banana at exhibition
A performance artist shocked a crowd at the Art Basel show in Miami by eating a very expensive snack: an art exhibit that had already been sold for US$ 120,000. The exhibit, a banana duct-taped to the wall at Galerie Perrotin, was a work by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan titled “Comedian,” and had already been sold to a French collector.…
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UPDATE: Missing Polish tourist and Thai friend in canoe off Phuket
PHOTO: Phuket People’s Voice As of this morning around 10am, the 26 year old Mateusz Juszkiewicz from Poland and a female Thai friend, 23 year old Werakan Sirirakon from Nakon Sawan, were still missing off the coast of Phuket. The pair headed to sea with other couples in rented kayaks from Ya Nui Beach, south of Phuket, to visit a…
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BTS is Thailand’s most-streamed act on Spotify for 2019
…and the most streamed K-Pop act in the world. Another year of music is about to play its final chords. Streaming services, a mere curiosity a decade ago, are now the main source of revenue for many artists. In 2019, Streaming music will account for 80% of industry revenues, nearly US$9 billion this year. Bangtan Sonyeondan, better known around the world…
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Polish tourist and Thai female remain missing after kayak trip off Phuket
PHOTOS: Phuket People’s Voice A helicopter has now joined the growing fleet of vessels who have been searching for a Polish tourist and a Thai woman. The pair disappeared after hiring kayaks with friends at Ya Nui Beach in Phuket yesterday afternoon. Search efforts resumed early this morning after a fruitless search last night. 26 year old Mateusz Juszkiewicz from…
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Tesla’s Elon Musk wins defamation trial over ‘pedo guy’ tweet
PHOTO: Christian Monterrosa/EPA “My client went toe to toe with a billionaire bully.” Tesla’s mercurial Elon Musk has emerged victorious after a defamation trial as a federal court jury swiftly rejected the US$190 million claim brought against him by a British cave explorer, Vernon Unsworth, who Musk branded a “pedo guy” on Twitter. The incident happened during the attempts to…
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Speaker demands to know how renegade MP could attend House vote
PHOTO: House Speaker Chuan Leekpai. “Please explain”. Parliamentary House Speaker Chuan Leekpai is demanding an investigation into why parliamentary security didn’t arrest fugitive MP Waipote Arpornrat when he attended a House meeting on Wednesday. Opposition MPs have voiced suspicion over the presence of Waipote, a member of the Palang Pracharat party, in the House chamber for a crucial vote over…
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Booming regional meth industry – Thailand, Myanmar, China and Laos
“At the same time significant investment has been made in new highways and bridges in an out of Myanmar, Thailand, China, Laos, Bangladesh and Vietnam. This has provided a boom in movement of products like food and clothing. And drugs.” A UN Drugs and Crime report released this year states that the methamphetamine trade is now worth a staggering US$30-61…
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Leading anti-drug enforcer warns Thailand is becoming an emerging hub
PHOTO: A small meth lab raided in the Shan State, one of many thousands of undetected facilities, hidden under the jungle canopy – Daily News Thailand is becoming a major conduit for drug cartels, according to Niyom Termsrisuk, secretary-general of the Office of the Narcotics Control Board. The growth of meth labs has exploded in the lawless Shan State of…
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Family of Burmese rebel leader arrested in Thailand
PHOTO: Major General Tun Myat Naing and his wife Ma Hnin Zar Phyu – The Irrawaddy Thai Immigration police arrested the wife and children of a top commander, Major General Tun Myat Naing of the Arakan Army, an active insurgent group fighting for greater autonomy in western Myanmar. Officials at the Thai Immigration Bureau’s Chiang Mai office arrested Ma Hnin Zar…
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Pattaya hotel fire causes over a million baht in damages
PHOTO: sanook.com When a hotel in Pattaya caught on fire 400 foreigners, who were stating in the hotel at the time, evacuated without injury. The blaze remained isolated in the front section of the building and didn’t have time to spread to guest rooms inside the hotel. Chonburi Police were notified at 4.30am yesterday morning, December 6, about the fire…
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Increase agreed for Thailand’s minimum wage
PHOTO: Chiang Mai Citylife Thailand’s minimum daily wage is going up. But not by much. The National Wage Committee has singled out nine provinces for a 6 baht increase in the minimum daily wage, while the rest of the country gets an increase of 5 baht. The Permanent Secretary of Labour, Suthi Sukosol, confirms the nine provinces are Chonburi in eastern…
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