Site of the Month for September 2011 relates to Bangkok Resources. At BKK is the directory of Bangkok providing links to Bangkok business, hotels, guest houses, nightclub, spas, resorts, airlines, transportation, shopping, jewelry, education, beauty, travel agents, tour operators and more.

The events in Bangkok in May 2010 have raised concerns about the recovery we were seeing in many sectors of the Thai property market in the first quarter of 2010. However, it will take months to see what the effect will be on sales and letting volumes, prices and rents. We do not believe there will be a sudden a dramatic downward movement in prices or rents. The total supply of expatriate standard apartments in downtown Bangkok increased 2.3% year on year. Occupancy was 88.2%. Rents rose in some locations such as Central Lumpini but fell in other locations.

Despite the increase in the Bangkok hotel supply, Bangkok occupancy rates and REVPAR increased but the Average daily rate decreased in quarter 1. International Tourist Arrivals increased by 27.1% on Q1 2010. Obviously Q2 numbers will be very poor and it remains to be seen how long it will take for business and tourist arrivals to recover. The majority of new condominium launches in the first quarter were mainly small one bedroom units. The office market remained weak. There was no increase in supply. Take up grew by 17,481 square metres. Grade A CBD rents fell by 3.8% year on year. Retail Occupancy increased to 93.4%. Rents remained at similar levels. A number of shopping centres were closed in Central Bangkok for much of April and May. 882 Rai (349 acres) of SILPs were sold on industrial parks and estates in Q1 2010. This was an increase 891% y-o-y. There was 175% increase in townhouse completions on quarter on quarter but developer built single detatched house completions fell by 74% quarter on quarter.

The existing supply in downtown Bangkok reached 67,176 units, up from 65,067 units in Q1 2010. This was an increase of 3.2% Q-o-Q and 15.8% Y-o-Y. There were 2,109 units completed in this quarter. Another 5,220 units are scheduled to be completed by the end of 2010 which will raise the total downtown condominium stock significantly to 72,396 units, or by 11.3 % Y-o-Y. In Q1 2010, the average asking price for an off-plan freehold condominium unit (high-end and above) in downtown Bangkok was 156,460 THB/m2 an increase of 19.2% Q-o-Q or 3.0 Y-o-Y. The total number of units occupied by owners or tenants decreased from 74.2 in Q4 2009 to 74.0% in this quarter.

Bangkok, known as the Venice of the East, is one of South East Asia’s most cosmopolitan, vibrant and modern cities. Thai Airways operates regular flights to almost all countries in the region. Tourists who would like visit Thailand from the United States can book their tickets through travel agents located in their own towns and cities. There is a wide variety of airfare options available to travelers to Bangkok. One of the easiest ways to book tickets to visit the websites of different airlines. Most of these websites have provisions for entering details such as destination, number of passengers, start date and return date. Once the details are entered, which takes not more than five minutes, the traveler just has to click the “submit” button on the webpage. The cost of the ticket is displayed on the computer screen immediately. Information from different airlines can be gathered, prices compared and a decision made.

Some people prefer to consult a travel agent who takes all these steps on behalf of the passenger. Payments can be made online or through the travel agent. When visiting Bangkok, it’s advisable to visit nearby areas of tourist interest inside Thailand and, if possible, neighboring countries. A round trip tour from New York to Bangkok and back can begin as low as USD 200. The affordability depends on the number of passengers, length of stay, whether economy or business class, whether normal fare or excursion fare, and so on. Most airlines also charge for the interim hotel accommodation, onward reservations, etc. Imagine that someone leaves New York on March 1st for Bangkok and returns on March 8th. An airline may charge $740 per person for this flight ticket. Some of the major world airlines that offer excellent discount tickets to Bangkok are Japan Airlines, All Nippon Airways, United Airlines, and China Airlines of Taiwan.

It is easy to see that making your own meals these days is a lot more difficult than eating out. There are restaurants everywhere! It is no wonder that the nation’s obesity rates are continuously climbing, along with heart disease and diabetes. The convenience of fast food and its low price is just hard to ignore, even for the most disciplined eaters. The time you’ll spend going to the grocery store and buying food, and then cooking it yourself greatly outweighs the cost of buying it directly from one of these places. Really the only time it makes sense to make your own meals is if you are cooking for a group of people. This is especially difficult to do for bachelors, and students living on their own.

But just because the economics of eating this food is good, doesn’t mean you should do it all the time. This can have some very adverse effects on your health. Many of these restaurants have tried to introduce healthy fast food options. Now these kinds of foods may or may not be better for you. Healthy fast food items are sometimes difficult to distinguish if they are actually healthy, or just better than eating a greasy burger. In any case you should do your research and figure out what exactly you are eating. Try to minimize calories and fat intakes. So even if you’re going out to eat several times a week, it would certainly help to research some better options. Maybe you can’t be cooking at home all the time because you are on the run, but you can still make choices that will help you feel a lot better. Picking salads, and other low-calorie options can greatly reduce your chance of growing fat. Take some time and read the nutritional information on these so-called healthy fast foods. It is important to understand exactly what you are putting into your body.