South Thailand News
Southern Thailand news, Phuket news, Koh Samui news, and Krabi updates—stay informed on business, tourism, and local events from Trang, Songkhla, Yala, and beyond. Get the latest from The Thaiger, your trusted Southern Thailand news source.
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Thailand is a popular place for people who want to enjoy a good life at a lower cost or even on a budget. Many expats, retirees, and digital nomads choose to live here because daily expenses are cheaper than in...
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Battle lines drawn in Koh Lipe turf war
Thailand’s human rights commission (NHRC) is calling for the government to take urgent action in the Koh Lipe turf war to help sea gypsies living on the island in Satun province. The Moken are a semi-nomadic tribe that lives in Thai coastal provinces and inhabits over 800 islands in the Andaman Sea. They number less than 3,000 people. The Moken have…
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Bangkok runs Hidden Temples tour while Deep South restores temples
With so much talk during the pandemic about closing nightlife and the effect on tourism, one might forget that millions of people flock to Thailand to enjoy other facets of the kingdom aside from beaches and parties, booze, and women. Now, various government agencies are coming together to highlight the beautiful architecture and culture of the temples of Thailand. In…
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Whale washes up on beach in South Thailand
A whale washed up on a beach in South Thailand’s Narathiwat province on Monday. Locals, rescuers, and police helped to push the whale back into the sea at Naratat Beach. However, the whale washed up again two hours later about 500 metres away. Officials from the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources believed that the whale might have been sick,…
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Patani Colonial Territory designer summoned for game of truth or dare
The designer of Patani Colonial Territory, a game based on the recent history of Thailand’s southern regions, is believed to have been summoned by police after the game was confiscated from a café in Yala. Chachiluk Games said that the game designer was not involved in the conceptualisation and production process. Reporting on Thailand involves at least one truly absurd story…
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Railway bomb kills three in southern Thailand
Three maintenance workers were killed and four were injured by a bomb blast this morning on a railway in Songkhla province, southern Thailand. The workers were repairing the tracks after they were damaged by an explosion on Saturday which derailed and damaged a freight train but caused no injuries. At 12.50pm on Saturday, freight train 707 from Hat Yai in…
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Flood warning for 11 southern provinces
Southern Thailand has been soaked with rain over the past week. Now, the National Water Command Centre is warning 11 provinces of possible floods this coming weekend. They are expecting heavy rains from Thursday, December 8 through Sunday, December 11. Strong storms have been flickering power in some provinces in the south of Thailand, with high winds blowing debris and…
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Insurgent bomb derails train in Songkhla
A train was derailed in the deep south of Thailand, and security officials believe it was a result of a bomb set off by southern insurgents. Train number 707 was making a short run from Hat Yai to the border town of Padang Besar in the Sadao district in the southern province of Songkhla. The train was a freight train,…
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Unexploded MK-82 bomb found in Songkhla forest
Rangers found an unexploded MK-82 bomb in the forest of Ton Nga Chang Wildlife Sanctuary in the southern province of Songkhla. The authorities believe the bomb was left over from the Communist insurgency in Thailand over 40 years ago. The Communist insurgency in Thailand was a guerilla war lasting from 1965 until 1983, fought mainly between the Communist Party of Thailand (CPT) and…
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Police put brakes on car rental thief in Bangkok
A car rental thief was arrested in Bangkok today after twocking more than 100 motors from car rental shops throughout several provinces of southern Thailand. Members of the Haad Yai Airport Car Rental Business Association in the southern province of Songkhla, and car rental shops in Pattalung, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Krabi, Phuket, Yala, and Narathiwat filed complaints with police that…
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Police seize board game after claims it could cause insurrection in Thailand
Police officers in Yala yesterday seized a fun board game called Patani Colonial Territory from a coffee shop after a government official claimed that it could cause insurgency throughout the kingdom. For conspiracy theorists, this is up there with Elvis still lives. Officers in the southern Thailand province confiscated the offending game at the Life Coffee Slow Bar in the…
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Buddhists and Muslims rally for peace together in South Thailand
In one South Thailand province plagued by violence, Buddhists and Muslims are overcoming religious differences to fight for peace. Buddhist and Muslim leaders conducted demonstrators in a rally for peace in Narathiwat province’s city district this morning. Islamic leaders led prayers for peace. Meanwhile, the chairwoman of the Federation of Buddhist Thais in Narathiwat led the demonstrators in shouting demands…
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Russian crewman’s hand cut off in Songkhla ship accident
A Russian crewman’s hand was cut off in a brutal cargo ship accident off Songkhla. A team of doctors and emergency nurses rushed to help the man on Saturday, according to a Facebook post by the Maritime National Interest Administration Center- Sor Chon. The Russian man, 47 year old Evgenii Kriukov, was transferred to the Songkhla Naval Base Hospital. He…
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A burglar, in a hole, in the roof, in the night
A Nakhon Si Thammarat burglar, well-known to authorities, who dropped in from the ceiling rather than breaking in through a window or door was taken to the police by his long-suffering mother following his latest exploits. At about 2am the morning before, a thief had dropped in from the roof of a teacher’s home in the district and demanded 500…
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Deep South emergency decree extended 3 months
After a recent car bombing of police apartments in the Deep South province of Narathiwat, the Emergency Situation Administration Committee decided to extend the state of emergency decree in the troubled Southern provinces. The extension means that the current state of emergency will not end on December 20 as scheduled, but will instead continue until March 19 at the earliest.…
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3 children aged 8 escape a school kidnapping plot in Thailand
Three children in the southern province of Nakhon Si Thammarat escaped a school kidnapping plot. Two suspects, a man and a woman, entered a schoolyard in the Thung Song district of Nakhon Si Thammarat in southern Thailand and tried to snatch three eight year old children. The children, one girl and two boys, told the police and their parents that…
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Car bomb explodes at police apartments in southern Thailand, 1 dead, 20 injured
At least one police officer was killed in a car bomb explosion at a housing compound for police in Narathiwat province in southern Thailand at midday today. At least 20 more people were injured in the blast. A man dressed as a police officer was seen driving a pickup truck into the compound before the car bomb exploded at around…
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South Thailand province welcomes first female Muslim governor
One South Thailand province welcomed its first female Muslim governor yesterday. The new governor of Pattani, 57 year old Pateemoh Sadeeyamu, is the former deputy governor of Narathiwat, and Yala provinces. Several prominent people in the community hailed the appointment of Pateemoh as the governor of Pattani. One former lecturer at Prince of Songkhla University said that Pateemoh has extensive…
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Frenchman missing after hiking in Khao Sok National Park
The search is on for a French tourist that has been missing for five days since going on a hike around Khao Sok National Park. The man said on Saturday morning that he was going for a walk in the jungle and has not been seen since. The man was officially reported as missing yesterday. The 30 year old Gollio…
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Residents furious 20 million baht rest area on Thailand Riviera Road abandoned
Residents are up in arms about a motorway services station and rest area that has been abandoned on the Thailand Riviera Road in the southern province of Chumphon. The Riviera Road was part of a government project in 2009 which tried to level up the coast of the southern provinces of Thailand and make it a must-visit destination for tourists…
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Thailand’s water buffalo raising declared as global agricultural heritage system
Raising water buffalo at the Thale Noi Waterfowl Park in the southern province of Pattalung has been declared a Global Important Agricultural Heritage System (GIAHS) by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives proposed a water buffalo raising system at the Thale Noi Waterfowl to the FAO in October last year.…
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Wife’s ex-husband shoots new husband in the penis
A man was arrested yesterday after he shot his ex-wife’s husband in the penis. The man claims that the shooting was an accident. Officers from Mueng Chumporn Police Station investigated a shophouse on Klomma Luang Road in the Mueng district of Chumporn province in southern Thailand after being notified of a shooting. A shophouse can be used as a shop…
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Failed 14 million baht temple lighting system may quash UNESCO nomination
A failed 14 million baht lighting system isn’t helping southern Thailand’s temple of Phra Mahathat Woramahavihan’s bid to become a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site. The lighting system was installed around the main stupa of Phra Borommathat Chedi in 2014, but those responsible for the project have largely left it in disarray. The lighting is now in need of repairs due…
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No fury like a ladyboy scorned – toyboy pulls gun
Fury gripped a middle-aged ladyboy in Phatthalung when she caught up with her toyboy lover at a hotel with a woman until he pulled his gun on her. On November 1, Phatthalung police arrested 18 year old Apichart Thongdeepeng on suspicion of threatening to shoot Amnuay Sukkaew, 28 years his senior. The pair say they have been together a year.…
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Biologist warns that upcoming Songkhla Lake Bridge construction will hurt dolphins
A marine biologist warned that a new bridge planned across Songkhla Lake will hurt the inhabitant Irrawaddy dolphins. Dolphins are considered a vulnerable species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The biologist, Thon Thamrongnawasawat, said the number of Irrawaddy dolphins in the lake is likely to drop every year. He noted that the future of dolphins is uncertain,…
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Too big to fail: Full Moon Party revives Koh Pha Ngan
In the US, the phrase “too big to fail” is applied to financial institutions whose defaulting would cause the national or even global economy to collapse. So these institutions receive bailouts to keep them afloat in times of economic crisis. In Thailand, our too-big-to-fail institution might be the Full Moon Party. The legendary party, running for nearly 40 years on…
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A man in South Thailand causes floods by stealing drainage equipment worth 2 million baht
A man in the Trang province of South Thailand has caused floods by stealing public drainage equipment worth 2 million baht, Thai media reported yesterday. The man, 30 year old Permpol, allegedly stole the equipment in Trang’s main city district. He reportedly stole parts including gears, gate valves, water drainage screws, and panelboards. Residents complained to Trang police, who gathered evidence…
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Thai military denies torturing and killing Deep South rebel
The Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) said peace talks with the Thai government will be harmed if they are responsible for the torture and murder of a Deep South rebel whose body was found in the Golok river, on the border of Thailand and Malaysia, last month. The tortured body of 42 year old Zahri Bin Abdullah – also known as…
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A rare flowering plant species found in South Thailand
Researchers have found a rare flowering plant species in southern Thailand’s Narathiwat province. A team of biology researchers from Chiang Mai University found the plant in an evergreen forest in Janae and Sukhirin districts. The rare flowering plant belongs to the Annonaceae family, with the scientific name Phaenthuspiyae Wiya, Aongyong & Chaowaskul. The organisation Thailand Science Research and Innovation described…
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Soldier arrested for stabbing 15 year old at a nightclub
A soldier has been charged with attempted murder after he stabbed a 15 year old boy at a nightclub in the southern province of Nakhon Si Thammarat last weekend. The teenager was stabbed in the back with a chisel in front of a nightclub in the Tung Song district of Nakhon Si Thammarat at about 2.45am last Sunday, October 16.…
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This South Thailand province’s unexpected beauty will wow you
“We hope to put Pattani on the world tourist map,” tour operator Fareeda Abdullah told Bernama. South Thailand’s Pattani province is not the first place people usually imagine for a holiday getaway. The province often makes headlines for sectarian tensions. But Pattani has an up-and-coming tourism industry. The province boasts breathtaking nature, including a beautiful mangrove forest in the Yarang…
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