News
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Sponsored 5 best wine bars in Bangkok offering rich and quality wine
It’s wine o’clock! Whether you’re all about fruity reds, sweet whites, or funky naturals, Bangkok has many great spots to sip your favourite varieties. But with an array of options to choose from, and the constant rise and fall of...
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Alcohol ban this weekend and the following weekend of the election
There will be a 24 hour alcohol ban this weekend as well as on the weekend of the general election on March 24. Sunday, March 17 will feature a day of pre-voting where alcohol sales and distribution will be forbidden from 6pm on Saturday, March 16 until 6pm on Sunday, March 17. That will precede the ban on the following…
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Pattaya tourist loses a leg in collision with pickup
PHOTO: Naewna News A 58 year old tourist from Kazakhstan has lost his leg in a collision with a pickup truck in Pattaya. The Thai driver of the pickup told police that the tourist on a PCX motorcycle suddenly cut in front of him attempting to make a turn into a soi, resulting in a collision. The Sawang Boriboon foundation…
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Bryde’s whale family sighted off Chumphon coast – VIDEO
PHOTOS: กรีน นำเที่ยว ดำน้ำเกาะเวียง A family of three Bryde’s whales has been sighted off Chumphon in the Gulf of Thailand. The Department of Marine and Coastal Resources is reporting that a family of three Bryde’s whales was sighted between Koh Weng and Koh Rang off the Chumphon coast. There were two mature Bryde’s whales and a baby Bryde’s whale calf.…
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Thai Smile opens new Bangkok-Kolkata route
Jumping on the tourism bandwagon between India and Thailand, Thai Smile Airways has announced a new route from Bangkok to Kolkata, starting from March 31. The airline will operate five flights a week (Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday) from Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok to Kolkata, East India. The airline says the new route is “in line with its business…
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Cabinet supports bid for southern ‘Nora’ dance to be included in UNESCO heritage list
“The Thai government will nominate Nora at UNESCO’s upcoming meeting. “Nora, a southern traditional dance, has been given the nod to seek a place on UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage representatives list.The Culture Ministry has been striving to preserve the unique Thai dance after ‘Khon’, the masked dance drama, was registered on the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list at a…
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Police ignore motorbikes and trucks illegally using Pattaya underpass
By Jetsada Homklin When Pattaya’s Central Road bypass tunnel eventually opened, police were vigorous in their enforcement barring motorcycles and large trucks from using the new underpass. But that didn’t last long. Pattaya Mail is reporting that tourists and residents both have complained that large numbers of motorcyclists are speeding through the tunnel with little fear of being stung with…
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Historical Rattanakosin Island “not an appropriate place for prostitution”
PHOTO: Daily News Thai officials say they are determined to stamp out ‘street walkers’ in the heart of Bangkok’s historical Rattanakosin Island district. Officials say that it is inappropriate to have prostitution in such an area and it is damaging for the image of Thailand. Bangkok Metropolitan Authority officials and other ‘experts’ in the field inspected the area known as…
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Finnish man found dead on chopper in Pattaya
PHOTOS: Pattaya Law Enforcement A Finnish man has been found dead on a ‘chopper’ and sidecar in Pattaya yesterday. “A chopper is a type of custom motorcycle which emerged in California in the late 1950s. The chopper is perhaps the most extreme of all custom styles, often using radically modified steering angles and lengthened forks for a stretched-out appearance.” Pattaya…
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Truck crash in Rawai pulls down power lines causing six hour blackout
PHOTOS: PEA A truck accident in Rawai has caused a blackout in Rawai for over six hours. (Some residents from Rawai contacted The Thaiger explaining that the power was off for 12 hours, not six as claimed by the PEA.) The Phuket Provincial Electric Authority reports that at 9.30pm last night a truck accident pulled down two power poles. The…
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Thailand’s future is dissolving right before our eyes
by Edward KitlertsirivatanaWhen an animal is cornered, with no other options, its survival instinct kicks in. It will fight tooth and nail for its life. With the dissolution of Thai Raksa Chart party, attempts to dissolve other rival parties are in the air. You can smell it. If they were to be dissolved, desperate measures may materialise. And it doesn’t…
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Only the US and Canada left flying the Boeing 737 Max aircraft*
The US and Canada remain the only two country’s left flying the Boeing 737 Max 8 model aircraft in any substantial numbers (*there are a few smaller airlines and nations but very few remaining). Otherwise most of the world’s aviation authorities have either grounded the planes or closed access to their airspace for the operation of the popular new Boeing…
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Bangkok Police announce two major drug busts
by Khanathit Srihirundaj The police keep seizing the drugs but the manufacturers keep pushing even more out the back doors of their factories hidden in the jungles of the Golden Triangle and north eastern Myanmar. But police in Bangkok today reported that a large haul of narcotics has been seized, including more than 200 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine, or “ice”,…
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Jordanian father confesses to throwing his son into sea, Pattaya
PHOTOS: The Nation / Rai Siam News A Jordanian tourist has told police he tied his son to a pram and threw him into the sea off the Bali Hai pier in Pattaya. The case has horrified Thai readers and drawn violent and emotional responses from social media. The body of the 18 month old boy was found floating in…
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Chiang Mai has world’s worst air quality as fires rage in the north
This morning Chiang Mai had the world’s worst air quality.In the WHOLE world! Thailand’s northern city was ranked the #1 most air-polluted city on earth with a 209 air quality index score on airvisual.com. The air worsened to an AQI of 233 around noon. Meanwhile the Pollution Control Department reports the average 24 hour level of PM2.5 dust particulates had…
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He’s an Aussie now. Hakeem al-Araibi becomes Australian citizen.
PHOTO: Hakeem al-Araibi says “I’m an Aussie now” and is happy to be safe Hakeem al-Araibi, the former Bahraini football player and refugee caught up in a diplomatic tug-of-war in Thailand between Australian and Bahraini officials for two and a half months, has become an Australian citizen. He became an Australian citizen along with 200 other people at a ceremony…
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Five foreigners spend their holidays cleaning up rubbish along Krabi Beach
Five foreign tourists have spent their holidays today collecting rubbish along Laem Pong Beach in Krabi. They say they say they are very sad to see rubbish strewn all over the beaches and felt compelled to clean it up. 38 year old Latvian man Uldis Baumais, one of the tourists, says, “We have stayed at a hotel near the beach…
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New trend ‘Challenge for Change’ rubbish cleanup
PHOTO: We Don’t Deserve This Planet A Facebook page named ‘We Don’t Deserve This Planet’ is running a campaign ‘Challenge for Change’ for rubbish cleanups. The site is an international page. The Facebook page says “Let it be trending!” with the hash tag #ChallengeForChange. “Here is a new #Challenge for all. Take a photo of an area that needs some cleaning or…
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UPDATE: Regulators ground the Boeing 737 Max 8, but not in Thailand
PHOTO: Thai Lion Air won’t be grounding their Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft The digital flight data recorder for Flight ET302 from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to Nairobi, Kenya was located yesterday morning Citizens of 35 countries are among the 157 people killed, including 32 Kenyans, 18 Canadians, nine Ethiopians and eight passengers each from China, Italy and the US Multiple…
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Northern provinces choking on toxic haze and air pollution again
by Kriangkrai Rattana, Panwich Yoodee, Nathawat Laping Northern provinces are again choking from dangerous levels of PM2.5 dust particles, air pollution and smog. The harmful haze is being worsened by smoke from forest fires on the other side of the Myanmar border, with a satellite images showing 1,035 hot spots in the neighbouring country, and another 516 in Thailand (123…
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Motorbike driver killed after SUV runs red light in Koh Kaew, Phuket
A motorbike driver has died after he collided with an SUV that ran a red light in Koh Kaew last night. The Phuket City Police report that they were notified of the incident at 8pm at a Koh Kaew intersection. Police and emergency responders arrived to find a motorbike stuck in front of an SUV. The motorbike driver was taken to…
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4 ways Thais use Twitter. Which one are you?
With hundreds of millions of users globally, Twitter is many things to many people. Amongst Thailand’s growing Twitter community, it’s interesting to see how users are evolving the way they use Twitter. Trending topics change rapidly as Thai users jump from one hot topic to another, while favourite celebrities and musicians remain relatively consistent. Below are just four ways Thais…
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“Nothing to do with the election” – Deputy PM Prawit
Senior government security officials are claiming the series of bomb blasts last weekend in the southern provinces of Phatthalung and Satun are related to insurgency activities in the predominantly Muslim region. They say there is no connection with the upcoming election and that the timing is just co-incidence. The South has been racked by violence from an ongoing insurgency since…
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Police wrestler avoids jail but gets a hefty fine
PHOTO: Daily News Bangkok’s Dusit Court has fined a Honda City sedan driver 8,500 baht for four offences related to an incident caught on video last week. The video showed Pol Lance Corporal Thanakit Wiboonphan trying to clamp a car parked illegally in a no standing zone. Not happy about the situation, the driver argued and wrestled with the traffic policeman.…
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Flying motorbike ends up stuck in power lines in Surin
PHOTO: เฮฮาหน้าโรงพัก A motorbike has ended up entangled in power lines, four meters up in the air, following an incident in Surin province yesterday. Daily News is reporting that emergency responders were notified of the accident in Karbcherng last night (Sunday). They arrived to find a motorbike entangled in the electric wires four metres from the ground. Nearby they found…
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From Moto GP to Weed Fest, Buriram leads the way
PHOTO: A Pan Ram supporter can’t wait for the ‘cannabis festival’ next month in Buriram province – Khaosod English They pulled off the MotoGP event with flair and great organisation. Now Buriram is bracing for a very different crowd heading for the next big event. Taking advantage of the new liberalisation of laws governing marijuana and cannabis, the north-east festival…
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Security stepped up in Phuket in the wake of Satun and Patthalung bombs
Phuket security officials have increased safety and tourist security after suspects set off pipe bombs in Statun and Patthalung during the weekend. Although the southern provincial trio of Songkhla, Pattani and Narathiwat have been the site of a 20 year insurgency between southern Thais and Muslim insurgents, provinces north of the region have been largely spared any insurgency-related violence. That…
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German tourist bitten by snake in Krabi temple
A female tourist has been rushed to hospital after she was bitten by snake at the Tiger Cave Temple in Krabi. The 23 year old German tourist was taken to Krabi Hospital after she was been bitten by a snake on her right foot. The German tourist was still conscious whilst being treated at the scene and during her trip…
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Wealthy Thai woman arrested over dodgy weight-loss pills in raids across the country
PHOTO: Daily News An extensive police operation has led to the arrest of wealthy operator of a business selling alleged weight-loss products. The woman has also been charged with possession of controlled substances. Of the 13 targeted locations in Bangkok, one was the luxurious home of Wirairat Udthong on Soi Pattanakan 42 in the Suan Luang district. Wirairat was charged…
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Phuket 1988: Thai expat digs out his old Super 8 movies
David Barrett gets out his Super 8 projector for another film night – this time we see Patong in 1988, already quite developed even though mass tourism was still more than a decade away. The few high-rise are certainly not cluttering up the skyline at this time. David is sharing his early Super 8 movies with us as we wallow…
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Some airlines ground the Boeing 737 MAX 800 aircraft “as a precaution”
Airlines around the world that fly the new Boeing 737 MAX 800 model are starting to ground their fleets of the new next-gen aircraft. China’s aviation regulator have already ordered local airlines to stop flight with the 800 MAX model after an Ethiopian Airlines aircraft of the same model crashed yesterday morning. The aircraft is relatively new to the skies,…
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