Category: FEATURES

Hotel quality: Is Thailand really lagging behind neighbours?

REM

Where in south-east Asia would you go if you wish to stay at a really top hotel? It would appear that the answer is either Siem Reap in Cambodia or Vietnam’s capital, Hanoi. This is not, we should make clear, in REm’s estimation. In fact, both as a publication and individually, we are fans of the Kingdom’s hotels and have spent many happy hours staying in, eating in and being entertained in them. But, it appears we are out of step with the visitors to the TripAdvisor website. Their votes…

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Weather pains? Check your barometer

REM

  If you experience headaches or joint pains when the weather changes, it’s not your imagination. The barometric pressure may be to blame. Changes in the barometric pressure can – and do – affect your body, some of us are just more sensitive than others. Here’s the good news. If you suffer from weather-related headaches and joint pain, there are non-pharmaceutical ways to relieve it.     Here are five tips for dealing with barometric pressure headaches and post-operative, post-bone fractures. If you has ever experienced headaches or joints pain…

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Plastic pollution in Thailand? Bags of room for improvement

REM

  Plastic bags banned in parks – but how to replace them? The people who run the Thai national parks have announced that they are banning plastic bags. For some, this is a noble gesture; for others, it is just – well, a gesture. If you are in the “you’ve got to start somewhere camp”, it is great news, I agree. However, it is all very well to ban them, but my question is: What do you replace them with? If you go looking for answers on the internet you…

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The Death of Charm – is Thailand losing its mojo?

REM

  I don’t want to sound like some old fart expat whining about the way things used to be “back in the day” or to drone on about the things we are losing in the name of “development”. What’s more, I don’t want to tell Thai people what parts of their culture are precious and should be preserved. And I certainly don’t want to spark any conspiracy theories about what evil lurks at the core of the “gentrification” movement here in Thailand. I don’t want to do any of those…

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England World Cup football: The loan stars

REM

  Not all of England’s World Cup squad were always on top of their game   What I especially like about the composition of the current 23-man England World Cup squad is that is allows the supporters of numerous non-Premiership clubs to claim some share of the perceived “glory”. The reason? In total, 16 of the players have, at one time or another, been loaned out to perform for other teams. Loaning players has been going on since the game started and some of the loans could be more accurately…

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England World Cup football: A good weekend to be English

REM

  25 June 2018 If you are a sports fan – and English – today feels like a pretty good day. I am just getting over one of the best weekend’s in my sporting memory. A good mate of mine summed it up well on Facebook, noting that England teams had whitewashed the Australians at cricket; beaten the Springboks in rugby union; trashed Panama in the football World Cup and Lewis Hamilton (not a team in the strictest sense) had won the French Grand Prix. He could have also listed…

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Who will win the World Cup? Take note, then ignore

REM

  Given my admission in other posts that I’m a crap football pundit you might be wondering why I’m even considering sharing my thoughts on the up-coming World Cup in Russia. You would have a point!     But the thing about football is that it is a game of opinions. By committing my thoughts to paper I am simply attempting to get the debate rolling, not claim any great insights. So who will win the World Cup? The favourites – Brazil and holders Germany – are (at the time…

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What will the EEC mean for Pattaya? In the thick of it

REM

If you’ve been hanging around these parts the past couple of years, you’ve no doubt heard the phrase “Eastern Economic Corridor”, or EEC. It’s the acronym for the Thai Government’s master economic and infrastructure plan over the next two decades or so. As plans go, it is pretty impressive with airport expansions, deep sea ports, high-speed trains and thousands of kilometres of new highways. The idea is to super-charge Thailand’s economic engine located within the corridor that starts in Bangkok and ends down the eastern seaboard at Rayong. It’s ambitious,…

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Breaking records – The Riviera Group receives 15 prestigious International property awards as it launches The Riviera Monaco

REM

The Riviera Monaco launches If you’ve picked up a copy of REm magazine this month you will have seen Winston and Sukanya Gale, owners of The Riviera Group gracing the cover with the handsome collection of trophies the group recently won at this year’s Asia Pacific Property Awards held in Bangkok. The group picked up 15 prestigious awards in categories such as architecture, interior design and developing. Not an easy achievement, certainly unprecedented in Pattaya, so we thought it appropriate to suggest they occupy the cover and display these awards…

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King of fruits: Why would you ever want to eat it?

REM

  Creamy. Sweet. Buttery. The list of appealing adjectives could go on forever when describing durian, the king of fruits. Durian is banned in most public places because of the smell, which has been described as rotten onions, garlic, turpentine, raw sewage and rotten apple juice. Yet all word-based descriptions fall wholly short of coming even remotely close to the real divine sensation that can only result from a buttery lump of durian.         EXACTLY WHAT IS DURIAN? Durian is a south-east Asian fruit that’s most popular…

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