Somebody at the Swedish school on Koh Lanta kept a diary. It is a spiral notebook, written by hand, and it belongs to the school's very first pupil, who was seven when it starts.

She organised it by season rather than by year, the way an island does. It begins the year the school begins and stops in 2007. Her opening line is the whole story in one sentence: Lanta Sanuk School has not always been the way it is now. In the beginning there was only a single pupil, and then it grew and grew.

Season 00/01: a maths book made of A4 paper

The first entry describes a school with one pupil, one teacher and nothing else.

"The school was in my bungalow. Mum was the teacher and there was absolutely no material. We made a maths book out of A4 paper!"

That is the beginning of what people now call Little Sweden. A child, her mother, a bungalow, and a maths book they stapled together themselves.

Season 01/02: the Palm School

Another Swedish family arrived, and the mother happened to be a secondary school teacher. She taught her own two daughters, aged eight and six, plus the diarist, then seven. Lessons moved to their bungalow, and the children gave it a name: Palmskolan, the Palm School.

Then, in a detail that could only come from a real diary, the whole thing decamped to Greece for a few months and carried on there.

The following season has the shortest entry in the book. "No school. We were in Sweden."

Season 03/04: cockroaches and road dust

By now enough families wanted in that the diarist's parents hired an actual teacher, and it was she who named it Lanta Sanuk School. Usually six pupils turned up. At most nine.

The description of the premises is the least romantic thing you will read about this island:

"Two rooms with a fan and a filthy hole in the floor as a toilet. The tables were rickety, there were several cockroaches and the floor was always dirty with road dust."

And then, immediately after: "There were lots of different ages and everyone hung out with each other." Which is the part the children evidently remembered.

Season 04/05: the tsunami

The autumn term opened with 25 pupils and three teachers. By January sixty children were enrolled. It was the school's best year yet.

Then one line, written plainly, the way a teenager writes down something enormous:

"The school was closed after the tsunami because everyone went home."

It stayed shut through January 2005 and opened again at the beginning of February with two new teachers. That same season the first pupil enrolled through the Swedish distance-learning programme, and the school got its first computers.

Season 05/06: upstairs at the conference centre

The school took over the entire upper floor of a conference centre, twelve air-conditioned rooms. There were 119 pupils and ten teachers.

Her list of what existed for the first time that year tells you what had been missing before it: a head teacher, a library, a preschool, school lunch.

Season 06/07: two schools

The last entry counts 220 pupils and 20 teachers across two sites, plus 19 children in preschool.

The old building became the Holiday School, for families staying one to four months. A new school went up at Long Beach for families staying longer than four months. They called it the Long-term School.

That distinction is quietly the most revealing thing in the diary. By 2007 there were enough Swedish families living on Koh Lanta for a whole year that they needed their own school, separate from the ones passing through.

Why this matters beyond one school

The usual account has Swedes discovering Koh Lanta in the mid-2000s, and the 2006/07 season is the one always quoted. The diary ends exactly there, and that is the point the school wanted to make when they shared it: the season everyone remembers was not the start of anything. It was the moment something that had been growing quietly for seven years became too big to miss.

It started in a bungalow, with one child and a maths book made of A4 paper.

The diary is kept at Sanuk, the Swedish school on Koh Lanta, and was shared with us by the school. Its author, the school's first pupil, also designed the yellow sun that is still the school's logo. Translations from the Swedish are ours. The school asked us to be clear that they speak for Sanuk alone and not for anything else on the island.

SME D Bank has launched emergency measures to help small and medium enterprises in Nan province affected by flooding, offering debt repayment suspension of up to 12 months and emergency capital for business recovery. Managing Director Phichit Mitravongse said the flooding has severely impacted SME operations across multiple areas in Nan province, both directly and indirectly. The bank is rolling out urgent relief measures to ease financial burden and help entrepreneurs restart their businesses quickly.

Key assistance measures include a principal and interest repayment suspension for affected customers for up to 12 months on term loans, revolving credit agreements, and factoring facilities, with promissory note repayment extended up to 180 days. The bank is also offering emergency capital loans of 10% of the customer's existing credit limit (minimum 30,000 baht, maximum 200,000 baht for individuals and 200,000 baht for businesses) at the prevailing rate for three years with a 12-month principal grace period and no collateral required except fees.

Additionally, SME D Bank is offering supplementary business development loans with a special fixed rate of just 3% per annum for the first three years, repayable over up to 10 years with up to 12 months' principal grace period. These include the SME Green Productivity loan (up to 30 million baht), Power Up SME loan (up to 1 million baht), and Beyond Wings SME loan (up to 30 million baht). The relief measures are voluntary and entrepreneurs can apply immediately through any SME D Bank branch nationwide, the bank's LINE Official Account, or its website at www.smebank.co.th. The Call Center number is 1357.

PHUKET: More than 1,000 job seekers attended the Phuket Hotel Job Fair 2026 on Tuesday (Aug 18), with more than 2,500 positions offered by businesses preparing for increased labour demand during the high season.

Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul and his delegation departed Fairbairn Military Airport in Canberra on August 19 for an official visit to New Zealand between August 20–22. Australian International Development and Multicultural Affairs Minister Anne Alley saw the Prime Minister off at the airport. The Thai delegation is scheduled to arrive at Auckland Airport at 14:35 local time, where New Zealand's Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Penny Simmonds will receive them.

Upon arrival, the Prime Minister will immediately begin his official duties. On the evening of August 20, he will meet with New Zealand's private sector to discuss economic cooperation and trading and investment opportunities between the two countries. On the morning of August 21, the Prime Minister will attend a formal reception at the Governor-General's residence before holding bilateral meetings with New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon. The two leaders will then hold a joint press conference, followed by a lunch hosted by the New Zealand Prime Minister in honor of his Thai counterpart.

In the afternoon of August 21, the Prime Minister will visit NZAero, New Zealand's aircraft manufacturing company, to assess aviation industry capabilities and explore opportunities for aviation sector cooperation between Thailand and New Zealand. The delegation will return to Thailand on Saturday, August 22, following the conclusion of the official visit.

On August 20, Deputy Government Spokesman Lalida Perischvivat revealed that the government is concerned about residents in Nan province and the upper northern region affected by severe flooding from heavy rains and flash floods. The Government Housing Bank has implemented seven relief measures for 2025 to reduce financial burden and support housing reconstruction, covering debt relief, payment suspension, and loans for repairs or new housing for both regular account holders and non-performing loan borrowers.

For NPL borrowers whose collateral was damaged, debt restructuring is available for up to 18 months with zero interest for the first six months and no payment installments required. NPL borrowers affected by income loss can restructure debt for up to one year with zero interest for the first six months and minimum monthly payments of 1,000 baht, applied entirely to principal reduction.

The government emphasized that if a home is completely destroyed and cannot be repaired, the Government Housing Bank will consider forgiving the structure portion of the debt on a case-by-case basis for both regular and NPL borrowers. Borrowers will only repay the land value portion, relieving them of debt for the uninhabitable structure.

For borrowers with home insurance policies covering natural disasters through the bank's partner insurers, an expedited Fast Track claims process is available. Policyholders can file claims using damage photos and receive compensation up to 20,000 baht without additional documentation requirements. The government recommends affected residents photograph their homes and damaged property before cleanup begins to support rapid claim processing.

The government stressed that home loss extends beyond property damage to include living expenses during recovery, and assistance measures are available even for NPL borrowers. Affected residents can apply at all Government Housing Bank branches nationwide immediately, or contact the G H BANK Call Center at 0-2645-9000 for more information.

Young artist and actor Mark Thanat, also known as Mark Kamikazeee or Dr. Mark, has resigned from his government-funded dentistry position after ten years of uninterrupted study and work. Mark announced his resignation on August 7, 2026, in a video explaining that he had never taken a break since age thirteen, when many knew him as a singer. He was accepted to Mahidol's dental program at eighteen, completed his degree, worked one year as a dentist, and continues to hold his dental license despite resigning from his position.

Mark explained his decision: "I felt like I was someone who worked non-stop for ten years without ever taking a rest. Everything was forced upon me—I had to work according to a set schedule, attend classes and exams, and work regardless." He said he simply wanted a brief moment to do something for himself without a clear plan for what comes next.

One regret has stayed with him throughout the decade: despite traveling extensively, he rarely recorded videos or captured memories from his trips. Mark has launched a YouTube channel called Thanat Rattanasiriphan to document his journeys, so he can look back and remember where he has traveled. He clarified the channel is primarily for himself, but welcomed others to follow along if interested. His resignation announcement video has garnered over 170,000 views, with commenters offering encouragement and support for his decision to live life on his own terms and take time to recharge.