Check out the hotel packages and special Airline promotions

The Okura Prestige Bangkok plays host to a Wedding Showcase 2017 on April 1 and 2 joining with experienced wedding planners in offering packages and services. Couples booking their wedding at the event and making a down payment of Bt600,000 will receive a range of benefits including 100 Okura cupcakes, champagne tower, herbal drink and a food station with 100 portions.

TripAdvisor names 2017’s best beaches in the world

‘Do not breathe under the water’? ‘Falling can be deadly’? You don’t say! The world’s most entirely pointless signs revealed You can marry a dog in India and identify as a dragon in Russia: Revealing the most baffling laws in the world Tourist in Thailand faces up to a year in prison for ‘feeding BREADCRUMBS to fish in a forbidden part of the sea’ A secret floor, a chauffeur-driven Tesla and exclusive ocean views: The $2,100-a-night hotel-within-a hotel where the one per cent hide out in Florida Forget Bond Street: Why a trip to Bicester Village will satisfy all designer label junkies A 15,000sq-foot spa, a cigar room and an in-house cinema: The Austrian ski-in-ski-out five-star hotel that will appease even the most reluctant snow bunny ‘They’re just bags of intestines – full of faeces’: Explorer Ed Stafford reveals that eating TADPOLES was a new low as he tackled the Patagonia wilds … (more)

Ministry seeks to court more Japanese women

The Tourism and Sports Ministry aims to attract more female Japanese tourists to Thailand because they spend more than men. The ministry will promote activities to make Thailand more attractive to Japanese women, such as muay Thai, meditation, shopping, cookery, textile weaving and organic gardening, Tourism and Sports Minister Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul said at a luncheon talk entitled, “Empowering Women Leadership in Business and Society”, held by Assumption University.

SIPA giving SMEs, OTOPsdigital lift

THE SOFTWARE INDUSTRY Promotion Agency plans to promote 4,000 small and medium-sized enterprises and OTOP entrepreneurs to utilise digital technology to support their businesses. Chainarong Chatrattanawaree, business promotion measures manager at SIPA, said that the agency had develop Entrepreneur Total Digital Services to allow SMEs and OTOP entrepreneurs to utilise digital technology in terms of digital commerce, enterprise resource planning software for SMEs, training and consultants to support their businesses.

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Burma is expected to see economic growth of 6.9 percent in 2017, down 1.5 points from a previous estimate, according to the World Bank’s Global Economic Prospects report released earlier this month. The report said that real-term growth in 2016 was estimated to be 6.5 percent, down 1.3 percentage points from an earlier estimate in June last year, the Nikkei Asia Review reported.

Japanese body’s ID confirmed

The parents and girlfriend arrive at Siriraj Hospital in Bangkok on Monday to confirm the identity of the body of Sonam Tsuboi, found in the Chao Phraya River on Dec 30. Relatives have confirmed the body found in the Chao Phraya River in late December was the missing Japanese tourist Sonam Tsuboi, 22, and said he would be cremated in Thailand. The parents, aged 57 and 47, as well as the 24-year-old girlfriend of the Japanese man, arrived at the riverside Siriraj hospital in Bangkok to identify the body found at the nearby Wang Lang pier on Dec 30. Accompanying them was Pisit Maiprasert, a consular assistant at the Japanese embassy, who said they were confident that the body was of Tsuboi.

Enjoyable but hazardous

A few thoughts about my visit: I know that people with disabilities are pleased with the ramps installed on Bangkok sidewalks. Unfortunately, they are now being used as motorcycle taxi ramps and the sidewalk has become a motorway.

Rail progress: Bangkok commuters set to benefit from more route options in 2017

Next year could turn out to be a breakthrough one for commuters travelling between Bangkok and surrounding areas by rail, as many more options look set to become available. At the very least, the one-kilometre so-called “missing tooth”, which will link the end of the recently opened MRT Purple Line at Tao Poon station with the far end of the underground MRT Blue Line at Bang Sue station, should be in service byAugust.

Rail progress: Bangkok commuters set to benefit from more route options in 2017

Next year could turn out to be a breakthrough one for commuters travelling between Bangkok and surrounding areas by rail, as many more options look set to become available. At the very least, the one-kilometre so-called “missing tooth”, which will link the end of the recently opened MRT Purple Line at Tao Poon station with the far end of the underground MRT Blue Line at Bang Sue station, should be in service byAugust.