Luxury developer, Raimon Land, launched on July 17 The Lofts Southshore – a US$200 million concept – their latest addition to the up-market Bscene in Pattaya (Thailand).

The Lofts Southshore is perched on a hillside in the Khao Pratamnak, the area overlooking Pattaya Bay, and offers stunning 360-degree views of the sea, Pattaya City and surrounding area just minutes from downtown and the beach.

There will be about 850 units within the two towers situated on an almost 10,000 square meter land plot acquired for 235 million baht ($7,000,000).

The first tower will be at least 35 floors and the other tower will have 50 floors. The 850 units are sized between 30 and 300 square meters (penthouses with private gardens) at just around 65,000 baht ($1,935) per square meter and with a starting price of about 1.8 million baht ($53,000).

Swimming pool, sun deck and sports facilities are to be located atop a massive podium shared by the towers overlooking the beautiful Pattaya Bay.

Already well established in Bangkok, The Lofts Southshore will be completed by 2011.

The Metropolitan Bangkok, sister to the chic Metropolitan outpost in London, has launched a new package specially designed for passengers passing through Bangkok on their way in and out of Asia, who find themselves at the city’s Suvarnabhumi Airport with a lengthy layover.

The new package allows for a stress-free stopover at the hotel, permitting guests to relax and recharge in style while waiting for the next leg of their flight.

A limo transports guests directly from the airport to the hotel, where one can immediately profit from the relaxing facilities at COMO Shambhala Urban Escape (including an extensive gym, hydro pool, steam rooms and outdoor lap pool) and an indulgent one-hour COMO Shambhala Massage.

Guests can enjoy A revitalising lunch or dinner (three courses, including fresh juice) at the Metropolitan’s healthy restaurant, Glow, where Executive Chef Daniel Moran serves light and nutritious COMO Shambhala Cuisine. Based on fresh, organic ingredients, menus provide an ideal energy boost for fatigued travellers (Bangkok is a common gateway for travel to Thai beach resorts, as well as The Maldives and Bali.)

“Touchdown at the Met” is available for US$200 per person (if travelling alone), US$150 per person (party of two), US$134 per person (party of three) or US$125 per person (party of four), excluding tax and service charge.

Note a minimum five-hour stopover is required to make time for this package.

(Source : alice marshall PR)

The 10-course feast is being touted as a “once-in-a-lifetime inspirational dinner.” On April 5, Bangkok’s five-star Lebua hotel will treat 50 favored guests to a repast prepared by a glittering array of Michelin-starred chefs. To thank the guests for their loyalty to the hotel, Lebua plans to spend $300,000 for the meal. Accustomed though they may be to showy p.r. stunts, social activists are nonetheless up in arms over this particular act of epic extravagance. The reason? The banquet comes with a pre-dinner commitment to what the Lebua’s p.r. mavens have dubbed “emotional tourism.” Hours before digging into truffles and foie gras, the 50 diners will fly by private jet to a village in central Thailand to see how impoverished Thais manage to get by without regular infusions of Brittany lobster and Bresse chicken.

Originally, three Michelin-starred chefs — Alan Soliveres, Michel Trama and Jean-Michel Lorain — were to have catered the dinner, for a fee of $8,000 each. But the trio pulled out last month after European media assailed the hotel group for not committing any of its own money to helping the indigent Thai villagers. Lebua responded by saying it hopes the rural visit will spur some of the assembled guests to donate cash of their own. And the hotel assures potential diners that it has found Michelin-starred replacement chefs — although it will not release their names, presumably for fear that they, too, might be pressured by negative publicity into withdrawing from the event.

Lebua certainly knows all about hosting lavish feasts. Last year, the hotel organized an event it modestly titled “The Epicurean Masters of the World,” a Michelin-starred extravaganza at a cost per head of 1 million baht (around $28,000). Despite the hefty check, the dinner event was fully booked — and it received its share of official criticism, coming at a moment when Thailand’s then-ruling military junta was unveiling an economic policy based, in part, on scaling back ostentatious shows of wealth. The dinner also mystified many ordinary Thais, who are used to dining on some of the world’s tastiest street food for no more than a dollar a plate. [...]