The Mind Centre, due to open next year in Phuket, will offer meditation with practical aims – but it will be much, much more than that.

Thailand has always been a sponge, soaking up outside influences. Watch Thai TV any day and and you’ll see ads full of references to Western culture and, to a growing extent, Japanese and Korean influences.

AirAsia, which recently set up a regional hub in Phuket, today launches its new direct service between Phuket and Udon Thani.

The Mangosteen Resort in Rawai has signed a management agreement with Netherlands-based Golden Tulip Hospitality Group.

The Old Phuket Foundation will hold its fourth Local Life Festival on December 27, with Thalang Rd and Soi Romanee lit up, live music and huge amounts of local food and drinks. Admission is free.

When the sophistication and pace of Phuket, its five-star resorts, its highways, its faaabulous homes, its gogo-bars and tailor’s touts all begin to seem a bit much, a bit unreal, it’s probably time to sample the Thailand that people encountered on arriving in Phuket in the 1980s.

Woaaah! Clapton’s going to play in Phuket. Yup, that’s right – Clapton, Richard Clapton. From Australia… Poor guy must get this all the time, which is actually unfair. In his native Oz, Richard’s been an icon for a long time, and some of his melodic rock songs are still on every Aussie FM station playlist.

Phuket International Airport 5.8-billion-baht (US$175 million) plan to increase the airport’s capacity to 12.5 million passengers by 2018.

Works of art donated by internationally-renowned artists, galleries and local children will be up for sale on December 9 at Hung Fat’s restaurant, Kalim Beach, with all proceeds to go to the Phuket Has Been Good To Us Foundation.