Bangkok Condominiums: ROI On Condo Rents

May 20, 2012

Here’s an article about rental properties and their ROI in BKK: Rental yields remained largely unchanged in the first quarter of this year in the downtown Bangkok condominium market, ranging from 3% to 9%, despite prices for new properties rising and no significant growth in the number of expatriate tenants. [...] Gross yield is the [...]

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Government Report Says: Military Responsible For Killing At Least 25 People During Red Shirt Protests

May 18, 2012

Even though the investigations of the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) initially didn’t look like they’d actually be able to reveal anything the military didn’t want revealed, they now published a report that states that the army may be responsible for killing at least 25 people during the red shirt protests of 2010 in Bangkok. [...]

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Tsunami Warning for Thailand West-Coast

April 11, 2012

A tsunami warning has been issued for provinced along the west-coast of Thailand following a strong earth-quake (8.9 on Richter skala) in Aceh, Indonesia. Al Jazeera has set up a live-blog where you can follow updates. And the fastest way to get news is of course Twitter (but at the same time lots of unconfirmed [...]

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News from Bangkok: 26 March 2012

March 26, 2012

While Toshiba is planning to build a new plant (because the old one got damaged during the floods of 2011), this time in a different, less flood-prone location, 32 provinces in Thailand are now suffering from drought. Meanwhile, the Thai Ministry of Transport is promising free car inspections till April 12. Why? Because they want [...]

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Red Bull Founder Died

March 21, 2012

The name Chaleo Yoovidhya probably doesn’t mean much to you. But he’s the original founder of the Red Bull energy drink, together with his Austrian business partner Dietrich Mateschitz. Born into a poor farmer’s family, he later in life went to work in Bangkok as a bus conductor before he started to get into business. His rise [...]

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Baht Dropped because of China Concerns

March 21, 2012

Thailand’s economy is strongly intertwined with the Chinese economy, and now that the Chinese economy seems to slow down, this has also had an effect on the Thai baht, you can read more about it here.

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Army Admits Rangers At Fault Of Killing Innocent Civilians in January at Southern Thailand

March 21, 2012

Four civilians got killed on January 29, 2012 in Southern Thailand (Ban Kayi in tambon Bulo Puyo of Nong Chik district). Now the army admitted that the rangers were at fault. You can read more about this case here, but the positive thing to take away from it is that the army accepted responsibility and [...]

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Thai Floods Update.

October 5, 2011

As the death toll of the flood reaches 224 people, Al Jazeera has a video on their website called Thailand hit by worst monsoon in 50 years, which isn’t very informative, but gives you an impression of what it’s currently like in many cities of Thailand.

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World to Thailand: Join ICC to show commitment against war crimes

October 5, 2011

Thailand still hasn’t joined the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and is now being called to do so. It’s the first international court that is able to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide and currently has 118 member states. Read more: THAILAND: Global Coalition calls on Thailand to join the International [...]

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UN Human Rights Council asks Thailand about possibly distorted reports

October 5, 2011

The Thai government has published several reports on human rights issues in Thailand, including the problems in violent Southern Thailand. These reports differ drastically from reports published by NGOs. These differences will be discussed at the UN’s Human Rights Council in Geneva on Wednesday. Given the widespread inability among Thai officials to admit mistakes, and [...]

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MSF (Doctors Without Borders) Leaving Thailand After Thai Government Shuts Clinics Down

October 3, 2011

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), also known as Doctors Without Borders, is shutting down their operations in Bangkok. One of the main reasons is that the government obstructed their work – which is a shame. If you’ve been in the region where they operate, you’ll see that NGOs are needed there, and MSF is a secular [...]

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Corrupt Police Men Get Struck With the Full Force of Justice

October 3, 2011

The chief of the Metropolitan Police Bureau and 18 senior officers are allegedly involved in illegal gambling dens in Bangkok. This in itself isn’t really very surprising. It’s also not very surprising the it was Chuwit who blew the whistle on this. What’s surprising is that there will be an investigation into their (alleged) involvement. [...]

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Thailand Jewelry Exports 2011: $12 billion (expected)

September 14, 2011

Thailand is still selling more and more jewelry to customers from other countries, despite economic slowdown in the USA & Europe. The overall jewellery export value is expected to surpass US$12 billion this year. This includes sales that are made within the country to customers who bring the country out (mostly tourists, specially from Asian [...]

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Drug Busts in Bangkok (September)

September 13, 2011

The Bangkok police announced what its anti-narcotics operations achieved between August 30-September 12. 277 drug addicts were admitted to the rehabilitation program. Nearly 4,000 suspects were arrested on drug-related charges. The number included 2 major narcotics producers and over 300 dealers. Nearly 700 suspects were arrested for illegal possession of drugs and nearly 3,000 users [...]

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Bangkok Airport: Number of International Passengers 2010

August 10, 2011

The Bangkok airport handled 31.41 million international passengers in the year 2010. Phuket is one of the fastest growing airports (in terms of number of passengers) of 2010 globally. More info & international comparison here (PDF-download).

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Gold Prices Up Up Up

August 9, 2011

There’s a run on gold these days. So much so that police even enforced stricter security in the “gold store” Yaowarat area. According to Thipa Navawattanasap, the president of YLG Bullion and Futures, local gold prices may even hit 26,000 baht in the short term. Read more about it here.

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New BTS Line in Bangkok

August 7, 2011

The new “purple line” of the BTS system in Bangkok is scheduled to open 2014 and will serve north-eastern Bangkok. The estimate costs run into 50bn baht. For more details read: Bangkok Mass Rapid Transit-Purple Line, Bangkok, Thailand

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Southern Thailand: One of the worlds most violent insurgencies

August 7, 2011

Patrick Winn has authored one of the best in-depth pieces looking at the situation in Southern Thailand. It’s very well worth to set 20 minutes, put the phone off the hook, switch of the TV and digest “Buddhists in Arms”.

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Corruption in Thailand before, during and after Thaksin

July 10, 2011

Critics of Thaksin often blame him for corruption – and even among his supporters, there are very few that seriously believe he wasn’t corrupt. It’s nonetheless interesting to look at corruption ratings from Thailand before, during and after the Thaksin administration. There’s no doubt Thaksin was corrupt and used his political power to pocket a [...]

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Possible Worst Case Scenarios for Thailand

July 9, 2011

Now that the election has gone quite well, it should be noted that there are still some ways things could get nasty in Thailand. The Return of Thaksin For example, the winning Pheua Thai party, could bring back Thaksin to Thailand, giving him amnesty, and maybe even try to return part of the money seized [...]

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