Thailand news – Surat Thani has emerged as the epicentre of road deaths in Thailand for the Christmas-New Year break with some more tragic car and bus crashes, two Thai women have been identified as passengers on the fatal Jeju Air Crash, a Thai man scammed in the most egregiously obvious scam.
Tim Newton Today is daily news commentary about Thailand and the region, including issues of interest to expats and travellers to Thailand.
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Thailand is competing with Japan, Taiwan, and Vietnam for tourist now. These other asian destination have good dollar exchange rates and cheap flights with a valuable experience. Thailand is still wonderful albeit with a new generation of rude international criminals who have no experience with the Thai legal system.
Think the cost of air ticket sales is the big issue. in 2018 paid £350 return on Eva Air, same price today between £690 and £810
@ Tim: I can't speak for your neck of the woods, but Chiang Mai is on target to see the lowest amount of accidents and deaths in a decade due to their road efforts. In addition, it has been reported that 30,000 tourists are coming through the airport daily this holiday season, breaking previous records for the same period…. For the first seven days and what would have normally been the monitoring period, there were 44 accidents, 44 injuries and five deaths.
The goal of the province was to see the seven days go down 5% from the average of the last three years, so less than 73 accidents, 72 injuries and seven deaths…. Kirati Kitmanawat, President of AOT, stated that passenger traffic during the 2024 New Year holiday was the highest ever recorded, driven by the government's visa-free policy. Compared to the same period in 2023, international passenger numbers increased by 37%, with a significant rise in Chinese tourists returning to the region. Additionally, there was a noticeable uptick in travelers from India and South Korea. On average, the airport handled 34,000 passengers daily, including around 11,000 international travelers. Over the seven days of the 2024 New Year holiday, approximately 240,000 passengers passed through Chiang Mai Airport, with 80,000 of them being international travelers. (Information provided from the FB page Chiang Mai News in English)
Just driven from Patong, Phuket to Chumphon and I’m surprised the death toll isn’t much higher. Surat Thani is a terrible driving experience.
Tim, all the things you mentioned would keep me from returning to Thailand. I arrive in Bangkok tomorrow.
I've had my share of tribulations with officialdom but something about the country calls me back, in spite of some of the frustrations
the airfar is getting very high
For those of you heading north on the inter city busses, there is a new procedure. Instead of entering bus areas and buying a ticket, you need to go to the top floor of the station and purchase a ticket there first from one of the seller windows. When you obtain a ticket, your luggage must be screened before access to the bus parking area. There are approximately 50 ticket windows, each with a different destination.
Same same saaame……………same of fools….same same saaaame
That’s a hell of a lot of people in 6 days crazy
I'm always amazed the Mini vans don't have more accidents the way they fly up the wrong side of the road.
Do I want to travel in a natural gas bus or Korean jet? 😢
The truth is the majority of buses, jets, taxis etc make it to their destination even if the death statistics are a concern as they are in most countries especially during busy holiday times
Tim, completely agree with your comments about 18-24 year olds on motorbikes but until they fix the prime issue of "paper bags of money make charges go away" nothing will change.
In CM/Hangdong area, the mentioned Check-Points really crank up at 10pm… checking everone
Red Flags- at least there is someone Dumber than me
hey hey … love the show and have been a fan since your thaiger days… I was among last year's visitors … jan and feb 24… enjoyed island times on this trip in both the gulf and the Andaman … fantastic times great vibes and views! in 2019 I did the touristy locales seeing sites and wats etc… Bangkok Pattaya Phuket Krabi… fun times but in regards to motorbike safety I saw as many tourists as thais driving erratic speeding and being reckless … and as one might imagine the more densely populated areas like Phuket and Bangkok are really crazy. At the same time the scooter culture and convenience of it for tourists is a part of the experience of Thailand and gives the visitor such freedom if they are willing to take the challenge of driving in Thailand … happy New Year!
I watched 30 cars entering my daughter's school today to pick up children. All but 3 drivers were using phones or tablets. In front of 3 police guards.
Why do the vans, taxis , and suvs constantly try to run scooters off the road in Phuket
Hi Tim i have visited Thailand 7 times, the first time was March 2010 and the last time was Dec 2015. The reason i have not been for so long is first of all being self employed and not having enough funds at the time, and then covid got in the way for a few years but now the air fare is way too expensive. I was intent on coming over in December for 3 weeks but the air fare was £15-1800, far too expensive, last time i went it was £6-800. I begrudge giving the greedy airlines my money.
Either that or he came up with that story when he wasn’t able to get his counterfeit money past the employee at Siam National bank
There is no road safety. There is no interest in road safety. It looks like an industry for undertakers. Its utterly bizzarre . 😮
Thanks Tim.
What’s with All of your Thumbnails of 2025 focus on Negativity Events ? Enough already with the Drama Baiting
My guess is a organ trade country
How did they have the same type of Kasikorn bank paper bag for the switch? Sounds fishy.
A popular topic – Where do you get your shirts from?!!
Happy New Year from 🇧🇻 (Norway, Scandinavia).
Hi Tim, In today's Reuters, "Hanoi declared world's most polluted city, authorities seek action".
Happy New Year from the Central Coast in NSW Tim.
Why am I not coming back to Thailand at the moment! Yeah main reason high season cost of airfares will back back in April though for my 7th visit can't miss out on Songkran 😉 Unfortunately I can't get my Thai partner of seven years to move back there she's an Australian citizen and likes Oz better. 😢
they are thinking "thin the herd"…drunk, young males on moto's, going too fast…no loss they think. As an aside…suppose an American with Thai citizenship (I know, I know, rare as hen's teeth) got into a situation like the "Swedish-Korean" wiping out numerous vehicles or some such….DO YOU THINK THAI NEWS WOULD REFER TO HIM AS Thai-American? is "night time theft" worse than daytime theft?
35 million visitors does not mean 35 million tourists. Until airlines stop price gouging their customers things will continue to head south.
Shame on Thailand. Road safety is 👎👎👎
Australia is the only country that can buy Virginia-Class Nuclear Submarines from the United States.
The exchange rate needs to improve to entice visitors back. The Thai Baht continues to be strong against all major countries. I’m from Australia and 21.4 baht per $1 AUD is very poor and not encouraging me to rush out and book my trip back!