Why expats ranked Thailand #1 for happiness (and dead last for this)

🌡️ Weather: 26-35°C (79-95°F). Wide range. Afternoon thundershowers with 60% rain coverage. Morning is the outdoor window.

🌫️ Air Quality: 68-122 (Good to Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups). Decent day. Morning is the cleaner window.

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EXPATS RANKED THAILAND THE HAPPIEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD TO LIVE IN. OUT OF 31 COUNTRIES SURVEYED, THAILAND CAME FIRST. IT ALSO CAME LAST FOR ENVIRONMENT AND CLIMATE.

Thailand topped the happiness ranking in a global survey of expat destinations, scoring higher than every other country across 31 nations evaluated. The result will surprise nobody who lives here. The cost of living is manageable. The food is extraordinary. The healthcare is accessible. The people are warm. The lifestyle flexibility that Bangkok and the islands offer is difficult to replicate anywhere else in the world at a comparable price point. For a country that has spent 2026 collecting international recognition, Best Welcome award in Madrid, two cities in Travel + Leisure's global top 10, Koh Samui named best island in Asia-Pacific, the happiness ranking adds another data point to a pattern that is becoming hard to argue with.

The environment ranking is the other side of the coin, and it landed with equal force. Thailand came last. Dead last. Out of 31 countries, not a single one scored lower on environmental quality and climate. For readers who spent last week breathing AQI 150+ air in the middle of the rainy season, the ranking feels less like a surprise and more like a confirmation of something you already knew but did not want to see written down. Bangkok's air pollution, plastic waste, water quality and heat island effect are real problems that the happiness ranking does not erase. Both things are true at the same time. Thailand is the happiest place for expats to live and the worst for the air they breathe while living there.

Bottom line: first in happiness. Last in environment. The gap between those two rankings is the story of what it means to live in Thailand in 2026. The lifestyle is unmatched. The air quality is questionable. And until the second number improves, the first number carries an asterisk.

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THAILAND'S GOVERNMENT AI ART CONTEST FOR NATIONAL DUGONG CONSERVATION DAY PRODUCED DUGONGS WITH LEGS. THE INTERNET HAD QUESTIONS.

The Department of Marine and Coastal Resources launched an AI art competition to mark National Dugong Conservation Day on August 17, inviting the public to use artificial intelligence tools to generate artwork featuring Thailand's endangered dugong population. The intention was to raise awareness about marine conservation. The result was a collection of AI-generated images in which the dugongs, gentle marine mammals that spend their entire lives in the ocean, were depicted walking on land with fully formed legs.

Dugongs do not have legs. They have flippers. They are aquatic mammals related to manatees, and they have not walked on land since their ancestors evolved into marine creatures roughly 50 million years ago. The AI tools used by contestants apparently did not know this, and the judges either did not notice or did not consider it a problem. Thai social media noticed immediately. Comments ranged from gentle amusement to pointed questions about whether the department responsible for conserving dugongs could identify what one actually looks like. The incident sits in a growing category of AI-generated content that looks polished until someone with actual knowledge reviews it. The art was technically impressive. The biology was 50 million years out of date.

Bottom line: if you are going to run a conservation art contest, the animal being conserved should probably not have body parts it does not possess. The dugong is critically endangered in Thai waters. It deserves better than being given legs by an algorithm and a government department that signed off on it.

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300 officers raided Koh Samui and uncovered 60 illegal nominee businesses. More information emerges the operation targeted foreigners who used Thai nationals to hold shares or assets while running businesses illegally. The businesses ranged from unlicensed nurseries to a luxury hotel built on land allegedly hidden behind Thai shareholders. 104 suspected nominee firms, 124 land plots and five unlicensed resorts are now under investigation. International hotel booking platforms are also in the crosshairs for listing properties that do not have valid hotel licenses. The crackdown has now swept through Phuket, Koh Pha Ngan, Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Hua Hin and Koh Samui. If there is an island or resort town left that has not been raided, it is probably next.

Thai Airways Q2 profit plunged 87% due to the Middle East conflict and Hormuz crisis. The national airline's second-quarter earnings dropped nearly ฿10 billion as route disruptions, fuel costs and rerouting expenses ate into margins. The Hormuz crisis now has a corporate earnings number attached to it, and it belongs to Thailand's flag carrier.

A Thai woman stopped buying lottery tickets and saved the money instead. After two years, she had more than she expected. The Facebook post by Duenpen Tabla went viral on August 17. She described herself as a vendor who used to buy lottery tickets regularly. When she stopped and put the same money into savings, the total after two years surprised her. The post resonated because lottery spending in Thailand is a cultural habit that few people track. The math, when someone finally does it, tends to be uncomfortable. She saved roughly 10,000 baht.

Transport Ministry seeking Cabinet approval for a 504km southern double-track railway to Padang Besar at ฿106.8 billion. First reported on August 16. If approved, the railway would transform connectivity between southern Thailand and the Malaysian border. The project would be one of the largest rail infrastructure investments outside the greater Bangkok area.

🍽️ SPOT OF THE DAY

PRAI RAYA (SUKHUMVIT 8)

Prai Raya brought Phuket's local cuisine to Bangkok and did it without diluting a single chili. The restaurant started in Phuket Old Town as a family operation serving the kind of southern Thai food that islanders eat at home rather than what they serve to tourists, and the Sukhumvit 8 location carries the same recipes into a space that feels like a courtyard garden dropped into central Bangkok. The yellow curry with crab meat and coconut rice noodles is the dish that keeps appearing in reviews as the reason people come back. The crab curry, the massaman, the stir-fried squid with turmeric and the deep-fried sea bass with herbs cover a range of southern Thai flavors that most Bangkok restaurants flatten into something safer.

The 4.6-star rating across 2,641 Google reviews tells you the consistency holds up across years of service. "The yellow curry with crab meat and coconut rice noodles is a must-try," one reviewer wrote. Another called it "a comfy place for family and hanging out in a group, delicious Thai original food." At ฿400-1,200 per person, Prai Raya sits in the mid-range for the quality of seafood it serves, and the outdoor garden seating on a warm evening is the kind of setting that makes dinner feel like something special. On a night when you want southern Thai food made by people who grew up cooking it on the island where it comes from, Prai Raya is the restaurant.

→ See the menu and find them here ←

Insider tip: the yellow curry with crab meat is the dish you do not skip. Reserve via Chope for dinner. The outdoor garden is the best seating.

📍 59 Soi Sukhumvit 8, Khlong Toei, Bangkok 10110
📞 091 878 9959
🕐 Opens 10:30AM Tuesday-Sunday
⭐ 4.6 stars (2,641 Google reviews) | ฿400-1,200
🌐 facebook.com/PraiRayaPhuket

Always check opening times before heading out..

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