Northern Thailand News
Northern Thailand news, Chiang Mai news, business, tourism, and culture—stay updated with breaking stories, local events, and travel insights from Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Pai, and beyond. Get the latest from The Thaiger, your trusted Northern Thailand news source.
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Ferris wheel cabin door falls off and knocks out Isaan man
A young Thai man was attending the Red Cross Fair in Buriram province, northeast Thailand, last week when a 20 kilogramme Ferris wheel cabin door fell on top of him from a height of 10 metres and knocked him out. A rescue team rushed to the event in Lam Prai Mart district to give first aid to 21 year old…
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Woman working at karaoke bar in Thailand vanishes in suspicious circumstances
Police are trying to locate a woman who went missing in strange circumstances after leaving the karaoke bar she works at with a male customer five days ago in Leoi province in northeast Thailand. The manager at Bai Fern Karaoke Bar filed a missing persons report with the police on Wednesday, January 18, three days after 38 year old Phantiwa…
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Himalayan cherry trees bring splash of colour to northeast Thai province
Himalayan cherry trees are bringing a splash of colour to Thailand’s northeast province of Loei. Over 100,000 of the trees are now brimming with blossoms, known locally as ‘tiger queens’ or ‘nang phaya sua kroang.’ A swarm of tourists is now visiting Phu Hin Rong Kla National Park to delight at the pink and red blossoms. The trees are spread…
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Northeast Thai farmer is ‘selling’ fresh air
One northeast Thai farmer is ‘selling’ fresh air. The farmer, 52 year old Dusit Kachai, charges visitors 1,000 baht per person for the first hour they stay at his farm. The farm is located on the edge of Chaiyaphum province’s Phu Laen Kha National Park, which has clean air, forests, and mountain streams. Dusit said… “The first hour costs 1,000…
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Five men fatally injured as pickup hits tree in N Thailand
Police reported that five men were fatally injured and four sustained serious injuries after a pickup truck veered off a rural road at a bend and collided with a tree in the Non Thai district, Northern Thailand yesterday morning. According to police, Sergeant Major Phayungkiat Waisanthia, who is based at the 11th Infantry Division in Bangkok, was driving eight friends…
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Monk who attacked teen granddaughter found hanged
A violent monk who attacked his 17 year old granddaughter with a hammer was found hanged in a forest. Investigating officers report that he was found yesterday but is believed to have been hanging dead there after committing suicide for about a week. Last Saturday, officers from the Phibun Mangsahan Police Station were called to the scene where the monk had…
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Drug traffickers killed in N Thailand gun battle
Five suspected drug traffickers were shot and almost 500,000 methamphetamine pills were seized after a skirmish in Chiang Rai province Thursday. A military patrol came across the suspected smugglers carrying backpacks in the early hours of Thursday in the area where the forested borders of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar meet, long a lucrative hub for the illegal drug trade. Refusing…
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Community craft centre exploiting indigenous Karen weavers
Members of the Bang Kloi Karen community employed as weavers in a community craft centre have accused the centre of exploiting indigenous workers. The Karen workers claim they suffer poor working conditions and are paid less than the minimum wage. Activist Anchalee Ismanyee said weavers are paid much less than the official minimum wage in Phetchaburi province of 335 baht…
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Male prostitute threatens to kill woman in Isaan
A lonely, fearful woman in the Isaan province of Udon Thani filed a complaint with the police after a male prostitute stole from her, murdered her dog, and threatened to kill her. The 32 year old woman named Boom told the media that… “I’m embarrassed to talk about this, but I think this is too much, and I have to…
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Two 10 year old schoolchildren killed after reckless sedan crashes into school bus
Two 10 year old schoolchildren were killed and another 19 were injured after a reckless sedan driver crashed into a school bus. The smash caused a collision between a school bus and a minibus on a road in the northern province of Phichit. The incident happened on the Phichit-Saklek Road in the Mueang district of Phichit at 5.30pm yesterday, January…
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Violent monk flees scene after leaving teenage girl for dead
A violent monk is on the run after attacking his 17 year old granddaughter with a hammer and leaving her for dead at a temple in the Isaan province of Ubon Ratchathani last Saturday. Police believe that a letter found at the scene suggests the monk had a crush on the girl and was jealous of a friendship she’d recently…
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Man lives in a tree for 3 years due to financial embarrassment
A Thai man in the Isaan province of Udon Thani has been living in a tree for three years due to financial embarrassment. A provincial official offered him a new house on the ground and food, but he refused. He insisted on staying in the tree until officials find him a job. The 38 year old man, Charlie, constructed a…
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Doi Kloselo tourist attractions threatened by hydropower dam
In Mae Hong Son province, Doi Kloselo tourist attractions are to be created in a desperate attempt by locals to stop a planned hydropower dam on the Salween River. The Salween is one of Asia’s last largely free-flowing rivers. About 3,300 kilometres long, the Salween flows from the Tibetan Plateau south into the Andaman Sea, primarily within southwest China and…
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Thai police criticised over Tesco forced labour inquiry
Thai police are being criticised over their inquiry into Tesco’s alleged forced labour claims after completing their investigation in only one day. According to The Guardian, Burmese workers who produced F&F jeans at VK Garment factory in Thailand’s western province of Mae Sot, between 2017 and 2020, were allegedly working under forced labour. Such labour allegedly included working 99-hour weeks…
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Man lying on a roadside for 6 days survives accident
A man who was injured in a motorcycle accident survived for six days while lying on the roadside before being rescued in Udon Thani’s Isaan province. The injured man, Withawat Nanthapetch, went missing on December 29 of last year after he went to a bar to drink with friends. A bar security camera captured the 22 year old walking out…
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Famous dance teacher arrested for sexual assault allegation
Police arrested a well-known Thai dance instructor, Chutidate Thongyoo after sexual assault allegations were made by an underage teenage boy. The teacher denied the allegations. The teenager filed a complaint with the police alleging that he had been sexually harassed by the 60 year old teacher, also known as Thiam, on September 16 last year. The boy revealed he was…
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Christmas Eve raid finds 40 underage pub patrons drinking
Many children eagerly await a visit from Old Saint Nick on Christmas Eve. They hang their stockings and set out cookies and milk for Santa Claus. But for one club in Sisaket province, and its underage patrons, without a chimney for Santa to come down, they instead got a late-night Christmas Eve visit from someone a bit less welcome. Police…
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Golden gunmen set to repel crime wave in Thailand’s Wild West
In the lawless shopping malls of Mae Sot – Thailand’s Dodge City – golden gunmen are set to a repel crime wave. Gold shop owners in the western border province are being given firearms training, as an epidemic of armed robberies grips the Thai side of the frontier with Myanmar. Three gold shops in the province have been held up…
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Monkey steals bag containing 50,000 Thai baht and throws it off a cliff
A trouble-making monkey in Srisaket province, northeast Thailand, stole a tourist’s tote bag and launched it off the side of a cliff yesterday after finding nothing edible inside it. A team of park rangers scaled down the cliffside to retrieve the bag, which contained 50,000 baht (US$1,438) in cash. Park rangers at Khao Phra Wihan National Park received a call from…
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Pink lilies pull hundreds of thousands of tourists to northeast Thailand lake
Flowers are still springing up across Thailand, drawing tourists to admire them. The latest flower hotspot in Thailand to have tourists come flocking is Nong Han Kumphawapi, known as Thailand’s ‘Pink Water Lilies Lake.’ The lake is located in the northeast province of Udon Thani. The chairman of the lake’s tourism boat enterprise, Paisit Sukrome, told Thai media the lilies…
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Driver hits wild gaur in northeast Thailand, both injured
A driver hit a wild gaur in Thailand’s northeast province of Nakhon Ratchasima last night, injuring both himself and the gaur. The driver hit the gaur on Highway 3052 in Wang Nam Khiao district. The driver said he saw the gaur cross in front of him, too close for him to stop or avoid hitting it. Rescuers arrived on the…
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Forest ranger and 4 locals arrested for illegal logging in northeast Thailand
Yesterday, police arrested a forest ranger – whose duty is to protect the forest – and four of his friends for illegal logging in Khon Kaen province in northeast Thailand. The gang cut down protected and valuable species such as Siamese rosewood and Burmese padauk. The police’s Anti-Trafficking in Persons Division (ATPD) recently travelled to Khon Kaen’s Nong Ruea district…
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Thailand’s rescued tiger cubs fattening up, but not for the pot
Thailand’s rescued tiger cubs are fattening up nicely in Udon Ratchathani, but these guys have already been saved from the pot. Laos’ wildlife authorities are finally assisting Thailand’s search for 30 tiger cubs trafficked across the border to be fattened up and fed to sexually-challenged Chinese customers in underground Bangkok eateries. Chaiwat Limlikitaksorn, director of the Ubon Ratchathani’s National Parks,…
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Man savaged to death by three pit bulls
A man was savaged to death by three pit bulls in the Isaan province of Udon Thani. The owner of the dogs is distraught and revealed he will find a new home for the dogs to avoid the same fate in the future. Pornchai Ritmaha was attacked by three pit bulls last night at about 8pm. The 47 year old…
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Police seize 2.5 billion baht in Mekong drug raids
Police seized almost 2.5 billion baht worth of assets after raids across eight provinces in northeast Thailand. The Narcotics Control Agency piloted the arrest of the Mekong Spirit Network, a large drug trafficking group. Deputy national police chief Chinnaphat Sarasin said drug squad officers raided 30 locations across eight provinces. During the raids, they seized 2.5 billion baht (US$70 million) in…
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Man faked death to break up with his wife
A Thai man hated his wife so much that he faked his death to escape her unhappy clutches. A 35 year old married man named Bird, from Udon Thani in northeast Thailand, left a suicide note for his wife on Tuesday, December 13 saying he was going to end it all because he could not take any more of her…
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13 online gambling houses raided, 1 billion baht assets seized
Cyber police raided 13 online gambling houses in Bangkok and Chiang Rai and seized money and assets worth over 1 billion baht including cash, luxury cars, watches, designer bags, and plots of land. Police reported details of the arrests at a press conference yesterday, December 13. The ball started rolling on smashing the illegal operation when the officers spotted a…
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Thai actress to be questioned over illegal hotel
Thai actress Pimchanok “Baifern” Luevisadpaibul has been called for questioning by police in connection with an illegal hotel in northern Thailand. Police ordered the closure of a luxury resort hotel in Sapan village in the Bo Kluea district of Nan on Thursday, December 8 after they discovered it illegally encroached on Phu Kha and Pha Daeng forest reserves in Nan…
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Charging elephant gores a foraging man to death
Two elderly villagers were foraging in a Loei province forest when, out of nowhere, an elephant burst through the trees. The charging elephant caused the men to scatter and flee, but one did not escape and got gored to death. The unfortunate incident took place within the Phu Luang Wildlife Sanctuary on Sunday. The two men in their seventies had…
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Two of four robbers still missing after gold shop shooting
Two out of four suspects remain at large after an attempted gold shop robbery that ended in a hail of bullets. Four people tried to break into a gold shop in the Muang district of the northern province of Tak on Thursday. But they did not expect to be faced with a shop owner who is a champion marksman. He…
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